Studies and Analyses

A new study has found hepatic steatosis – fatty liver disease – in nearly one third of American adults in a large urban population sample. The prevalence of the disease varied significantly among ethnic groups. Hispanics had a higher prevalence than whites, while blacks had a lower prevalence than whites. The study is found in the December 2004 issue of Hepatology, the official journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD). Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hepa

Despite aggressive treatment, glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) – the most common and deadly of brain cancers – usually claims the lives of its victims within six to 12 months of diagnosis. This statistic has changed little over the years, largely because the cancer grows so quickly that neither surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy can stop it.

Now, researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center have found that a small protein called hsFlt3L delivered via a genetically engineered virus incr

Cuba, South Africa, India, China, Brazil among nations showing the way

Study co-authors are available for advance interviews Friday Dec. 3. Please call to schedule a time. The study will be published as a special supplement Mon. Dec 6 in Nature Biotechnology. The embargoed study can be previewed by media online at http://www.utoronto.ca/jcb/home/news_nature.htm

Cuba, South Korea, and India make and export their own biotech vaccines, Egypt manufactures recombinant insulin

In the first epidemiological study designed and executed specifically to determine the heart-attack risk associated with COX-2 inhibitors rofecoxib (Vioxx) and celecoxib (Celebrex), researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine found a greater risk of heart attack associated with Vioxx than Celebrex, although neither of the two drugs showed a statistically significant elevated risk of heart attack relative to people who did not use the drugs. In addition, the researchers found

Doctors appear willing to use intensive treatment to lessen otherwise untreatable pain or other severe symptoms in dying patients even if the treatment, at least in theory, risks hastening the dying process, according to two University of Iowa and Yale University studies on end-of-life care.

Known as “terminal sedation,” the practice involves the use of sedating medications to control a patient’s symptoms even if it results in decreased or complete loss of consciousnes

Imagination is alive and thriving in the minds of America’s school-age children. It is so prevalent that 65 percent of children report that, by the age of 7, they have had an imaginary companion at some point in their lives, according to a new study by University of Washington and University of Oregon psychologists.

The research also indicates that having an imaginary companion is at least as common among school-age children as it is among preschoolers. Thirty-one percent of