Body

It is safe to take anticoagulants (blood thinners) before core needle breast biopsies, according to a study performed at the Elizabeth Wende Breast Clinic in Rochester, NY. Core needle biopsies are offered as an alternative to surgical biopsy when a tissue sample of an irregular area in the breast is found by mammogram or sonogram. "They are safer than surgical procedures, require fewer anesthetics, and are accurate," according to Patricia Somerville, MD, lead author of the study.

3D CT scans provide a more comprehensive view of complex varicose veins (one of the most common diseases in the world) in the lower extremities, according to a study performed at the Seoul National University Hospital in Seoul, Republic of Korea. This technique aids surgeons to more effectively treat varicose veins.

CT scans change the initial treatment plans of emergency physicians in over ¼ of patients with suspected appendicitis, according to a study performed at the University of Washington Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, WA.

SALT LAKE CITY -- When a cell's chromosomes lose their ends, the cell usually kills itself to stem the genetic damage. But University of Utah biologists discovered how those cells can evade suicide and start down the path to cancer.

Details of how the process works someday may provide new ways to treat cancer.

The new study of fruit flies is the first to show in animals that losing just one telomere – the end of a chromosome – can lead to many abnormalities in a cell's chromosomes, which are strands of DNA that carry genes.

Wind farms pose less of a threat to farmland birds than previously feared, new research has found. The study, published this week in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Applied Ecology, helps resolve a potentially major environmental conflict: how to meet renewable energy targets at the same time as reversing dramatic declines in biodiversity on European farmland.

Scientists investigating a molecule known to play a key role in causing colon cancer have made a series of ground-breaking discoveries that could have major implications for future treatment of the disease, responsible for 655,000 deaths worldwide per year. Their findings are published in the journal Cancer Research, today (Wednesday 1 October 2008).

It's not what you take but the way that you take it that can produce different results in women who take hormone replacement therapy (HRT), according to new research on the association between HRT and heart attacks, published online in Europe's leading cardiology journal, the European Heart Journal [1] today (Wednesday 1 October).

The study is the largest to look at the effects of HRT since the Women's Health Initiative trial was stopped early after finding that HRT increased the risk of women developing a range of conditions including breast cancer and thromboembolism.

Thousands of Deaf* patients are receiving inadequate healthcare because they are struggling to communicate with healthcare professions, say experts on bmj.com today.

There is a basic lack of deaf awareness and appropriate communication support by healthcare professionals, write Michael Paddock and colleagues from Kings College London School of Medicine and South West London and St George's Mental Healthcare NHS Trust.

Researchers have identified two new genes – and confirmed the role of a third gene – associated with increased risk of higher levels of uric acid in the blood, which can lead to gout, a common, painful form of arthritis. Combined, the three genetic variations were associated with up to a 40-fold increased risk in developing gout. The findings suggest that genetic testing could one day be used to identify individuals at risk for gout before symptoms develop, as well as determine who might benefit from medications to prevent the development of gout.

Japanese research group led by Prof Makoto Tominaga and Dr Takaaki Sokabe, National Institute for Physiological Sciences (NIPS), Japan, found that a small fly, drosophila, has a receptor for noxious heat. The research group reports their finding in Journal of Neuroscience published on Oct 1, 2008.

Reducing the number of doses of an anthrax vaccine and changing its administration to intramuscular injection resulted in comparable measures of effectiveness but with fewer adverse events, according to a study in the October 1 issue of JAMA.

Variation of a gene for a protein hormone that is secreted by fat cells is associated with a decreased colorectal cancer risk, according to a study in the October 1 issue of JAMA.

An analysis of news media coverage of medical studies indicates that news articles often fail to report pharmaceutical company funding and frequently refer to medications by their brand names, both potential sources of bias, according to a study in the October 1 issue of JAMA.

Psychodynamic psychotherapy lasting for at least a year is effective and superior to shorter-term therapy for patients with complex mental disorders such as personality and chronic mental disorders, according to a meta-analysis published in the October 1 issue of JAMA.

How many times have you spent hours slaving over an impossible problem, only to take a break and then easily solve the problem, sometimes within minutes of looking at it again? Although this is actually a common phenomenon, up until now the way that this occurs has been unclear. But new research in the September issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, demonstrates the answer is more complex than simply having an "Aha!" moment.