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Hydroxyurea safe and effective for infants, toddlers with sickle-cell disease

In what is being hailed as a significant advance in the treatment of children with sickle cell anemia, a drug commonly used to treat adults has been shown to be safe and effective in children.

13 May 2011

Mosquito's midgut bacteria can inhibit malaria parasite development

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have identified a bacterium in field-caught mosquitoes that, when present, stops the development of Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite that causes malaria in humans.

13 May 2011

New method for mapping myelin sheaths of nerve cells

Researchers including members from the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen have developed a new method for making detailed X-ray images of brain cells.

13 May 2011

Roundup: Maryland long term care costs examined; federal judge declines to bar implementation of abortion law

A controversial new Indiana law limiting access to abortion services remains in effect after a federal judge Wednesday denied a request for a restraining order from Planned Parenthood. The brief ruling from Judge Tanya Walton Pratt in Indianapolis means the law signed hours earlier by Gov. Mitch Daniels, a potential 2012 Republican presidential candidate, can continue to be enforced.

13 May 2011

Doctors miss blood clots costing millions to the NHS: Report

According to to figures from the NHS Litigation Authority, the NHS has paid out over £112m since 2005 in compensation because doctors have failed to spot or prevent fatal blood clots.

12 May 2011

Coffee provides protections from a type of breast cancer: Study

For the study they compared coffee consumption in postmenopausal women with breast cancer and women of the same age without cancer, they found those who drank five or more cups of java a day showed a 0.43 times lower risk of estrogen-receptor negative cancers. Around one in four women diagnosed with breast cancer will have estrogen-receptor negative breast cancer, which is often resilient to drug treatment and requires intensive chemotherapy.

12 May 2011

Nearly one third of the miners on a synthetic form of cannabis

New research has revealed that a synthetic form of cannabis is being consumed and has shown up in one in ten West Australian mine workers’ urine samples. The state's ChemCentre provides forensic testing for police and the State Coroner. They have been given the contract on an increasing basis by private companies in mining regions to test their workers for the substance, known as Kronic.

12 May 2011

Liver cells made in the lab using skin cells: Study

In a medical breakthrough, researchers have been able to convert skin cells into liver cells. This could one day eliminate the need for organ transplants, they say.

12 May 2011

Mental health initiatives get a major boost

The Federal Government is taking initiatives in introducing preventive metal health steps. One of them is introduction of mental health checks for three-year-olds.

12 May 2011

$Alma Lasers launches new iPixel series aesthetic fractional laser resurfacing modules$

Alma Lasers launches new iPixel series aesthetic fractional laser resurfacing modules

Alma Lasers Ltd., a global leader in laser, light, radiofrequency and ultrasound-based aesthetic treatment devices, today announced the launch of its new iPixel series of innovative pixel modules for aesthetic fractional laser resurfacing.

12 May 2011

Florida plan to revamp Medicaid raises questions; Texas hospitals complain about Medicaid rate cuts

To visit the low-rise medical offices dotting the sun-bleached highways of Broward County is to meet doctors and patients who complain of being guinea pigs in a social experiment gone wrong.

12 May 2011

PLC Systems to showcase RenalGuard at 2011 EAPCI annual meeting

PLC Systems Inc., a company focused on innovative medical device technologies, today announced it will demonstrate its innovative new product, RenalGuard, at EuroPCR, the annual meeting of the European Association of Percutaneous Cardiovascular Interventions.

12 May 2011

First Edition: May 12, 2011

Today's headlines include reports about the upcoming speech by GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, during which he is expected to confront what many say is his main vulnerability: his home state's health reform.

12 May 2011

ChromaDex first quarter 2011 revenue increases 31% to $2,539,245

ChromaDex Corporation, an innovative natural products company that provides proprietary, science-based solutions and ingredients to the dietary supplement, food & beverage, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries, today announced financial results for the first quarter of 2011.

12 May 2011

With today's speech, Romney hopes to inoculate himself on health care issues

Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts and a likely GOP presidential hopeful, will deliver a speech today in which he will confront his biggest political vulnerability — the fact that the state health reform he signed into law as governor is often considered a prototype for the federal health law.

12 May 2011

Insurer rates spark attention

In Connecticut, Aetna is proposing rate cuts for this year, a move that reflects, at least partially, the impact of the federal health law. Meanwhile, The Hill reports that consumer groups are anxiously awaiting regulations that will allow the Department of Health and Human Services to review rates. These regs are likely to be out by the end of the month.

12 May 2011

McGill research team finds distinct disease-causing mutations and saves baby girl

About two years ago, Dr. Philippe Gros, a McGill University professor in the Department of Biochemistry and a Principal Investigator in thd McGill Life Sciences Complex, described a mouse mutant that was immunodeficient and hypersensitive to the Bacille Calmette-Gu-rin (BCG) vaccine and to tuberculosis (TB).

12 May 2011

59-year-old enrolls in study of stem cell transplantation during cardiac bypass

A 59-year-old Houston man became the first individual in the United States to enroll in a study using stem cell transplantation during cardiac bypass to treat severe heart failure.

12 May 2011

$100,000 needed to analyze '$1,000' genetic data

Advances in technology have almost lifted the curtain on the long-awaited era of the "$1,000 genome" - a time when all the genes that make up a person can be deciphered for about that amount - compared to nearly $1 million a few years ago.

12 May 2011

Researchers help explain why smart drugs are not effective in some cancer patients

Some of the most effective and expensive cancer drugs, dubbed "smart drugs" for their ability to stop tumors by targeting key drivers of cancer cell growth, are not effective in some patients. In two related studies, Yale School of Medicine researchers examined one such driver, the EGF receptor, and found that a decoy receptor might be limiting the amount of drug that gets to the intended target.

12 May 2011