Blood News and Research

RSS

Risk factors for severe RSV infection in immunocompromised children

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital investigators and collaborators have shown how to predict if a child who is infected with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) while being treated for cancer or another catastrophic disease is at high risk for developing severe infection. The finding will help clinicians improve guidelines for managing these infected children.

4 Feb 2008

New discoveries on what does and doesn't affect immune system

Scientists know that a number of factors can affect the body's immune system: poor diet, certain steroids, chronic stress. Now researchers at Michigan State University have discovered that an appetite-controlling hormone also affects the immune system, while natural versions of certain steroids do not.

4 Feb 2008

Researchers uncover key interaction in cholesterol regulation

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have determined the specific way in which a destructive protein binds to and interferes with a molecule that removes low-density lipoproteins (LDL), the so-called "bad" cholesterol, from the blood.

4 Feb 2008

FDA approves only once-daily inhaled corticosteroid for children

Schering-Plough Corporation has announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved ASMANEX TWISTHALER 110 mcg (mometasone furoate inhalation powder) for the maintenance treatment of asthma as a preventive therapy in patients 4 to 11 years of age.

4 Feb 2008

Infants' bodies expel thimerosal mercury much faster than originally thought

February's issue of Pediatrics offers another reason to rethink blaming the spike in autism diagnoses on thimerosal, a mercury-containing preservative routinely used in several childhood vaccines until the late '90s.

4 Feb 2008

Anemia treatment may be a double-edged sword

Erythropoietin has so far been known to doctors as a hormone that boosts red-blood-cell production.

4 Feb 2008

Novel treatment for blood clots in the legs appears to be safe and effective

The study found that injecting or “lacing” the clot with a fiber-binding thrombolytic agent effectively treats deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and reduces the risk of subsequent recurrence or bleeding.

4 Feb 2008

Protein, macrophage migration inhibitory factor predicts heart attack response and cardiac damage

A protein has been found that influences the response of the heart to a lack of oxygen and blood flow, such as occurs during a heart attack, a team of Yale School of Medicine researchers report in Nature.

4 Feb 2008

Variation in the BCL11A gene linked to moderated symptoms of beta-thalassemia

Beta-thalassemia is a serious, potentially life-threatening disease that affects red blood cells, cells that carry oxygen via hemoglobin throughout the body.

4 Feb 2008

Intensive insulin therapy reduces the risk of death in critically ill patients

For critically ill patients, intensive insulin therapy (IIT) to keep blood sugar (glucose) at normal levels reduces the risk of acute kidney injury, reports a study in the March Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

4 Feb 2008

New liquid treatment for wide-neck brain aneurysm tested at Jefferson Hospital

Neurological surgeons at Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience are among the first surgeons in the United States using an FDA-approved liquid system for treating wide-necked brain aneurysms, which could eventually replace current treatments.

4 Feb 2008

A possible H5N1 vaccine

A vaccine against the most common and deadliest strain of avian flu, H5N1, has been engineered and tested by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Vaccine Research and Novavax Inc.

4 Feb 2008

A loss in DNS repair function causes acute myeloid leukemia relapse

A University of Kentucky research team reports that loss of an important DNA repair function, called DNA mismatch repair (MMR), is responsible for refractory/relapsed Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML).

4 Feb 2008

Best way to treat abdominal aortic aneurysms

Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) - a condition in which the large vessel that supplies blood to your abdomen, legs, and pelvis swells to over 50 percent its normal size -occurs in approximately 4 out of 100 adults.

4 Feb 2008

Why is scratching so nice?

In the first study to use imaging technology to see what goes on in the brain when we scratch, researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center have uncovered new clues about why scratching may be so relieving - and why it can be hard to stop. The work is reported online in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology and will appear in a future print issue.

31 Jan 2008

Stem cell treatment for babies with brittle bones in the womb

The extraordinary results of an in utero stem cell treatment could lead to a new treatment for babies with brittle bones, as well as a range of other disabling conditions, according to a maternal-fetal medicine researcher, now based at The University of Queensland (UQ).

31 Jan 2008