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Page 117 of 127

Doctors beat online symptom checkers in diagnosis contest


October 12, 2016


Study finds ribociclib improves progression-free survival for women with metastatic breast cancer



Concerns grow over Telstra Health’s cancer registry contract



Human neurons continue to migrate after birth


Researchers at UC San Francisco have discovered a previously unknown mass migration of inhibitory neurons into the brain’s frontal cortex during the first few months after birth, revealing a stage of brain development that had previously gone unrecognized. The authors hypothesize that this late-stage migration may play a role in establishing fundamentally human cognitive abilities and that its disruption could underlie a number of neurodevelopmental diseases.

Most neurons of the cerebral cortex — the outermost layer of the brain responsible for advanced cognition — migrate outward from their birthplaces deep in the brain to take up their positions within the cortex. Developmental neuroscientists have long thought that most neural migration ends well before an infant is born, but the new paper — published October 6, 2016 in Science — suggests for the first time that many neurons continue to migrate and integrate into neural circuits well into infancy.

“The dogma among developmental neuroscientists was that after birth all that was left was the fine wiring and pruning,” said Mercedes Paredes, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of neurology at UCSF and leader of the new study. “These results suggest there’s a whole new phase of human brain development that we had never noticed before.”

Study of donated brain tissue unveils massive neural migration after birth

The new study was a collaboration between the labs of co-senior authors Arturo Alvarez-Buylla, PhD, a UCSF professor of neurological surgery who specializes in understanding the migration of immature neurons in the developing brain, and in whose lab Paredes is a postdoctoral researcher, and Eric J. Huang, MD, PhD, a professor of pathology and director of the Pediatric Brain Tissue Bank at the UCSF Newborn Brain Research Institute.

Several recent studies — including work by Alvarez-Buylla and Huang — identified small populations of immature neurons deep in the front of the brain that migrate after birth into the orbito-frontal cortex — a small region of the frontal cortex just above the eyes. Given that the entire frontal cortex continues to expand massively after birth, the researchers sought to discover whether neural migration continues after birth in the rest of the frontal cortex… Read More>>

Source: Science Daily

October 9, 2016


How Back Pain Took Over the World



Novel study of pancreatic cancer aims to give patients more treatment options


October 5, 2016


Could drug checking have prevented Prince’s overdose death?


As the investigation into Prince’s death homes in on the source of the fatal fentanyl, some observers are suggesting that the United States explore a lifesaving strategy used in Europe: services that check addicts’ drug supplies to see if they are safe.

In Spain, the Netherlands, and a handful of other countries, users voluntarily turn in drug samples for chemical analysis and are alerted if dangerous additives are found. The pragmatic approach saves lives, proponents say.

Increasingly, users of street drugs don’t know what they’re taking, according to US law enforcement experts and treatment providers. Black-market suppliers are using cheaper chemicals to increase profits.

Cocaine may be mixed with the veterinary de-wormer levamisole, which can cause a painful, gruesome rash. Ecstasy may be a sometimes-deadly impostor called PMMA. White powder sold as heroin or pills stamped to look like prescription drugs may actually be the more potent fentanyl.

It’s unclear how Prince got the fentanyl that killed him or whether he thought it was a less potent drug. Lookalike pills discovered by investigators in Prince’s home were stamped “Watson 385” to mimic a common generic painkiller similar to Vicodin, an official close to the investigation told the Associated Press in August. On analysis, the pills were found to contain the more potent fentanyl.

Here is a closer look at the drug-checking services that proponents believe could have prevented Prince’s death… Read More>>

Source: STAT


New drug target for asthma, autoimmune disorders identified



Researchers uncover a new mechanistic understanding of potential treatment for genetic disorders



Concussion can now be diagnosed with 95 percent specificity



Breathing easy: farm upbringing best defence against allergies


Protection against allergies and asthma in children who grow up on farms extends into their adulthood and may be linked to other health benefits, a new study reveals.

A long-running international analysis, led by Australian researchers, also found that women who lived on farms as small children had stronger lungs than those raised inner city.

The research published in The BMJ‘s Thorax journal studied more than 10,000 participants aged 26 – 54, from 14 centres around the world, including about 500 Australians.

Their lung strength and sensitivity to allergens was tested and they were asked about environmental factors in their early lives, including whether they had pets, older siblings, if they shared a bedroom and where they had lived.

As adults, children who had lived on a farm before age six were 54 per cent less likely to have asthma or hay fever and 57 per cent less likely to have allergic nasal symptoms compared to city kids.

Suburban kids, or those who lived in a town or village as small children were only slightly less likely to have asthma or hay fever as an adult than those from the city.

“As any parent with a small child knows, childcare centres are hotbeds of viruses and bacteria, but it turns out that’s nothing compared to a farm,” says lead author Brittany Campbell from the University of Melbourne’s Allergy and Lung Health Unit.

“We found that for kids in villages, towns, suburbs and cities, not even day care or living with cats, dogs and older siblings came close to endowing the protective effects that appear to come with life on a farm.” …Read More>>

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

September 28, 2016


Task force advises routine preeclampsia screening in pregnancy



Music therapy may help kids cope with immunization shots


When little kids need to get a painful injection, music therapy can help them get through the procedure, a new study suggests.
Children who received music therapy during a routine immunization visit were less stressed and better able to cope with the procedure than those who didn’t receive music therapy, and their parents were less stressed, too, the study found.

“Although it certainly won’t eliminate a child’s pain or distress, using music to distract them could help them focus less on the pain, which can improve their perception of getting shots,” said Olivia Yinger, the study’s author and a music therapist from the University of Kentucky in Lexington.

Past research has found that music significantly reduces pain and anxiety during medical procedures.

The new study, conducted at three healthcare facilities in 2011 and 2012, involved 58 kids, ages 4 to 6 years, along with 62 parents and 19 nurses who administered the shots.

Yinger randomly assigned 29 children and their parents to have a music therapist present for the immunization, while the kids and parents in the other group received traditional care, according to the report in the Journal of Music Therapy.

At the start of the visit, during the procedure, and afterward, kids and their parents were encouraged to join the music therapist in singing along to children’s songs and playing instruments that were provided… Read More>>

Source: Reuters


Study reveals tremendous clinical and economic burden of common chronic liver disease



Gliptin treatment tied to higher risk of acute pancreatitis



How the FDA manipulates the media



World’s first baby born with novel three-parent embryo technique



New emergency contraception OTC listing


September 21, 2016


Key steps can help patients recover from a stay in the ICU


Your 80-something-year-old dad has just been admitted to the hospital’s intensive care unit after a stroke or a heart attack. Now, he’s surrounded by blinking monitors, with tubes in his arms and alarms going off around him.

You’re scared and full of uncertainty. Will the vital, still-healthy man you’ve known recover and be able to return home?

Increasingly, the answer is yes. As many as 1.4 million seniors survive a stay in the ICU every year. And most go home, with varying degrees of disability.

ICUs are responding to older patients’ needs by helping them try to regain functioning – something that families need to pay attention to as well.

“There’s a growing recognition that preparing patients and families for recovery needs to start in the ICU,” said Dr. Meghan Brooks Lane-Fall, assistant professor of critical care at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

Making this transition more difficult is older patients’ vulnerability to a set of physical, cognitive and psychological problems known as “post-ICU syndrome.” This includes muscle weakness and other physical impairments; problems with thinking and memory; and symptoms of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress… Read More>>

Source: Medical Xpress


There’s a reason your friend’s gluten-free diet is actually making them feel better


As more and more of your friends go gluten-free, you may be wondering: Is there something to this latest diet craze? Is gluten-intolerance a thing? Is it getting more common?

The answer is simply no.

Only about 1 percent of Americans actually have coeliac disease, the rare genetic disorder that makes people intolerant to gluten, and that number is not on the rise. In other words, in a room of 100 people, chances are one has celiac.

In fact, a study published this month found that the prevalence of celiac has remained basically unchanged since 2009.

And as for all those people who say they don’t have celiac but are just ‘sensitive’ to gluten, a 2013 study out of Monash University suggested that this probably isn’t real.

So what’s really going on when people stop eating gluten?

Alan Levinovitz, an assistant professor at James Madison University who studies the intersection between religion and medicine and the author of the book The Gluten Lie, says it essentially comes down to a mix of psychology and behavioural change.

In the book, Levinovitz interviews Monash University director of gastroenterology Peter Gibson, who helped write the 2013 study concluding that non-celiac gluten ‘intolerance’ was probably not a thing…. Read More>>

Source: Science Alert


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