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Sickle cell patients suffer discrimination, poor care — and shorter lives

For more than a year, NeDina Brocks-Capla avoided one room in her large, brightly colored San Francisco house — the bathroom on the second floor.

6 Nov 2017

Beyond the shattered lives and bodies, money worries weigh on Las Vegas victims

Kurt Fowler and his wife, Trina, were celebrating their 18th wedding anniversary at a country music festival when the shooting started. Fowler, 41, knew he'd been hit in the ankle and couldn't run. He hid under the stage until the gunfire ended.

27 Oct 2017

New research may protect Navy divers from oxygen toxicity in the deep

Special Operations divers like Navy SEALs take on life-threatening risks such as enemy combatants and harsh environments. But another hazard is silent and unseen -- oxygen toxicity, the result of breathing lethal levels of oxygen that occur at depth and pressure.

26 Oct 2017

Cascade of costs could push new gene therapy above $1 million per patient

Outrage over the high cost of cancer care has focused on skyrocketing drug prices, including the $475,000 price tag for the country's first gene therapy, Novartis' Kymriah, a leukemia treatment approved in August.

17 Oct 2017

CHOP researchers discover key differences among gene fusions in childhood brain tumors

Researchers investigating pediatric low-grade gliomas, the most common type of brain tumor in children, have discovered key biological differences in how mutated genes combine with other genes to drive this childhood cancer.

17 Oct 2017

Researchers precisely describe effects of frequent genetic mutation in congenital hyperinsulinism

Diabetes is characterized by a deficiency of insulin. The opposite is the case in congenital hyperinsulinism: patients produce the hormone too frequently and in excessive quantities, even if they haven't eaten any carbohydrates.

18 Sep 2017

Study finds no significant benefits of cooling down cardiac arrest patients for 48 hours

A five per cent difference in favor of the 48 hours. This is the result of a study from Aarhus University that has spent several years examining the possible benefits of cooling down patients suffering cardiac arrest to 33°C for 48 hours, instead of the 24-hours that is standard practice in most places.

26 Jul 2017

Alzheimer’s drug may be promising treatment for traumatic brain injury

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major cause of disability and death globally, but medications have generally failed to benefit patients. A new study found that memantine, a drug that is used to treat dementia associated with Alzheimer's disease, may be a promising therapy.

21 Jul 2017

Depression among heart attack survivors can be deadly, yet is often ignored

Clyde Boyce has been hospitalized 14 times in the past four years. Boyce, 61, survived two strokes and five operations to unblock arteries around his heart, including three procedures in which doctors propped open his blood vessels with stents. He takes 18 pills a day and gets injections every two weeks with a powerful drug to lower cholesterol.

20 Jul 2017

Researchers compare different types of insulin in treating patients with type 1 or 2 diabetes

Treatment with the insulin degludec compared to glargine U100 for 32 weeks resulted in a reduced rate of hypoglycemic (low blood sugar) episodes among patients with type 1 or 2 diabetes and at least one risk factor for hypoglycemia, according to two studies published by JAMA.

4 Jul 2017

Study sheds new light on extent of lethal rat lungworm's geographic range in Florida

University of Florida researchers have found rat lungworm, a parasitic nematode that can cause meningitis in humans and animals, in five Florida counties.

28 Jun 2017

Insomnia drug appears to have opposite effect for patients with neurologic conditions

In a new systematic review in JAMA Neurology, Michigan Medicine researchers found reason to further explore the surprising effects of zolpidem that have been observed outside the scope of its primary Food and Drug Administration approval.

27 Jun 2017

Researchers discover unknown enzyme in pathogens responsible for African sleeping sickness

The life-threatening African trypanosomiasis, also called sleeping sickness, is caused by protozoa of the species Trypanosoma brucei. A team at the Biocentre of the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg in Bavaria, Germany, studies the pathogens and has now reported exciting news: The trypanosomes have a so far unknown enzyme which does not exist in humans and other vertebrates. This makes it a promising target for therapy.

22 Jun 2017

West Nile virus positive mosquitoes detected in Las Vegas

According to the health officials in Southern Nevada, mosquito samples from multiple Las Vegas neighbourhoods have tested positive for the West Nile virus. The affected zip code areas according to the officials are 89011, 89110 and 89146. These areas were being combed for Zika virus in mosquitoes. One such case of human West Nile virus infection has been confirmed in Clark County a few weeks ago.

7 Jun 2017

Putting in place an A-team of allies

Earlier this year, 30 senior citizens convened in a living room to talk about growing older and needing more help.

1 Jun 2017

Researchers use novel phage therapy to treat patient infected with multidrug-resistant bacterium

Scientists and physicians at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, working with colleagues at the U.S. Navy Medical Research Center - Biological Defense Research Directorate, Texas A&M University, a San Diego-based biotech and elsewhere, have successfully used an experimental therapy involving bacteriophages -- viruses that target and consume specific strains of bacteria -- to treat a patient near death from a multidrug-resistant bacterium.

25 Apr 2017

New plant therapy developed at WPI cures patients with drug-resistant malaria

When the standard malaria medications failed to help 18 critically ill patients, the attending physician in a Congo clinic acted under the "compassionate use" doctrine and prescribed a not-yet-approved malaria therapy made only from the dried leaves of the Artemisia annua plant.

25 Apr 2017

First-ever communication App launched for immobilized patients

A team of young international tech entrepreneurs with the support of hospitals in France, Luxembourg and Switzerland launched the first and only communication App dedicated to people with severe physical disabilities.

21 Apr 2017

Circadian rhythms may play critical role in recovery of consciousness in brain-injured patients

Circadian rhythms may play a crucial role in the recovery of consciousness of patients with severe brain injuries, a study published in Neurology.

20 Apr 2017

Study finds link between circadian variations in body temperature and arousal in brain-injured patients

For people with severe brain injuries, researchers have found that the rhythm of daily fluctuations in body temperature is related to their level of consciousness, according to a preliminary study published in the April 19, 2017, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.