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PHILADELPHIA – Researchers at the Rothman Institute at Jefferson have shown that local anesthesia delivered through a catheter in the joint, intraarticularly, may be more beneficial than traditional opioids such as morphine and Oxycontin for pain management following total knee replacement surgery.

DALLAS (February 10, 2012) — In a study to be presented today at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting ™, in Dallas, Texas, researchers will report findings that indicate that for women with prior delivery via cesarean section the optimal timing of elective delivery for mother and baby is 39 weeks even after consideration of the risk with continuing pregnancy.

DALLAS (February 10, 2012) — In a study to be presented today at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting ™, in Dallas, Texas, researchers will report findings that indicate that preterm birth interventions should be tailored for underlying risk factors and pathways.

DALLAS (February 10, 2012) — In a study to be presented today at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting ™, in Dallas, Texas, researchers will report findings that indicate that massively parallel sequencing can be used to diagnose fetal aneuploidies, including Down syndrome, Edwards syndrome, Patau syndrome and Turner syndrome.

DALLAS (February 10, 2012) — In a study to be presented today at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting ™, in Dallas, Texas, researchers will report findings that indicate that the risk of obstetric intervention is lower for women who deliver or intend to deliver outside of hospitals, but there are some higher risks for newborns intended for home births compared to hospital births.

Treatment of childhood obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) with positive airway pressure (PAP) therapy improves a number of important neurobehavioral outcomes, according to a new study from the The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Children and adolescents with obstructive sleep apnea had substantial improvements in attention, anxiety and quality of life after treatment with positive airway pressure (PAP)—a nighttime therapy in which a machine delivers a stream of air through a mask into the nose.

"The benefits occurred even when children didn't fully adhere to the treatment," said study leader Carole L. Marcus, M.D., a sleep specialist and director of the Sleep Center at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. The Sleep Center follows thousands of children and adolescents with sleep problems.

Arterial stiffness due to is a major contributor to cardiovascular disease but is very difficult to measure. It also can influence blood pressure readings since these rely on the time taken for arteries to return to normal volume and flow after compression. A new method for measuring arterial stiffness has been reported in BioMed Central's open access journal BioMedical Engineering OnLine. This simple, non-invasive, calculation is able to interpret standard oscillometric measurements to quantify both arterial stiffness and blood pressure simultaneously.

Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is the most lethal form of breast cancer . It spreads easily through the lymphatic and blood vessels, forming metastasis which can lead to multi-organ failure. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Cell Communication and Signaling demonstrates how IBC cells use IL-8, secreted as part of the anti-inflammatory response by a specific set of white blood cells (monocytes), to increase fibronectin expression.

Invasive species which have the potential to destroy biodiversity and influence global change could be tracked and controlled in the same way as wanted criminals, according to new research from Queen Mary, University of London.

Geographic profiling (GP) was originally developed as a statistical tool in criminology, where it uses the locations of linked crimes (for example murder, rape or arson) to identify the predicted location of the offender's residence. The technique is widely used by police forces and investigative agencies around the world.

Drivers who consume cannabis within three hours of driving are nearly twice as likely to cause a vehicle collision as those who are not under the influence of drugs or alcohol claims a paper published today on bmj.com.

The paper's authors, from Dalhousie University, reviewed nine studies with a total sample of 49,411 people to determine whether the consumption of cannabis increases the risk of a motor vehicle collision.

Durham, NC — A new study of a devastating bird disease that spread from poultry to house finches in the mid-1990s reveals that the bacteria responsible for the disease evolves at an exceptionally fast rate. What's more, the fast-evolving microbe has lost a key chunk of its genome since jumping to its new host, scientists were surprised to find. The missing portion contained the genes that made up the microbe's immune system, researchers report in the February 9th issue of PLoS Genetics.

New research suggests that unrelated individuals may be mistakenly identified as genetic family members due to inaccurate genetic assumptions. This is particularly relevant when considering familial searching: a new technique which extends forensic identification to family members of individuals with profiles in offender/arrestee DNA databases.

A study of almost 3,800 pregnancies has provided the most accurate and direct evidence to date that malaria infection reduces early foetal growth. Low birth weight is the most important risk factor for neonatal mortality in developing countries. The research, carried out on the border of Thailand and Myanmar (Burma), highlights the importance of preventing malaria in pregnancy.

A new study combines genetic and neurobiological approaches to confirm that synaptic mutations increase the risk of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). It also highlights a role for modifier genes in these disorders. Published in PLoS Genetics, this research was conducted by researchers at the Institut Pasteur, the Paris Diderot University, the Robert Debré Hospital, the Gillberg Neuropsychiatry centre, Ulm University and the Centre National de Génotypage, in collaboration with other institutions in Europe.