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New study reveals parenthood is associated with lower blood pressure

A new Brigham Young University study found that parenthood is associated with lower blood pressure, particularly so among women.

18 Jan 2010

Research suggests mail-order pharmacies are associated with better medication adherence

Buying medicine by mail may encourage patients to stick to their doctor-prescribed medication regimen, new research suggests.

18 Jan 2010

Health Policy Research Roundup: New Orleans clinic experiences, health reform and lagging biomedical research funds

Journal of the American Medical Association: Funding of US Biomedical Research, 2003-2008 - After doubling in a decade, the rate of increase in biomedical research in the U.S. has slowed since 2005, and the level of funding from the National Institutes of Health and industry appears to have decreased by 2 percent in 2008, after adjusting for inflation, the authors of this study report.

18 Jan 2010

Bone marrow transplantation survivors can father children: new study says

Men who were previously deemed sterile due to aggressive cancer treatments may still be able to biologically father children according to a new study published in the journal, Bone Marrow Transplantation.

18 Jan 2010

Scientists manipulate and expand the number of stem/progenitor cells

Scientists at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have cleared a major technical hurdle to making umbilical-cord-blood transplants a more widely-used method for treating leukemia and other blood cancers.

18 Jan 2010

Dramatically enhanced image contrast could revolutionize diagnostics and therapeutics

A Northwestern University study shows that coupling a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agent to a nanodiamond results in dramatically enhanced signal intensity and thus vivid image contrast.

18 Jan 2010

FDA: Data from Spiriva HandiHaler do not support increased risks for stroke, heart attack or death

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced that data from a recent review of the Spiriva HandiHaler, a long-acting respiratory treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), do not support an increased risk of stroke, heart attack, or death in patients using the medicine.

18 Jan 2010

Geisinger CEO wins 2010 TRUST Award

The Health Research & Educational Trust (HRET), an affiliate of the American Hospital Association (AHA), has selected Glenn D. Steele Jr., MD, PhD president and chief executive officer of Geisinger Health System, as the recipient of the 2010 TRUST Award.

18 Jan 2010

Fertility drugs cause a high percentage of multiple births; contribute to growing crisis of prematurity

The widespread use of so-called fertility drugs, not just high-tech laboratory procedures, likely plays a larger role than previously realized in the growing problem of premature births in the United States, because these drugs cause a high percentage of multiple births, the March of Dimes said today.

18 Jan 2010

OSA adversely affects glucose control in patients with type 2 diabetes

Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) adversely affects glucose control in patients with type 2 diabetes, according to a study conducted by researchers at the University of Chicago.

18 Jan 2010

Dr. Michel Kahaleh uses pCLE technique to diagnose and treat cancer

The world's smallest flexible microscope is diagnosing some big diseases and allowing physicians to treat patients on the spot. Dr. Michel Kahaleh, associate professor of medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the University of Virginia Health System, is the only physician in Virginia currently using probe-based confocal laser endomicroscopy (pCLE).

18 Jan 2010

Findings could pave way for new therapeutic approaches for Friedreich's ataxia

Elevated levels of DNA damage have for the first time been found in the cellular mitochondria and nuclei of patients with the inherited, progressive nervous system disease called Friedreich's ataxia (FRDA), says a multicenter research team led by an expert from the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI).

18 Jan 2010

U.S. DOD awards LUHS $1.6M to continue burn research

Loyola University Health Systems (LUHS) has received a $1.6 million contract from the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) to research burn injuries, the care of burn wounds and infections and how burns affect the immune system.

18 Jan 2010

GOP governors say health 'deals' are being cut without their input

"Twenty Republican governors and governors-elect are accusing the White House of providing too little transparency on health care, causing worry that 'deals' are being cut without their input," Politico reports. "In a letter sent Wednesday to the Congressional leaders of both parties, the governors wrote that they are 'disappointed with the lack of transparency' as health care moves forward. … The letter comes, in part, as a response to the Obama administration's move to bring in Democratic governors to stump for the bill ahead of its expected passage" (Barr, 1/14).

18 Jan 2010

Dartmouth researchers to develop and market a drug throughout Asia for treatment of CKD

Thanks in part to more than a decade of preclinical work by Dartmouth researchers, a Japanese biopharmaceutical firm is preparing to develop and market throughout Asia a drug for the treatment of chronic kidney disease (CKD).

18 Jan 2010

MediSens Wireless to begin its wireless body-monitoring system clinical trials following FDA approval

MediSens Wireless, a startup company in UCLA's on-campus technology incubator at the California NanoSystems Institute, has obtained approval under federal Food and Drug Administration guidelines to begin clinical trials on its novel wireless body-monitoring system, which assesses muscle and neuromotor functions in the upper extremities.

18 Jan 2010

Obama announces $100M in aid for Haitian earthquake recovery

At the White House on Thursday, President Barack Obama "promised $100 million along with more American troops for the relief effort in Haiti, vowing that the United States would stand with the impoverished nation as it grappled with the devastation of its capital city," the New York Times reports.

18 Jan 2010

First genetic map of malaria drug plant could increase crop yields, study says

The first genetic map of the plant Artemisia annua, which could "help scientists develop the species into a high-yielding crop" to fight malaria, was published in a study in the journal Science on Thursday, Reuters reports (Kelland, 1/14).

18 Jan 2010

Scientists discover new links between inherited blindness and AHI1 gene

An international team of scientists, led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have discovered new links between a common form of inherited blindness affecting children and a gene known as Abelson helper integration site-1 (AHI1).

18 Jan 2010

Androgen replacement therapy may ward off heart damage, says study

A man's male hormones may ward off heart damage by helping vessels around the heart regenerate, suggest Australian researchers in a report posted January 13 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine (www.jem.org).

18 Jan 2010