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New handheld device performs rapid HIV tests

Samuel K. Sia, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Columbia Engineering, has taken his innovative lab-on-a-chip and developed a way to not only check a patient's HIV status anywhere in the world with just a finger prick, but also synchronize the results automatically and instantaneously with central health-care records-10 times faster, the researchers say, than the benchtop ELISA, a broadly used diagnostic technique.

25 Jan 2013

Researchers find new genetic differences in human hearts

Healthy men and women show little difference in their hearts, except for small electrocardiographic disparities. But new genetic differences found by Washington University in St. Louis researchers in hearts with disease could ultimately lead to personalized treatment of various heart ailments.

25 Jan 2013

Effective therapy needed for chronic fatigue syndrome patients

Ampligen, the first drug ever seeking approval to treat chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME), recently hit another roadblock with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

25 Jan 2013

Low levels of vitamin D associated with higher risk of premenopausal breast cancer

A prospective study led by researchers from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine has found that low serum vitamin D levels in the months preceding diagnosis may predict a high risk of premenopausal breast cancer.

25 Jan 2013

Use of computerized clinical decision support systems leads to patient dissatisfaction

Health care practitioners now can access patients' data using electronic medical records, which often include information systems that assess individuals' medical histories and clinical research to facilitate doctors' diagnoses.

25 Jan 2013

Ibuprofen and naproxen can cause kidney damage in children

Sick children, especially those with some dehydration from flu or other illnesses, risk significant kidney injury if given drugs such as ibuprofen and naproxen, Indiana University School of Medicine researchers said Friday.

25 Jan 2013

NSAIDs cause acute kidney injury in some children

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen and naproxen, are commonly used to treat pain and reduce fever in children. However, the use of NSAIDs has been shown to cause acute kidney injury (AKI) in some children

25 Jan 2013

Flow cytometry can now be used for quantification of microbial cells in drinking water

Flow cytometry (FCM) can now be officially used for the quantification of microbial cells in drinking water. The new analytical method - developed at Eawag and extensively tested both in Switzerland and abroad - has been incorporated into the Swiss Food Compendium (SLMB) by the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH).

25 Jan 2013

ColumbiaDoctors Midtown: New Outpatient Center in Midtown Columbia

ColumbiaDoctors Midtown officially opened its doors today with a ribbon-cutting by leadership of Columbia University and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and ColumbiaDoctors physicians, dentists, and nurse practitioners.

25 Jan 2013

Researchers to develop new diagnostic tools and treatments for people with rare diseases

A multi-million Euro initiative is bringing together researchers from across the world to develop new diagnostic tools and new treatments for people with rare diseases and to connect research data in this area on a global scale.

25 Jan 2013

Researchers aim to prevent diabetes through testosterone supplements, weight-loss program

Australian researchers have begun a world-first study that aims to help men lose weight and prevent diabetes - by giving them more testosterone.

25 Jan 2013

Neuromuscular blockade (NMB) reversal

General anesthesia is made up of three components: hypnotic medicines, to induce sleep; analgesics, or medicines to inhibit pain; and NMB agents that induce muscle relaxation. Anesthesiology professionals use NMB to relax a patient’s muscles and prevent involuntary movement that could impact surgery.

24 Jan 2013

Sacral nerve stimulation helps manage children with chronic incontinence

Incontinence is typically a condition associated with adults; however, many children also struggle with incontinence - bladder, bowel or both. In order to help these children, doctors at Nationwide Children's Hospital have turned to a device, typically used in adult patients, to help manage children with chronic incontinence.

24 Jan 2013

New computing system determines age and sex of a corpse with reliability of 95%

Researchers at the University of Granada, Spain, have designed a new computing system that determines the age and sex of a corpse with a reliability of 95%. This system is based on free software called Image and a free DICOM displayer called K-Pacs.

24 Jan 2013

Cost transparency does not influence the way physicians ordered imaging tests

In a study designed to see if doctors who are told the exact price of expensive medical tests like MRIs in advance would order fewer of them, Johns Hopkins researchers got their answer: No.

24 Jan 2013

Clinical trial to evaluate cyclodextrin against Niemann-Pick disease type C1

A clinical trial to evaluate a drug candidate called cyclodextrin as a possible treatment for Niemann-Pick disease type C1 (NPC), a rare and fatal genetic disease, will start today, researchers announced.

24 Jan 2013

Hastings Center Report special report on ethical oversight of learning health care systems

The longstanding ethical framework for protecting human volunteers in medical research needs to be replaced because it is outdated and can impede efforts to improve health care quality, assert leaders in bioethics, medicine, and health policy in two companion articles in a Hastings Center Report special report, "Ethical Oversight of Learning Health Care Systems."

24 Jan 2013

Brazilian city declares health emergency due to dengue fever outbreak

"Municipal authorities in Campo Grande, the capital of the southwestern Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, on Monday declared a health emergency due to a serious outbreak of dengue fever," Fox News Latino reports.

24 Jan 2013

Research team describes how the brain controls whisker movements in mice

All parents know the infant milestones: turning over, learning to crawl, standing, and taking that first unassisted step. Achieving each accomplishment presumably requires the formation of new connections among subsets of the billions of nerve cells in the infant's brain. But how, when and where those connections form has been a mystery.

24 Jan 2013

Parents not very concerned about misuse of narcotic pain medicines by children and teens

Despite data on rising rates of abuse and overdoses of narcotic pain medicines across all age groups, in a new poll from the University of Michigan, most parents said they are not very concerned about misuse of these medicines by children and teens.

24 Jan 2013