'Sister Mary' the robo-doc to start making ward rounds at St Mary's Hospital
...gistrar and Research Fellow, said benefits include allowing patients direct access to experts worldwide and to the doctor who performed their surgery, even if they cannot be physically at the patient's bedside. "If a specialist is at a conference in California but their medical opinion is needed for a St Mary...Enlarged prostate drug allows for less invasive prostate biopsies
...esses blood flow in benign tissue of the prostate, allowing radiologists to better target cancer tissue using Doppler ultrasound, said Elizabeth Ives, MD, a research fellow at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia and lead author of the study. The study included 11 patients who took dutasteride...Scientists observe infectious prion proteins invade and move within brain cells
... prion proteins without altering them--while still allowing researchers to identify the prions as they penetrated the cells and spread within the long projections that nerve cells develop to send signals to other nerve cells. "This was difficult from a technical aspect because the scrapie pathogen is largely ...Patients with metabolic syndrome, moderate coronary calcium have greater risk of blocked arteries
...ents with metabolic syndrome can be stress tested, allowing those with ischemia those who are at highest risk for heart attack to be identified and appropriately treated."...Swedish researchers first in the world to gain access to BIMS
...causes, diagnostic tools and cures for diseases by allowing more research scientists and research fields to make use of huge amounts of connectable data; something which will be of immense value to the next generation of research scientists. "The main advantage is that researchers can save time and access inf...People with diabetes more sensitive to cardiovascular effects from air pollution
...s main artery. Researchers then released the cuff, allowing the blood to rush through. The researchers then evaluated changes in the diameter of the main artery as a result of the physical stress placed on the vessel. "We observed an 11 percent decrease in diabetics' vascular reactivity on days when sulfate...Researchers develop new concept for single molecule transistor
...e atom to regulate the conductivity of a molecule, allowing an electric current to flow through the molecule. ...upplement it. Our prototype works on silicon thus allowing the old technology to merge with the new. I am optimistic that molecular electronic devices can be ...Johns Hopkins study shows home test kits highly effective against sexually transmitted diseases
... envelopes and contained a detailed questionnaire, allowing the researchers to gather important information about who used the kit and why. Of the 1,100 kits distributed, 400 samples were returned to Hopkins by January 2005, and 10 percent were positive for Chlamydia. Only three women tested positive for gon...Johns Hopkins team finds 'ancestral' hepatitis-C virus at the root of evolution in infections
...avenous drug users. The sample group was unusual, allowing analyses before and during the early stages of infection. One patient self-recovered, while the rest proceeded to chronic infection. Using advanced blood-sorting techniques, the Hopkins team extracted millions of immune system cells, including the...Mayo collaboration: Discovery blocks breast cancer growth, stimulates immunity
...atients, something interferes with this rejection, allowing the cancer to grow unchecked. This new finding helps unlock that mystery and may lead to safer, gentler therapies. "Evidence is emerging that some of the effects of chemotherapy are due to depleting T-regulatory (T-reg) cells," says Keith Knutson, ...Design of neonatal intensive care units critical to infant health
...ironments can reduce stress among staff members by allowing them to better care for infants and their families, she notes. For example, an improved environment can enable nurses to spend more time engaging in patient and family support activities instead of walking around searching for supplies - an activity ...Dartmouth study reveals flaws in screening for TB; Cases in 3rd world HIV patients may go undetected
...ll-known, traditional screening methods for TB are allowing significant number of cases of subclinical, active tuberculosis to go undetected. In apparent response to the these findings, the international physicians' group, Mdecins Sans Frontires (Doctors Without Borders), has recommended that all HIV/AIDS pat...New report indicates acupuncture provides relief for sufferers of dry mouth
The emergence of acupuncture is allowing some patients to relieve or significantly reduce dry mouth's debilitating effects, according to a report in the May/June 2005 issue of General Dentistry, the Academy of General Dentistry's (AGD) clinical, peer-reviewed journal. Dry mouth (also known ...Late peak may have prevented severe flu season from becoming worse
...the 2004-2005 flu season may have been beneficial, allowing public health officials more time to reallocate and administer the limited supply of vaccine to those most in need -- the elderly and children. This extra time could have been responsible for preventing many more people from becoming ill than would h...NIAID scientists unveil mechanism behind resistance to severe malaria
... AA red blood cell, they act like grappling hooks, allowing the parasitized cells to stick in tiny capillaries and avoid being cleared from the bloodstream. When parasite-infected red blood cells stick to blood vessel walls, the resulting inflammation may increase the severity of malarial symptoms, explains D...Young athletes' post-concussion migraine may signal greater neurocognitive impairment
...oms, including headache, may be too lenient, often allowing athletes to return-to-play too soon, placing them at risk for more serious injury, according to study authors. "One statistic we have discovered is that for every one concussion that occurs in the National Football League, more than 5,200 occur in ou...Johns Hopkins scientists use gene therapy to prevent heart arrhythmias from stem cell transplants
...3 makes up the gap junctions between muscle cells, allowing cells to communicate with each other to regularly contract and expand. "We believe that by combining gene therapy with adult stem cell transplantation, we can go a long way to prevent the development of potentially fatal arrhythmias in patients who...Voice-to-voice translation machine perfects bedside manner
... of speech recognition and machine translation, by allowing users to select alternate possible messages. The Transonics system runs on a laptop computer using the Linux operating system. Doctor and patient both wear headphones with attached microphones. A small keypad connected to the computer speeds and sim...What don't we know? Science presents the great unsolved scientific mysteries of our time
...scientists that human aging can be slowed, perhaps allowing many of us to live beyond 100, but others think our life spans are more fixed. Will Malthus continue to be wrong? In 1798, Thomas Malthus argued that human population growth will inevitably be checked, for example by famine, war or disease. Two cen......ay involved in seizures, with the added benefit of allowing normal communication to continue. "If this research leads to drugs that can target these newly discovered receptors, it would be an important advance in therapy," said William L. Bell, M.D., a specialist in epilepsy at Wake Forest University Baptist...