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Study observes enteral nutrition outcome in patients with severe acute pancreatitis

Severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) requires an adequate nutritional support. Enteral nutrition (EN) should be preferred to total parenteral nutrition in patients with SAP, as it is associated with reduced mortality and complications. However, in clinical practice EN is employed far less frequently than it should. The main obstacle to EN diffusion is that it is considered complicated, as to ensure full pancreatic rest, nutrition tubes should be placed in the jejunum, requiring often troublesome procedures. In the past few years, it has been proposed that EN through nasogastric (NG) tubes may be a simple, safe and equally valid alternative to nasojejunal tubes.

21 Sep 2010

National Science Foundation awards UofL researcher $500,000 for nervous system study

Michal Hetman, MD, PhD, associate professor and endowed chair in molecular signaling in the Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center and the UofL Department of Neurological Surgery, has received a three-year, $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to fund a project that will aim to explain how the nervous system grows and develops.

21 Sep 2010

VDF presents 2010 awards at seventh annual meeting

The Vascular Disease Foundation (VDF) presented its annual awards at the organization's seventh annual meeting in Alexandria, VA. The awards honor the work of citizens, health care providers, organizations, researchers and companies that have enhanced the understanding and/or treatment of peripheral vascular diseases.

21 Sep 2010

New professional handbook highlights fast-growing trends in scientific knowledge

As genomic advances reveal new insights into what underlies human health and disease, important questions emerge about the meaning of this information for entire families especially children and their parents. Now, a new professional handbook is available to help researchers, practitioners, and policy makers understand the impacts of these discoveries on child and family well-being.

21 Sep 2010

NIMU, NMRC sign CRADA agreement

Non-Invasive Monitoring Systems, Inc. announced that it has entered into a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the Naval Medical Research Center (NMRC) in Silver Springs, MD to evaluate the benefit of Exer-Rest for patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI).

21 Sep 2010

Regular consumption of watercress can prevent breast cancer: Research

Watercress, the super food, is now watercress the breast cancer preventive according to a study released September 20, 2010 in The British Journal of Nutrition conducted by the Cancer Research Centre at the School of Medicine, Southampton General Hospital in the United Kingdom.

21 Sep 2010

Discovery could lead to new treatment methods for toxoplasmosis

The parasite responsible for toxoplasmosis requires a stress response system that helps it survive the move to infect new cells, Indiana University School of Medicine scientists have reported, a discovery that could lead to new treatments to control the disease.

21 Sep 2010

Scientists identify new pathway to control immune balance

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists have identified a new pathway that helps control the immune balance through reciprocal regulation of specialized T lymphocytes, which play very different inflammatory roles.

21 Sep 2010

Arrayit installs microarray platform at NIH

Arrayit Corporation has completed installation and technical training of its proprietary microarray platform at the National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, in Rockville, Maryland. In 2010, the NIH will invest more than $31.2 billion in medical research for the American people through 50,000 competitive grants to 325,000 researchers at 3,000 universities, hospitals, companies, medical schools and scientific institutions in the United States and around the world.

21 Sep 2010

Health insurance companies raise rates in Colorado and Michigan; Minn.'s GMAC program takes 'full form' in the state's hospitals

The Denver Post: "Health-insurance companies are raising rates in Colorado, ending sales of child-only policies and blaming their actions in part on the federal health reform law, moves that regulators call 'bizarre' and consumer advocates are vowing to watch. The election-season changes by insurers come as Democrats and Republicans escalate harsh rhetoric on the reforms passed in March.

21 Sep 2010

Trius and Scripps to develop antibiotics from marine biomedical sources

In an effort to tap into the vast potential of the oceans as a source for novel medical treatments, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), a part of the Department of Defense (DoD), has awarded San Diego-based Trius Therapeutics, Inc. a four-and-a-half year contract worth up to $29.5 million to collaborate with Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego for the development of novel antibiotics directed against microorganisms that cause serious infections.

21 Sep 2010

High screen use increases body fat in teenagers

Too much television, video games and Internet can increase body fat in teens. A five-year study from the University of Montreal and the Sainte-Justine Hospital Research Center, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, has found teenagers have four different patterns of screen use: increasers, decreasers, consistently high and consistently low users.

21 Sep 2010

Study suggests older people may not benefit from new tuberculosis vaccines

Elderly people might not benefit from some of the tuberculosis vaccines currently in development, recent research suggests.Some vaccines under study are designed to activate a specific molecule that is an early participant in the immune response against TB in young people. But a recent Ohio State University study suggests that in older people, this molecule remains relatively inactive, even in the face of TB infection.

21 Sep 2010

Pollution increases risk for sudden cardiac arrest

The fine particles of pollution that hang in the air can increase the risk for sudden cardiac arrest, according to a new study conducted by a team from Long Island Jewish (LIJ) Medical Center and The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research.

21 Sep 2010

Talecris Biotherapeutics announces 2010 eALTA award recipients

Talecris Biotherapeutics GmbH announced yesterday the recipients of the 2010 European alpha1-antitrypsin Laurell's Training Awards (eALTA). The annual awards, sponsored by Talecris, provide two fellowships of 50,000 euros to young investigators whose research aims to enhance the understanding and treatment of alpha1-antitrypsin deficiency (AAT deficiency).

21 Sep 2010

Public health at risk as Vitamin D evidence mounts

A group of prevention-focused healthcare organizations has expressed deep concern over recently-proposed restrictions to OHIP coverage of Vitamin D testing in the province. The proposed new legislation will delist OHIP insured Vitamin D testing for most Ontarians. Exceptions will be made for those with osteoporosis, malabsorption syndromes, and individuals taking medications that interfere with vitamin D absorption or metabolism.

21 Sep 2010

NIH awards grant to discover drug for alcoholism

With the ultimate goal to discover a drug that one day treats alcoholism, a University of Houston (UH) pharmacy professor is working on pinpointing the mechanisms in the brain that respond to alcohol.

21 Sep 2010

GOP divided over health law repeal as White House readies midterm push

In the run up to November's midterm elections, President Obama will tout the new health law, hoping the consumer-friendly provisions taking effect this week will help erode ill will toward the overhaul, The Wall Street Journal reports. "Starting Thursday, insurers officially must adhere to about a half-dozen key changes under the law, including eliminating co-payments for preventive services and allowing children to stay on their parents' insurance policy until their 26th birthday.

21 Sep 2010

New interventional technique effective for controlling hepatic arterial hemorrhage after PD

Delayed hepatic arterial hemorrhage after pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) is not a common but a fatal complication, occurring in 7% of all patients. Its ideal management remains unclear and controversial. A research article published on August 7, 2010 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology addresses this question. The authors reported the clinical outcome of 9 patients with life-threatening hemorrhage from a ruptured hepatic artery pseudoaneurysm after PD after treatment with a new interventional technique, namely placement of stent-grafts.

21 Sep 2010

Flu shots, heart attacks and flu prevention guidelines

According to a new British study yearly flu shots may protect against heart attacks, and the earlier in the season a shot is given the greater the protection. Niroshan Siriwardena, a professor of primary and pre-hospital health care at the University of Lincoln said, “The risk of getting a heart attack was reduced by 19 percent for those who had a vaccination in the past year.”

21 Sep 2010