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Link identified between Alzheimer's disease and glaucoma

UK scientists have shown for the first time that key proteins involved in Alzheimer's disease are also implicated in glaucoma, the major cause of irreversible blindness worldwide.

7 Aug 2007

Inhaled nitric oxide safe for very premature infants

A nationwide study led by researchers at UCSF provides evidence that inhaled nitric oxide is safe and effective for the prevention of the most common type of long-term lung disease of very premature infants.

7 Aug 2007

Handheld BrainScope device detects brain damage immediately after concussion

Researchers at NYU School of Medicine have developed a handheld device that can detect subtle brain damage immediately after concussion.

7 Aug 2007

Short heart health programs improve life expectancy and reduce hospitalizations

Secondary prevention programs for coronary heart disease that contain less than 10 hours contact with health professionals and those provided by family doctors are just as effective in saving lives as more expensive, longer and more specialized hospital-based alternatives, according to cardiovascular researchers at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada.

6 Aug 2007

Ten ALS genes found

Blood samples from more than 220 ALS patients at the Methodist Neurological Institute were used in research that revealed significant changes in or around 10 specific genes in sporadic ALS, the most common form of ALS.

6 Aug 2007

Life around newborn discharge

A landmark nationwide study, published in the journal Pediatrics, is the first ever to prospectively examine the decision-making process of over 4,000 mothers and their physicians around the readiness of mothers and their infants to leave the hospital after childbirth.

6 Aug 2007

LKB1 gene - new lung tumor-suppressor

Collaborating scientists in Boston and North Carolina have found that a particular gene can block key steps of the lung cancer process in mice.

6 Aug 2007

Marburg haemorrhagic fever crops up again in Uganda

Marburg haemorrhagic fever (MHF) has been confirmed in a 29-year-old man in Uganda.

6 Aug 2007

Many heart attack patients still not getting emergency reperfusion

Far more of today's heart attack patients receive emergency angioplasty treatment or clot-busting drugs to re-open their clogged heart arteries than even a decade ago, a new study finds.

6 Aug 2007

Improved guidelines for providing intrauterine devices

Virginia Commonwealth University researchers have found that intrauterine devices are safe and effective in a population of women previously not considered as good candidates for this method of birth control.

6 Aug 2007

Happier hospitals means healthier patients

The National Inquiry into Management and Medicine looked at hospitals across the UK, focussing on the often troubled relationships between doctors and NHS managers.

6 Aug 2007

Emergency angioplasty use rises, but some patients still miss out

Compared with their counterparts a decade ago, today's heart attack patients are receiving emergency angioplasty or clot-busting drugs to re-open clogged arteries at a far greater rate, but 10 percent of patients who could benefit from this life-saving treatment still do not receive it, according to a study published in The American Journal of Medicine by Yale and University of Michigan researchers.

6 Aug 2007

Medic to sue Gaddafi for holding him hostage

One of the six medics imprisoned by Libyan authorities for allegedly deliberately infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV, plans to sue Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi.

6 Aug 2007

Mahjong epilepsy - a new syndrome

According to doctors in Hong Kong the Chinese tile game of Mahjong can induce epilepsy.

6 Aug 2007

New device to treat chronic congestive heart failure

As part of a 40-site national trial, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center are studying a new medical device designed to treat patients with chronic congestive heart failure.

3 Aug 2007

Money for medicine

Last week, it was announced that drug addicts in England are to be given shopping vouchers for complying with treatment programmes. In this week's British Medical Journal, two experts debate whether it is acceptable for people to be paid to adhere to medication.

3 Aug 2007

Predicting outcomes before and after liver transplants

The most appropriate system for organ allocation for liver transplants is a subject of continuing debate.

3 Aug 2007

Innovative gene therapy research for muscular dystrophy

A major grant of approximately $10 million from the National Institutes of Health will help investigators at Columbus Children's Research Institute (CCRI) at Columbus Children's Hospital learn more about strategies to treat muscular dystrophy, potentially leading to two new gene therapy approaches.

3 Aug 2007

Headaches of computerized medicine

Clinical information technology systems especially those known in the health care industry as computerized provider order entry (CPOE) systems promise to improve health outcomes, reduce medical errors and increase cost efficiency, but hospitals adopting them must plan for immense workflow issues and a host of other unanticipated consequences that come with them or face potentially crippling problems.

3 Aug 2007

Age is important in HRT use

Five years ago this summer the National Institutes of Health's stopped early a major portion of the Women's Health Initiative (WHI), a large and ambitious study to address the most common causes of death, disability and impaired quality of life in postmenopausal women.

3 Aug 2007