Body

In a new study published in Disease Models & Mechanisms, scientists use the zebrafish to gain insight into the influence of known cancer genes on the development and progression of melanoma, an aggressive form of human skin cancer with limited treatment options.

Neurosensory diseases are difficult to model in mice because their symptoms are complex and diverse. The genetic causes identified are often lethal when transferred to a mouse. The lack of animal models slows progress in understanding and treating the diseases. By strategically altering a protein-making molecule, a mouse was made to help understand nervous system diseases that impair feeling and cause paralysis of the arms and legs in humans.

May 26, 2009 (DENVER) – Children of parents who refuse vaccines are 23 times more likely to get whooping cough compared to fully immunized children, according to a new study led by a vaccine research team at Kaiser Permanente Colorado's Institute for Health Research.

The study will appear in the June 2009 issue of the journal Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is an aggressive muscle cancer that mostly affects children. The most common forms of RMS are embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma (ERMS) and alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma (ARMS). Although ARMS is less common than ERMS, it is associated with a much higher rate of mortality. A therapy tailored to the ARMS form of RMS is therefore badly needed.

Pediatricians now have a new and simple way to diagnose a serious problem facing our nation's children – thanks to David Kaelber, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., MetroHealth System pediatrician, internist, and chief medical informatics officer and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine researcher and faculty member. Nearly 75% of cases of hypertension and 90% of cases of prehypertension in children and adolescents go undiagnosed. These troubling statistics were documented in previously published research by Dr. Kaelber. From this research, Dr.

Scientists are, for the first time, objectively evaluating ways to help species adapt to rapid climate change and other environmental threats via strategies that were considered too radical for serious consideration as recently as five or 10 years ago. Among these radical strategies currently being considered is so-called "managed relocation." Managed relocation, which is also known as "assisted migration," involves manually moving species into more accommodating habitats where they are not currently found.

Primary care physicians in Ontario, Canada who volunteered to adopt the new capitation model for payment, compared with those who opted for an enhanced fee-for-service model, had fewer sick patients, less after-hours billing, more patients who visited the emergency department and fewer new patients, found a new study in CMAJ http://www.cmaj.ca/press/pgE72.pdf (www.cmaj.ca).

National guidelines are needed for timely disclosure of medical errors and informing patients, write Toronto-based researchers in a review http://www.cmaj.ca/press/pg1125.pdf in CMAJ (www.cmaj.ca).

ST. PAUL, Minn. – People who take cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins after a stroke may be less likely to have another stroke later, according to research published in the May 26, 2009, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Those who take statins after a stroke may also be less likely to die within the next 10 years than those who do not take statins.

(PHILADELPHIA) – Since 2000, nearly 1,000 "retail clinics" -- offering routine care like sports physicals and immunizations and treatment for minor illnesses like strep throat -- have opened their doors inside pharmacies and grocery stores across the United States. Retail chain operators proposed that the new clinics would improve access to medical care among uninsured or underserved populations.

BOSTON, Mass. (May 25, 2009) — Hospice, a well-established approach to palliative care, has enabled countless people worldwide to die with dignity. Through focusing on the patient rather than the disease, individuals can spend the last weeks of their lives in an environment where hospice caregivers minimize their pain, maximize their comfort, and provide bereavement services for loved ones and family members.

An estimated 35 percent of U.S. adults age 40 and older have vestibular dysfunction (inner ear balance disorders), and those who do may have a higher risk of falling, according to a report in the May 25 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Despite reports indicating that placement of retail clinics are determined by physician shortages and higher uninsured populations, these clinics appear to be located in more advantaged neighborhoods, according to a report in the May 25 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Vienna, Austria: For the first time, scientists have been able to identify genetic factors that influence the age at which natural menopause occurs in women. Ms Lisette Stolk, a researcher from Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, told the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics today ( Monday 25 May) that a greater understanding of the factors influencing age at menopause might eventually help to improve the clinical treatment of infertile women.

Vienna, Austria: The relationship between the dental disease periodontitis and coronary heart disease (CHD) has been known for several years. Although a genetic link seemed likely, until now its existence was uncertain. Now, for the first time, scientists have discovered a genetic relationship between the two conditions, a researcher told the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics today (Monday 25 May).