Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine have for the first time used several imaging techniques to prove the efficacy of a promising new treatment for atherosclerosis—the build-up of plaque in artery walls that can lead to a heart attack. Using positron-emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the research team showed that dalcetrapib, a novel treatment for atherosclerosis, prevented the progression of disease and reduced vascular inflammation over 24 months. The data are published in the September 12 issue of The Lancet.
Culture
The nuclear family is making a comeback after being cast into the wilderness around 1996. It doesn't take a village to raise a child after all, according to University of Michigan research.
CHICAGO – Many U.S. adults believe that only extremely effective drugs without serious adverse effects are approved, but providing explanations to patients highlighting uncertainties about drug benefits may affect their choices, according to a report in the September issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. The article is part of the journal's Less Is More series.
CHICAGO – Lifestyle modifications and pharmaceutical treatment of risk factors for cardiovascular disease are associated with improvement in sexual function among men with erectile dysfunction (ED), according to a meta-analysis posted Online First today in Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
(Washington) – Recommendations to reduce federal health care spending in a socially and fiscally responsible manner while maintaining quality have been made in a letter to the Congressional Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction from the American College of Physicians (ACP).
EAST LANSING, Mich. --- When countries try to work together to limit the effects of climate change, the fear of being the only nation reducing greenhouse gas emissions – while the others enjoy the benefits with no sacrifice – can bring cooperation to a grinding halt.
Approximately one in five Canadians has metabolic Canadians syndrome — a combination of risk factors for diabetes and heart disease — according to a study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) (pre-embargo link only) http://www.cmaj.ca/site/embargo/cmaj110070.pdf.
Scientific research may be in decline across the globe because of growing pressures to report only positive results, new analysis suggests.
A study by the University of Edinburgh examined more than 4,600 scientific research papers published between 1990 and 2007 and found a steady decline in studies in which the findings contradicted scientific hypotheses.
Papers reporting null or negative findings are in principle as useful as positive ones, but they attract fewer readers and citations, so scientific journals tend to reject them.
According to a study published this week in American Journal of Health Promotion, people with consistently high health care costs experienced a 28 percent cumulative decrease in physician fees after an average of five years practicing the stress-reducing Transcendental Meditation technique compared with their baseline. Both between and within group comparisons were statistically significant. This study has major policy implications.
Bochum's physicists led by Prof. Dr. Hartmut Zabel have demonstrated the spin pumping effect in magnetic layers for the first time experimentally. The behaviour of the spin pumping had previously only been predicted theoretically. The research team at the RUB has now succeeded in measuring the effect using ultrafast X-ray scattering with picosecond resolution. Through their rotation of the magnetic moments, the so-called magnetic precession, single electrons can mutually influence each other's rotation (spin) through a non-magnetic intermediate layer.
Among the many ways that participation in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) helps its members stay sober, two appear to be most important – spending more time with individuals who support efforts towards sobriety and increased confidence in the ability to maintain abstinence in social situations. In a paper that will appear in the journal Addiction and has been released online, researchers report the first study to examine the relative importance to successful recovery of the behavior changes associated with participation in AA.
Boston, MA – Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) have demonstrated that the circadian system, the body's internal clock, regulates human platelet function and causes a peak in platelet activation corresponding to the known morning peak in adverse cardiovascular events. These findings are published in PLoS ONE on September 8, 2011.
Washington, DC (Sept 9, 2011) -- The blood levels of a particular hormone can help predict which kidney disease patients will develop heart problems, need dialysis, and die prematurely, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology (JASN). Testing for this hormone could identify which patients need early treatment, thereby lowering their health risks and lengthening their lives.
Alcohol has become an important cause of death among patients with type 1 diabetes since the 1980s, concludes a study published on bmj.com today.
The study also shows that, while survival of patients with early onset type 1 diabetes (age 0-14 years) has improved with time, survival of patients with late onset type 1 diabetes (age 15-29 years) has deteriorated since the 1980s.
New research published on bmj.com today supports a change to the lifetime ban on blood donations from homosexual men.
In the 1980s, blood services in many countries introduced a lifetime ban on blood donations by men who had ever had oral or anal sex with a man. Some other groups at increased risk of HIV (drug users) are allowed to donate blood after a year's deferral since last risky activity under the rationale that you can stop using drugs but can't choose to stop being gay.