Persistently abnormal liver function tests: Marker of occult hepatitis C?
...hronic liver injury. In addition, occult infection raises the possibility of disease spread via blood donations, hemodialysis and other procedures. Fortunately, the study also suggests a minimally invasive approach to detect occult infection. The study, reported by a group headed by Vicente Carreo, MD, in...Chagas' disease: virulence factor identified
...nowledge of the biological activity of this factor raises the prospects for developing vaccination strategies or drugs to combat T. cruzi. Chagas' disease or American trypanosomiasis is a parasitic illness which affects nearly 20 million people mainly in tropical regions of Central and South America. The...New report presents options for oversight of genetic testing of human embryos
...ng sibling and to select embryos based on sex. PGD raises a number of scientific, ethical and policy issues. First, there are questions about the safety of the in vitro fertilization and embryo manipulation required for PGD and about the accuracy of the genetic tests that are used. Second, some find PGD, or...American Thoracic Society Journal news tips for January 2004 (second issue)
...ise healthy. Snoring is the cardinal symptom that raises a physician's suspicion of sleep-disordered breathing. That problem affects 11 percent of children from ages 2 to 8. But sleep disordered breathing is hard to diagnose, except through an overnight sleep test. This experience imposes a substantial ...Tip sheet for the January 27, 2004 Neurology Journal
...t the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, raises the question of whether it's men's turn for clinical trails of hormone therapy for the primary prevention of Alzheimer's disease. Multinational study looks at pain versus itch In patients with atopic dermatitis, or chronic itch, normally painf...Popular drug for chest pain may promote blood vessel damage
... mechanism underlying the drug's lost efficacy and raises additional concern about its potential to cause long-term injury. In rats treated with nitroglycerin for a period of three days, the activity of a key enzyme in the cellular "powerhouses" known as mitochondira declined, the research team reported in ...Should compulsory screening of immigrants be part of UK public health policy?
... care and pose a greater public health threat. HIV raises several important practical and ethical questions, he adds. For instance, would such a policy focus on all migrants, immigrants from high prevalence countries, asylum seekers, or some as yet unspecified population? And what about people from within t...Blood transfusion poses CJD risk
...he probable existence of subclinical vCJD carriers raises concerns of an iatrogenic human-to-human wave of vCJD transmission." They conclude: "Public-health authorities are faced with considerable insecurity about the prevalence of subclinical prion carriers, and any human-to-human transmission will complic...Stroke news tips for Friday, Feb. 6, 2004
...treatment." 4 p.m. Abstract P337 Depression raises risk of stroke and dementia in elderly women. While depression is common after stroke, little is known about the disorder as a risk factor for cerebrovascular disease. Scientists examined the prevalence of depression at age 85 and its relation to t...Potentially blinding eye disease more prevalent than previously thought
...of California, Davis. "The investigator's analysis raises very important issues--the increased prevalence of uveitis in women and, the increased rates in older patients. This is a surprise to all of us that work in the field. It is important information." "These results should alert ophthalmologists that uv...Questions raised on DNR orders and shorter hospital stays
...en for patients with serious illnesses. This trend raises concern that increasing numbers of patients may be discharged before their conditions are stable, particularly if a do-not-resuscitate (DNR) order has been written. A Northwestern University study of Medicare patients hospitalized with pneumonia, h...Study examines why new lung cancer treatment is effective for some patients but not others
...fine the molecular characteristics of NSCLC. "This raises the hope that this disease can be fought even more effectively," said Dr. Kris....Tuberculosis strains stay close to home, say Stanford researchers
...ions in infectious disease transmission. This also raises the possibility that the pathogen evolves within a geographic population group and doesn't spread to other groups. "It was remarkable how well the genetics mapped to global geography," said Small. "Co-evolution is highly speculative, but it's an intr...Stem cells appear not to turn into heart cells
...for example increased blood vessel formation), and raises the possibility that there may be alternative and perhaps more efficacious ways to accomplish this." Both research teams injected bone-marrow-derived hematopoetic stem cells into the damaged hearts of living mice and used marker proteins to monitor ...Teen-rated video games loaded with violence
...mount of violence and death in T-rated video games raises important questions about the age-appropriateness of interactive violence, as well as what criteria the ESRB uses to distinguish T-rated and M-rated (for Mature) video games. We stress the need for greater clarity in the ESRB rating process."...New therapeutic approach for sickle cell disease
...ces symptoms of sickle cell disease. The discovery raises the possibility of new treatment options for sickle cell patients, say co-authors J. Eric Russell, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics, and Zhenning He, research specialist, Department of Medicine. The research appears in the April iss......yme so important to estrogen metabolism once again raises the issue of whether estrogen has a role in promoting lung cancer, as it does in breast and ovarian cancer." ...Deleting neural STAT3 protein in mice
...arginal role in glucose regulation. The study also raises more questions about leptin, a protein produced by fat cells and thought to play an important role in signaling the reduction of body fat. "The mutant mice had an oversupply of leptin, yet still became obese, suggesting a leptin-resistant condition,"...Exposure to famine associated with increased breast cancer risk
...ever, reproducing these types of studies in humans raises ethical and practical issues. During World War II, a famine in the western part of The Netherlands resulted from a food embargo imposed by German authorities. Between 1983 and 1986, about 15,000 women participating in a Dutch breast cancer screening ...Alarming rise in incidence of lung cancer and death in women
...of epidemiology and biostatistics says, "The study raises the interesting scientific question of whether or not lung cancer is different in men and women, and what that should mean for future research."...