Body

Patients who had a cardiac resynchronization device combined with a defibrillator (CRT-D) implanted had a 34 percent reduction in their risk of death or heart failure when compared to patients receiving only an implanted cardiac defibrillator (ICD), according to a landmark study published online today in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented today at the European Society of Cardiology Congress (ESC) in Barcelona, Spain. The overall benefit observed from resynchronization therapy was driven by a 41 percent reduction in heart failure.

Body mass index (BMI) readings may not be the best gauge of obesity in older adults, according to new research from UCLA endocrinologists and geriatricians. Instead, they say, the ratio of waist size to hip size may be a better indicator when it comes to those over 70.

Researchers have experimentally induced antibodies that neutralize HIV-1 and simultaneously recognize both HIV-1 envelope protein and lipids. The results were reported by U.S. Military HIV Research Program (MHRP) researchers in AIDS, the official journal of the International AIDS Society.

PHILADELPHIA – Body mass in younger and older adulthood, and weight gain between these periods of life, may influence a man's risk for prostate cancer. This risk varies among different ethnic populations, according to results of a study in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Montreal, September 1, 2009 – Patients suffering from two serious autoimmune disorders which cause muscular inflammation are at increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease, says a group of Montreal researchers. Dr. Christian A. Pineau and his team at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) have linked muscular inflammation to increased cardiovascular risk for the first time. Their results were published recently in The Journal of Rheumatology.

A recent study published in the Journal of Cancer Epidemiology has reinforced the correlation between being overweight, smoking and breast cancer. What makes this study unique is how test subjects were not diagnosed for BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations, which predispose women to breast cancer.

Instead, women with such gene mutations were excluded to allow researchers to concentrate on lifestyle factors such as smoking, exercise, nutrition and weight. All women analyzed in the study were direct ancestors of the first French colonists.

Trauma patients who sustain multiple fractures are often in serious condition when they arrive at the emergency department. An article published in the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (JAAOS) explains that trauma patients who have several orthopaedic injuries and are considered to be in unstable condition should only have a few hours of surgery when first arriving at the hospital. This principle is known as 'damage control'.

The benefits of initially limiting time in the operating room for patients with life-threatening injuries include:

The DNA isolated from the muscles of people with diabetes bares chemical marks not found in those who respond normally to rising blood sugar levels, according to a report in Cell Metabolism. The epigenetic marks in question are specifically found on a gene that controls the amount of fuel, in the form of glucose or lipids, that cells burn. Those marks also show up in the skeletal muscle of people with prediabetes, suggesting that the DNA modification might be an early event in the development of the disease.

Patients who had a cardiac resynchronization device combined with a defibrillator (CRT-D) implanted had a 34 percent reduction in their risk of death or heart failure when compared to patients receiving only an implanted cardiac defibrillator (ICD), according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress (ESC) in Barcelona, Spain. The overall benefit observed from resynchronization therapy was driven by a 41 percent reduction in heart failure.

Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of diabetes, is increasing at an alarming state with more than 180 million people affected worldwide. With the rising incidence of obesity, a major risk factor for the onset of type 2 diabetes, this metabolic disorder represents a major health concern. A group from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, now shows that there may exist new ways to fight these disorders.

Researchers may have found a key ingredient in the recipe that leads from obesity to chronic low-grade inflammation, according to a report in the September issue of Cell Metabolism.

Chronic inflammation within fat tissue is now recognized as a contributor to the many ill health consequences that come with obesity, from diabetes to cardiovascular disease, explains Yuichi Oike of Kumamoto University in Japan. The new discovery may therefore point to a targeted therapy designed to limit the health impact of the obesity epidemic, the researchers say.

University of Michigan scientists say they have uncovered a fundamentally new mechanism that holds in check aggressive immune cells that can attack the body's own cells. The findings open a new avenue of research for future therapies for conditions ranging from autoimmune diseases to organ transplants to cancer.

Directly inhibiting the activity of a key protein mediator of inflammation successfully reduced radiation toxicity in zebrafish embryos, and may ultimately be helpful to patients receiving radiation therapy, according to researchers from the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson.

Reporting in Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, the researchers found that inhibitors of NF-kappa B not only protected against radiation toxicity when given before exposure to treatment, but also lessened the radiation toxicity when given one to two hours post-exposure.

Montreal, September 1, 2009 – Juice extracted from North American lowbush blueberries, biotransformed with bacteria from the skin of the fruit, holds great promise as an anti-obesity and anti-diabetic agent. The study, published in the International Journal of Obesity, was conducted by researchers from the Université de Montréal, the Institut Armand-Frappier and the Université de Moncton who tested the effects of biotransformed juices compared to regular blueberry drinks on mice.

There may be a way around the harsh skin toxicity associated with a widely used cancer drug, according to a study published online this week in Cancer Biology and Therapy by researchers from City of Hope and the Kimmel Cancer at Jefferson.