http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. (PhysOrg.com) -- In a dramatic illustration of the power of emerging genetic technologies, Yale University researchers have reported making a clinical diagnosis for the first time using comprehensive DNA sequencing of all the protein-coding genes in the genome. The information changed the course of treatment of a baby boy suffering from symptoms of dehydration thousands of miles away in Turkey. http://www.physorg.com/news175186891.html Medicine & Health Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:50:03 EST news175186891 Each of the 6.7 billion people on Earth has a signature body odor -- the chemical counterpart to fingerprints -- and scientists are tracking down those odiferous arches, loops, and whorls in the "human odorprint" for purposes ranging from disease diagnosis to crime prevention. That's the topic of an article in the current issue of Chemical & Engineering News, ACS' weekly newsmagazine. http://www.physorg.com/news174747484.html Chemistry Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:58:29 EST news174747484 (PhysOrg.com) -- A study of mental decline in the years prior to diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease suggests that changing the focus of testing may help physicians detect signs of the disease much earlier. School of Medicine researchers have found that visuospatial skills, evaluated with tasks such as connecting the dots or using a guide to build a structure with blocks, begin to deteriorate up to three years prior to a diagnosis of Alzheimer's. http://www.physorg.com/news174731696.html Medicine & Health Wed, 14 Oct 2009 09:35:40 EST news174731696 Men who have prostate cancer often feel quite healthy, but the diagnosis still gives them a whole new outlook on life. Once they have learned to live with their cancer, they choose to focus on valuable relationships and appreciate the little things in life, shows a dissertation thesis from the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. http://www.physorg.com/news173954490.html Medicine & Health Mon, 05 Oct 2009 09:42:10 EST news173954490 With new prenatal tests for Down syndrome on the horizon promising to be safer, more accurate, and available to women earlier in pregnancy, the medical community must come together and engage in dialogue about the impact of existing and expected tests, argues a new leading article published Online First by Archives of Disease in Childhood. http://www.physorg.com/news172146115.html Medicine & Health Mon, 14 Sep 2009 11:40:01 EST news172146115 Despite recent advances in diagnosis and treatment, the prognosis of patients with biliary tract cancer is still poor. Elucidating the biological characteristics of these carcinomas has become necessary to improve the prognosis of patients and to devise better treatment strategies. A recent study report that invasive front dominant expression of LNγ2 and LNβ3 and active MMP7 play a key role in the progression of biliary tract cancer. http://www.physorg.com/news170498547.html Medicine & Health Wed, 26 Aug 2009 09:46:09 EST news170498547 Significant numbers of children in the UK are suffering from preventable levels of disability, particularly blindness, and premature death because of poor diagnosis of brain tumours. http://www.physorg.com/news168857999.html Medicine & Health Fri, 07 Aug 2009 10:30:01 EST news168857999 (PhysOrg.com) -- As the nation debates how to control costs as part of health care reform, an Alzheimer's disease researcher says early diagnosis and treatment of the disease could save the nation billions of dollars in costs down the road. http://www.physorg.com/news168706733.html Medicine & Health Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:40:01 EST news168706733 Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) has helped many couples conceive healthy children and is generally considered a safe practice. However, a new long-term analysis of PGD in mice suggests that this procedure may increase risks of weight gain and memory decline in adulthood. http://www.physorg.com/news167399961.html Medicine & Health Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:00:12 EST news167399961 A doctor's positive attitude to Alzheimer's diagnosis and their trusting, personal relationships with local dementia support service providers are powerful enablers for early diagnosis of Alzheimer's, according to new research reported today at the Alzheimer's Association 2009 International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease (ICAD 2009) in Vienna. http://www.physorg.com/news166599340.html Medicine & Health Sun, 12 Jul 2009 10:40:01 EST news166599340 Transferring just one embryo at a time to a woman's womb after embryos have undergone preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) and freezing at the blastocyst stage has become a real option after researchers achieved pregnancy rates that were as good as those for blastocysts that had not had a cell removed for PGD before freezing. Their results mean that it will be possible to reduce the number of multiple pregnancies after PGD and the consequent complications associated with these pregnancies. http://www.physorg.com/news165576792.html Medicine & Health Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:20:01 EST news165576792 Researchers have identified a new candidate tumor suppressor gene in colorectal cancer and examined its use as a potential biomarker in stool samples, according to a new study published online June 17 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. http://www.physorg.com/news164509644.html Medicine & Health Thu, 18 Jun 2009 03:10:01 EST news164509644 Cancer patients who are older than 65 years have poorer physical health and, in some cases, mental health when compared with people of the same age group without cancer, according to a study in the June 9 online issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. http://www.physorg.com/news163823206.html Medicine & Health Wed, 10 Jun 2009 03:27:08 EST news163823206 A new cognitive test for detecting Alzheimer's disease is quicker and more accurate than many current tests, and could help diagnose early dementia. http://www.physorg.com/news163822138.html Medicine & Health Wed, 10 Jun 2009 03:09:18 EST news163822138 In a review of more than 2,000 patients coded for Barrett's esophagus, electronic diagnosis overestimated the prevalence of the disease according to researchers in California. They found that only 61.9 percent of patients assigned a billing diagnosis code for Barrett's esophagus actually had Barrett's esophagus after a manual record review. The study evaluated the accuracy of diagnostic codes for Barrett's esophagus by contrasting codes from electronic databases with diagnoses from a detailed medical record review. Researchers also evaluated the reproducibility of a pathologic diagnosis of Barrett's esophagus between two pathologists and between a single pathologist on two different occasions. The study appears in the May issue of GIE: Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, the monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal of the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE). http://www.physorg.com/news161530388.html Medicine & Health Thu, 14 May 2009 14:34:04 EST news161530388 "Timely identification and diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can impact a child's development and is the key to opening the door to the services and therapies available to children with autism," says Paul Shattuck, Ph.D., assistant professor at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. "Unfortunately, our research shows that the average age of autism diagnosis is nearly six years old, which is three to four years after diagnosis is possible." http://www.physorg.com/news160673874.html Medicine & Health Mon, 04 May 2009 16:39:12 EST news160673874 Karin Cohn carries a genetic defect that led a half-dozen members of her family to develop early breast or ovarian cancer. She firmly supports allowing families like hers to screen embryos for the defect to ensure no future generations carry it. http://www.physorg.com/news158155350.html Medicine & Health Sun, 05 Apr 2009 13:03:38 EST news158155350 Seventeen people are still dying from lung cancer each week in Northern Ireland despite a small improvement in survival rates for the disease. http://www.physorg.com/news157954027.html Medicine & Health Fri, 03 Apr 2009 05:07:30 EST news157954027 (PhysOrg.com) -- After 12 years of searching, UCLA scientists have tracked down the first known gene mutation responsible for a heartbreaking disorder that kills newborn babies. Published in the April 1 online edition of the American Journal of Human Genetics, their findings will allow for earlier testing of embryos at risk for the disease. http://www.physorg.com/news157807581.html Medicine & Health Wed, 01 Apr 2009 12:27:11 EST news157807581 A UCSF research team has developed a technique to distinguish benign moles from malignant melanomas by measuring differences in levels of genetic markers. Standard microscopic examinations of biopsied tissue can be ambiguous and somewhat subjective, the researchers say, and supplementing standard practice with the new technique is expected to help clarify difficult-to-diagnose cases. http://www.physorg.com/news157653601.html Medicine & Health Mon, 30 Mar 2009 17:40:22 EST news157653601 More and more people are being inappropriately diagnosed and treated for underactivity of the thyroid gland (known as primary hypothyroidism), warn doctors in an editorial published on bmj.com today. http://www.physorg.com/news157351662.html Medicine & Health Fri, 27 Mar 2009 05:48:37 EST news157351662 Talk about house calls! The Wildlife Conservation Society thanks The Brain Tumor Foundation and its "Road To Early Detection" campaign for their assistance in performing a brain scan on a gorilla at the Bronx Zoo. http://www.physorg.com/news157293791.html Biology Thu, 26 Mar 2009 13:43:56 EST news157293791 Scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have identified genetic markers that signal poor outcomes for patients with head and neck cancer. These findings could one day lead to a genetic test that could help select or predict successful treatment options for patients with this type of cancer. The results were published in the American Journal of Pathology. http://www.physorg.com/news156619491.html Medicine & Health Wed, 18 Mar 2009 18:25:25 EST news156619491 Researchers have used a common laboratory technique for the first time to detect genetic changes in embryos that could predispose the resulting children to develop certain cancer syndromes. Current preimplantation genetic diagnosis techniques can detect mutations in very small bits of genes or DNA, but, until now, it wasn't easy to detect deletions involving whole genes or long sections of DNA in embryos. http://www.physorg.com/news155937662.html Medicine & Health Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:01:21 EST news155937662 Geneticists from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have reported the world's first series of cases of prenatal diagnosis for women at risk of having a child with tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC). Earlier, the Center for Human Genetics team published the first molecular prenatal diagnosis of TSC. The current study details the sequencing of the TSC genes (TSC1 and TSC2) analysed in 50 completed pregnancies. These findings appear in the March 2009 issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. http://www.physorg.com/news155220572.html Medicine & Health Mon, 02 Mar 2009 12:49:58 EST news155220572 It is estimated that 4 million people world-wide are suffering from Parkinson's, a complex disease that varies greatly among affected individuals. Understanding the brain chemistry that leads to the onset of Parkinson's is vital if we are to develop methods for early MRI diagnosis and new treatments for this devastating disease. http://www.physorg.com/news153831792.html Medicine & Health Sat, 14 Feb 2009 11:05:21 EST news153831792 (PhysOrg.com) -- Labelling children with learning and behavioural difficulties can be detrimental to the children in question as well as their teachers, research by a QUT graduate has found. http://www.physorg.com/news150385891.html Medicine & Health Mon, 05 Jan 2009 13:51:31 EST news150385891 Despite recent widespread media attention given to studies that have indicated one-third of American children have a weight problem, a new study shows just one-third of children who are overweight or obese actually receive that diagnosis by a pediatrician. The study, led by researchers at The MetroHealth System and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, also stresses that this failure to diagnose appears to mostly impact children who may most greatly benefit from early intervention. The study is published in the January issue of the journal Pediatrics. http://www.physorg.com/news149774891.html Medicine & Health Mon, 29 Dec 2008 12:08:11 EST news149774891 A "chip" or array that can quickly detect disorders such as Down syndrome or other diseases associated with chromosomal abnormalities proved an effective tool in prenatal diagnosis in a series of 300 cases at Baylor College of Medicine, said researchers in a report that appears in the current issue of the journal Prenatal Diagnosis. http://www.physorg.com/news146138198.html Medicine & Health Mon, 17 Nov 2008 09:56:38 EST news146138198 (PhysOrg.com) -- When Cornell economists noticed that autism diagnosis rates were higher in some states, they questioned whether local weather could be playing a role. http://www.physorg.com/news145639677.html Medicine & Health Tue, 11 Nov 2008 15:27:57 EST news145639677