Researchers now on road to isolating skin stem cells
...se cells that still glowed green after a month. To estimate the number of cells in basal epidermis, researchers kept the number of cells of the non-labeled donor constant over a number of host mice. But, they varied the number of the GFP cells to see how small a sample they could add before they saw no green ...Tight rules, police presence may limit use of Vancouvers new drug injection facility
...astal Health Authority. The study was conducted to estimate user interest and to evaluate the potential impact of newly established guidelines and police activities. Dr. Thomas Kerr and colleagues interviewed 458 active injection drug users in Vancouver, and 422 (92%) reported they were willing to use a safer...Nearly 5 million deaths worldwide caused by smoking
... control efforts, a consistent method is needed to estimate the health effects of smoking across different pop...s across different populations. The investigators estimate that 4.8 million deaths in 2000 were attributable to smoking, with a similar toll in both developed ...University of Illinois at Chicago receives $15.7 million grant to stop anthrax
...cient numbers to cripple a city or region. Experts estimate that release of aerosolized anthrax spores could result in tens of thousands of deaths, Johnson said. While the anthrax strain unleashed in 2001 was susceptible to conventional antibiotics, Alex Neyfakh, UIC professor of medicinal chemistry and pharm...UNC study shows Internet offers youths easy way to buy cigarettes
...l exceed $5 billion in 2005, according to a recent estimate by Forrester Research. Cigarette smoking is the nation's leading cause of premature sickness and death, Ribisl said. More than 47 million adults and 4 million teen-agers smoke. Annual sales of tobacco products top $40 billion....Millions wasted on blood pressure tablets
...rchers used sales, prescription and survey data to estimate the number of people in each country that were being treated for high blood pressure, and the proportion of those that were taking thiazides. The proportion varied between countries from 12% to 40%. Previously published research suggests that thiazi...Smoking linked to osteoporosis in women
...ne tissue and is common among the elderly. Studies estimate that 50 year old women have an almost 60 percent chance of suffering from an osteoporosis-related fracture in the remainder of their lives. The importance of osteoporosis has been recognized nationally by the listing of musculoskeletal conditions as ...Blood dilution during bypass surgery associated with kidney damage
... worldwide undergo bypass surgery, and researchers estimate that about one of every 12 will suffer kidney damage as a result of the surgery. While most cases of kidney injury are transient, up to 2 percent of bypass patients will require kidney dialysis, with 60 percent of those dying before hospital discharg...Coronary artery calcium can be a warning sign of fatal cardiac event
...tors offer researchers good but limited ability to estimate risk for individual patients. To help prevent deaths, researchers are focusing on finding new tools that can help identify high-risk individuals. One such tool is coronary calcium screening. The researchers followed 10,377 asymptomatic individuals w...New Alzheimer projections add urgency to search for prevention, cure
...nal Center for Health Statistics mortality data to estimate prevalence in the U.S. population. The researchers, led by Denis Evans, M.D., estimate that currently some 4.5 million Americans have Alzheimer's. Using low, middle and high U.S. Census ...Vaccine development sparks debate on changes to cervical cancer screening guidelines
...udy, Duke researchers used a mathematical model to estimate the lifetime costs and life expectancy of three screening strategies: vaccination only conventional screening only, and vaccination followed by screening. In the two screening strategies, intervals of one, two and five years, with starting ages o...Study calls for major reforms in marketing of ephedra
...ave risen in the last five years. And, researchers estimate that approximately 1 percent of the general population in the United States has taken products that contain ephedra to lose weight. Critics of ephedra's use as a dietary supplement point out that the active ingredient of this Asian herb is ephedrine,...Medicare+Choice enrollees face continued cost increases in 2003, costs have doubled since 1999
... Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. Gold and Achman estimate that enrollees in PPO demonstration plans, which were implemented by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in 2003 to give Medicare+Choice enrollees more plan options, will spend $2,884 out-of-pocket in 2003. That is substantially higher tha...Nearly 3.2 million American women 50 and older suffer from debilitating dry eye syndrome
...wn to be more common in women than men (scientists estimate that over a million men age 50 and older have the disease), dry eye syndrome is characterized by a decline in the quality or quantity of tears that normally bathe the eye to keep it moist and functioning well. The condition causes symptoms such as p...Docs see missed opportunities for adult, kid vaccinations
...ce, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate 900 deaths and 1,300 hospitalizations could be avoided each year by vaccinating an additional one million elderly people for flu. And previous research suggests that each dollar spent on childhood immunization could save $10 to $14 in future disease ...Estrogen replacement increases risk factors for arrhythmia and sudden death
...pausal women with the longest follow-up to date to estimate the effects of hormone therapy on QT length. The potential for QT prolongation associated with estrogen replacement therapy in the women studied, and the possible impact on a great number of women, make this an important concern that should be furthe...Household falls may produce more severe brain injuries in infants than previously thought
...gulies cautions that extensions of the findings to estimate likelihood of injury are tentative because little is known about how the infant or toddler brain and skull responds to rapid rotational motions and impacts. "Children are not just miniature adults," Margulies said. "Learning more about pediatric bra...Tackling major risk factors simultaneously key to improving global health
...rray from WHO, Geneva, Switzerland, and colleagues estimate the potential health benefits from the removal of major risk factors that are associated with the main causes of death and disability worldwide. The joint contribution of the main 20 risk factors affecting global health (including malnutrition, poor ...Physics and medicine in San Diego
... public. In such a radiological emergency, experts estimate that the worried well may outnumber those truly needing medical attention by as much as 1000 to one. The second speaker, Richard Morin of the Mayo Clinic, served on the American College of Radiology committee that wrote a primer titled "Disaster Prep...Children's Hospital Boston finds capacity can be increased by smoothing scheduled patient flow
...n on the application of variability methodology to estimate the direct impact of patient flow variability on access to medical care, doctors at Children's Hospital Boston and professors at Boston University School of Management have identified an encouraging way effective management can improve patient care. ...