Body

OAK BROOK, Ill. – Patients with leg pain caused by arterial disease may be able to forego treatment of the affected artery by participating in hospital-supervised exercise, according to a new study published in the February issue of Radiology.

Intermittent claudication is a painful leg condition affecting some patients with peripheral arterial disease. Various treatments are available, including drug therapy or endovascular revascularization, a minimally invasive technique that widens and restores blood flow to the affected artery.

(Chicago) – When a first hip replacement fails, patients may be concerned that their options for a durable hip replacement are limited and that the prognosis is poor. However, a research study to be published in the February issue of the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery suggests that this may not be the case.

DALLAS – Jan. 30, 2009 – Texas hospitals using health information technologies had fewer complications, lower mortality rates and lower costs, a UT Southwestern Medical Center researcher has found.

The study, available Jan. 26 in The Archives of Internal Medicine, measured automation in urban hospitals using a Clinical Information Technology Assessment Tool. The tool, administered to physicians who provide inpatient care, assesses the degree to which clinical information processes in the hospital are computerized.

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Men who experience erectile dysfunction between the ages of 40 and 49 are twice as likely to develop heart disease than men without dysfunction, according to a new Mayo Clinic study.

Researchers also found that men with erectile dysfunction have an 80 percent higher risk of heart disease.

OAK BROOK, Ill. – Using a special MRI technique, researchers have determined that the location and degree of airway narrowing in the lungs of asthma sufferers can be markedly persistent over time. The findings will be published in the February issue of Radiology.

"A considerable number of airways appeared to be consistently narrowed over time," said the study's lead author, Eduard E. de Lange, M.D., professor of radiology at the University of Virginia Health Sciences Center. "This finding was irrespective of disease severity or the use of medication."

This year's model isn't your father's nanocar. It runs cool.

The drivers of Rice University's nanocars were surprised to find modified versions of their creation have the ability to roll at room temperature. While practical applications for the tiny machines may be years away, the breakthrough suggests they'll be easier to adapt to a wider range of uses than the originals, which had to be heated to 200 degrees Celsius before they could move across a surface.

Alexandria, Va. – The American Association for Dental Research (AADR) is pleased to announce that AADR member Cyril O. Enwonwu, D.D.S., M.D.S., Ph.D., Sc.D., Professor of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Maryland, has been selected to join a group of 25 experts in global health research who will advocate for greater U.S. investment in global health research. He joins 50 of his peers in Research!America's Paul G. Rogers Society for Global Health Research in a united effort to build a national conversation around the value and importance of U.S.-funded global health research.

Quantum dots have the potential to bring many good things into the world: efficient solar power, targeted gene and drug delivery, solid-state lighting and advances in biomedical imaging among them.

But they may pose hazards as well.

A team of Rice researchers has been working to discover the health risks of quantum dots, molecule-sized semiconducting nanocrystals that are generally composed of heavy metals surrounded by an organic shell.

Deerfield, Ill., and Osaka, Japan – January 30, 2009 – Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, Inc., today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved KAPIDEX™ (dexlansoprazole) delayed release capsules for the once-daily, oral treatment of heartburn associated with symptomatic non-erosive Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD), the healing of erosive esophagitis (EE) and the maintenance of healed EE.

Reston, Va.—In the largest study to date to evaluate fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography combined with computed tomography (FDG-PET/CT) in the initial staging of inflammatory breast cancer (IBC), researchers were able to identify the precise location and extent of metastasis (spread of disease), offering the potential for a better prognosis for patients with this rare, but aggressive form of breast cancer.

MADISON, WI, February 2, 2009 -- Over the past decade, two-thirds of Indiana growers have shifted to planting their soybean crop earlier because they believe that earlier planting increases yield. Planting date is probably one of the most important yet least expensive management decisions that significantly affects soybean yield. Few scientists, however, have studied the effect of early-planting dates on soybean yield components and the impact of early planting on seed composition.

In the tiny world of amino acids and proteins and in the helical shape of DNA, a biological phenomenon abounds.

These objects are all chiral — they cannot exactly superimpose their mirror image by translation or rotation. A common example of this is human hands — a right hand cannot superimpose itself into its mirror image, a left hand. This description of a molecule's symmetry (or lack thereof) is important in determining the molecule's properties in chemistry.

Singapore scientists report that they have discovered a novel method of immunization that completely eliminates the malaria parasites in both stages of the parasite's development.

The scientists, part of the Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN), attribute the novel method's effectiveness in eliminating the malaria parasites to the fact that it targets common proteins that are found on the parasite in both stages of its sequential development, first, in the liver, and then in the blood.

Melbourne scientists have created Australia's first induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell lines.

Scientists from the Monash Institute of Medical Research (MIMR) have derived the cells from skin cells, and reprogrammed them to behave as embryonic stem cells; a breakthrough that will allow Australian scientists unlimited access to study a range of diseases.

Until now, Australian scientists have had to import human iPS cells from America or Japan.

A new study makes important new findings on the role of hormone use on the risk of breast cancer, confirming that the use of estrogen plus progesterone increases the risk of both ductal and lobular breast cancer far more than estrogen-only; suggesting a two-year "safe" period for the use of estrogen and progesterone; and finding that the increased risk for ductal cancers observed in long-term past users of hormone replacement therapy drops off substantially two years after hormone use is stopped. The study appears in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.