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Report shows 3.4% of adult Minnesotans suffer from COPD

The nation's fourth leading cause of death, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), is now being measured by the Minnesota Department of Health's Environmental Public Health Tracking Program. The program focuses on three major causes of hospitalizations in Minnesota that can be triggered or made worse by environmental factors such as secondhand smoke or outdoor air pollution — asthma, heart attacks and COPD.

10 Feb 2010

Exposure to unhealthy food commercials linked to childhood obesity

The association between television viewing and childhood obesity is directly related to children's exposure to commercials that advertise unhealthy foods, according to a new UCLA School of Public Health study published in the American Journal of Public Health.

10 Feb 2010

Researchers find link between prevalence of diabetes and neighborhood socioeconomic status

Researchers from Boston University's Slone Epidemiology Center have found a direct link between neighborhood socioeconomic status and risk for type 2 diabetes in African American women.

10 Feb 2010

Soft drinks increase risk of developing pancreatic cancer

Consuming two or more soft drinks per week increased the risk of developing pancreatic cancer by nearly two-fold compared with individuals who did not consume soft drinks, according to a report in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

10 Feb 2010

Autism Speaks: Ten most significant autism research achievements in 2009

Autism Speaks, the world's largest autism science and advocacy organization has released its annual list of the 10 most significant research achievements to have impacted autism during the previous year. Every year, Autism Speaks documents the progress made toward its mission to discover the causes and treatment for autism spectrum disorders, and compiles a list of the 10 most significant research achievements to have impacted autism during the previous year.

10 Feb 2010

Elevator-related injuries are preventable

In the first large-scale epidemiological study of elevator-related injuries in older adults in the United States, researchers from the Indiana University School of Medicine and an Ohio State University colleague report in the January 2010 issue of The Journal of Trauma Injury, Infection, and Critical Care on the frequency, nature and opportunities for prevention of these injuries.

10 Feb 2010

TBTC to receive more than $90 million to develop effective tuberculosis treatments

The Tuberculosis Trials Consortium (TBTC) strives to conduct research about the diagnosis, medical treatment, and prevention of tuberculosis (TB) infection and disease. The network is composed of a partnership of clinical investigators from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), public health departments from different countries, as well as medical and pharmaceutical institutions.

10 Feb 2010

MSU launches research and training program to address product counterfeiting

Michigan State University has launched the nation's first comprehensive research and training program designed to address product counterfeiting-- which the FBI has called "the crime of the 21st century."

10 Feb 2010

FDA announces initiative to reduce cancer risk from medical imaging procedures

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced an initiative to reduce unnecessary radiation exposure from three types of medical imaging procedures: computed tomography (CT), nuclear medicine studies, and fluoroscopy.

10 Feb 2010

NIAID awards Tulane University over $15M to develop Lassa fever vaccine and treatment

The National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has awarded a five-year contract totaling $15,254,919 to Tulane University for its ongoing efforts to treat and prevent Lassa fever, an often deadly viral disease that threatens hundreds of thousands of people annually in West Africa and is classified as a potential bioterrorism threat.

10 Feb 2010

Drinking milk during pregnancy can protect baby against multiple sclerosis

Drinking milk during pregnancy may help reduce your baby's chances of developing multiple sclerosis (MS) as an adult, according to a preliminary study released today that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 62nd Annual Meeting in Toronto April 10 to April 17, 2010.

10 Feb 2010

Excelsior Medical receives Canadian marketing license for new, pre-filled catheter lock syringe

Excelsior Medical Corporation, one of the leading manufacturers of pre-filled catheter flush syringes, today announced that it has received a Medical Device License from Health Canada for its new, pre-filled catheter lock syringe to be sold in the Canadian marketplace.

10 Feb 2010

Health officials encourage caution, despite H1N1 case decline

As the number of new H1N1 (swine flu) infections worldwide drops, U.S. health officials on Friday cautioned the virus continues to circulate and can still be deadly, Reuters reports. According to the WHO, H1N1 remains the dominant strain worldwide, but there are reports of the recent emergence of the seasonal flu in Africa and China, according to the news agency.

10 Feb 2010

Whooping cough vaccine may be losing its punch: study

Vaccination programs against whooping cough may not be fully effective because the bacteria that cause the disease have evolved new strains, a new study has found.

9 Feb 2010

U.S. PSA screening efficacy lower than in ERSPC-Rotterdam due to lower testing sensitivity

Fewer prostate cancers were detected by prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening in the U.S. than in a European randomized trial because of lower screening sensitivity, according to a new brief communication published online February 8 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

9 Feb 2010

Racial disparities continue in U.S. cancer screening practices

The incidence of advanced breast cancer diagnosis among black women remained 30 percent to 90 percent higher compared to white women between 1992 and 2004, according to new findings by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. In addition, the disparity in the incidence of advance colorectal cancer actually widened over this time period as rates fell among whites but increased slightly among blacks.

9 Feb 2010

Advanced paternal age increases autism risk only when the mother is younger

Advanced maternal age is linked to a significantly elevated risk of having a child with autism, regardless of the father's age, according to an exhaustive study of all births in California during the 1990s by UC Davis Health System researchers. Advanced paternal age is associated with elevated autism risk only when the father is older and the mother is under 30, the study found.

9 Feb 2010

NIH awards over $15M for Tulane University's collaborative effort to combat VHF

Corgenix Medical Corporation, a worldwide developer and marketer of diagnostic test kits, and Tulane University, today announced a major extension of the collaborative effort to combat viral hemorrhagic fever (VHF), an effort that will generate an additional $800,000 in contract revenue for Corgenix over the life of the contract.

9 Feb 2010

High BP may predict dementia in older adults with cognitive impairment

High blood pressure appears to predict the progression to dementia in older adults with impaired executive functions (ability to organize thoughts and make decisions) but not in those with memory dysfunction, according to a report in the February issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

9 Feb 2010

Study indicates pain treatment may vary in Latino and white children post surgery

Differences might exist in the amount of pain medicine given to Latino and white children after surgery, found a new, small study in which Latino children received 30 percent less opioid analgesics (morphine or morphine-like drugs) than white children did.

9 Feb 2010