Health and Medicine

By taking continuous electrocardiogram (ECG) readings for 24 hours after treating heart attack patients, Duke University Medical Center researches have shown that giving a combination of a new drug that prevents platelets from clumping together, as well as a clot-busting drug, opens up clogged arteries faster and keeps them open longer.

The researchers found that giving the anti-clotting drug eptifibatide along with a half-dose tenecteplase (TNK) — a genetically altered version of the comm

New research carried out by scientists at partner institutions UWIC (University of Wales Institute, Cardiff), University of Wales College of Medicine (UWCM) in Cardiff and the University of Waikato, New Zealand, has found sensitivity to honey of wound infecting bacteria.

In a report published in the November 2002 issue of Journal of Applied Microbiology, Dr Rose Cooper (UWIC), Professor Peter Molan MBE (University of Waikato) and Professor Keith Harding (UWCM) explain: “In laboratory tests,

Flavonoids that are found in fruit, vegetables, chocolate, tea, wine, and grape juice reduce cellular oxidative stress and are associated with a reduced risk of heart disease and cancer. Concord grape juice is a rich source of flavonoids, but it has not been compared to antioxidant supplements in terms of its efficacy in reducing oxidative stress. In an article in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, O’Byrne et al. compared the effects of Concord grape juice (CGJ) and antioxidant suppleme

Research by US scientists has produced a novel finding about the effect on cancer of an important DNA repair gene and, as a result, identified the first clinically useful independent prognostic marker for early stage resected patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

Their results should help doctors in the future to determine which of their patients with non small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC)[1] who have undergone surgery with curative intent are likeliest to suffer from recurrences or relapse

A new imaging method successfully identifies miniscule, young blood vessels that form during the development of plaques, according to a study in rabbits led by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. These plaques are akin to atherosclerosis in humans, the primary cause of heart attack and stroke.

“We’ve developed a way to take non-invasive images of very early plaques, before they’re detectable by any other means,” says Samuel A. Wickline, M.D., professor of medici

Researchers at Stanford University Medical Center have found that selective COX-2 inhibitors – a class of medications widely prescribed for painful inflammatory conditions such as osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis – interfere with the healing process after a bone fracture or cementless joint implant surgery.Their findings, published in the November issue of the Journal of Orthopaedic Research, suggest that patients who regularly take COX-2 inhibitors should switch to a different medication, suc