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State roundup: Legislatures tackling abortion restrictions, Medicaid cuts/revamps, Rx drug abuse

A Republican supermajority has muscled two of the most restrictive anti-abortion bills in years through the Virginia House, including one that would all but outlaw the procedure in the state by declaring that the rights of persons apply from the moment sperm and egg unite. The bills passed over bitter yet futile objections from Democrats. And one GOP delegate caused the House to ripple when he said most abortions come as "matters of lifestyle convenience." ... The bills now go to the Senate

16 Feb 2012

Wolters Kluwer Health enters distribution agreement with NEJM

Wolters Kluwer Health today announced it has entered into an expanded distribution agreement with the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), the "gold standard" for quality biomedical research and for the best practices in clinical medicine.

16 Feb 2012

Zimbabwean officials call for improvements to water, sanitation systems to prevent further typhoid outbreaks

Zimbabwean health officials responding to typhoid outbreaks in the capital of Harare that have affected more than 2,000 people "have called on the local and central governments to overhaul water and sanitation systems" to stem the spread of the disease, VOA News reports.

16 Feb 2012

UCSF stem cell study suggests novel strategy for heart attack

A UCSF stem cell study conducted in mice suggests a novel strategy for treating damaged cardiac tissue in patients following a heart attack. The approach potentially could improve cardiac function, minimize scar size, lead to the development of new blood vessels - and avoid the risk of tissue rejection.

16 Feb 2012

Viewpoints: Health law in 'red and blue' states; OpEds slam Obama compromise on birth control; Illinois' Medicaid disaster

More than one in six Americans younger than 65 could have access to help with their health insurance costs as a result of the health law. Red and blue congressional districts look remarkably similar here. Republican districts have, on average, an estimated 18 percent of the nonelderly people eligible for help with health insurance costs under the reform law. Democratic districts have about the same, 17 percent.

16 Feb 2012

Pyromaker can rapidly sequence cancer-driving mutations

Using precise information about an individual's genetic makeup is becoming increasingly routine for developing tailored treatments for breast, lung, colon and other cancers. But techniques used to identify meaningful gene mutations depend on analyzing sequences of both normal and mutant DNA in tumor samples, a process that can yield ambiguous results. Now, a team of Johns Hopkins researchers says it has developed an easy-to-use online computer software application that can clear up any confusion faster and cheaper than other methods currently used to do the job.

16 Feb 2012

UC Cancer Institute to enroll up to 60 patients for AMG 595 phase-1 trial

The UC Cancer Institute is one of three centers internationally approved to test an experimental drug's safety and pharmacokinetics and also assess the clinical benefit against recurrent malignant glioma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.

16 Feb 2012

Study identifies variations in non-pharmacological palliative care

Faced with the inevitability of death, we all wish for good caregiving during the final stage of our lives. A new study from Karolinska Institutet and Ume- University shows that non-pharmacological caregiving at the end of life in specialized palliative care is not as basic as one might believe but is based on complex professional decisions that weave physical, psychosocial and existential dimensions into a functional whole.

16 Feb 2012

Deep brain stimulation can also affect respiratory function

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) has become a common treatment for patients with chronic pain or movement disorders. Now a unique set of experiments shows that electrical stimulation in some of the same brain areas can also affect respiratory function, according to a study in the February issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons.

16 Feb 2012

African-American children tend to be diagnosed later for autism

The rate of diagnosis for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is the same among all racial groups — one in 110, according to current estimates. However, a study by a Florida State University researcher has found that African-American children tend to be diagnosed later than white children, which results in a longer and more intensive intervention.

16 Feb 2012

Study finds low rate of contraception among sexually active young Latinos

Half of the young adult Latino men and women responding to a survey in rural Oregon acknowledge not using regular effective contraception - despite expressing a desire to avoid pregnancy, according to a new Oregon State University study.

16 Feb 2012

Oxford Gene Technology develops optimised rare disease sequencing and analysis service

Oxford Gene Technology (OGT), a provider of innovative clinical genetics and diagnostic solutions to advance molecular medicine, has extended its Genefficiency™ Sequencing Service to provide a dedicated service for investigating rare diseases. The specifically optimised version of the service will help investigators and clinicians identify causative mutations quickly, easily and without the need for in-house technical or bioinformatics expertise.

From Oxford Gene Technology 16 Feb 2012

Study finds poor QOL in South Asians with coronary artery disease

In a first-of-its-kind study in Canada, Kevin Bainey of the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry has discovered that South Asians who live in Alberta with coronary disease experience a lower quality of life.

16 Feb 2012

ASH addresses severe shortage of methotrexate drug

As the world's largest professional society concerned with the causes and treatment of blood disorders, many of ASH's more than 16,000 members are on the front lines of dealing with the country's severe shortage of methotrexate, a drug critical in the treatment of children with acute lymphocytic leukemia.

16 Feb 2012

RUMC conducts early phase trial of MSDC-0160 for dementia

Researchers at Rush University Medical Center are conducting an early phase clinical trial of a novel drug therapy for patients with dementia due to Alzheimer's disease. The drug is a new compound called MSDC-0160, which is an insulin sensitizer that modulates mitochondrial metabolism.

16 Feb 2012

Report illustrates great potential of integrative medicine in chronic health issues

A new survey of 29 integrative medicine centers around the U.S. found that 75 percent reported success using integrative practices to treat chronic pain and more than half reported positive results for gastrointestinal conditions, depression and anxiety, cancer and chronic stress.

16 Feb 2012

WSU's novel gene-therapy for blindness receives $250,000 FFB grant

Technology to restore vision through the use of a component of green algae - developed by a Wayne State University professor and scientific director of the Ligon Research Center of Vision at the Kresge Eye Institute - has attracted additional funding for therapy development.

16 Feb 2012

Wikipedia the most highly rated mental health source

University of Melbourne researchers have found Wikipedia is the most highly rated website for accessing information on mental-health related topics.

16 Feb 2012

Direct link between short telomere length, heart attack and early death

Every cell in the body has chromosomes with so-called telomeres, which are shortened over time and also through lifestyle choices such as smoking and obesity. Researchers have long speculated that the shortening of telomeres increases the risk of heart attack and early death. Now a large-scale population study in Denmark involving nearly 20,000 people shows that there is in fact a direct link, and has also given physicians a future way to test the actual cellular health of a person.

16 Feb 2012

TFF3 protein plays a more sinister role in breast cancer metastasis

The trefoil factor 3 (TFF3) protein protects and maintains the integrity of the epithelial surface in the normal breast. New research has found that while TFF3 protein expression is higher in well-differentiated low grade tumors and therefore associated with features of a good prognosis, it has a more sinister role in breast cancer invasion and metastasis.

16 Feb 2012