News tips from The Journal of Neuroscience
...asta Neurons in the subthalamic nucleus (STN) show increased neural activity inParkinson's disease. Yet lesioning or high-frequency stimulation of the STN (HFSSTN) alleviates motor symptoms in parkinsonian patients. How does that work? In this week's Journal , Windels et al. approach the question by using mic...Procedure setting, technique and cost are key for effective colorectal cancer screening
...am found the following circumstances independently increased the rate of missed diagnoses: Older age, being female, history of previous abdominal/pelvic surgery, history of diverticulosis, right-sided or transverse CRC, a colonoscopy performed by an internist or family physician, and having an office-based col...Smoking increases risk for liver, pancreatic and colorectal cancers
...cine found that a history of smoking significantly increased the risk of liver cancer. Investigators compared t...erm smoking to the risk profile also significantly increased the likelihood of cancer, as the rapid NAT2 genotypes were associated with a nearly 18-fold increase...Genes may influence nutritional composition of breast milk
...cent of the U.S. population, is associated with an increased risk for both heart disease and Alzheimer's disease. They found that mothers who carried either one or two copies of the E4 variant had 40 to 75 percent less total fat in their breast milk compared to women who did not have the variant. "This unexpec...Newly discovered 'branding' process helps immune system cells pick their fights
...ying their structure, and that these modifications increased the chances that cells known as lymphocytes would ...sine. Unanue's lab then showed that these changes increased the chances that various types of T cells would react to the modified peptides shown to them by anti...MDCT overtakes ventilation-perfusion lung scan for diagnosing pulmonary embolism
...nd the average number of MDCT pulmonary angiograms increased from 21.9 to 42.5 per month. "The exact degree of the changes in our study is only representative of our institution; however, the shift towards diagnosing pulmonary embolism by CT is a national trend. Several other authors have also published simila...Studies on HRT for breast cancer patients can give false hopes
...ualitative studies have concluded that there is no increased risk of the recurrence of breast cancer in patient...ive study suggests the opposite that there is an increased risk of the recurrence of breast cancer in patients taking HRT. Patients and doctors, the authors co...Bad teeth may signal risk for heart attack
...active root caries, a type of tooth decay, have an increased risk of having irregular heart beats. This study is published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. A total of 125 generally healthy individuals over the age of 80, living in urban, community-based populations were examined. Researche...Birth weight and breastfeeding in infancy may affect premenopausal breast cancer risk
... had not been breastfed as infants appear to be at increased risk for developing breast cancer, epidemiologists at the University at Buffalo's School of Public health and Health Professions have found. Results of the study, which showed no association between birth weight and breastfeeding in infancy and postm...Asthma drug fluticasone works as well as other drugs at half the dose
... the size of the beclomethasone or budesonide dose increased the amount of air exhaled in one second by an aver...t hoarseness. Fluticasone patients did not have an increased likelihood of other steroidal side effects like oral thrush or sore throat, however. Although the Co...Low back pain relief, causes, measurement & prosthetic fit, production, comfort
...s completed a 10-minute walk, the skin temperature increased by a total of 1.7 C. This information may help aid in understanding where and why residual limb skin problems develop and provide design requirements for new prosthetic socket systems. Microstimulators effective in generating bladder contractions i...Long-term outcomes studied for stem cell transplant recipients
...o secondary cancers. Relapse-related mortality was increased among patients with Hodgkin's disease, non-Hodgkin...elated death. Mortality not related to relapse was increased in patients who had received the chemotherapy drug carmustine as part of their preparative regimen a...NIST method improves timing in oscilloscopes
...munications module that is actually working, or to increased electronic "noise" interference with measurements of microwave signals from radar. The NIST method, based on an approach developed in laboratory experiments and implemented in freely available software, constructs an alternative time base. The softwa...World Bank and IMF preventing transfer of foreign aid to HIV/AIDS programmes
... rapid inflows of foreign exchange associated with increased aid can drive up the value of the recipient country's currency. The result would be to increase the price of exports, thereby undermining competitiveness. However, ceilings create a clear disincentive for external donors to offer desperately needed f...Eight aspects of early life put UK children at risk of obesity
...eight hours watching television per week are at an increased risk of obesity, finds a study published online by the BMJ this week. This is just one of eight aspects of early life found to be linked to obesity in UK children, and these results support the theory that the early life environment can determine lat...New study questions benefits of aspirin for the over 70s
...e age of 70 to prevent heart disease are offset by increased cases of serious bleeding, argue researchers in a ...rin (prevention of heart attacks) may be offset by increased cases of serious bleeding. The figures also indicate that the overall balance of harm and benefit c...Boys, too, suffer long-term consequences of childhood sexual abuse
...d sexual abuse] by both males and females deserves increased national attention," notes the study....CAD system makes breast MRI more effective, efficient
...In fact, the number of breast MRI examinations has increased by 50% in the last nine months," he added. Dr. Vilanova will present his study at the American Roentgen Ray Society Annual Meeting on May 19 in New Orleans, LA....Allergies increase risk for corneal transplant rejection, UT Southwestern study shows
...rformed additional experiments to determine if the increased graft rejection was simply due to the inflammation and irritation in the eye produced by the allergic response to ragweed pollen. In these experiments, ragweed pollen was applied to the right eye of the mice but the cornea was transplanted to the lef...Narcotic drugs effective for severe, chronic pain in older patients
...use of opioids at moderate levels does not pose an increased risk for cardiac or kidney damage or gastric ulcer...on to treat long-lasting, serious pain without the increased risks posed by Cox-2 inhibitors and other anti-inflammatory drugs, Palmer concludes. On the other ha...