Health and Medicine

Working with guinea pigs, Johns Hopkins scientists have created what is believed to be the first biologic pacemaker for the heart, paving the way for a genetically engineered alternative to implanted electronic pacemakers. The advance, reported in the Sept. 12 issue of Nature, uses gene therapy to convert a small fraction of guinea pigs’ heart muscle cells into specialized “pacing” cells.

“We now can envision a day when it will be possible to recreate an individual’s pacemaker cel

Patients who have recently undergone an operation experience less breathing problems after being given a cocktail of vitamins C and E. This is the conclusion reached by researchers from the Leiden University Medical Center following experiments with patients and healthy volunteers.

During the first two to three days after a major abdominal operation, most patients have frequent episodes of airway obstruction and hypoxaemia. This can lead to an increase in the heart rate and blood pressure, w

Raw garlic consumption may help limit the damage done to the heart after surgery because if its natural antioxidant properties, according to a new study published in BMC Pharmacology.

After a heart attack it is important to restore the flow of blood to the heart so that damage to the heart muscle can be minimised. However, the return of blood flow can paradoxically cause further damage, so called “ischemic-reperfusion injury, due to the release of free radicals. Free radicals cause oxidativ

Pilot project for stroke victims to begin this fall

A Queen’s neuroscientist’s invention to help understand the role of the brain in arm and leg movement will dramatically improve the assessment and rehabilitation of stroke and spinal cord victims. It will also help lay the groundwork for development of neural prostheses that can re-activate paralyzed limbs.

Dr. Stephen Scott’s unique mathematical model, combined with his new experimental device, KINARM (Kines

Another piece of the complex puzzle of how inflammation is involved in heart attacks and strokes has been discovered by researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine.

Their findings demonstrate that C-reactive protein (CRP) binds to oxidized low density lipoprotein (LDL), implicating the interaction of CRP and oxidized LDL as a potential trigger for the cascade of events leading to atherosclerosis. This form of artery disease is characterized by the buildup

Scientists from the University of Edinburgh are using immune cells harvested from blood donors to help fight an unusual cancer which can affect transplant patients. And their findings, published recently in The Lancet show that the therapy has proved effective in a number of cases. The treatment proved successful last year in saving the life of a four-year-old boy from Birmingham, who developed the cancer— post-transplant lympho-proliferative disease— following a liver and bowel transplant.