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Home-monitoring interventions may benefit patients with heart failure

Heart failure affects 5.8 million people in the U.S. alone and is responsible for nearly 1 million hospitalizations each year, most resulting from a build-up of body fluid in the lungs and other organs due to the heart's inability to pump effectively. The disease needs to be closely tracked in order to avoid such hospitalizations, and home-monitoring interventions may be especially useful, UCLA researchers say.

4 Jan 2012

Bariatric surgery may reduce cardiovascular deaths and events in obese patients

Among obese individuals, having bariatric surgery was associated with a reduced long-term incidence of cardiovascular deaths and events such as heart attack and stroke, according to a study in the January 4 issue of JAMA.

4 Jan 2012

Researchers discover culprit that leads from heart failure to diabetes

Either heart failure or diabetes alone is bad enough, but oftentimes the two conditions seem to go together. Now, researchers reporting in the January Cell Metabolism appear to have found the culprit that leads from heart failure to diabetes and perhaps a novel way to break that metabolic vicious cycle.

4 Jan 2012

MTR technique indicates that COPAXONE therapy results in tissue repair in RRMS patients

Researchers utilizing an advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology to characterize and chart the evolution of MS lesions found that relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) patients treated with COPAXONE (glatiramer acetate injection) experienced significantly increased magnetization transfer ratio.

4 Jan 2012

Losartan may help prevent smoking-related COPD

Working with mice, scientists at Johns Hopkins have successfully used a commonly prescribed blood pressure medicine, losartan (Cozaar), to prevent almost all of the lung damage caused from two months of exposure to cigarette smoke. The treatment specifically targeted lung tissue breakdown, airway wall thickening, inflammation and lung over-expansion.

4 Jan 2012

Adolescent children of lesbian mothers report good quality of life

Adolescent children of lesbian mothers report as good quality of life as those with heterosexual parents, reports a study in the January Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, the official journal of the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics.

4 Jan 2012

UofL surgeons perform first transcatheter aortic-valve replacement at Jewish Hospital

Some individuals with severe aortic stenosis - also known as narrowing of the aortic valve in the heart - who are not well enough to undergo open heart surgery have a new treatment option thanks to a new procedure now available in Kentucky from University of Louisville physicians at Jewish Hospital.

4 Jan 2012

BSD expands sales programs for MicroThermX Microwave Ablation System

BSD Medical Corporation, a leading provider of medical systems that utilize heat therapy to treat cancer, announced today that the Company is approaching 100 patients successfully treated with the MicroThermX Microwave Ablation System at hospitals throughout the U.S.

4 Jan 2012

Young stem/progenitor cells improve health and life of progeria mice

Mice bred to age too quickly seemed to have sipped from the fountain of youth after scientists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine injected them with stem cell-like progenitor cells derived from the muscle of young, healthy animals.

4 Jan 2012

Researchers discover a way to make cigarette smoking less toxic

From a health care perspective, the best cigarette is no cigarette, but for the millions of people who try to quit smoking every year, researchers from Cornell University may have found a way to make cigarette smoking less toxic.

4 Jan 2012

ASE/EAE issue recommendations on image acquisition using 3DE

For the first time, a joint committee of the European Association for Echocardiography and the American Society of Echocardiography have issued recommendations on image acquisition using three-dimensional echocardiography.

4 Jan 2012

BioTime to market muscle progenitor cell lines bearing hereditary diseases

BioTime, Inc. today announced that it has elected to market progenitors of muscle stem cells bearing hereditary diseases. BioTime will produce the products from five human embryonic stem (hES) cell lines from Reproductive Genetics Institute (RGI) of Chicago, Illinois.

4 Jan 2012

Bedside clinical tools can detect acute spatial neglect after stroke

Researchers at Kessler Foundation and Seton Hall University report findings in the early diagnosis of acute spatial neglect, a hidden disability that is a common complication of stroke. In the weeks after stroke, 30-50% of stroke survivors cannot reliably report or respond to external events that take place in the space opposite the side of their brain injury.

4 Jan 2012

Alteration in ISG15 pathway triggers breast cancer metastasis

Research led by Shyamal Desai, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, has discovered a key change in the body's defense system that increases the potential for breast cancer to spread to other parts of the body.

4 Jan 2012

Medicaid news: Texas to limit dual eligible reimbursements, Wis. to lift cap on long-term care

It may soon become harder for the neediest Texans to receive medical treatment. That's because statewide regulations scheduled to go into effect Sunday would limit reimbursements paid to medical providers for patients covered by both Medicare and Medicaid. The change would impact approximately 333,000 patients, mostly elderly, low-income residents, but also younger patients who are disabled. Slashing the Medicaid co-pay was part of the plan approved by state lawmakers earlier this year to help balance the state's budget.

4 Jan 2012

Quantitative CT can offer valuable prognostic information for COPD patients

National Jewish Health researchers and their colleagues in the COPDGene research consortium report that a computerized form of radiology, known as quantitative CT, can offer valuable prognostic information for patients and doctors beyond the standard breathing tests most commonly used to evaluate chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

4 Jan 2012

Osiris provides update on Prochymal Phase 2 trial for type 1 diabetes

Osiris Therapeutics, Inc., today provided an update on its Phase 2 trial evaluating Prochymal, a formulation of adult mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), in patients with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes.

4 Jan 2012

CMS assigns J-code for Pharmaxis ARIDOL Bronchial Challenge Test Kit

Pharmaxis, Inc. today announced that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has assigned a product-specific billing code, or J-code, for ARIDOL (mannitol inhalation powder) Bronchial Challenge Test Kit.

4 Jan 2012

Researchers identify gene required for proper development of mouse inner ear

Providing clues to deafness, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a gene that is required for proper development of the mouse inner ear.

4 Jan 2012

USPTO issues patent to NJIT's unique device for treatment of brain injury

NJIT Professor Gordon Thomas and NJIT Research Professor Reginald Farrow, both in the department of physics, and NJIT alumnus Sheng Liu, formerly a doctoral student of both researchers and now an engineer at a biotech company, were awarded a patent today for the NJIT SmartShunt-, a unique device to help patients with brain injuries.

4 Jan 2012