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Insight into how coeliac disease is triggered

For the first time, scientists have visualised an interaction between gluten and T-cells of the immune system, providing insight into how coeliac disease, which affects approximately 1 in 133 people, is triggered.

12 Oct 2012

Homeless Intermediate Care Pilot Project helps reduce hospital, ED admissions

A nurse outreach programme to treat people using a homeless shelter in London led to a fall of 77 per cent in hospital admissions from the shelter and a cut of 52 per cent in emergency department attendances.

12 Oct 2012

Menstrual cycle alters muscle activation patterns in female athletes

Numerous studies have shown that female athletes are more likely to get knee injuries, especially anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears and chronic pain, than their male counterparts.

12 Oct 2012

Clinical study to investigate Cytori's adipose-derived cell therapy in patients with heart failure

Timothy Henry, M.D. of the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation treated the first patient in the ATHENA study, injecting the patient's own stem cells into the heart to restore blood flow and help regenerate heart muscle. Henry, the Foundation's Director of Research is co-principal investigator of the ATHENA study sponsored by Cytori Therapeutics.

12 Oct 2012

Regenstrief, IU to work with 19 Indiana nursing facilities to improve quality of care

A multi-million-dollar award from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, will enable Indiana University and Regenstrief Institute clinician-researchers to work with 19 central Indiana nursing facilities to improve the quality of care, reduce hospitalizations and increase access to palliative care for long-stay nursing facility residents.

12 Oct 2012

Top-line results from Pfizer’s ALO-02 Phase 3 study on chronic non-cancer pain

Pfizer Inc. announced top-line results today from a Phase 3 open-label long-term safety study of investigational agent ALO-02 (oxycodone hydrochloride and naltrexone hydrochloride extended-release capsules) in patients with moderate-to-severe chronic, non-cancer pain.

12 Oct 2012

'Innovation, markets, people, political leadership' needed to achieve food security

"Our global food security challenges are daunting: food price spikes and increasing food prices look set to continue unabated, around one billion are suffering from chronic hunger, and we must feed a growing population in the face of a wide range of adverse factors, including climate change," but "I believe there is reason for optimism," Sir Gordon Conway, professor of international development and agricultural impact at Imperial College London, writes in the Huffington Post U.K. "Impact" blog.

11 Oct 2012

Women respond much better than men to treatment of CFL with rituximab

Women respond much better than men to the treatment of chronic follicular lymphoma with a monoclonal antibody that targets CD20 (rituximab). These are the findings of a multi-centre, Austria-wide study by the Arbeitsgemeinschaft medikamentöse Tumortherapie (AGMT) carried out under the supervision of the University Department of Internal Medicine I and study leader Ulrich Jäger, which has now been published in the highly respected journal "Haematologica".

11 Oct 2012

Psychological interventions improve quality of life, reduce total care costs

Evidence presented at the recent "European Federation of Psychologists' Association" (EFPA) conference showed that psychological interventions do not only improve quality of life but are also cost-effective. Return on investment of health promotion at work is 10:1.

11 Oct 2012

Non-surgical orthopedic medical devices: an interview with Brian Moore, Director of Sales and Product Marketing from DJO global

Non-surgical orthopedic medical devices are products designed to help relieve pain in specific parts of the body.

10 Oct 2012

Scientists discover mechanism used by A20 protein to combat inflammation

Scientists affiliated with VIB and UGent have discovered a mechanism used by the protein A20 to combat inflammation. This could be a very important point of focus in the search for a treatment for autoimmune diseases such as Rheumatoid Arthritis, in which the patient suffers from chronic, uncontrolled inflammation.

10 Oct 2012

Nutrition education needed to combat child malnutrition in India

"Among causes of child malnutrition in India are not just poverty or inadequate access to food but also a lack of nutritional knowledge among families," Nisha Malhotra, an instructor of economics at the University of British Columbia, writes in a Live Mint opinion piece.

10 Oct 2012

Chronic kidney disease changes the composition of intestinal bacterial microbes

Chronic kidney disease changes the composition of intestinal bacterial microbes that normally play a crucial role in staving off disease-causing pathogens and maintaining micronutrient balance, according to UC Irvine researchers.

10 Oct 2012

Anesthetic-loaded liposomes can delay onset of neuropathic pain

Using tiny spheres filled with an anesthetic derived from a shellfish toxin, researchers at Boston Children's Hospital and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a way to delay the rise of neuropathic pain, a chronic form of pain that arises from flawed signals transmitted by damaged nerves.

10 Oct 2012

CT technique could improve COPD classification

The parametric response map technique can be used in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to distinguish between disease subtypes, say US researchers.

9 Oct 2012

HVLA manipulation comes out top for low-back pain

Spinal high-velocity-low-amplitude manipulation for the treatment of nonspecific low-back pain has shown to be superior to a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, researchers report.

9 Oct 2012

Two novel GFR equations predict kidney function in elderly

Researchers report that two “new” equations may accurately measure kidney function in elderly individuals with nonsevere kidney disease.

9 Oct 2012

Innovative treatments can lead to functional improvements in patients with SCIs

A series of rehabilitation studies published in the September 2012 issue of the Archives of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation demonstrate that innovative treatments for individuals with spinal cord injuries can lead to significant functional improvements in patients and a higher quality of life.

9 Oct 2012

Researchers examine relationships between HIV and poverty, food security in separate studies

Foreign Policy reports on "a recent study by Ashley Fox of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine [that] compares rates of HIV infection across 170 regions in 16 sub-Saharan African countries."

9 Oct 2012

Clinical trial to investigate safety and effectiveness of Elagolix against endometriosis

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), endometriosis, a gynecological disorder in which cells from the uterus lining grow in other areas of the body, is the number one reason for a hysterectomy in women ages 18-35. Current treatment options for endometriosis are severely limited by side effects of existing medications and surgical options have more risks. A nationwide clinical trial is testing an investigational drug as a potential new option for patients with moderate to severe pain from this disease.

9 Oct 2012