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Osiris completes patient enrollment in Prochymal Phase 2 trial to treat heart attack

Osiris Therapeutics, Inc., today announced that it has successfully completed enrollment in a Phase 2 clinical trial evaluating Prochymal, an adult mesenchymal stem cell therapy, in patients experiencing their first heart attack.

3 Mar 2011

CDC report shows 58% decline in bloodstream infections in U.S. hospital ICUs

A report released yesterday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that central line-associated bloodstream infections declined by 58 percent in U.S. hospital intensive care units.

3 Mar 2011

Breast Health Center receives three-year accreditation from NAPBC

The Breast Health Center at Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island recently earned a three-year accreditation from the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers.

3 Mar 2011

Tobacco smoking leads to less activity in the 'executive center' of brain

Tobacco smoking is the leading preventable cause of death and disease in the U.S., with more than 400,000 deaths each year attributable to smoking or its consequences. And yet teens still smoke. Indeed, smoking usually begins in the teen years, and approximately 80 percent of adult smokers became hooked by the time they were 18. Meanwhile, teens who don't take up smoking usually never do.

3 Mar 2011

Study: Men who consume non-steroidals more likely to have erectile dysfunction

Men who take non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs three times a day for more than three months are 2.4 times more likely to have erectile dysfunction compared to men who do not take those drugs regularly, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published online in The Journal of Urology.

3 Mar 2011

New microfluidic device may help clinicians to improve cancer therapy

Manipulation of cells by a new microfluidic device may help clinicians improve a promising cancer therapy that harnesses the body's own immune cells to fight such diseases as metastatic melanoma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic leukemia and neuroblastoma.

3 Mar 2011

Women smokers over 50 at increased risk of breast cancer

Compared to women who had never smoked, breast cancer risk increased by nine percent among former smokers and by 16 percent among current smokers according to research by Karen Margolis, MD, a senior clinical investigator with the HealthPartners Research Foundation and her collaborators in a study that was published today in the British Medical Journal.

3 Mar 2011

Portola, Accumetrics sign agreement to develop and supply VerifyNow System

Accumetrics, Inc., a privately-held developer and marketer of the VerifyNow System, the first rapid and easy-to-use point-of-care diagnostic system for measuring platelet reactivity to multiple antiplatelet agents, announced today that the company has signed an agreement with Portola Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to develop and supply the VerifyNow System and VerifyNowTests for use in clinical trials.

3 Mar 2011

Promising new way to lower cholesterol production

A promising new way to inhibit cholesterol production in the body has been discovered, one that may yield treatments as effective as existing medications but with fewer side-effects.

3 Mar 2011

New study: Lower potassium levels may help explain racial disparity in type 2 diabetes

Lower potassium levels in the blood may help explain why African-Americans are twice as likely to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes as whites, according to a new study by Johns Hopkins researchers.

3 Mar 2011

Governors seek more help with Medicaid costs

At a Capitol Hill hearing Tuesday, GOP governors reiterated complaints about the fiscal pressures imposed by Medicaid and said President Barack Obama's recent flexibility proposal would not address the burden created by the health law's Medicaid requirements. But Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, the only Democrat to testify, saw the event as "an opportunity" rather than "an inquisition."

2 Mar 2011

Scientists devise new on-line calculator to predict food allergies in children

An on-line calculator that predicts, within seconds, the presence of the three major food allergies in children has been developed by researchers at University College Cork.

2 Mar 2011

FDA accepts Handa's generic DEXILANT ANDA for review

Handa Pharmaceuticals, LLC, a specialty pharmaceutical company based in Fremont, California, today confirmed that its Abbreviated New Drug Application ("ANDA") for Dexlansoprazole Delayed Release Capsules, 60 mg, a generic version of Takeda's DEXILANT®, has been accepted for review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

2 Mar 2011

Night shift work may reduce risk of skin cancer in women

Melatonin is known to have cancer-protective properties, and shift work can induce desynchrony of the circadian system, reducing melatonin production. Shift work has been thought to have important health impacts, with evidence linking shift work to an increased risk of several cancers including breast, endometrial, prostate, and colorectal, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

2 Mar 2011

Ibuprofen may protect against development of Parkinson's disease

New research suggests that ibuprofen may offer protection against developing Parkinson's disease, according to one of the largest studies to date investigating the possible benefits of the over-the-counter drug on the disease. The study is published in the March 2, 2011, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

2 Mar 2011

ASU receives W. M. Keck $1 million grant to build next-generation 3D imaging microscope

The W. M. Keck Foundation has awarded Arizona State University a $1 million grant to the team of scientists led by Deirdre Meldrum, Ph.D., at the Biodesign Institute.

2 Mar 2011

Roundup: States' angst and anger continues about Medicaid, health spending cuts

Ken Kewley woke up Tuesday without health insurance for the first time in nearly nine years. So did most of the 41,467 other Pennsylvanians who had been covered by adultBasic, a state-subsidized insurance program for the working poor that Gov. Tom Corbett shut down on Monday in one of the largest disenrollments in recent memory.

2 Mar 2011

Scientists discover specific type of human cell to treat spinal cord injuries

For the first time, scientists discovered that a specific type of human cell, generated from stem cells and transplanted into spinal cord injured rats, provide tremendous benefit, not only repairing damage to the nervous system but helping the animals regain locomotor function as well.

2 Mar 2011

New PSA campaign to raise awareness about autoimmune diseases

The American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association Inc. has unveiled a multi-media public service/awareness campaign titled "We are 50 Million" to herald March 2011 as National Autoimmune Diseases Awareness Month.

2 Mar 2011

TOF positron emission tomography scans can improve cancer detection

For the first time, quantitative-not qualitative-data analysis has demonstrated that time-of-flight positron emission tomography scans can improve cancer detection.

2 Mar 2011