New details on how the immune system recognizes influenza
...tabase, but critical gaps become apparent when one looks for human antibody targets." Plans for the future include adding data on epitopes that are involved in autoimmune diseases and epitopes that trigger allergic and asthmatic reactions. Dr. Sette and his colleagues have also built numerous tools for an...Workers' compensation ratings don't accurately predict disabilities
..., but the care that the whites got, even though it looks like more care, because it's surgery and it's more expensive, didn't do anything for them." For their study, the researchers interviewed 580 black and 892 white workers' compensation claimants an average of 21 months after claim settlement to asses......omen then are seated in front of the device, which looks like "a strange mammography unit," Dr. OConnor says. Each breast is lightly compressed between the gamma cameras with just enough pressure to keep it from moving for 5 to 10 minutes while several images are taken. "It is much more comfortable for wom...Congressional action strengthens internal medicine ACP says
...ed medical home." The statement also said that ACP looks forward to working with the Centers for Medicaid a...ed by the National Quality Forum and the AQA. "ACP looks forward to working with CMS to ensure that the reporting mechanisms are administratively feasible an...Importance of personal health records draws support of American College of Physicians
... to, or modification of, data in the PHRs. ACP looks forward to learning more about Dossia and evaluating opportunities for collaboration to develop a product that will enable individuals to control their own medical data from multiple sources and to create and utilize their personal, private and porta...UW-Madison researchers clear way to stronger glass
...w - not out it, but at it. Though the window glass looks clear, if you could peer inside the pane you would see a surprising molecular mess, with tiny particles jumbled together any which way. Now, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed a new glass-making technique that elimina...November/December 2006 Annals of Family Medicine tip sheet
...th and reduced health care costs. A second study looks at ways to help inner-city health centers raise vaccination rates among high-risk children and finds that when a menu of tailored interventions (such as flu vaccines on a walk-in basis or reminder e-mails for clinicians) is implemented in inner-city ...Protein-based tumor biomarker predicts breast-cancer survival
...opulations are going to benefit most. Right now it looks like it may be most useful for predicting outcome and tailoring treatment in women whose tumors are hormone-receptor positive," Porter said....Math model predicts cancer behavior
...hing into a mass with finger-like projections that looks like an invasive tumor. The Vanderbilt professor of cancer biology envisions a future when computer simulations like this will be used to predict a tumor's clinical progression and formulate individualized treatment plans. For the last two years, he ...New breast CT scanner rivals mammography
...t with dense tissue on mammography film, the image looks cloudy. White blotches and spidery white streaks known as fibro glandular densities permeate the image, hiding small tumors in some cases. "It's like trying to find a snowman in a snowstorm," O'Connell said. Breast cancer is the most common (non-s...Autoimmune disease triggered if T cells miss a single protein early on
...s missing as the T cells go through the filter, it looks like this alone can lead to an autoimmune disease." "The finding supports the promise of treatments targeting individual body proteins or antigens since we have shown that a single self-antigen can trigger disease," he added. A similar mechanism m...Novel program enhances dementia caregivers' quality of life
...ram. Based on the current study, the REACH program looks promising for widespread community use, especially if the outcomes are replicated by other organizations and the program is found to be cost-effective when compared with alternatives, Stahl adds. The study was developed based on the findings of the...Increased patient demand for prostate test has serious implications for cancer services
...n PSA screening. "This is an excellent study which looks scientifically at the problems that may develop in the UK with the increase in PSA screening" he says....Targeted cancer drugs may work by disrupting balance of cellular signals
...he discovery of additional protein targets. "It looks like these drugs reduce the activity of their target proteins in such a way that cell-death signals remain high while survival signals drop," says Jeffrey Settleman, PhD, director of the Center for Molecular Therapeutics at the MGH Cancer Center, sen...Doctor urges health-care workers to be alert to suicide risk amongst cancer patients
...ales, such as head and neck cancer and myeloma, it looks as if issues around quality of life, coping, symptom control and psychological distress were important. The almost five-fold fewer recorded female suicides could mean that lower statistical power might account for the lack of a similar findings, or i...DNA computing targets West Nile Virus, other deadly diseases
...toe, the researcher says. The experimental device looks nothing like today's high-tech gaming consoles. MAYA-II consists of nine cell-culture wells arranged in a pattern that resembles a tic-tac-toe grid. Each well contains a solution of DNA material that is coded with "red" or "green" fluorescent dye. ...First major study of mammalian 'disorderly' proteins
...tion. For example, one protein named p27 initially looks like a Slinky TM toy. However, when p27 goes to work, it puts a vise-like grip on an enzyme that otherwise would promote uncontrolled cell division. The St. Jude team developed a technique that uses heat to isolate IUPs in large, purified quantiti...Jefferson Orthopaedic surgeons leading international study of timing of spinal surgery
...rheading a multicenter trial called STASCIS, which looks at timing of surgery, the timing of spinal reduction and a prospective evaluation of how patients do. STASCIS is an acronym for the Surgical Treatment of Acute Spinal Cord Injury Study. Begun in 2003, STASCIS is both an observational and prospecti...Physicians slow to integrate information technology into patient practice
...ome of these barriers may make a difference. "It looks like academic centers and HMOs are leading the way in more effectively integrating information technology into clinical care," says Grant. "We need to find ways to help the practices that are lagging behind. It's not only the costs of installing ne...Health facility births key to substantially reducing maternal mortality worldwide
...n safe motherhood. The third paper in the series looks at what is needed to scale-up professional care worldwide. The author's state that the immediate priority for governments and donors should be to invest in the training, deployment and retention of skilled attendants, especially midwives. The sheer l...