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Helminthic therapy, using worm eggs to treat patients with inflammatory bowel disorders

University of Iowa Health Care researchers reported important findings recently at a conference of specialists in New Orleans, La. The findings are from their study of helminthic therapy - using specially prepared worm eggs - to treat patients diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disorders that don't respond to standard treatments.

21 May 2004

First study to mathematically quantify the emotional impact of music

Among other things, loudness, tempo and pitch have a measurable impact on people's emotional response to music," says University of NSW music psychologist, Dr Emery Schubert.

21 May 2004

Teenagers most vulnerable to the addictive lure of cigarettes

Teenagers have long been regarded as the age group most vulnerable to the addictive lure of cigarettes, and a new report compiling five years of studies from a UC Irvine tobacco research program provides details why this is very likely true.

21 May 2004

Using gene therapy to fight rheumatoid arthritis

Guided by a similar principle, arthritis researchers at the University of Florida and Harvard University hope to use gene therapy to help joint cells pump out a harmless protein that parks in receptor sites, leaving a notorious inflammatory agent “circling the lot” and unable to cause pain, swelling and possible joint damage.

21 May 2004

New treatment for dry eye syndrome (keratoconjunctivitis sicca)

Researchers in the department of ophthalmology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson played an important role in the development of Restasis, the first alternative to artificial tears for the treatment of dry eye syndrome.

21 May 2004

Research reveals that children with mild head injury may be at risk of long-term complications

New research from the University of Warwick reveals that children with even mild head injury may be at risk of long-term complications, including personality changes, emotional, behavioural and learning problems.

21 May 2004

Combination radiation treatment for brain cancer leads to better life

People with cancer that has spread to the brain – about 40 percent of all cancer cases – live longer and enjoy a better quality of life if they are treated with a combination of radiation techniques, according to research conducted, in part, at the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

21 May 2004

Pulsed-dye laser surgery for voice disorders better all round

The newly developed pulsed-dye laser surgery for voice disorders has been found to be faster, cheaper, better tolerated, and less complicated than standard surgery that requires general anesthesia, more time and a longer recovery, surgeons reported here today at an international conference on problems associated with laryngopharyngeal reflux.

21 May 2004

Prostate Robotic System that will improve the diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer

The Singapore General Hospital and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) have jointly developed a Prostate Robotic System that will improve the diagnosis and treatment of prostrate cancer, the fifth most common cancer in Singaporean men.

21 May 2004

Genome research sheds light on Bardet-Biedl syndrome

By comparing the genomes of an alga, a weed and humans, a team of researchers has identified a new gene behind Bardet-Biedl syndrome (BBS), a complex condition marked by learning disabilities, vision loss and obesity.

21 May 2004

Using smart fluids to retrain muscles

Physical rehabilitation has traditionally consisted of arduously retraining the body on weight machines and other resistance devices, but with the growing interest in “smart fluids,” NU engineering professor Constantinos Mavroidis envisions a simple brace that can increase the resistance on a healing joint with the turn of a dial.

21 May 2004

New 100 teraflop supercomputer will help simulation of brain seizures

The U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory will play a major role in the development of a new national computational science facility aimed at deploying a supercomputer capable of sustained performance of 100 trillion floating-point operations per second (teraflops) by 2007.

21 May 2004

Are we as crazy as mad cows?

When proteins in our body work properly, we can see, smell, consume and digest food, grow muscle and brain cells. But when these infinitely useful biological building blocks fail, the most pernicious diseases arise. Susan Lindquist has scrutinized the complex origami-like shapes of proteins and come to understand how structural mistakes can lead to a frightening class of neurodegenerative disorders, including “Mad Cow Disease.”

20 May 2004

Health Canada to tackle human health impacts of air pollution

Health Minister Pierre Pettigrew today announced the Government of Canada is allocating $1 million over the next year to fund cutting-edge research on the human health impacts of air pollution in support of the Georgia Basin/Puget Sound International Airshed Strategy, one of three pilot projects under the Canada-United States Border Air Quality Strategy.

20 May 2004

New medical device indentifies abnormal heart rhythms called atrial fibrillation

A new device identified abnormal heart rhythms called atrial fibrillation in one of 18 stroke patients in whom two standard tests failed to detect the irregularity, researchers report in today’s rapid access issue of Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.

20 May 2004

Pacemaker-type device and medicines reduce hospital stays and death rates

A nationwide clinical trial of more than 1,600 heart failure patients showed that when medicines are combined with the use of a pacemaker-type device that resynchronizes both sides of the heart, hospital stays and death rates drop significantly.

20 May 2004

Tumour suppressor gene family may be key to new colon cancer drugs

In the hunt for new cancer drug targets, scientists from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute have discovered mutations in a family of genes linked to more than a quarter of colon cancers, as well as several other common cancers including breast and lung.

20 May 2004

Improving the care delivered to children with special health care needs

Health care delivered close to home is vitally important, especially when the patient is a child. But how do community pediatric practices adapt to offer the best care when faced with a child who has complex and often, multiple health needs? Reporting in this month's issue of Pediatrics, Dartmouth researchers outline a process designed to help any practice become a state of the art "medical home" for such children.

20 May 2004

Zinc may help to accelerate recovery from pneumonia

The addition of zinc to standard antimicrobial treatment may accelerate recovery from pneumonia, say researchers in this week's issue of The Lancet.

20 May 2004

Hospitalisation for angina and chest pain has risen dramatically in the last decade

Researchers analysed hospital discharge records for Scottish residents aged at least 18 years with a first emergency hospitalisation for heart attack, angina, or other chest pain between 1990 and 2000.

20 May 2004