Body

The extra demands on parents of chronically ill children cause stress that affects the whole family, according to a systematic review conducted by Case Western Reserve University researchers that also explored what factors in the child's care most contribute to the added strain.

The findings, reported in the August issue of the Journal of Pediatric Psychology article, "Parenting Stress Among Caregivers of Children With Chronic Illness: A Systematic Review," were based on an assessment of 96 peer-reviewed studies in 12 countries between 1980 and 2012.

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- A genetic mutation, known as GBA, that leads to early onset of Parkinson's disease and severe cognitive impairment (in about 4 to 7 percent of all patients with the disease) also alters how specific lipids, ceramides and glucosylceramides are metabolized. Mayo Clinic researchers have found that Parkinson's patients who do not carry the genetic mutation also have higher levels of these lipids in the blood. Further, those who had Parkinson's and high blood levels were also more likely to have cognitive impairment and dementia.

DURHAM, N.C. – A blood test developed by researchers at Duke Medicine showed more than 90-percent accuracy in distinguishing between viral and bacterial infections when tested in people with respiratory illnesses.

The test, which detects a specific genetic "signature" that the sick person's immune system expresses as a response to the virus, demonstrates a potential new method for diagnosing the source of illnesses that have long been tough to pinpoint.

Toronto, Canada (September 18, 2013) – In a world-first, decompression surgery has been shown to be an effective procedure to treat cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) – a common progressive, degenerative disease of the spine that can lead to paralysis – according to the results of a multi-centre clinical trial published today.

Embryonic stem cells have the enormous potential to treat and cure many medical problems. That is why the discovery that induced embryonic-like stem cells can be created from skin cells (iPS cells) was rewarded with a Nobel Prize in 2012. But the process has remained frustratingly slow and inefficient, and the resulting stem cells are not yet ready for medical use. Research in the lab of the Weizmann Institute's Dr.

A duo of scientists at Penn State University has achieved a major milestone in understanding how genomic "dark matter" originates. This "dark matter" -- called non-coding RNA -- does not contain the blueprint for making proteins and yet it comprises more than 95 percent of the human genome. The researchers have discovered that essentially all coding and non-coding RNA originates at the same types of locations along the human genome.

DALLAS -- Overactivity of a protein that normally cues cells to divide sabotages the body’s natural cellular recycling process, leading to heightened cancer growth and chemotherapy resistance, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found.

A team of researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Applied Research Associates, Inc. (ARA, Alexandria, Va.) has demonstrated an improved microfluidic technique for recovering DNA from real-world, complex mixtures such as dirt. According to a recent paper,* their technique delivers DNA from these crude samples with much less effort and in less time than conventional techniques. It yields DNA concentrations that are optimal for human identification procedures and can potentially be miniaturized for use outside the laboratory.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Over the last decade researchers have amassed increasing evidence that relatively low levels of a protein called sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) can indicate an elevated risk of type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome years in advance.

Edmonton -- A University of Alberta researcher says health professionals should be cautious about prescribing inhaled corticosteroids to high-risk patients such as pneumonia survivors, citing a twofold risk for repeat infection.

Dean Eurich led a research team that examined inhaled corticosteroid use among elderly patients for a clinical study. The team evaluated more than 6,200 seniors who survived an initial episode of pneumonia but were still at high risk of developing another bout of infection.

COLUMBUS, Ohio— A lens invented at The Ohio State University combines the focusing ability of a human eye with the wide-angle view of an insect eye to capture images with depth.

The results could be smartphones that rival the photo quality of digital cameras, and surgical imaging that enables doctors to see inside the human body like never before.

Engineers described the patent-pending lens in the Technical Digest of the 25th IEEE International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems.

Romanian scientists have discovered a novel approach for the optical manipulation of macromolecules and biological cells. Their findings, published in EPJ B, stem from challenging the idea that visible light would induce no physical effect on them since it is not absorbed. Instead, Sorin Comorosan, working as a physicist at the National Institute for Physics and Nuclear Engineering based in Magurele, Romania, and as a biologist at the Fundeni Clinical Institute, Bucharest, Romania, and colleagues, had the idea to use green photon beams.

CHICAGO (September 18, 2013) – With the evolving changes in the delivery of healthcare to children worldwide, which frequently include long-distance travel and lodging for specialized medical treatments, the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) partnered with Ronald McDonald House Charities to release the first-ever infection prevention and control guidelines for "home away from home" pediatric residential facilities to help prevent the spread of infectious pathogens among vulnerable pediatric populations.

Current drug treatments for HIV work well to keep patients from developing AIDS, but no one has found a way to entirely eliminate the virus from the human body, so patients continue to require lifelong treatment to prevent them from developing AIDS.

Now, a team of researchers led by Dr. David N. Levy, Associate Professor of Basic Science and Craniofacial Biology at the New York University College of Dentistry (NYUCD), have discovered a new way that HIV-1 reproduces itself which could advance the search for new ways to combat infection.

TORONTO, Sept. 18, 2013—One of the common side effects of HIV and AIDS is neurocognitive impairments – changes in how fast a person can process information, pay attention, multi-task and remember things – yet there are no adequate tests to screen patients for these problems, according to a new study out of St. Michael's Hospital.

The incidence of severe forms of HIV-associated neuorcognitive disorders, or HAND, has declined significantly with the availability of combination antiretroviral drug therapy over the last 20 years.