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Newly developed software helps doctors care for premature babies

IBM and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) have announced a 'first-of-a-kind' research project to help doctors detect subtle changes in the condition of critically ill premature babies.

23 Jul 2008

Open access to large-scale drug discovery data

The Wellcome Trust has awarded £4.7 million (€5.8 million) to EMBL's European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) to support the transfer of a large collection of information on the properties and activities of drugs and a large set of drug-like small molecules from publicly listed company Galapagos NV to the public domain.

23 Jul 2008

Link between small birth size and changes to the CV system that predispose to disease in later life

Researchers have found the first evidence that smaller size at birth is associated with specific alterations in the functioning of the heart and circulation in children and that these changes differ between boys and girls.

22 Jul 2008

New study finds working age adults with major chronic conditions grew 25 percent over 10 years

As the number of working-age adults who have major chronic conditions grew between 1997 and 2006, those without health coverage in this group experienced substantial erosion in access to health care, according to a new study by Kaiser Family Foundation researchers published today as a Health Affairs Web Exclusive.

22 Jul 2008

Coronary heart disease linked to problems with reasoning, vocabulary and verbal fluency

Coronary heart disease is associated with a worse performance in mental processes such as reasoning, vocabulary and verbal fluency, according to a study of 5837 middle-aged Whitehall civil servants. The study also found that the longer ago the heart disease had been diagnosed, the worse was the person's cognitive performance and this effect was particularly marked in men.

22 Jul 2008

New hope for infertile men - venous embolization

A minimally invasive treatment for a common cause of male infertility can significantly improve a couple's chances for pregnancy, according to a new study published in the August issue of Radiology. The study, conducted at the University of Bonn in Germany, also found that the level of sperm motility prior to treatment is a key predictor of success.

22 Jul 2008

Rural doctors say people in the bush can expect to die younger

The Australian Rural Doctors' Association (RDAA) says because of the shortage of doctors in rural and remote Australia people in the bush die sooner.

21 Jul 2008

Too much sleep increases the risk of stroke in older women

Researchers in the United States have found that for older women too much or too little sleep increases their risk of a stroke.

21 Jul 2008

Big Apple gets tough with fast food restaurants

New York is getting serious when it comes to tackling obesity, as from last weekend restaurants in the Big Apple now must state calorie information on their menus.

21 Jul 2008

Access to rheumatoid arthritis drugs 'curbed' for sufferers in the UK

Sufferers of rheumatoid arthritis in Britain have been warned that their access to a particularly effective class of drug will in future be limited.

20 Jul 2008

Sleep patterns and ischemic risk in postmenopausal women

Postmenopausal women who regularly sleep more than nine hours a night may have an increased risk of ischemic stroke, researchers reported in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.

19 Jul 2008

Functional human blood vessels grown in mice using cells from adult human donors

For the first time, researchers have successfully grown functional human blood vessels in mice using cells from adult human donors - an important step in developing clinical strategies to grow tissue, researchers report in Circulation Research: Journal of the American Heart Association.

19 Jul 2008

Expert opinion on eating tilapia and catfish

Tilapia and catfish are examples of lower-fat fish that have fewer omega-3s than the oily fish listed above, but still provide more of these heart-healthy nutrients than hamburger, steak, chicken, pork or turkey.

18 Jul 2008

Could arthritis wonder drugs provide clues for all disease?

Drugs that have helped treat millions of rheumatoid arthritis sufferers may hold the key to many more medical conditions, including atherosclerosis - a leading cause of heart disease - says the researcher who jointly invented and developed them.

From The University of Manchester 17 Jul 2008

Heart attack not a death sentence

Survivors of cardiac arrest who received intensive care can expect long-term quality of life at reasonable expense to the health care system.

17 Jul 2008

New ultrasound imaging system spots early evidence of peripheral arterial disease

Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University have devised an ultrasound imaging technique that picks up subtle early evidence of peripheral arterial disease (PAD) that current conventional tests miss.

17 Jul 2008

Gene variation increases risk of elevated triglycerides in Asians

A genetic variant found almost exclusively in individuals of Asian descent increases the risk of elevated triglycerides over four-fold, reports a comprehensive study in the August Journal of Lipid Research.

17 Jul 2008

New 'Cardiomobile' monitoring system

Dr Charles Worringham of Queensland University of Technology's Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation said the unique 'Cardiomobile' monitoring system, developed by Gold Coast company Alive Technologies, was being further developed and trialled together with QUT under an ARC Linkage Grant.

17 Jul 2008

25.6 percent of U.S. adults obese in 2007

The proportion of U.S. adults who self report they are obese increased nearly 2 percent between 2005 and 2007, according to a report in today's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). An estimated 25.6 percent of U.S. adults reported being obese in 2007 compared to 23.9 percent in 2005, an increase of 1.7 percent.

17 Jul 2008

Fred Hutchinson awarded $7.6 million to research how genetic variations influence risk of common diseases

Researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have received a $7.6 million, four-year grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute to better understand the genetic and biological roots of common diseases. The Hutchinson Center is one of four U.S. research institutes to receive grants totaling about $31 million toward this effort.

17 Jul 2008