Medical News

RSS

FDA clears for ProFlu+ test for marketing

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has cleared for marketing a test that simultaneously detects four common respiratory viruses, including the flu, in a patient's respiratory secretions.

21 Jan 2008

Label change for Ortho Evra Contraceptive Transdermal Patch

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved additional changes to the Ortho Evra Contraceptive Transdermal (Skin) Patch label to include the results of a new epidemiology study that found that users of the birth control patch were at higher risk of developing serious blood clots, also known as venous thromboembolism (VTE), than women using birth control pills.

21 Jan 2008

FDA approves etravirine tablets for HIV

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved etravirine tablets for the treatment of HIV infection in adults who have failed treatment with other antiretrovirals.

21 Jan 2008

Common variations in human DNA signal lupus risk

Scientists have pinpointed a set of common variations in human DNA that signal a higher risk for lupus in women who carry them.

21 Jan 2008

Discovery major step forward in treating leukemia

Researchers at the University of East Anglia have discovered for the first time a pathway that makes cancerous leukaemia cells resistant to treatment.

21 Jan 2008

Disability living allowance falls short for ethnic minorities

A study carried out by researchers at the Peninsula Medical School and the Institute of Child Health (UCL) has revealed that families from an ethnic, non-English speaking background with a child with Down's syndrome do worse from the Disability Living Allowance (DLA) system than families facing the same issues who come from a white, English-speaking background.

21 Jan 2008

Matters of the mind can affect matters of the heart

A new study by McGill University and Université de Montréal researchers has found that major anxiety and/or depression, can double a coronary artery disease patient's chances of repeated heart ailments.

21 Jan 2008

Circumcision across the U.S.

Rates of circumcision vary widely across the nation, a phenomenon likely linked to regional variations in racial, ethnic and immigrant populations, as well as insurance coverage, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

21 Jan 2008

Smoking wipes out protective genes

A University of Rochester scientist discovered that the toxins in cigarette smoke wipe out a gene that plays a vital role in protecting the body from the effects of premature aging.

21 Jan 2008

New method to transfer DNA into a host cell

Genetically engineered products have become indispensable. For example, genetically modified bacteria produce human insulin.

21 Jan 2008

Case researcher in RNA biology makes waves by challenging current thinking

In the January 18th issue of Molecular Cell, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine researcher Kristian E. Baker, Ph.D. challenges molecular biology's established body of evidence and widely-accepted model for nonsense-mediated messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) decay.

21 Jan 2008

Can hantavirus infection spread among humans?

In connection with last year's epidemic, a research team at Umea University in Sweden has managed for the first time to show that hantavirus exists in human saliva; this raises the question of whether this contagion can spread among humans

21 Jan 2008

Sleep plays a critical role in the brain's ability to learn

Most people know it from experience: After so many hours of being awake, your brain feels unable to absorb any more-and several hours of sleep will refresh it.

21 Jan 2008

How anti-TNF compounds work

Powerful drugs used to treat patients with rheumatoid arthritis have a profound, previously unrecognized effect on the immune system, breaking up molecular "training camps" for rogue cells that play an increasingly recognized role in autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.

21 Jan 2008