Health and Medicine

Four annual mass treatments of single doses of safe and inexpensive drugs found effective

Researchers report in the December 5 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine reaching an important milestone in learning how to halt a major mosquito-borne disease affecting 120 million people around the world. The disease, called lymphatic filariasis and commonly known as elephantiasis, is a leading cause of physical disfigurement, social ostracism, and economic loss throughout Africa, Asia

Scientists at Emory University School of Medicine have identified a signaling pathway that is turned on when benign moles turn into early-stage malignant melanoma. The pathway could provide a new target for the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of the most lethal form of skin cancer. The research was reported in the December issue of the journal Clinical Cancer Research.

A team of Emory scientists led by Jack L. Arbiser, MD, PhD, found that the signaling pathway called mitogen activated p

Heart disease is the most frequent, costly and severe complication of diabetes, affecting more than 70 percent of diabetic patients. There are geographic and ethnic differences in the risk of diabetic heart disease that cannot be fully explained by differences in conventional heart disease risk factors. Using a simple blood test, researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have identified a gene that determines which diabetes patients are at greater risk for developing heart disease. U

Research may assist in the development of more effective vaccines and ability to boost immune systems of susceptible patients, such as the elderly

A key discovery about the immune system’s skill to fight off harmful disease-causing germs may lead to the ability to boost the immune systems of the elderly and otherwise susceptible, and offer more effective vaccines for the flu or AIDS, according to a study published in the November 29 issue of Science.

“This research is o

A new first-aid method of treating carbon monoxide poisoning could prevent brain damage in patients by delivering more oxygen to the brain than the standard treatment, according to a study by physicians at the Toronto General Hospital, University Health Network (UHN).

The study is published in the December issue of the U.S. based and peer-reviewed journal Annals of Emergency Medicine. The researchers, led by Dr. Josh Rucker, a Toronto General Hospital research fellow and resident in the Ane

Hopkins radiologists have found that a combination of positron emission tomography (PET) and computed tomography (CT) detects cancer spread better than PET alone. In a study to be presented at the Radiological Society of North America (Abstract #1458, 10:57 AM, Thursday, December 5, Room S502AB), researchers reported that overall, PET-CT improves the ability to distinguish cancerous from normal tissue and locate metastases, where they have spread. The study used a scanner that fuses CT technology, wh