Heart arrhythmias easily treated, yet few know risks
...lation procedure. Through catheters (small tubes) inserted into arteries in the groin area and neck, Wilber used tiny instruments to identify the abnormal electrical pathway in her heart and ablate (destroy) it with high frequency radio waves. After the procedure, Sandra said "If I had known how simp...Coronary stents do not improve long-term survival
... in the U.S. in 1994, are tiny mesh tubes that are inserted at the site of a blockage in a coronary artery that has been opened during balloon angioplasty. The procedure seeks to prevent the artery from becoming blocked again, a process known as restenosis. These blockages, caused by atherosclerotic plaque, c...Several new techniques show promise for spinal cord repair
...d 0.4 or 0.8 mol/kg/hr of Rolipram via a mini-pump inserted under the animals' skin. The drug was delivered continuously for 10 days, beginning two weeks after the injury. Six weeks after drug administration, scientists found improvement in front paw control and movement and in nerve regeneration. Less of the...Promise of stem cells amplified
...nto delivery vehicles for therapeutic agents. They inserted the gene for tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL). This substance, secreted by the implanted stem cells, is like kryptonite to the hazardous tumor cells. The scientists studied the most lethal type of brain cancer: intracr...MRI can measure early benefits of cholesterol-lowering drugs and plaque reduction
...eceived by MRI, each patient swallowed an antenna, inserted through the nose and placed in the esophagus, or "food pipe," next to and directly in line with many of the main arteries, including the biggest artery on top of the heart, the aorta. Six different MRI images, each taken at different angles, were re...Dartmouth study suggests caution against using certain drugs to unclog heart arteries
...occurs with use of a stent a small wire mesh tube inserted after angioplasty to keep the artery clear. It is the most common cause of stent failure, according to Michael Simons, professor of medicine and of pharmacology and toxicology at Dartmouth Medical School and chief of cardiology at Dartmouth-Hitchco...Hunt for autism genes to be led by Hopkins researchers
... sections of chromosomes are improperly copied and inserted into or deleted from the genome. Such events could alter normal production of the genes' products, which might damage cells, says Chakravarti. But unlike those with disorders such as Down syndrome, people with autism don't have extra chromosomes, jus...Optics meeting tips: Internal fingerprints, no cell left behind, 3-D reality
...s team has constructed a fiber-optic probe that is inserted through an endoscope that will measure via spectroscopy the structural properties of cells in tissue. For example, cancerous cells can be identified by changes in size or density of sub-cellular components like the nuclei. Bigio's research takes the ...Inflammatory marker may be early sign of blood vessel blockages
...iograms because they come from an ultrasound probe inserted down the throat. This enables imaging of the heart and major blood vessels without interference from the ribs and chest wall. The researchers found partial blockages, called atherosclerotic plaques, in the aortas of 69 percent of the study subjects,...New surgical device for long bone repair reduces X-ray exposure
... a long bone such as the femur, a titanium nail is inserted into the marrow cavity. To hold the bone in place, screws are drilled into small holes in the nail, which is the tricky part of the process. With the new tool, a Magnetic Targeting Device, a doctor may precisely locate the holes for the screws. The p...Oxygen therapy may improve vision worsened by diabetes
...ters per minute of oxygen delivered by small tubes inserted into their noses, and instructed to use the oxygen continuously every day for three months, removing the tube only when taking showers. They were provided with a stationary oxygen concentrator for home and portable oxygen tanks to use outside the ho...Elastic nails help children with broken legs recover faster than traction and body casting
...elastic nails are implanted flexible pins that are inserted into the broken bone to support the pieces while the bone heals. The nails are approximately 15 to 20 inches in length and about the width of a radio antenna. Often two nails are necessary for treatment of a fracture. Surgeons remove the nails after ...Researchers invent way to determine optimal conditions for spinal cord nerve regen in lab animals
...cells to generate new nerves. They then surgically inserted each into identical 3 mm-long gaps made in rat spinal cords. One month after implantation, four to six spinal cords and scaffolds were harvested from the rats, and systematically analyzed and compared, from nose to tail section. Other conditions were...New initiative to focus on growing problem of cardiovascular disease in diabetics
... which NIH based their 1995 alert, stents were not inserted after angioplasty to prevent the vessel from closing again. Today, doctors not only routinely insert stents, they also coat these stents with drugs to reduce the build up of damaging plaque in the vessel. With the recent FDA approval of drug-eluting...Data announced at ISHLT: Molecular testing proves effective in monitoring heart transplant rejection
...d time-consuming procedure where biopsy shears are inserted into a vein near the patient's neck and threaded through blood vessels to the heart. Part of the heart muscle is clipped off and sent to pathologists to evaluate the specimen for signs of rejection. This costly procedure also has limitations by the ...Sounds of New York, evidence for a preferred ear, ultrasound for the eye
...(PABI). In this device, eight tiny electrodes are inserted directly into the auditory center of the brainstem, the structure at the base of the brain that is connected to the spinal cord. Designed by researchers at the House Ear Institute (HEI) in California and collaborators at Cochlear Corp. and the Hunti...Second NIAID SARS vaccine candidate helps mice fend off SARS
...r author, Bernard Moss, M.D., Ph.D. Investigators inserted the gene encoding the S protein into a virus called modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA). Neither MVA nor the solitary gene from the SARS virus can cause disease. Instead, MVA simply ferries the SARS gene into the body. First developed as a vaccine against...Researchers say stenting the best treatment for blocked leg arteries
...ure, in which a catheter-or thin, flexible tube-is inserted through a small incision in the skin and threaded ...is pumped open by a tiny balloon, and the stent is inserted to hold open the blood vessel. "The early results of stent placement suggested that it offered excel...Human studies show feasibility of brain-machine interfaces
...ng in the human patients were made from electrodes inserted deeper into the brain, in subcortical structures, rather than the cortical surface. "This shows that one can extract information not only from cortical areas, but from subcortical ones, too," said Nicolelis. "This suggests that in the future, there w...UCSF scientists show prion shape affects nature of infection
...sical properties. Weissman and his colleagues also inserted a biophysical probe at regular intervals along the prion's amino acid chain -- a kind of beacon that could be picked up by a technique called electron paramagnetic spectroscopy. This procedure demonstrated that the proteins generated at different tem...