Veterans Affairs News and Research

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New report highlights inherent weaknesses of VA's Airborne Hazards and Open Burn Pit Registry

Inherent features of registries that rely on voluntary participation and self-reported information make them fundamentally unsuitable for determining whether emissions from military burn pits in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other locations in Southwest Asia caused health problems in service members who were exposed to them, says a new congressionally mandated report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

28 Feb 2017

Activated T-cells promote heart failure after heart attack

Chronic inflammation after a heart attack can promote heart failure and death. University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers have now shown that activated T-cells — part of the immune system's inflammatory response — are both necessary and sufficient to produce such heart failure.

28 Feb 2017

Collaborative ‘tune up’ clinic for complex type 2 diabetes patients reduces health care costs

Diabetes cost the U.S. an estimated $245 billion in 2012, in direct medical costs and reduced productivity. Health care providers are facing increasing pressure to achieve better patient outcomes at a lower cost.

28 Feb 2017

Scientists create organ-on-a-chip that can mimic heart's biomechanical properties

The human heart beats more than 2.5 billion times in an average lifetime. Now scientists at Vanderbilt University have created a three-dimensional organ-on-a-chip that can mimic the heart's amazing biomechanical properties.

23 Feb 2017

New research pinpoints how immigrant microbes get to the lungs

They traveled a huge distance, evaded a protective barrier, and found themselves in a strange and unwelcoming land.

23 Feb 2017

Duke Health scientists identify proteins in mucous that confirm viral infection

It may seem obvious, but the key to confirming whether someone is suffering from a cold or flu virus might lie at the misery's source -- the inflamed passages of the nose and throat.

22 Feb 2017

Prolonged use of popular heartburn drugs linked to silent, gradual kidney damage

Taking popular heartburn drugs for prolonged periods has been linked to serious kidney problems, including kidney failure.

22 Feb 2017

Compound from snail's venom may offer alternative to opioids for pain relief

A tiny snail may offer an alternative to opioids for pain relief. Scientists at the University of Utah have found a compound that blocks pain by targeting a pathway not associated with opioids.

21 Feb 2017

Researchers explore how patients with COPD, heart failure and heart attack fared in ICU

Does a stay in the intensive care unit give patients a better chance of surviving a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or heart failure flare-up or even a heart attack, compared with care in another type of hospital unit? Unless a patient is clearly critically ill, the answer may be no, according to University of Michigan researchers who analyzed more than 1.5 million Medicare records.

17 Feb 2017

Study reports on health of American women deployed to Vietnam for military or civilian service

A study just released by Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health reports on the health of American women who were deployed to Vietnam for either military or civilian service.

14 Feb 2017

New study aims to better understand long-term neurologic effects of mild TBI

An ambitious U.S. federally funded study is enrolling at least 1,100 service members and veterans who fought in Iraq or Afghanistan to learn more about mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) and how it can be best evaluated, and perhaps prevented and treated.

9 Feb 2017

VA scientists reveal new theory on how aspirin may ward off cancer

Studies abound that point to a role for plain old aspirin in keeping deadly cancers at bay. While aspirin is not yet part of mainstream treatment for any cancer, it is recommended by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force for certain adults to help prevent colorectal cancer.

8 Feb 2017

Study links higher BMI to lower chances of getting hospice care

The heavier someone is, the less likely they are to have what many people might call a "good death", with hospice care and a chance to die at home, a new study finds. And that difference comes with a financial, as well as a personal, cost, the research shows.

8 Feb 2017

MGH researchers develop novel approach to analyze brainwave activity during sleep

Massachusetts General Hospital investigators have developed a novel approach to analyze brainwaves during sleep, which promises to give a more detailed and accurate depiction of neurophysiological changes than provided by a traditional sleep study.

8 Feb 2017

Sleep may be regulated by several brain-based immune proteins, study reveals

Sleep -- one of the most basic, yet most mystifying processes of the human body -- has confounded physicians, scientists and evolutionary biologists for centuries.

2 Feb 2017

Increased growth factor protects retinal blood vessels in animal models with diabetes

Researchers from the Schepens Eye Research Institute of Massachusetts Eye and Ear have shown that a slight increase in transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β), which is present in preclinical animal models with diabetic eye disease, protects retinal blood vessels from damage that commonly occurs in the early stages of the disease.

2 Feb 2017

UAB researchers discover novel underlying mechanism involved in anxiety disorders, PTSD

University of Alabama at Birmingham neurobiologist Lynn Dobrunz, Ph.D., has discovered a novel mechanism for how stress-induced anxiety — the type of experience that can produce post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD — affects circuit function in the hippocampus, the area of the brain where aversive memories are formed.

24 Jan 2017

BUSM researchers move one step closer to understanding brain changes linked to PTSD

Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine and the VA Boston Healthcare System are one step closer to understanding the specific nature of brain changes associated with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

23 Jan 2017

Mutations in gene that enables memories, sense of direction can contribute to schizophrenia symptoms

Mutations in a gene that should enable memories and a sense of direction instead can result in imprecise communication between neurons that contributes to symptoms of schizophrenia, scientists report.

19 Jan 2017

High-donor-volume hospitals more likely to have improved OTPD rate than low-volume medical centers

Hospitals that manage the highest volume of deceased organ donors are 52 percent more likely to recover an above-average number of transplantable organs per donor compared with low-volume hospitals, according to results from a new study conducted across three U.S. donation regions.

19 Jan 2017

Veterans Affairs News and Research

New report highlights inherent weaknesses of VA's Airborne Hazards and Open Burn Pit Registry

Activated T-cells promote heart failure after heart attack

Collaborative ‘tune up’ clinic for complex type 2 diabetes patients reduces health care costs

Scientists create organ-on-a-chip that can mimic heart's biomechanical properties

New research pinpoints how immigrant microbes get to the lungs

Duke Health scientists identify proteins in mucous that confirm viral infection

Prolonged use of popular heartburn drugs linked to silent, gradual kidney damage

Compound from snail's venom may offer alternative to opioids for pain relief

Researchers explore how patients with COPD, heart failure and heart attack fared in ICU

Study reports on health of American women deployed to Vietnam for military or civilian service

New study aims to better understand long-term neurologic effects of mild TBI

VA scientists reveal new theory on how aspirin may ward off cancer

Study links higher BMI to lower chances of getting hospice care

MGH researchers develop novel approach to analyze brainwave activity during sleep

Sleep may be regulated by several brain-based immune proteins, study reveals

Increased growth factor protects retinal blood vessels in animal models with diabetes

UAB researchers discover novel underlying mechanism involved in anxiety disorders, PTSD

BUSM researchers move one step closer to understanding brain changes linked to PTSD

Mutations in gene that enables memories, sense of direction can contribute to schizophrenia symptoms

High-donor-volume hospitals more likely to have improved OTPD rate than low-volume medical centers

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