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Virginity pledges may even encourage higher risk sexual behavior among young adults

Young adults who take virginity pledges as adolescents are as likely to be infected with sexually transmitted diseases as those who do not take virginity pledges, Yale and Columbia University researchers report in the March 18 issue of Journal of Adolescent Health.

21 Mar 2005

Invasive pneumonia and antibiotic resistance decreased after childhood streptococcus pneumoniae vaccine introduced

The problem of increasing antibiotic resistance in cases of Streptococcus pneumoniae, a major cause of pneumonia, meningitis and sepsis, was dramatically reversed following the licensing and use of a new conjugate vaccine for young children in February 2000, according to research conducted at Emory University, the Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Georgia Division of Public Health.

21 Mar 2005

Waist size is better predictor of diabetes 2 risk than BMI

This finding, published in the March 2005 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, is based on data collected from 27,270 men tracked over 13 years who participated in the Harvard Health Professionals Follow-Up Study.

21 Mar 2005

Drinking two to three glasses of red wine daily is good for the heart

A review article of the latest studies looking at red wine and cardiovascular health shows drinking two to three glasses of red wine daily is good for the heart, according to a Yale School of Medicine researcher in the Journal of American College of Surgeons.

21 Mar 2005

Calls to regionalize the care of patients with heart attacks are premature

Calls to regionalize the care of patients with heart attacks are premature, and do not account for potential unintended consequences, according to a commentary by Yale researchers published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

21 Mar 2005

Scientists find microRNA regulates Ras cancer gene

Research in the laboratory of Assistant Professor Frank J. Slack at Yale University has identified a new way that a familiar gene is regulated in lung cancer, presenting new possibilities for diagnosis and treatment. The work is reported in March issues of the journals Cell and Developmental Cell.

21 Mar 2005

MicroJet injector for painless injections

Parents know all too well the pain experienced by their children - and themselves - when the time comes for immunizations at the doctor's office.

21 Mar 2005

Drug-resistant bacteria MRSA a growing threat

Infectious diseases researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center are noticing a significant increase in the number of infections due to Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) and the number of asymptomatic individuals who harbor the organism in their bodies.

21 Mar 2005

Genomic analysis may one day be a primary diagnostic tool for physicians deciding on a course of treatment for trauma

The researchers showed that state-of-the-art techniques for rapidly analyzing changes in activity of all human genes will likely produce useful insights into the health of critically ill patients. The findings, which are available online and will be published in the March 29 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, make it possible for physicians to begin answering important questions about critical care through genomic analysis.

21 Mar 2005

Harm caused by alcohol consumption among college students may exceed previous estimates of the problem

Researchers report that unintentional fatal injuries related to alcohol increased from about 1,500 in 1998 to more than 1,700 in 2001 among U.S. college students aged 18-24.

21 Mar 2005

Sixteen per cent of people who use cannabis for medical reasons say that their doctor suggested it

"The results of our UK survey, including the extent of use and reported effects, lend support to the further development of safe and effective medicines based on cannabis" says lead author Dr Mark Ware principal investigator and pain physician at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) Pain Centre.

21 Mar 2005

Images of brain activity may hold clues to the onset of schizophrenia

Images of brain activity may hold clues to the onset of schizophrenia in people at high risk for the disease, according to a study headed by psychiatry researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine.

21 Mar 2005

Disfigured patients may be forced to forego surgery

Increasing insurance company denials, restrictions on covered procedures and a new tactic of excluding specific procedures may be forcing some adults and children to live with painful medical conditions or disfigurement. This restrictive access to care contributed to a 10 percent decline in reconstructive plastic surgery procedures in 2004, according to the latest statistics by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.

21 Mar 2005

Massive weight loss patients continue to drive the growth in body contouring

More than 106,000 body contouring procedures were performed in 2004, up 77 percent over the last five years according to statistics released by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.

21 Mar 2005

Reality TV may be attributed to the growth in cosmetic surgery

Reality TV shows are creating a greater public awareness of cosmetic surgery and may attribute to the growth in procedures, however, these shows have not caused a rampant increase.

21 Mar 2005

$3.2 million for two shock-related studies

A Virginia Commonwealth University research group has been awarded $3.2 million in federal grants for two shock-related studies, one with battlefield implications and the other for emergency medicine.

21 Mar 2005

Demonstrating cost and clinical benefits critical to expansion of European seed brachytherapy markets

The nascent European seed brachytherapy market has been grappling with issues of high procedural and investment costs and a lack of local clinical evidence. However, growing evidence of the overall clinical and cost benefits of seed brachytherapy coupled with rising patient awareness is set to boost market expansion.

21 Mar 2005

Chemists say they have identified a gene that appears to play a key role in the development of type 1 diabetes

In the current study, the researchers focused on the formation of the MIF protein (macrophage migration inhibitory factor), a proinflammatory protein that they showed in previous studies is elevated in diabetic animals and may be involved in the cascade of immunological events that leads to the destruction of the pancreas and the subsequent onset of type 1 diabetes.

21 Mar 2005

RNA loops and knots guide genetic modifications

University of Connecticut Health Center scientist, Robert Reenan, has uncovered new rules of RNA recoding - a genetic editing method cells use to expand the number of proteins assembled from a single DNA code.

21 Mar 2005

Rapid rise in obesity may reverse life expectancy trend

It's been assumed that U.S. life expectancy would rise indefinitely, but a new data analysis, published as a special report in the March 17 New England Journal of Medicine, suggests that this trend is about to reverse itself -- due to the rapid rise in obesity, especially among children.

21 Mar 2005