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Patients with a certain genetic variation who received the antiplatelet drug clopidogrel had a decreased platelet response to treatment and among those who had percutaneous coronary intervention (procedures such as balloon angioplasty or stent placement used to open narrowed coronary arteries) had an increased risk of having a cardiovascular event in the following year than patients who did not have this variant, according to a study in the August 26 issue of JAMA.

Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine have identified a common gene variant carried by as many as a third of the general population that is believed to play a major role in determining why people do not respond to a popular anti-clotting medication, Plavix. If the medication doesn't work, patients are at increased risk for subsequent heart attacks, strokes and other serious cardiovascular problems.

Men with coronary artery disease-induced congestive heart failure or heart attack who receive hormone therapy before or along with radiation therapy for treatment of prostate cancer have an associated increased risk of death, according to a study in JAMA.

Women may have a slightly higher risk of death than men in the 30 days following an acute coronary syndrome (ACS; such as heart attack or unstable angina), but this difference appears attributable to factors such as severity and type of ACS, clinical differences and angiographic severity according to a study in the August 26 issue of JAMA.

A new study reports that a gene variant carried by about a third of the population plays a major role in this group's response to an anti-clotting medicine, clopidogrel (Plavix). People with the variant produce a defective version of the CYP2C19 enzyme and are less able to activate the drug.

Plavix prevents blood clots in people with heart disease by keeping platelets from sticking together. But about 30 percent of people respond poorly to the drug and are at increased risk for dangerous events like strokes and heart attacks.

A symptomless blood disorder, monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance, known as MGUS, is not linked to as many serious diseases as previously thought. This finding may save patients from undergoing unnecessary workup and treatment according to a study published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

A new study from NYU School of Medicine found that women may have a slightly higher risk of death than men in the 30 days following an acute coronary syndrome (ACS), but that these differences appear to be attributable to factors such as severity and type of ACS. The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), found that overall there was no significant difference in mortality observed between the sexes after a heart attack.

A new UCLA study examines the link between high cholesterol and osteoporosis and identifies a new way that the body's immune cells play a role in bone loss.

Published in the journal Clinical Immunology, the research could lead to new immune-based approaches for treating osteoporosis. Affecting 10 million Americans, the disease causes fragile bones and increases the risk of fractures, resulting in lost independence and mobility.

PHILADELPHIA – Researchers from Turku, Finland, have identified a blood-flow glucose consumption mismatch that predicted pancreatic tumor aggressiveness, according to results of a study published in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Based on these findings, they suggested that the relationship between several physiological tumor parameters might provide more important information about a tumor than just looking at any of these parameters alone.

PHILADELPHIA – Researchers continue to add to the diagnostic alphabet of saliva by identifying the presence of at least 50 microRNAs that could aid in the detection of oral cancer, according to a report in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

SEATTLE – While long-term tamoxifen use among breast cancer survivors decreases their risk of developing the most common, less aggressive type of second breast cancer, such use is associated with a more than four-fold increased risk of a more aggressive, difficult-to-treat type of cancer in the breast opposite, or contralateral, to the initial tumor. These findings by Christopher Li, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center were published online Aug. 25 in the journal Cancer Research.

Researchers in Heidelberg have now discovered that sequences of genetic material on the X and Y chromosome that regulates the gene responsible for short stature and is also crucial for growth in children. These gene regulators determine how frequently a gene is copied, thus how effective it is. In many cases, the mutation of one regulatory sequence of the SHOX gene is sufficient to give rise to the full-blown syndrome.

Love songs aren't only for soft rock FM stations – they're also used by romantic bats, and researchers at Texas A&M University and the University of Texas at Austin are believed to be the first to decode the mysterious love sounds made by the winged creatures. Their work is published in the current issue of PloS One (Public Library of Science).

A chemical compound found in unpasteurized food has been detected in unusually high levels in the red blood cells of pregnant women with the condition pre-eclampsia.

These results are important because they suggest that the compound, 'ergothioneine', is an indicator of pre-eclampsia and may help scientists to understand the cause of the condition.

Scientists at the University of Leeds took blood samples from a group of thirty-seven pregnant women and compared the red blood cells from women with pre-eclampsia with the red blood cells from women with no symptoms.

Serrated colorectal polyps include the subgroups hyperplastic polyps, sessile serrated polyps (also called sessile serrated adenomas), and serrated adenomas. Recent studies have found that serrated polyps share molecular features with a subgroup of colon cancers, leading to the hypothesis that serrated polyps can be precursors of cancer through a hyperplastic polyp to serrated adenoma to cancer sequence. These cancers tend to arise in the proximal colon. Sessile serrated polyps may be an intermediate step between hyperplastic polyp and serrated adenomas.