Body

A new University of Colorado at Boulder study shows mice infected with the bacteria salmonella develop clinical signs consistent with a deadly and poorly understood human inflammatory disease, a finding that may lead to new therapies.

Repeated lack of oxygen for short periods of time in a distant organ by stopping blood flow, can protect another organ (e.g. the heart), during a subsequent tissue damaging period due to oxygen deficiency. The principle can be applied before predictable oxygen deficiency during heart surgery. However, in most patients heart attacks are unpredictable.

A new study published on bmj.com today casts doubt on recent claims that a human retrovirus known as XMRV is linked to chronic fatigue syndrome or ME (myalgic encephalitis).

This is the third study to refute the original US study reporting the link.

Chronic fatigue syndrome is a debilitating condition that affects millions of people worldwide with disabling physical and mental fatigue that does not improve with rest. Its causes remain unclear, but many people say their illness started after a viral infection.

Decisions about which drugs to abandon to fund new treatments recommended by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) are inconsistent and may be contributing to the postcode lottery – one of the key issues that NICE was set up to tackle, warn experts on bmj.com today.

Dyfrig Hughes and Robin Ferner argue that the methods for identifying drugs that can be discontinued need to be as rigorous as those for assessing potential new treatments to ensure best use of NHS resources.

A new UN resolution has the potential to fight torture and cruelty say experts on bmj.com today.

The resolution, passed in March 2009, goes further than previous rulings, say the authors and spells out that "states must never request or require anyone, including medical or other health personnel, to commit any act of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment".

Vitamin D deficiency is almost universal among kidney disease patients who have low blood protein levels and who start dialysis during the winter, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology (CJASN). The research identifies a group of patients who are at extremely high risk of being deficient in vitamin D and provides some clues as to why the deficiency occurs in these individuals.

Monash University biomedical scientists have identified a new way to treat castrate resistant cells in prostate cancer sufferers – the most common cancer in Australian men.

CHICAGO- The very instant Penny Kukovec was diagnosed with breast cancer her world permanently changed. Suddenly, it felt as if her life was out of her control. She felt powerless and overwhelmed. There were so many unanswered questions. Why me? What's next? What about my family? The feelings Kukovec experienced are felt by many cancer patients following their initial diagnosis and as they pursue treatment.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Women given the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention drug nevirapine to protect their fetus should not use an HIV-drug regimen that contains nevirapine for at least one year after childbirth, say researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).

Among breast cancer patients, surgical removal of the opposite breast is associated with a small increase in 5-year survival, specifically for younger women with early-stage, estrogen-receptor negative tumors, according to a study published online February 25 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

To prevent subsequent breast cancer, some women with cancer in one breast will have the other breast surgically removed. This study was undertaken because it is unknown if this treatment increases a woman's lifespan.

HOUSTON - Contralateral prophylactic mastectomy (CPM), a preventive procedure to remove the unaffected breast in patients with disease in one breast, may only offer a survival benefit to breast cancer patients age 50 and younger, who have early-stage disease and are estrogen receptor (ER) negative, according to researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

Scientists trying to find a way to better help patients protect themselves against harm from a heart attack are taking their cues from cardiac patients.

Virtual reality game technology using Wii™ may help recovering stroke patients improve their motor function, according to research presented as a late breaking poster at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2010.

The study found the virtual reality gaming system was safe and feasible strategy to improve motor function after stroke.

UCLA AIDS Institute researchers successfully removed CCR5 — a cell receptor to which HIV-1 binds for infection but which the human body does not need — from human cells. Individuals who naturally lack the CCR5 receptor have been found to be essentially resistant to HIV.

Using a humanized mouse model, the researchers transplanted a small RNA molecule known as short hairpin RNA (shRNA), which induced RNA interference into human blood stem cells to inhibit the expression of CCR5 in human immune cells.

UPTON, NY — Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have obtained the first glimpse of miniscule air bubbles that keep water from wetting a super non-stick surface. Detailed information about the size and shape of these bubbles — and the non-stick material the scientists created by "pock-marking" a smooth material with cavities measuring mere billionths of a meter — is being published online today in the journal Nano Letters.