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. Higher-than-normal levels of insulin place postmenopausal women at increased risk of breast cancer, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University report. Their findings, published in the January 7 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, suggest that interventions that target insulin and its signaling pathways may decrease breast cancer risk in these women. http://www.physorg.com/news150781398.html Medicine & Health Sat, 10 Jan 2009 03:43:18 EST news150781398 (PhysOrg.com) -- A research team led by Nancy Speck, PhD, Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, has identified the location and developmental timeline in which a majority of bone marrow stem cells form in the mouse embryo. The findings, appearing online this week in the journal Nature, highlight critical steps in the origin of hematopoietic (or blood) stem cells (HSCs), says senior author Speck, who is also an Investigator with the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute at Penn. http://www.physorg.com/news150731605.html Biology Fri, 09 Jan 2009 13:53:25 EST news150731605 The drive toward containing health care costs could have the unintended consequence of reducing physician productivity, impairing quality and perhaps even increasing costs, two Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center physicians suggest in a New England Journal of Medicine "Perspective." http://www.physorg.com/news150571662.html Medicine & Health Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:27:42 EST news150571662 The lowest ever levels of oxygen in humans have been reported in climbers on an expedition led by UCL (University College London) doctors. The world-first measurements of blood oxygen levels in climbers near the top of Mount Everest, published in this week's New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), could eventually help critical care doctors to re-evaluate treatment strategies in some long-term patients with similarly low levels of blood oxygen. http://www.physorg.com/news150571554.html Medicine & Health Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:25:54 EST news150571554 Scientists have identified mutations in a gene that predict a high likelihood of relapse in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Although the researchers caution that further research is needed to determine how changes in the gene, called IKZF1 or IKAROS, lead to leukemia relapse, the findings are likely to provide the basis for future diagnostic tests to assess the risk of treatment failure. By using a molecular test to identify this genetic marker in ALL patients, physicians should be better able to assign patients to appropriate therapies. http://www.physorg.com/news150571442.html Medicine & Health Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:24:02 EST news150571442 Women choosing repeat cesarean deliveries and having them at term but before completing 39 weeks gestation are up to two times more likely to have a baby with serious complications including respiratory distress resulting in mechanical ventilation and NICU admission. http://www.physorg.com/news150571274.html Medicine & Health Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:21:14 EST news150571274 is no cure for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a genetic disorder that causes the weakening of muscles and is the leading genetic cause of infant death, but University of Missouri researchers have discovered a new therapeutic target that improves deteriorating skeletal muscle tissue caused by SMA. The new therapy enhanced muscle strength, improved gross motor skills and increased the lifespan in a SMA model. http://www.physorg.com/news150556755.html Medicine & Health Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:19:15 EST news150556755 The level of nitric oxide (NO) in an asthmatic's exhaled breath can portend worsening asthma symptoms, and may even signify an imminent attack linked to underlying airway inflammation. This has made the monitoring of NO levels, particularly in children, of significant interest as a potential way to help clinicians fine-tune medications and improve treatment outcomes. However, a recent multi-center prospective study found that calibrating medications based on daily monitoring of the fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FENO) and symptoms in asthmatic children showed no significant improvement over medicating based on daily symptom monitoring alone. http://www.physorg.com/news150537448.html Medicine & Health Wed, 07 Jan 2009 07:57:28 EST news150537448 Nicotine gum has been in use for over 20 years to help smokers quit abruptly yet close to two-thirds of smokers report that they would prefer to quit gradually. Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare have now found that smokers who are trying to quit gradually can also be helped by nicotine gum. The results of the first study to test the efficacy and safety of using nicotine gum to assist cessation by gradual reduction are published in the February 2009 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. http://www.physorg.com/news150460346.html Medicine & Health Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:32:26 EST news150460346 Removing user fees for primary health care changed health utilization behaviour but did not improve health outcomes among households with children under the age of five in Ghana, says a new study published in the open access journal PLoS Medicine. http://www.physorg.com/news150447459.html Medicine & Health Tue, 06 Jan 2009 06:57:39 EST news150447459 A new debate in the open access journal PLoS Medicine questions whether all African children with fever should be treated presumptively with antimalarial drugs, or if treatment should wait until laboratory tests confirm malarial infection. http://www.physorg.com/news150444543.html Medicine & Health Tue, 06 Jan 2009 06:09:03 EST news150444543 Scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine and at UC-San Francisco have succeeded in isolating stem cells from human testes. The cells bear a striking resemblance to embryonic stem cells - they can differentiate into each of the three main types of tissues of the body - but the researchers caution against viewing them as one and the same. http://www.physorg.com/news150397024.html Biology Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:57:04 EST news150397024 Digitalis-based drugs like digoxin have been used for centuries to treat patients with irregular heart rhythms and heart failure and are still in use today. In the Dec. 16 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine now report that this same class of drugs may hold new promise as a treatment for cancer. This finding emerged through a search for existing drugs that might slow or stop cancer progression. http://www.physorg.com/news150389159.html Medicine & Health Mon, 05 Jan 2009 14:45:59 EST news150389159 Few things are as tiresome as house hunting and moving. Unfortunately, metastatic cancer cells have the relocation process down pat. Tripping nimbly from one abode to another, these migrating cancer cells often prove far more deadly than the original tumor. Although little has been known about how these rogue cells choose where to put down roots, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have now learned just how nefarious they are. http://www.physorg.com/news150383375.html Medicine & Health Mon, 05 Jan 2009 13:09:35 EST news150383375 Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have developed a versatile mouse model of glioblastoma -the most common and deadly brain cancer in humans -that closely resembles the development and progression of human brain tumors that arise naturally. http://www.physorg.com/news150297782.html Medicine & Health Sun, 04 Jan 2009 13:23:02 EST news150297782 A team of scientists has discovered a new syndrome associated with severe congenital neutropenia (SCN), a rare disorder in which children lack sufficient infection-fighting white cells, and identified the genetic cause of the syndrome: mutations in the gene Glucose-6-phosphatase, catalytic subunit 3 (G6PC3). The findings, which are published in the Jan. 1, 2009 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, were made by an international team of scientists, composed of 14 researchers from the Medical School of Hannover in Germany and 12 from other research institutions, including the National Center for Biotechnology Information at the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health. http://www.physorg.com/news150122330.html Medicine & Health Fri, 02 Jan 2009 12:38:50 EST news150122330 In a study to determine the diagnostic value of molecular imaging in nodal staging of patients with thyroid cancer, researchers were able for the first time to accurately distinguish between cancerous cells in regional lymph nodes and normal residual thyroid tissue directly after surgery. http://www.physorg.com/news150115125.html Medicine & Health Fri, 02 Jan 2009 10:38:45 EST news150115125 Neurologists have observed for decades that Lewy bodies, clumps of aggregated proteins inside cells, appear in the brains of patients with Parkinson's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases. http://www.physorg.com/news150091261.html Medicine & Health Fri, 02 Jan 2009 04:01:01 EST news150091261 Administering antibiotics as a preventive measure to patients in intensive care units (ICUs) increases their chances of survival. This has emerged from a study involving nearly sixthousand Dutch patients in thirteen hospitals. Researchers at University Medical Center (UMC) Utrecht have published their findings in an article in The New England Journal of Medicine. http://www.physorg.com/news150023113.html Medicine & Health Thu, 01 Jan 2009 09:05:13 EST news150023113 Subject to sudden unexpected seizures, epileptics are often a subject of discrimination in the workforce. Many employers are hesitant to hire epileptics, fearing that stressful workplace situations might bring on an attack. But a new Tel Aviv University study suggests these fears are groundless. http://www.physorg.com/news149948060.html Medicine & Health Wed, 31 Dec 2008 12:14:20 EST news149948060 Back pain affects more than 80 percent of people and costs more than $100 billion annually in the U.S. But is the surgery cost effective? A study by researchers at Rush University Medical Center suggests that for patients with spinal stenosis, a laminectomy, or surgical removal of some soft bone and tissue, is a reasonable value. However, for patients with spinal stenosis with associated slipped vertebrae, the benefits of spinal fusion surgery may not be enough to offset costs. http://www.physorg.com/news149776906.html Medicine & Health Mon, 29 Dec 2008 12:41:46 EST news149776906 Up to 150,000 people suffering from severe asthma in the UK could benefit from taking antifungal medication already available from pharmacists, new research has found. http://www.physorg.com/news149775159.html Medicine & Health Mon, 29 Dec 2008 12:12:39 EST news149775159 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 new study examining the aftereffects of a chlorine gas disaster in a South Carolina town gives larger metropolitan areas important insight into what to expect and how to prepare emergency response systems for an accidental or terrorist release of the potentially deadly gas. The study is now available in the January 2009 issue of the American Journal of Emergency Medicine. http://www.physorg.com/news149769639.html Medicine & Health Mon, 29 Dec 2008 10:40:39 EST news149769639 UC Davis Cancer Center researchers report today the discovery of a molecule that targets glioblastoma, a highly deadly form of cancer. The finding, which is published in the January 2009 issue of the European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, provides hope for effectively treating an incurable cancer. http://www.physorg.com/news149769509.html Medicine & Health Mon, 29 Dec 2008 10:38:29 EST news149769509 Adult Cystic Fibrosis patients can provide important information that helps to predict their prognosis, according to research that asked 223 adult CF patients to assess their own health and well-being. http://www.physorg.com/news149750128.html Medicine & Health Mon, 29 Dec 2008 05:15:28 EST news149750128 New research in an animal model suggests that a diet high in inorganic phosphates, which are found in a variety of processed foods including meats, cheeses, beverages, and bakery products, might speed growth of lung cancer tumors and may even contribute to the development of those tumors in individuals predisposed to the disease. http://www.physorg.com/news149749680.html Medicine & Health Mon, 29 Dec 2008 05:08:00 EST news149749680 Some patients with severe asthma who also have allergic sensitivity to certain fungi enjoy great improvements in their quality of life and on other measures after taking an antifungal drug, according to new research from The University of Manchester in England. http://www.physorg.com/news149749598.html Medicine & Health Mon, 29 Dec 2008 05:06:38 EST news149749598 Critically ill patients frequently have uncertain prognoses, but their families overwhelmingly wish that physicians would address prognostic uncertainty candidly, according to a new study out of the University of San Francisco Medical Center. http://www.physorg.com/news149749529.html Medicine & Health Mon, 29 Dec 2008 05:05:29 EST news149749529 Anxiety disorders in children and adolescents should be recognized and treated to prevent educational underachievement and adult substance abuse, anxiety disorders and depression, says a nationally recognized child psychiatrist from UT Southwestern Medical Center. http://www.physorg.com/news149363265.html Medicine & Health Wed, 24 Dec 2008 17:47:45 EST news149363265