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Echocardiogram may not improve patients' survival rates after elective surgery

A new study has found no evidence that patients who had a heart ultrasound known as an echocardiogram before major surgery had improved survival rates one month or one year after their operation.

19 Aug 2011

New Therapy Grants Program supports innovative approach to treat epilepsy

The Epilepsy Therapy Project (ETP) and the Epilepsy Foundation (EF) announced today a New Therapy Grant to potentially help those with treatment resistant epilepsy.

19 Aug 2011

Virginia Tech to create portable fall prediction monitoring system for the elderly

According to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, falls among Americans over age 65 are the leading cause of injury-related death. Falls also are the most common cause of nonfatal injuries and hospital admissions for trauma. In 2007, more than 18,000 older adults died from unintentional fall injuries. In 2009, 2.2 million nonfatal fall injuries among elderly adults were treated in emergency rooms and more than 581,000 of these patients were hospitalized.

19 Aug 2011

Cerus to support ongoing development of INTERCEPT red cell system

Cerus Corporation announced today that it has received a $2.1 million award from the U.S. Department of Defense to support the advanced development of the company's technology for inactivating pathogens and leukocytes in red blood cells.

19 Aug 2011

New quick malaria diagnostic test may help reduce overtreatment

"Health workers often treat patients for malaria even when a test indicates a different cause of the illness," a behavior seen across sub-Saharan Africa "that worries many health experts," PRI's The World reports.

19 Aug 2011

Time-release corticosteroid implant effective in treating uveitis

A team of researchers comparing the two leading treatment approaches for the eye condition uveitis, which is the fifth leading cause of blindness in the US, have found that a time-release corticosteroid implant placed surgically in the eye is similarly effective in treating the disease as anti-inflammatory corticosteroids and immunosuppressive drugs taken orally. The report was published online this week in the journal Ophthalmology.

19 Aug 2011

Powerful X-rays help develop new drug treatment for malignant melanoma

Powerful X-ray technology developed at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) national laboratories is revealing new insights into diseases ranging from Alzheimer's to the swine flu, and, most recently, enabled the discovery of a groundbreaking new drug treatment for malignant melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer.

19 Aug 2011

DiaGenic reports operating revenue of NOK 1,151 thousand for second quarter 2011

DiaGenic: Important milestones achieved. DiaGenic's collaboration with Pfizer is the first collaboration between a diagnostics company and the market leader for Alzheimer's therapeutics that aims to identify blood based diagnostic tools that can detect early Alzheimer's disease, before the disease is clinically overt, or accessible to other either more invasive and costly or less precise diagnostic exploration.

19 Aug 2011

First lower-limb prosthetic with powered knee and ankle joints

A new lower-limb prosthetic developed at Vanderbilt University allows amputees to walk without the leg-dragging gait characteristic of conventional artificial legs.

From PROTEOR 19 Aug 2011

USPTO issues patent for Spire's nanophotovoltaic device

Spire Corporation, a global solar company providing capital equipment and turn-key manufacturing lines to produce photovoltaic (PV) modules, announced today it has been awarded a patent for its invention of a nanophotovoltaic device which, when applied to biological cells such as cancer, can control and/or limit their growth.

19 Aug 2011

Trans-Anal Minimally Invasive Surgery can remove large polyps with less pain, scarring

For the first time in the western United States, a surgical team lead by Elisabeth McLemore, MD, has used a novel operating platform to perform the scarless removal of rectal tumors. Called Trans-Anal Minimally Invasive Surgery (TAMIS), the technique allows surgeons to excise large polyps and masses that cannot be completely removed during a routine colonoscopy.

19 Aug 2011

VA launches Paralympic Program website to support recovery of disabled Veterans

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has launched its Paralympic Program website as part of VA's ongoing commitment to support the rehabilitation and recovery of disabled Veterans through participation in adaptive sports.

19 Aug 2011

Long-range alignment of gold nanorods for biomedical imaging technologies

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a simple, scalable way to align gold nanorods, particles with optical properties that could be used for emerging biomedical imaging technologies.

19 Aug 2011

Femtosecond-laser ablation of Xenopus melanocytes for studies of cell migration, wound repair

Using an ultrafast femtosecond laser, researchers at Tufts University in Medford, Mass., were able to label, draw patterns on, and remove individual melanocytes cells from a species of frog tadpole (Xenopus) without damaging surrounding cells and tissues.

19 Aug 2011

Researchers demonstrate a way to control excitation and contraction in cardiac muscle cells

By employing optogenetics, a new field that uses genetically altered cells to respond to light, and a tandem unit cell (TCU) strategy, researchers at Stony Brook University have demonstrated a way to control cell excitation and contraction in cardiac muscle cells, the details of which are published in the early online edition of Circulation: Arrhythmia & Electrophysiology: "Stimulating Cardiac Muscle by Light: Cardiac Optogenetics by Cell Delivery."

19 Aug 2011

Zyga receives FDA approval to update indications for use of SImmetry system

Zyga Technology, Inc. announced today that the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the company's request to update the indications for use of its SImmetry Sacroiliac Joint Fusion System.

19 Aug 2011

Gene Security Network announces commercial launch of non-invasive prenatal test

Gene Security Network Inc. (GSN) today announced the commercial launch of its first non-invasive prenatal test powered by the company's proprietary bioinformatics technology, Parental Support™.

18 Aug 2011

ProtoKinetix completes sale of AAGP tool for protecting delicate cells in research

ProtoKinetix, announces today that it has completed the sale of (AAGP) as a vital tool to protect delicate cells in the process of utilizing stem cells, to treat disease and injury. This development will enable the Company to ramp up sales of the unique AAGP family of molecules to the medical research community.

18 Aug 2011

Pressure-reduction mattresses could help hospitals reduce health care costs

Hospitals could reduce health care costs arising from pressure ulcers, commonly known as bedsores, by investing in pressure-reduction mattresses for elderly patients in emergency departments, according to new research from the University of Toronto.

18 Aug 2011

MSF warns global shortage of drug-resistant TB treatment likely

As countries increase the use of the GeneXpert test, a two-hour molecular TB test released in 2010, "enabl[ing] them to diagnose more patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB), a worldwide shortage of the drugs to treat these patients is likely, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) warns," according to PlusNews.

18 Aug 2011