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New technology to help heart and lung patients awaiting transplants

Promising new technology may extend the life of a failing organ for patients suffering from heart or lung disease while they wait for a donor organ. The use of stem cells may eliminate the need for a transplant and even eradicate heart disease in patients.

6 Apr 2005

Pneumonia jab now available for over 65s in UK

People over 65 in the UK are to be offered a routine jab to help protect against diseases, including pneumonia, meningitis and septicaemia. Two in 1,000 over-65s are admitted to hospital with pneumococcal pneumonia each year and the infection can cause serious diseases.

5 Apr 2005

Cryoablation may be safer alternative for stopping abnormal electrical patterns

Freezing abnormal electrical pathways in the hearts of young patients may be a safer alternative to zapping them with powerful radiofrequency probes in order to treat tachycardias and other arrhythmias, according to a new study in the April 5, 2005, issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

5 Apr 2005

How heart is formed in the embryo helps explain congenital heart disease

Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh Cardiologist Bradley B. Keller, MD, and his research team are discovering details in the lab that explain how the heart is formed in the embryo. This knowledge improves the chances of doctors identifying fetuses who can benefit from intervention to treat congenital defects.

5 Apr 2005

Kids have upswing in golf-related head injuries

Children’s increasing interest in golf is resulting in an unfortunate upswing in golf-related head injuries, according to a review of sports injuries treated over six years at an academic medical center in Georgia.

5 Apr 2005

Meningitis epidemics driven by the wind

A meningitis epidemic hits West Africa every year, affecting 25 000 to 200 000 people. It has long been known that the timing of this epidemic and its spatial distribution within the “Meningitis Belt”, situated between 10° and 15° North, are closely linked to climatic conditions. Involved in the AMMA programme, IRD and University of Paris-VII researcher produced the first quantified description of this relationship using statistical methods.

5 Apr 2005

Method of gene therapy accurately corrects mutations in disease-causing genes

Harnessing the strength of a natural process that repairs damage to the human genome, a researcher from UT Southwestern Medical Center has helped establish a method of gene therapy that can accurately and permanently correct mutations in disease-causing genes.

5 Apr 2005

ACNM joins call to make every mother and child count on World Health Day 2005

Increasing the number of trained midwives, especially in low resource countries, is a life-saving intervention that must receive support from policy makers and funders if we expect to lower maternal and infant mortality rates, said the American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM) as it prepared to participate in World Health Day activities set for April 7th, 2005.

5 Apr 2005

International commitment to reduce maternal and child deaths by 2015 will not be met

An international commitment to reduce maternal and child deaths by 2015 will not be met at the current pace unless rapid and coordinated action is taken now, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.

5 Apr 2005

Parents fail to set the rules on smoking

A study involving 1,770 parents and guardians in New York and New Jersey has found that despite repeated health warnings about the dangers of second-hand smoke, a large percentage of families have no rules that limit children's exposure to tobacco smoke.

5 Apr 2005

An exceptionally effective lead-detection protein

Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory and the University of Chicago have discovered that a member of a well-known protein family is better at detecting lead than any other known substance.

5 Apr 2005

First evidence that preeclampsia can leave a persistent and potentially fatal imprint in the pulmonary circulation of the fetus

Children born of mothers who had preeclampsia during their pregnancy are more likely to have pulmonary hypertension than similar children born from normal pregnancies, according to a study conducted in Bolivia by Swiss and Bolivian researchers.

4 Apr 2005

Zinc appears to help boys learn

Seventh graders given 20 mg zinc, five days per week, for 10 to 12 weeks showed improvement in mental performance, responding more quickly and accurately on memory tasks and with more sustained attention, than classmates who received no additional zinc.

4 Apr 2005

Low-cost, hospital-based parent education program can reduce the incidence of shaken baby syndrome

A low-cost, hospital-based parent education program can reduce the incidence of abusive head injuries caused by shaken baby syndrome by nearly 50 percent, a Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center researcher reports.

4 Apr 2005

Method of gene therapy that can accurately and permanently correct mutations in disease-causing genes

4 Apr 2005

Research offers promise for people with learning disabilities

Learning disabilities such as dyslexia are believed to affect nearly one in 10 children. To better study them, a Northwestern University research team has developed a data-driven conceptual framework that links two well-established scientific concepts. In doing so, they also have developed a non-invasive diagnostic tool called BioMAP that can quickly identify children with learning disabilities.

4 Apr 2005

Dramatic evidence of the importance of visual cues in the control of food intake

The researchers served a free soup lunch to 54 adults, half of whom ate from normal 18-ounce soup bowls, while the other half ate from identical bowls that, unbeknownst to the participants, were slowly refilled through tubing connected to out-of-sight soup cauldrons.

4 Apr 2005

Light therapy effectively treats mood disorders

A study commissioned by the American Psychiatric Association and led by a psychiatrist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine has found that light therapy effectively treats mood disorders, including seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and other depressive disorders.

4 Apr 2005

Effect of individualized diets on chronic disease risk

Today at the 2005 Experimental Biology Conference, the Dairy Council of California sponsored a thought-provoking symposium titled "Individualized nutrition as a tool to prevent and treat chronic disease."

4 Apr 2005

More exhaust inhaled by kids inside school buses than by others in the area

Children on school buses collectively inhale as much or more exhaust emitted from those buses as does the rest of the city's population, according to a new analysis by researchers at the University of California.

4 Apr 2005