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Scientists use stem cells to grow cartilage

Scientists from Imperial College London have successfully converted human embryonic stem cells into cartilage cells, offering encouragement that replacement cartilage could one day be grown for transplantation.

16 Nov 2005

World first trial grows blood vessels from patient's own skin

A team of American scientists have successfully implanted blood vessels grown entirely from a patient's own cells.

16 Nov 2005

Fury over delay in Libyan Court ruling on children infected with AIDS

A delay by Libya's Supreme Court in reaching a decision on the appeal of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor, condemned to death for infecting more than 400 Libyan children with the AIDS virus, has infuriated the children's parents who hurled stones and bottles at police outside the court.

16 Nov 2005

New drug far more effective in stopping smokers lighting up

An experimental smoking cessation drug by Pfizer apparently gives smokers better odds at kicking the habit.

16 Nov 2005

Lack of aggressive treatment for clogged leg blood vessels means missed heart attack prevention opportunity

Despite the fact that clogged arteries in the legs usually mean clogged arteries near the heart, doctors often fail to give heart-protecting drugs to people with severe leg blood vessel blockages, a new University of Michigan-led study finds.

15 Nov 2005

Study suggests that some patients on beta blockers should not be

A Johns Hopkins study has raised doubts about a long-accepted notion of what's going on in many cases of heart failure, suggesting that nearly half of patients with the disorder may be getting the wrong treatment for their disease.

15 Nov 2005

Special prisons for AIDS convicts in China

According to the state media, in an attempt to stop the spread HIV/AIDS at least two prisons are to be build exclusively for HIV/AIDS-infected convicts.

15 Nov 2005

Vietnamese researchers say bird flu already resisant to Tamiflu

Scientists in Vietnam are concerned that the deadly bird flu may have infected two more people, and they suspect the virus may have mutated into a more dangerous form which could spread in mammals, and cause outbreaks in poultry.

15 Nov 2005

Better understanding of cancer cachexia

New research shows that a wasting condition responsible for nearly a third of all cancer deaths involves the loss of an essential muscle protein that is also lost in people with muscular dystrophy.

15 Nov 2005

Good fitness levels may extend the lives of women with metabolic syndrome

A high level of fitness may extend the lives of women with metabolic syndrome, according to new findings presented today by a cardiologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital at the annual American Heart Association Scientific Sessions.

15 Nov 2005

Seeing under the skin to reveal early signs of heart disease and stroke

A revolutionary diagnostic technique that sees under the skin sounds rooted in the realms of science fiction. But an invention akin to the Star Trek small handheld body scanner that shines light into the skin to detect early signs of heart disease and stroke could be on the market in less than two years.

14 Nov 2005

Largest hepatitis-C U.S. study defines optimal therapy

Final results of the WIN-R trial,[1] the largest hepatitis C study conducted in U.S. patients, showed that weight-based REBETOL (ribavirin, USP) in combination therapy with PEG-INTRON (peginterferon alfa-2b) achieved significantly higher rates of sustained virologic response (SVR)[2] and lower rates of relapse compared to the combination therapy using a flat dose of ribavirin.

14 Nov 2005

"Luckiest man" - cured of AIDS - will have further tests

The British man thought to be the first person to have shaken off HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is to undergo further clinical tests in the hope of a breakthrough in treating the condition.

14 Nov 2005

Doctors' surgeries open round the clock

In future patients in the UK will be able to see a GP in the evenings and at weekends.

14 Nov 2005

Hospital liver transplant program suspended after 32 die waiting

Following reports in the media that a Southern California hospital had suspended its liver transplant program and had turned down scores of donor organs while 32 patients awaiting transplants had died, the facility has had it's certification of the liver transplant program revoked.

14 Nov 2005

$230 billion in health care spending nationally is devoted to insurance administration

Billing and insurance paperwork consume at least one out of every five dollars of private insurance health spending in California, according to a new study by health policy researchers.

14 Nov 2005

Meditation may slow down brain aging

The regular practice of meditation appears to produce structural changes in areas of the brain associated with attention and sensory processing.

14 Nov 2005

New respiratory synctial virus treatment for at-risk infants under study

A new, enhanced-potency onoclonal antibody designed to keep the sniffles from turning into a devasting illness in at-risk babies is under study at the Medical College of Georgia Children's Medical Center.

14 Nov 2005

Positive aspects of bipolar disorder

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have shown for the first time that a sample of children who either have or are at high risk for bipolar disorder score higher on a creativity index than healthy children.

14 Nov 2005

African-American patients have worse quality of life after heart attacks

African-American patients have more chest pain, worse quality of life, and worse physical function than white patients one year after suffering acute coronary syndromes, such as heart attacks or unstable angina, according to a new study in the Nov. 15, 2005, issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

14 Nov 2005