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Scientists integrate stretchable electronics technology with balloon catheters for cardiac procedures

Cardiologists may soon be able to place sensitive electronics inside their patients' hearts with minimal invasiveness, enabling more sophisticated and efficient diagnosis and treatment of arrhythmias.

8 Mar 2011

URMC research confirms possible use of mifepristone for painful fibroids

Research continues to show that the controversial abortion drug mifepristone might have another use, as a therapeutic option besides hysterectomy for women who suffer from severe symptoms associated with uterine fibroids.

8 Mar 2011

New insight into multiple sclerosis

Scientists have blocked harmful immune cells from entering the brain in mice with a condition similar to multiple sclerosis.

8 Mar 2011

Study: Role of air pollutants in cardiometabolic syndrome

To explore one of the most critical health/environment intersections - how the very air we breathe can cause heart disease and diabetes and contribute to the problems of obesity - Michigan State University has been named a Clean Air Research Center by the Environmental Protection Agency.

8 Mar 2011

First western U.S. hand transplant surgery performed at UCLA Medical Center

Surgeons at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center performed the first hand transplant in the western United States in an operation that began one minute before midnight on Friday, March 4, and was completed 14-and-a-half hours later, on Saturday, March 5.

8 Mar 2011

New clinical trial to assess antiretroviral treatment in HIV-infected individuals based on CD4 counts

A major new clinical trial seeks to determine whether HIV-infected asymptomatic individuals have less risk of developing AIDS or other serious illness if they begin taking antiretrovirals sooner rather than later, based on their level of CD4+ T-cells.

8 Mar 2011

Klotho protein discovery can lead to new class of drugs for treatment of obesity

An important discovery in mice may make a big difference in people's waistlines thanks to a team of Harvard scientists who found that reducing the function of a transmembrane protein, called Klotho, in obese mice with high blood sugar levels produced lean mice with reduced blood sugar levels.

8 Mar 2011

New study: Circadian system may contribute to daily pattern of vasovagal syncope

Fainting, or syncope, is quite common. About 50% of people will experience fainting at some point during their lifetime. The most common type of fainting is vasovagal syncope that is caused by a sudden drop in blood pressure resulting in reduced blood flow to the brain.

8 Mar 2011

Study: Moderate drinking can reduce risk of dementia even among older adults

3202 German individuals attending general practitioners , who were free of dementia were studied at baseline, were followed up 1.5 years and 3 years later by means of structured clinical interviews including detailed assessment of current alcohol consumption and DSM-IV dementia diagnoses.

8 Mar 2011

Study: Physicians' empathy can improve patients' positive clinical outcomes

It has been thought that the quality of the physician-patient relationship is integral to positive outcomes but until now, data to confirm such beliefs has been hard to find. Through a landmark study, a research team from Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University has been able to quantify a relationship between physicians' empathy and their patients' positive clinical outcomes, suggesting that a physician's empathy is an important factor associated with clinical competence.

8 Mar 2011

Study shows how individual cells behave during blood vessel formation

Biologists tend to look at cells in bulk, observing them as a group and taking the average behavior as the norm - the assumption is that genetically identical cells all behave the same way.

8 Mar 2011

Scientists receive March of Dimes grant for preterm birth research

With the help of funding from the March of Dimes, scientists will study whether low doses of inhaled carbon monoxide may prevent inflammation that triggers preterm labor, analyze the role genes play in causing preterm delivery, and develop blood tests to help identify women at risk of preterm delivery.

8 Mar 2011

Scientists develop innovative device to efficiently identify CTCs in blood

Circulating tumor cells, which play a crucial role in cancer metastasis, have been known to science for more than 100 years, and researchers have long endeavored to track and capture them.

8 Mar 2011

hUCBs and MenSCs transplant may offer future therapeutic benefit for AD, stroke, ALS

Transplanting stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood cells and menstrual blood cells may offer future therapeutic benefit for those suffering from stroke, Alzheimer's disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, says a team of neuroscience researchers from the University of South Florida's Department of Neurosurgery and Brain Repair and collaborators from three private-sector research groups, Saneron CCEL Therapeutics, Inc., Tampa, FL, Cryo-Cell International, Inc., Oldsmar, FL, and Cryopraxis, Cell Praxis, BioRio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

8 Mar 2011

State roundup: Mass. effort to manage care for chronically ill; promoting organ donations

For a glimpse of the future of Massachusetts health care as Gov. Deval Patrick envisions it, consider Phyllis Minsky. At 82, Phyllis is complex. Medically, that is. ... Older patients with multiple chronic diseases are the biggest consumers of health care; some 15 percent of Medicare patients make up over 75 percent of health care spending.

8 Mar 2011

Ambry, RainDance enter new collaboration to develop and commercialize ADME screening

RainDance Technologies, Inc. and Ambry Genetics, today announced a new collaboration focused on the development and commercialization of a comprehensive drug absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion genetic screening panel for use on next-generation sequencing systems.

8 Mar 2011

Down’s syndrome could be detected in mother’s blood test

European researchers have devised a blood test that could help pregnant women avoid the invasive procedures now used to diagnose Down syndrome prenatally and make the diagnosis with 100% accuracy. The study report was published this Sunday in Nature Medicine.

7 Mar 2011

Mother and baby report card for NSW

The Government statistics on births in New South Wales Mothers and Babies 2008, which was released on Saturday. It showed that 96,343 babies were born in NSW that year - 12 per cent more than the 85,262 born in 2004.

7 Mar 2011

Inovio initiates VGX-3100 Phase II trial in patients with cervical cancer

Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a leader in the development of therapeutic and preventive vaccines against cancers and infectious diseases, announced today that it is initiating a Phase II clinical trial for its VGX-3100 DNA vaccine for cervical dysplasia and cancer caused by human papillomavirus.

7 Mar 2011

New insight into coronary artery disease

Insight into the complex biological mechanisms that cause heart disease has taken a major step forward with the discovery of 13 new genes that increase the risk of coronary artery disease.

7 Mar 2011