Body

Up until today scientists assumed that the adult heart is unable to regenerate. Now, researchers and cardiologists from the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch and the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (Germany) have been able to show that this dogma no longer holds true. Dr. Laura Zelarayán and Assistant Professor Dr. Martin W.

Human impacts on the environment have reduced populations of wild species to dangerously low levels. Nowhere is this more apparent than in worldwide fisheries, where thanks to overfishing and habitat destruction, countless species and populations of fish are on the brink of disappearing forever. To attempt to mitigate the dire situation, captive breeding, the controlled breeding of organisms in protected environments, is regularly initiated.

Promoting healthy pregnancy and safe childbirth is a goal of all European health care systems. Despite progress in recent decades, mothers and their babies are still very much at risk during the perinatal period, which covers pregnancy, delivery, and the postpartum.

Research conducted at The University of Queensland could contribute to the development of a vaccine and cure for West Nile virus and Dengue fever.

Led by Associate Professor Alexander Khromykh, a team of researchers from UQ's School of Molecular and Microbial Sciences identified a novel characteristic of the virus family to which these diseases belong.

The team found all flaviviruses produced a small molecule which, among other functions, controlled the host's response to viral infection.

Philadelphia, 11 December 2008 – An implantable hemodynamic monitor (IHM) may help to guide medical treatment in a large subgroup of patients with heart failure—those with diastolic heart failure (DHF), reports a study in the December Journal of Cardiac Failure (http://www.onlinejcf.com/), published by Elsevier.

Philadelphia, 11 December 2008 – Heart failure (HF) clinics are an increasingly important approach to the treatment of patients with heart failure, yet there have been no published standards regarding the care provided by these specialized clinics. To address this gap, the Quality of Care Committee of the Heart Failure Society of America (HFSA) has developed a consensus statement summarizing the rationale, goals, and components of HF clinic care.

While the emotional health implications of cosmetic surgery are still up for scientific debate, articles in women's magazines such as The Oprah Magazine and Cosmopolitan portray cosmetic surgery as a physically risky, but overall worthwhile option for enhancing physical appearance and emotional health, a UBC study has found.

Tomorrow's specialty plastics may be produced more precisely and cheaply thanks to the apparently tight merger of a theory by a University of Oregon chemist and years of unexplained data from real world experiments involving polymers in Europe.

Dec. 10, New Orleans, LA – Representatives from NASA convened in New Orleans today to report at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Annual Meeting the results from a NASA-enhanced computerized system to assess environmental and health concerns for deployed U.S. forces. The Global Situational Awareness Tool (GSAT), developed and operated by the Air Force Special Operations Command, is a computerized set of linkable databases that characterizes and predicts health risks and other dangers to U.S. troops and multi-national forces in Afghanistan and other areas.

A team led by a Northwestern University biomedical engineer has developed a new optical technique that holds promise for minimally invasive screening methods for the early diagnosis of cancer.

The researchers have shown for the first time that nanoscale changes are present in cells extremely early on in carcinogenesis. Their technique, partial-wave spectroscopy (PWS), can detect subtle abnormal changes in human colon cancer cells even when those same cells appear normal using conventional microscopy.

Cincinnati, OH, December 11, 2008 -- More than half a million babies are born preterm in the United States each year, and preterm births are on the rise. Late preterm births, or births that occur between 34 and 36 weeks (approximately 4 to 6 weeks before the mother's due date), account for more than 70% of preterm births. Despite the large number of affected babies, many people are unaware of the serious health problems related to late preterm births.

People who have been diagnosed with panic attacks or panic disorder have a greater risk of subsequently developing heart disease or suffering a heart attack than the normal population, with higher rates occurring in younger people, according to research published in Europe's leading cardiology journal, the European Heart Journal [1] today (Thursday 11 December).

Levels of drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) in China are nearly twice the global average. Nationwide research published in the open access journal BMC Infectious Diseases has shown that almost 10% of Chinese TB cases are resistant to the most effective first-line drugs.

Living in a household with several generations of relatives triples a woman's risk of serious heart disease, suggests research published ahead of print in the journal Heart.

The researchers assessed the long term impact on health of domestic living arrangements among almost 91,000 Japanese men and women aged between 40 and 69.

None of the study participants had been diagnosed with any serious illness, such as cancer, heart disease, or stroke at the start of the study in 1990-4.