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Study: Melanoma survivors more likely to have new cancers

Melanoma skin cancer survivors are much more likely than the general population to have future new cases of invasive melanomas and other cancers, says a national study led by UAMS' Appathurai Balamurugan, M.D., M.P.H.

3 Nov 2011

UiB receives first ERC grant for research into diabetes and obesity

Research into diabetes and obesity at the University of Bergen (UiB) gets a major boost with one of these Advanced Grants from the European Research Council.

3 Nov 2011

State Medicaid Directors seek to sway feds on eligibility rules

In a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the state officials made recommendations about new regulations and asked for coordination between federal and state leaders. Meanwhile, in other Medicaid news, a New York doctor gets a big payout from his whistleblower lawsuit, and the Lousiania program reports a shortfall.

3 Nov 2011

Galectin Therapeutics forms Liver Fibrosis Clinical Trials Advisory Board

Galectin Therapeutics Inc., the leader in developing carbohydrate-based therapeutic compounds to inhibit galectin receptors, today announced the formation of its Liver Fibrosis Clinical Trials Advisory Board comprised of key opinion leaders from Emory Hospital and School of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard School of Medicine, University of Michigan Hospital and School of Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital and School of Medicine, and University of Wisconsin Hospital and School of Medicine.

3 Nov 2011

Pupil can constrict without any input from brain

You've seen it on television: A doctor shines a bright light into an unconscious patient's eye to check for brain death. If the pupil constricts, the brain is OK, because in mammals, the brain controls the pupil. Or does it? Now, researchers at Johns Hopkins have discovered that in most mammals, in fact in most vertebrates, the pupil can constrict without any input from the brain.

3 Nov 2011

Novel indirect screener can identify women at risk for illicit drug use

A team of researchers at Wayne State University's Parent Health Lab in the School of Medicine have developed a novel indirect screener that identifies women at risk for drug use by evaluating correlates of illicit drug use rather than drug use itself. In phase I testing, this new screener proved to be more sensitive than any alternative approach at detecting recent drug use.

3 Nov 2011

UCSD, Rady Children's to host Building Sustainable Surgical Systems conference

UC San Diego School of Medicine and Rady Children's Hospital are hosting a joint Alliance for Surgery and Anesthesia (ASAP) and World Health Organization Global Initiative for Emergency and Essential Surgical Care (GIEESC) meeting November 9-11, 2011.

3 Nov 2011

FEIBA drug safe and effective for patients with hemophilia A

An international research team led by Dr. Cindy Leissinger of Tulane University School of Medicine, along with Dr. Alessandro Gringeri from the University of Milan, has found that a drug commonly used to treat bleeding events in people with a type of severe hemophilia can also be used to prevent such events from happening in the first place.

3 Nov 2011

Ivacaftor drug improves lung function in people with cystic fibrosis

A new study has confirmed that the drug, ivacaftor (VX-770), significantly improves lung function in some people with cystic fibrosis (CF). The results of the phase III clinical trial study, "A CFTR Potentiator in Patients with Cystic Fibrosis and the G551D Mutation," led by Bonnie W. Ramsey, MD of Seattle Children's Research Institute and the University of Washington, were published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

3 Nov 2011

Affective symptoms can help diagnose early psychotic disorders

Functional psychosis can be diagnosed from the first indications of the patient, thanks to affective symptomatology. Depressive moods, hyperactivity and lack of concentration are affective symptoms that can present themselves during the first psychotic episodes, and the presence or absence of any of them may contribute to differentiating, at an early stage, between the different variations of the mental disease.

3 Nov 2011

Nicotine might prime the brain to enhance behavioral effects of cocaine

A landmark study in mice identifies a biological mechanism that could help explain how tobacco products could act as gateway drugs, increasing a person's future likelihood of abusing cocaine and perhaps other drugs as well, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health. The study is the first to show that nicotine might prime the brain to enhance the behavioral effects of cocaine.

3 Nov 2011

Many spinal fusion surgery patients have low levels of vitamin D

A new study indicates that many patients undergoing spine surgery have low levels of vitamin D, which may delay their recovery. In a study of 313 patients undergoing spinal fusion surgery, orthopaedic surgeons at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found that more than half had inadequate levels of vitamin D, including one-fourth who were more severely deficient.

3 Nov 2011

Johns Hopkins Hospital receives NRC's Consumer Choice Award

For the 16th straight year, The Johns Hopkins Hospital has received the Consumer Choice Award from the National Research Corporation (NRC), a firm that specializes in health care performance measurement and improvement.

3 Nov 2011

Viewpoints: GOP intransigence on super committee; taxing health benefits would backfire; the need for care in defining essential benefits

There may be logic to Speaker John Boehner's insidious intransigence. Republicans keep saying no and Democrats keep offering more concessions. Super committee Republicans suggested instead a package based largely on cuts in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, combined with magical hundreds of billions they say would be produced by slashing assistance to the elderly and the vulnerable, by selling off government assets, and by the growth sparked by tax cuts.

3 Nov 2011

UCC professor receives International Leadership Award from ACG

UCC's Professor Eamonn Quigley has been awarded an International Leadership Award from the American College of Gastroenterology, the first person to receive this award worldwide.

3 Nov 2011

Nmnat1 protein may help prevent brain damage in babies with cerebral palsy

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown that a protein may help prevent the kind of brain damage that occurs in babies with cerebral palsy.

3 Nov 2011

Resveratrol holds key to reducing obesity and associated risks: Study

A new study shows that when taken regularly a natural compound known as resveratrol, found in red wine and grapes, mulberries and peanuts, can offer similar benefits to low-calorie diets and endurance training.

2 Nov 2011

Exercise can prevent inherited obesity & obesity raises injury risk: Two studies

A new study has shown that having an obesity gene should not mean absolute obesity for individuals. The gene may be countered by physical activity.

2 Nov 2011

ADHD drugs don’t raise risk for heart attacks or stroke: Study

Drugs known as stimulants, that are used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder do not increase the risk of heart attacks, strokes or sudden death, U.S. researchers said on Monday. This study finding should reassure millions of parents whose children take the drugs.

2 Nov 2011

Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System successfully implanted in advanced Retinitis Pigmentosa patient

Second Sight Medical Products, Inc., the world's leading developer of retinal prostheses for the blind, announced that the first ever commercial implantation of such a prosthesis was successfully completed on Saturday, October 29th in Pisa, Italy.

2 Nov 2011