Maternal obesity prior to pregnancy associated with birth defects
...organs to move into the chest cavity and may cause lungs to be underdeveloped Omphalocele, in which the intestines or other abdominal organs protrude out through the navel Mothers of babies with gastroschisis, which is similar to omphalocele but involves organs protruding through a defect in the abdo...Inhaled nitric oxide safe for tiny preemie lungs, UCSF study finds
... terms of surfactant function, Ballard said. The lungs of very premature infants are underdeveloped, frag...surfactant, a lipid-protein mixture that coats the lungs and greatly reduces surface tension. Surfactant essentially allows the lungs to inflate easily af...Low hospital staff levels increase infection rates
...ent safety. VAP is caused by bacteria entering the lungs as a consequence of the ventilator tubing and is one of the most common preventable problem affecting critically ill hospital patients. It can cause a stay of about an average of 10 extra days in hospital at a cost of US$10,000 to $40,000....UT study reveals inaccuracies in cardiac PET-CT imaging, finds fixes
...cial software does not account for movement in the lungs and heart while the patient is breathing during the test, Gould said, and as a result, the PET and CT images dont always match or co-register. Consequently, the images have big holes or gaps where the processing is incorrect in areas where the PET an...Smoking rate has plummeted in New York City
...ally depicted tobacco smokes effects on the brain, lungs and arteries, showing testimonials from sick and dying smokers and their children, including former smoker Ronaldo Martinez, who now breaths through a hole in his throat as a result of smoking-related cancer. In a separate recent survey, nine out of ...Explaining a link between strokes and Alzheimer's
...xygen. It can be anything that stops the heart and lungs working together to their optimal capabilities. The research centred on the damage done by these low-oxygen incidents to a group of brain cells called astrocytes. When the brain is functioning normally, it makes connections through the release of t...World first medical treatment announced by researchers
... likely to be responsible for the fibrosis, as the lungs try to repair the damage done by free radicals. In order to establish whether oxidative stress was indeed associated with episodes of bleeding into the lungs, we measured a biomarker of oxidative stress, and a marker of damage to DNA specifically, ...Human antibodies protect mice from avian flu
...wo protective H5N1 mAbs had levels of virus in the lungs that were 10 to 100 times lower than those in control mice, and little or no virus moved beyond the lungs. The investigators also tested the therapeutic potential of the human H5N1 mAbs. Using blood products from influenza survivors is an old idea...More pounds equals worse asthma?
...irways seen in asthma. Obesity also may impact the lungs in other ways to increase the risk of asthma. A recent review of studies, which was published in the ATS's own American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, suggested that asthma incidence could be reduced by interventions targeting ov...'Healthy' children with smoking parents aren't really so healthy
...mes, thereby increasing the harm to the developing lungs of children. "We may see an increase in diminished lung function in children of smokers because of this trend," he said....Commonly used drug offers promise for premature babies
...rix. Steroids, commonly used to help develop the lungs of a premature infant, can help prevent bleeds too. And recent research has shown that indomethacin, which like celecoxib is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, has been shown to help prevent such bleeds and is used to treat premature infants for...Dealing deadly cancers a knockout punch
... For patients with deadly soft tissue sarcoma, the lungs are the most common site of metastatic disease. To date, surgery has been the only effective therapy for metastatic sarcoma. The multi-center, Phase II study follows successful completion of systemic administration trials with Reolysin in the U.K. ...Percutaneous aortic valve replacement safe, successful in high-risk patients
...he body. The result is a back-up of fluid into the lungs and severe shortness of breath with even minimal activity. With the CoreValve system, aortic valve replacement is performed by threading a special delivery catheter through the femoral artery in the groin and into the aorta in a direction opposite,...Procedural changes may reduce cardiac arrests outside pediatric ICUs
...Team, whenever warning signs indicated a patient's lungs or heart might stop working. Previously, staff summoned the team only after starting cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) after a cardiac arrest. "Our goal was to get patients moved to the PICU and a higher level of care sooner, hoping to prevent an...Early onset of poor bone mineralization revealed in children with cystic fibrosis
...tions that affect the digestive tract and plug the lungs with mucus. About 1 in every 2,500 white babies is born with this difficulty. The disease is much less common in Blacks and Asians. The authors believe that their observations of a reduction in bone mineral density, even in healthy children in earl...Doctors ill equipped to confront parent smoking
...d pneumonia and ear infections. The developing lungs of young children are severely affected by exposure to secondhand smoke for several reasons including that children are still developing physically, have higher breathing rates than adults, and have little control over their indoor environments. Pr...Penn study on lung-infecting bacterial enzyme suggests new approach to cystic fibrosis treatment
...ed sphingomyelinase (SMase), disables a protein in lungs called CFTR, for cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator. SMase is made by the bacteria that cause pneumonia, some anthrax-causing bacteria, and bacteria that cause opportunistic infections in CF and AIDS patients. In healthy lungs, CFT...Weak immune response critical to disease that causes most infant hospitalizations
...on virus. Scientists blamed an overreaction in the lungs by specific immune-system cells, T lymphocytes (also known as "T cells"), for the most severe symptoms of infection. But now, researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB), the State University of New York at Buffalo, th...Radiofrequency ablation effective treatment for inoperable lung cancer
...often are of advanced age and have highly diseased lungs and impaired heart function, making them poor candidates for invasive surgery. The same conditions can also make it difficult for patients to be treated with EBT, which directs focused beams of radiation at a tumor to destroy the abnormal cells. C...A closer look inside our lungs -- Penn researchers develop 2 novel imaging techniques
...techniques to look more closely inside the working lungs - leading to early detection of diseases, like emp...modes of imaging. "Up until now, imaging the way lungs function in real time has been limited by conventional methods which result in rather low resolution...