Studies and Analyses

Elderly people living in residential homes are at significantly lower risk of hip fracture if they fall on carpeted wooden floors than onto any other type of flooring, says new research from the University of Warwick in a recently published report.

Changing floor coverings could have a real impact on the number of hip fractures suffered by the elderly. The study from Warwick’s Centre for Primary Healthcare Studies and the University of Edinburgh, published in May’s edition of the journal Ag

More and more, physicians are using the left ventricular assist device, or LVAD, to sustain patients who are awaiting heart transplants. The surgically implanted mechanical device takes over for weak and diseased hearts, acting as a bridge to transplant surgery.

For the LVAD to work optimally, however, the aortic valve, which releases oxygen-rich blood from the heart into the body, must be free from disease. In a study presented Thursday (April 22, 2004) at the International Society of Hear

Even biology majors may not have heard much about archaea. Along with bacteria and eukarya (which encompass every organism from fungi to mammals), the elusive microbes make up one of the three domains of life. Now researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have for the first time tied a specific disease to one of these unfamiliar organisms.

“It’s not surprising that no one has really heard about them; archaea have still not even penetrated mainstream biology textbooks,”

The meat of Australia’s bush kangaroo may be the highest known source of the healthy fat CLA, a University of Western Australia and CSIRO sponsored PhD student has discovered.

CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) is found in dairy products, beef and lamb.

In trials, CLA has been shown to possess potential anti-carcinogenic and anti-diabetes properties, in addition to reducing obesity and atherosclerosis (high blood pressure). PhD student Clare Engelke has found that the meat-fat of

Multiple births — twins, triplets or more babies in one pregnancy — have more risks of infant death and long-term disabilities such as cerebral palsy than births of single babies do. However, many couples seeking infertility treatments desire multiples and have poor knowledge particularly about the risks for twins, a University of Iowa study reported.

The investigation found that one in five women seeking treatment desired multiples over having a singleton, or one baby. While patients usu

A brain imaging study has shown that, after they overcome their reading disability, the brains of formerly poor readers begin to function like the brains of good readers, showing increased activity in a part of the brain that recognizes words. The study appears in the May 1 Biological Psychiatry and was funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), one of the National Institutes of Health.

“These images show that effective reading instruction not only impro