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The elderly represent a growing proportion of patients presenting with acute myocardial infarction (MI) complicated by cardiogenic shock (CS). CS occurs when the heart fails to supply enough blood to the organs of the body, and remains the most common cause of death after heart attack among people 75 years of age and older. Proper selection of older patients for invasive management of heart disease remains a serious medical challenge, especially as the elderly are frequently underrepresented in or excluded from clinical trials.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a highly aggressive form of liver cancer and one of the 5 most common cancers worldwide. Devanand Sarkar and colleagues, at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, Richmond, have now identified a gene that is expressed at high levels in human HCC tumor samples and generates a protein important for HCC progression. They therefore suggest that targeting this gene (AEG1), or the protein that it generates, might provide a new therapeutic strategy for the treatment of HCC.

Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Iowa have turned a relatively benign virus into a highly infectious form that is ideal as a carrier for gene therapy.

In its first gene therapy test, it completely cured human cystic fibrosis lung tissue in culture.

HOUSTON -- (Feb. 16, 2009) -- If a picture is worth a thousand words, then Rice University's precise new image of a virus' protective coat is seriously undervalued. More than three years in the making, the image contains some 5 million atoms -- each in precisely the right place -- and it could help scientists find better ways to both fight viral infections and design new gene therapies.

Insulin analogues are modified human insulins developed to address the limitations of human insulins which do not always respond to increased blood glucose levels in the same way as insulin that is naturally secreted by the body.

A comprehensive systematic review by Sumeet Singh and colleagues http://www.cmaj.ca/press/pg385.pdf. looked at outcomes associated with the use of rapid- and long-acting insulin analogues in adult and childhood type 1 and type 2 diabetes as well as gestational diabetes.

Antibiotic resistance and the rise of illnesses that cannot be treated easily because of drug resistance is a health concern around the world. CMAJ launches a 6-part series on antibiotic resistance to provide practical treatment guidelines for practicing doctors to manage resistant microbes in 3 settings: the hospital, clinic and home. The current issue features 3 articles on the topic.

ST. PAUL, Minn. – New research looks at whether a gene variant may affect the link between migraine and stroke or heart attacks. The study is published in the February 17, 2009, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

SEATTLE – People with a family history of melanoma may have a greater risk of developing Parkinson's disease, according to a study released today that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 61st Annual Meeting in Seattle, April 25 to May 2, 2009.

Dermatitis, benign moles, hives and cancerous skin lesions are among the most common diagnoses among military personnel who were evacuated from combat zones for ill-defined dermatologic diseases, according to a report in the February issue of Archives of Dermatology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

About one-fifth of children with sensorineural hearing loss also have ocular disorders, according to a report in the February issue of Archives of Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Survival after surgery appears higher at teaching hospitals than at non-teaching hospitals, but this benefit is experienced by white patients and not black patients, according to a report in the February issue of Archives of Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. While the teaching versus non-teaching setting was not associated with different rates of complications for either white or black patients, whites are less likely to die following complications at teaching hospitals, a survival benefit not seen for black patients.

Elderly patients who undergo surgery at teaching-intensive hospitals have better survival rates than at nonteaching hospitals, but these better survival rates apparently occur in white patients, not black patients.

CHICAGO — Despite frequent warnings of the inadequacy of education in the United States, citizens here are still among the world's most scientifically literate, a Michigan State University researcher said.

You can thank those general education requirements that force English majors to sit through biology classes and budding engineers to read Hemingway, Jon Miller said.

Arab-American women living in southeast Detroit whose conservative dress limits their exposure to sun should be taking a vitamin D supplement to boost their dangerously low serum levels, according to a study published by Henry Ford Hospital researchers.

Researchers found that all 87 women involved in a small study showed vitamin D levels averaging 8.5 ng/mL (nanograms per milliliter) for those who wore western dress to 4 ng/mL for those who wore the hijab, modest dress with a headscarf. A healthy vitamin D level is 30 ng/mL or higher.

SEATTLE – Updated guidelines for physicians that represent best practices for using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to newly diagnose breast cancer and to make treatment decisions for breast cancer were published today in the Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. Breast radiologists and surgeons at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA) and the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, N.Y. authored the paper upon which the guidelines are based.