Body

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (Dec. 15, 2008) — Infants and adults with the blood cancer mixed-lineage leukemia (MLL) typically have a poor prognosis, and most infants die before their first birthdays. Although there are varying causes of MLL, most cases are caused by a fusion of two genes, the MLL and the AF4 genes.

DENVER – Research conducted by University of Denver (DU) Associate Professor Renée Botta suggests that it takes "gross" messaging to get undergraduate students to wash their hands more frequently after going to the bathroom.

In fall quarter 2007, researchers posted messages in the bathrooms of two DU undergraduate residence halls. The messages said things like, "Poo on you, wash your hands" or "You just peed, wash your hands," and contained vivid graphics and photos. The messages resulted in increased handwashing among females by 26 percent and among males by 8 percent.

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Hospitals participating in a voluntary quality improvement program for stroke treatment increased adherence to national recommendations, researchers reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

In the five-year study, the largest on acute stroke care for hospitalized patients, researchers tracked guidelines compliance among hospitals participating in the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association's Get With The Guidelines–Stroke (GWTG–Stroke) program. They found:

Individuals with sleep-related breathing disorders appear to burn more calories when resting as their conditions become more severe, according to a report in the December issue of Archives of Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Patients with the skin disease psoriasis appear more likely to have higher levels of leptin (a hormone produced by fat cells that may contribute to obesity and other metabolic abnormalities) than persons without psoriasis, according to a report in the December issue of Archives of Dermatology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Graduates from a single medical school who began graduate medical education (residency) programs appear more likely to change specialty or discontinue graduate medical education training if they are academically highly qualified or are pursuing training in general surgery or a five-year surgical specialty, according to a report in the December issue of Archives of Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Among patients undergoing surgery for diverticulitis, race was associated with a complicated presentation and in-hospital mortality, but not with receiving a colostomy, whereas insurance status was associated with complicated presentation, in-hospital mortality and receiving a colostomy, according to a report in the December issue of Archives of Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. The results suggest that racial disparities in outcomes may be related to the patients' initial condition rather than differences in treatment.

St. Louis, Dec. 15, 2008 — A program at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and St. Louis Children's Hospital designed to increase awareness about sickle cell disease and the importance of blood donations within the African-American faith community led to a 60 percent increase in first-time blood donations, a new study has found.

ALEXANDRIA, VA, December 15 2008 — The American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) is urging patients with musculoskeletal pain to consider treatment by a physical therapist, in light of a new federal survey showing that more than one-third of American adults and nearly 12 percent of children use alternative medicine – with back and neck pain being the top reasons for treatment. Results of the 2007 survey of more than 32,000 Americans were released Dec. 11 by the National Institutes of Health's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

PHILADELPHIA – Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered stem cells in the esophagus of mice that were able to grow into tissue-like structures and when placed into immune-deficient mice were able to form parts of an esophagus lining. The investigators report their findings online this month in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

The next person who reminds you to floss might be your cardiologist instead of your dentist. Scientists have known for some time that a protein associated with inflammation (called CRP) is elevated in people who are at risk for heart disease. But where's the inflammation coming from? A new research study by Italian and U.K. scientists published online in The FASEB Journal shows that infected gums may be one place. Indeed, proper dental hygiene should reduce the risk of atherosclerosis, stroke and heart disease independently of other measures, such as managing cholesterol.

A breakthrough technique that allows scientists to view individually-labeled tumor cells as they move about in real time in a live mouse may enable scientists to develop microenvironment-specific drugs against cancer, researchers report at the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) 48th Annual Meeting, Dec. 13-17, 2008 in San Francisco.

The metastasis or spread of breast cancer to other tissues in the body can be predicted more accurately by examining subnetworks of gene expression patterns in a patient's tumor, than by conventional gene expression microarrays, according to a presentation at the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) 48th Annual Meeting, Dec. 13-17, 2008 in San Francisco.