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(PHILADELPHIA) – Sick or injured African-American patients wait about an hour longer than patients of other races before being transferred to an inpatient hospital bed following emergency room visits, according to a new national study published in the journal Academic Emergency Medicine.

When young, apparently healthy athletes suddenly collapse, it can be due to hereditary cardiac disease. Researchers at the Heidelberg University Hospital have now discovered a genetic modification that leads to cardiac weakness in an animal model. Just one "false" amino acid can give zebrafish a heart condition. Since the fish have a genetic makeup similar to that of humans, these defects could be critical for humans as well.

Men who wore a penile extender every day for six months were able to increase the flaccid length of their penis by up to 32% and their erectile function by up to 36%, according to an independent clinical study published in the March issue of BJU International.

Researchers from San Giovanni Battista Hospital at the University of Turin, Italy, are now suggesting that this treatment could provide a viable alternative to surgery, as the results were significant and patient satisfaction with the technique was high.

The function of a protein is determined both by its structure and by its interaction partners in the cell. Until now, proteins had to be isolated for analyzing them. An international team of researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University, Goethe University, and the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS) has, for the first time, determined the structure of a protein in its natural environment, the living cell. Using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, the researchers solved the structure of a protein within the bacterium Escherichia coli.

Philadelphia, 5 March 2009 – The new medical subspecialty of Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology will lead the way in providing technically advanced yet cost-effective care for patients with heart failure, says a perspective article in the March issue of the Journal of Cardiac Failure (www.onlinejcf.com), official publication of the Heart Failure Society of America (HFSA) and the Japanese Heart Failure Society, published by Elsevier.

Berkeley -- As synthetic biologists cram more and more genes into microbes to make genetically engineered organisms produce ever more complex drugs and chemicals, two University of California chemists have gone a step further.

They have assembled different types of genetically engineered cells into synthetic microtissues that can perform functions such as secreting and responding to hormones, promising more complex biological capabilities than a single cell alone could produce.

DURHAM, N.C. – Microscopic particles of carbon known as buckyballs may be able to keep the nation's water pipes clear in the same way clot-busting drugs prevent arteries from clogging up.

Engineers at Duke University have found that buckyballs hinder the ability of bacteria and other microorganisms to accumulate on the membranes used to filter water in treatment plants. This attribute leads the researchers to believe that coating pipes and membranes with these nanoparticles may prove to be an effective strategy for addressing one of the major problems and costs of treating water.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – New research out of Wake Forest University School of Medicine identifies the presence of cardiovascular risk factors as an indicator of how likely it is that elderly, hospitalized patients who receive intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) treatment will have a stroke or heart attack.

An advance copy of the study appears online this week in the Journal of Neurology, the official publication of the European Neurological Society. It is scheduled to appear in a future print issue.

Being fat increases the risk of primary joint replacement in osteoarthritis (OA). A study published in BioMed Central's open access journal, Arthritis Research & Therapy, found that increased waist circumference and body mass index (BMI) were associated with the risk of both knee and hip joint replacement.

Telomeres, structures that cap the ends of cells' chromosomes, grow shorter with each round of cell division unless a specialized enzyme replenishes them. Maintaining telomeres is thought to be important for healthy aging and cancer prevention.

By this measure, T cells, or white blood cells, from patients with the autoimmune disease rheumatoid arthritis are worn out and prematurely aged, scientists at Emory University School of Medicine have discovered.

A nationwide database called the Comprehensive Dialysis Study (CDS) includes detailed information on a wide range of health factors in US dialysis patients and provides a valuable new resource for improving dialysis outcomes, according to a report in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN).

Treatment with the targeted drug rituximab can significantly benefit some patients with severe lupus nephritis who do not respond to conventional therapy, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology (CJASN). The findings indicate that this immunosuppressive agent could improve the health of patients who have few other treatment options and who might otherwise develop end-stage renal disease (ESRD).

A commonly used questionnaire that measures quality of life is not sensitive enough to pick up mental and physical problems experienced by patients with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD), according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology (CJASN). Findings indicate that patients with this condition, (the most common form of hereditary kidney disease) need better tests to adequately measure quality of life.

Hamilton, ON (March 3, 2009) - McMaster University researchers have found patients with a very severe asthma benefit from injections of the antibody, mepolizumab.

The study by Dr. Param Nair and colleagues based at The Firestone Institute for Respiratory Disease, St. Joseph's Healthcare, found patients who require a lot of medication, including prednisone, to control their disease benefit from the injections.

GALVESTON, Texas – Women using depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA), commonly known as the birth control shot, gained an average of 11 pounds and increased their body fat by 3.4 percent over three years, according to researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB).