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The ABC of terminal hemorrhage management

To best cope with terminal hemorrhage, at-risk patients should be identified by healthcare professionals while their families and caregivers are prepared, supported, and instructed to assure, be there for, and calm and comfort the patient as the event occurs, say researchers.

26 Sep 2012

Blood test for monitoring Huntington’s disease may be possible in future

Measuring blood levels of mutant huntingtin protein may provide an alternative approach of determining the onset of Huntington’s disease in known carriers, researchers report.

26 Sep 2012

NOXXON commences NOX-A12 Phase IIa trial in relapsed MM

NOXXON Pharma today announced the treatment of the first cohort of three multiple myeloma (MM) patients in a Phase IIa clinical trial of its anti-CXCL12/SDF-1 (CXC chemokine ligand 12 / Stromal Cell-Derived Factor-1) Spiegelmer NOX-A12.

26 Sep 2012

Researchers characterize brain's immune response to infiltrating metastases

Brain metastases are common secondary complications of other types of cancer, particularly lung, breast and skin cancer. The body's own immune response in the brain is rendered powerless in the fight against these metastases by inflammatory reactions. Researchers at the MedUni Vienna have now, for the first time, precisely characterised the brain's immune response to infiltrating metastases. This could pave the way to the development of new, less aggressive treatment options.

26 Sep 2012

Geographic information system software offers new way to study human remains

A common type of geographic mapping software offers a new way to study human remains. In a recent issue of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, researchers describe how they used commercially available mapping software to identify features inside a human foot bone - a new way to study human skeletal variation.

26 Sep 2012

Researchers identify mechanism that appears to underlie non-familial form of Parkinson's

Researchers in the Taub Institute at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) have identified a mechanism that appears to underlie the common sporadic (non-familial) form of Parkinson's disease, the progressive movement disorder.

26 Sep 2012

New technique can manipulate and measure magnetic particles without contact

If you throw a ball underwater, you'll find that the smaller it is, the faster it moves: A larger cross-section greatly increases the water's resistance. Now, a team of MIT researchers has figured out a way to use this basic principle, on a microscopic scale, to carry out biomedical tests that could eventually lead to fast, compact and versatile medical-testing devices.

26 Sep 2012

Lonafarnib clinical trial for progeria has scientific roots in basic biology discoveries

The good news widely reported this morning of positive results from a clinical drug trial at Boston Children's Hospital for the previously "untreatable" rapid aging disorder in children known as progeria has its scientific roots in basic biology discoveries made in recent years.

26 Sep 2012

Ambulatory BP monitoring can accurately measure hypertension epidemic

A recently published editorial in the Journal of the American Society of Hypertension (JASH), "Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring Should Be Included in the National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey (NHANES)," recognizes the importance of this national survey instrument but questions the efficiency of its diagnostic methods in assessing hypertension in the population.

26 Sep 2012

PsiOxus initiates ColoAd1 phase I/II trial in metastatic solid tumours

PsiOxus Therapeutics, Ltd. has treated the first patient in its phase I/II clinical trial of ColoAd1for the treatment of metastatic solid tumours.

26 Sep 2012

IV connectors can play a crucial role in protecting patients from infections and other complications

Medical devices known as IV connectors, through which intravenous medication and nutrition are provided to a patient, can play a crucial role in protecting patients from life-threatening infections and other complications. But some types of connectors are much more prone to dangerous complications, according to a recent poster presentation at an international meeting of oncology nurses, the 17th International Conference on Cancer Nursing, held Sept. 9-13 in Prague, Czech Republic.

26 Sep 2012

HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancer patients have more rapid and robust radiation-therapy response

UC Davis cancer researchers have discovered significant differences in radiation-therapy response among patients with oropharyngeal cancer depending on whether they carry the human papillomavirus (HPV), a common sexually transmitted virus. The findings, published online today in The Laryngoscope Journal, could lead to more individualized radiation treatment regimens, which for many patients with HPV could be shorter and potentially less toxic.

26 Sep 2012

MHI cardiologists use Montreal technology to treat atrial fibrillation

A team of cardiologists from the Montreal Heart Institute (MHI) specializing in cardiac arrhythmias has used for the very first time in Canada, a technology developed in Montreal to treat a patient with atrial fibrillation. Recently licenced by Health Canada, this sophisticated device is a balloon inserted by catheter that uses extreme cold to burn malfunctioning heart tissue.

From Medtronic 26 Sep 2012

Orexin-A hormone also affects emergence after anesthesia

A neuropeptide hormone called orexin-A—which plays an important role in regulating the normal sleep-wake cycle—also affects emergence (waking up) after anesthesia, reports an experimental study in the October issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia, official journal of the International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS).

26 Sep 2012

UCSD evaluates safety and tolerability of dexanabinol in Phase I brain cancer study

Researchers at University of California, San Diego Moores Cancer Center are evaluating the safety and tolerability of a synthetic cannabinoid called dexanabinol (ETS2101). Delivered as a weekly intravenous infusion, the drug is being tested in patients with all forms of brain cancer, both primary and metastatic.

26 Sep 2012

New computer program predicts most stable structures of nanometer-sized collagen

The human body is proficient at making collagen. And human laboratories are getting better at it all the time. In a development that could lead to better drug design and new treatments for disease, Rice University researchers have made a major step toward synthesizing custom collagen. Rice scientists who have learned how to make collagen - the fibrous protein that binds cells together into organs and tissues - are now digging into its molecular structure to see how it forms and interacts with biological systems.

26 Sep 2012

Two tiny RNA molecules play a key role in pathological heart growth and failure

Cardiac stress, for example a heart attack or high blood pressure, frequently leads to pathological heart growth and subsequently to heart failure. Two tiny RNA molecules play a key role in this detrimental development in mice, as researchers at the Hannover Medical School and the Göttingen Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry have now discovered.

26 Sep 2012