September 28, 2006, 10:02 PM CT
High-resolution CT For Shin Splints
Shin splints may develop in the muscles in the front and outer parts of the shin.
Image courtesy of Merck
High resolution CT can accurately show medial tibial stress syndrome, better known as shin splints, in distance runners according, to a study conducted at the University of Messina in Messina, Italy.
As per the study, medial tibial stress syndrome is one of a number of overuse lower leg injuries that may be found in athletes and accounts for between 13.2% and 17.3% of all running injuries.
For the study, high-resolution CT of both tibiae (shin bones) waccording toformed on 41 subjects: 20 distance runners with no symptoms of shin splints, 11 distance runners with pain due to shin splints and 10 volunteers not involved in a sport. A total of 82 shin bones, 14 painful and 68 painless, were reviewed. Among the distance runners, CT abnormalities were found in 14 of 14 (100%) painful tibiae in patients with shin splints.
"The study demonstrates that CT is capable of revealing cortical abnormalities in medial tibial stress syndrome, thus representing a reliable diagnostic tool in patients with leg pain," said Fabio Minutoli, MD, lead author of the study.
"The results are useful for the management of athletes, especially long distance runners. Moreover, we believe that CT can be used in research studies, to evaluate other subtle bone abnormalities; for example it can be useful in studies concerning osteoporosis," said Dr. Minutoli.........
Posted by: Rose Permalink Source
September 27, 2006, 9:27 PM CT
Finger Length Ratio May Predict Women's Sporting Prowess
The difference between the lengths of a woman's index and ring fingers may indicate her sporting prowess, suggests research published ahead of print in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
The finding supports other research indicating a possible link between this ratio and fertility, vulnerability to serious disease, intellectual ability, certain personality traits, and musical talent.
Most of the sporting research in this area has so far focused exclusively on men.
The scientists base their findings on x ray pictures of the right and left hands of 607 female twins, whose average age was 53. Most were right handed.
The second to fourth finger ratio was calculated by dividing the length of the index (second) finger by that of the (fourth) ring finger.
Study participants were also asked to rank their highest achievement in a wide range of individual and team sports, since the age of 11.
Participation levels were highest for swimming, cycling, tennis and running in descending order.
The association with finger ratio was highest for running, soccer, and tennis. The highest achievement in any sport was strongly associated with a low second to fourth finger ratio. Running ability was especially linked to a low (male pattern) ratio.........
Posted by: Rose Permalink Source
September 19, 2006, 5:13 AM CT
Fatty Acids Essential In Liver Regeneration
Liver regulates lipid, carbohydrate and protein metabolism. It also segregates many proteins and enzymes, and eliminates toxic substances from the organism. Liver regeneration is a mostly unknown process at a molecular level, eventhough it is essential for the good functioning of the liver, and indispensable in order to carry out some therapeutic strategies, such as living-donor transplant. The journal Science publishes in its next issue a research article where scientists from IDIBAPS, in collaboration with Universitat de Barcelona (UB) and Queensland University (Australia) discover the importance of caveolin-1 in liver regeneration. Without this protein, regeneration does not occur. This research work has been directed by Dr. Albert Pol, one of the first scientists with a Ramon y Cajal contract; and Dr. Carles Enrich, from the Department of Cell Biology and Pathological Anatomy from the Faculty of Medicine of the UB. The first signatories of this article are Manuel A. Fernández and Cecilia Albor.
Stem cells do not participate in liver regeneration, but hepatocytes, cells of the liver tissue, are able to regain their division capacity when needed. In a normal liver, hepatocytes do not divide, but during regeneration, all liver cells duplicate at least once. For this system to function, a fine regulation system is needed, permitting the hepatocyte to accumulate energetic reserves in the form of lipid accumulations, and starting the genetic machinery for division. IDIBAPS scientists studied the role of caveolin-1 in this process, comparing the regenerative capacity of normal mice and modified mice, which do not express the caveolin-1 gene. Both types of mice were extirpated 70% of their liver mass, and differences in regeneration process were analysed through microscopic and molecular techniques.........
Posted by: Rose Permalink Source
September 18, 2006, 9:46 PM CT
CAM For Insomnia
A new study reveals that over 1.6 million American adults use some form of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) to treat insomnia or trouble sleeping* according to scientists at the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), part of the National Institutes of Health. The data came from the 2002 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In 2002 the NHIS, an in-person, annual health survey, included over 31,000 U.S. adults aged 18 years and older. A CAM supplement to the survey asked about the use of 27 types of CAM therapies, as well as a variety of medical conditions for which CAM may be used, including insomnia or trouble sleeping. Survey results show that over 17 percent of adults reported trouble sleeping or insomnia in the past 12 months. Of those with insomnia or trouble sleeping, 4.5 percent--more than 1.6 million people--used some form of CAM to treat their condition.
"These data offer some new insights regarding the prevalence of insomnia or trouble sleeping in the United States and the types of CAM therapies people use to treat these conditions," said Dr. Margaret A. Chesney, Acting Director of NCCAM. "They will help us develop new research questions regarding the safety and efficacy of the CAM therapies being used".........
Posted by: Rose Permalink Source
September 9, 2006, 9:29 AM CT
Donor Limb Onto A Patient's Body
Image courtesy of Jewish Hospital; Kleinert, Kutz and Associates Hand Care Center; and University of Louisville
Years ago, the idea of attaching a donor limb onto a patient's body would have been the stuff of science fiction. But to date about two-dozen people around the world have received hand transplants. Thomas Tung, M.D., conducts research within this relatively unorthodox realm of surgery, investigating therapies that could potentially allow the body to accept donor tissue without the use of immunosuppressive medication.
A Washington University plastic and reconstructive surgeon at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, Tung has reattached patients' own hands, but he has never performed a hand transplant - he feels the health risks of immunosuppressive drugs are too high to warrant the surgery. But with his research, he is working toward the day when reconstructive surgery can make use of donor tissues without the danger of complications from anti-rejection medicine or the risk of tissue rejection.
"Once we figure this out, it's going to open up a new whole field of reconstructive surgery," says Tung, assistant professor of surgery. "It will allow surgeons to replace not just injured hands, but lips, noses, ears, scalp and other specialized tissues anywhere on the body".
To reach this goal, Tung has been researching transplantation of hindlimbs to mice from unrelated donors - but here's the twist - without giving the mice immunosuppressive drugs. At this time, Tung is the only researcher in the United States investigating limb transplantation with this protocol, which uses proteins called costimulation-blocking antibodies.........
Posted by: Rose Permalink Source
September 9, 2006, 5:31 AM CT
Methods For Analyzing Protein Interactions
Cold Spring Harbor Protocols, an online journal that publishes methods used in a wide range of biology laboratories, has added over 40 new peer-evaluated protocols to its archive today. The new collection highlights two techniques for characterizing protein interactions, which will aid a number of cell and molecular biologists--including those who seek to identify the molecular basis of human diseases. Both of these methods are freely accessible from the journal's website:
www.cshprotocols.orgGiven the importance of characterizing the molecular networks and signaling pathways that form the biological basis of all living organisms, techniques aimed at probing protein interactions have come to the forefront in recent years. The new methods published recently by
CSH Protocols will be useful for scientists seeking to identify the molecular partners--such as other proteins or DNA--to which specific proteins bind.
The featured protocols describe how proteins of interest can be labeled with detectable markers and then used to probe thousands of different DNA and protein sequences. The protein-DNA and protein-protein interactions that are identified will eventually be useful for tracking down the causes of diseases, as well as for designing new drugs to aid in their prevention and therapy.........
Posted by: Rose Permalink Source
September 7, 2006, 6:23 PM CT
Chickenpox Basics
Chickenpox, also spelled chicken pox, is the common name for Varicella simplex, classically one of the childhood infectious diseases caught and survived by most children.
Chickenpox is caused by the varicella-zoster virus (VZV), also known as human herpes virus 3 (HHV-3), one of the eight herpes viruses known to affect humans. It starts with conjunctival and catarrhal symptoms, moderate fever and then characteristic spots appearing in two or three waves, mainly on the body and head rather than the hands and becoming itchy raw pox (pocks), small open sores which heal mostly without scarring.
Chickenpox has a two-week incubation period and is highly contagious by air transmission two days before symptoms appear. Following primary infection there is usually lifelong protective immunity from further episodes of chickenpox. Recurrent chickenpox is fairly rare but more likely in people with compromised immune systems.........
Posted by: Rose Permalink Source
September 7, 2006, 4:55 AM CT
A Mouse Lacking Key Inflammation Gene
What about a mouse which has no inflammation gene? In a paper published yesterday in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS), scientists from Boston University School of Dental Medicine generated a mouse model exhibiting reduced inflammation.
The Boston University scientists observed that the transcription factor LITAF (Lipopolysaccharide [LPS]-Induced TNF-Alpha Factor) controls inflammation through a completely different pathway than the better known and studied NF-kB transcriptional regulator.
Drugs regulating TNF-alpha through the better-known NF-kB pathway such as Remicade, Embrel, and Humira represent a multibillion market. The LITAF transcription factor offers a new approach to treating inflammatory disorders along with other immunological conditions. Scientists are offering this in vivo model for sale to spearhead discovery of drugs against inflammatory disorders such as arthritis and Crohn's disease.
In the study, Boston University scientists created a mouse lacking the gene that encodes for the LITAF protein. They observed that several cytokines were induced at lower levels in the LITAF-deficient mice compared with the levels observed in the LITAF-positive control mice. Specifically, the deficient mice were more resistant to LPS-induced lethality.........
Posted by: Rose Permalink Source
September 6, 2006, 4:48 AM CT
Cardiac Arrests In Lower Income Neighborhoods
A team of Oregon Health & Science University researchers have found that the incidence of sudden cardiac arrest, one of the nation's most lethal public health problems, was 30 percent to 80 percent higher in the lowest socioeconomic-status neighborhoods in a large urban community than in the high-status areas in that community during the two-year period evaluated. The disparity was most acute for those younger than 65.
The findings were based on a study of 714 cases of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) in Multnomah County, Ore., reported between February 2002 and January 2004 by the county emergency medical services system, the county medical examiner and 16 area hospitals. At the outset of the study the county had a population of more than 660,000 people. The findings, the most recent to come from OHSU's ongoing Oregon Sudden Unexpected Death Study (Ore-SUDS) group, are being published recently in Resuscitation, a monthly interdisciplinary journal of clinical and basic science research relating to acute care medicine and cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
Ninety-eight percent, or 697, of the SCA cases surveyed had residential addresses in one of the county's 170 census tracts. The tracts were divided into quartiles for each of four measures: median household income, percent of population below the federal poverty level, median home value and percent of population older than 25 with at least a bachelor's degree. For each of the four measures, SCA incidence rates were lowest in the highest socioeconomic status quartiles. Annual incidence of SCAs in census tracts in the lowest versus highest quartiles of median home value was 60.5 versus 35.1 per 100,000. The differential was much more exaggerated for the median home value measure in the younger than 65 population, where it was 34.5 versus 15.1 per 100,000.........
Posted by: Rose Permalink Source
August 27, 2006, 7:54 PM CT
Mitochondrial DNA sequencing tool updated
High-tech laboratory tools, like computers, are often updated publicly as their analytical capabilities expand. In the recent issue of the Journal of Molecular Diagnostics, NIH grantees report they have developed a second generation "lab on a silicon chip" called the MitoChip v2.0 that for the first time rapidly and reliably sequences all mitochondrial DNA. Mitochondria, the energy-producing organelles that power our cells, are unique because they are equipped with their own genetic instructions distinct from the DNA stored in the cell nucleus.
The authors say their full-sequence chip will be a key tool in accelerating research on mitochondrial DNA, a growing area of scientific interest. This interest stems from data that suggests natural sequence variations and/or mutations in each person's mitochondrial DNA could be biologically informative in fields as diverse as cancer diagnostics, gerontology, and criminal forensics.
As per Dr. Joseph Califano, a scientist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore and senior author on the paper, the MitoChip v2.0 showed in his group's hands better sensitivity that its predecessor to sequence variations in head and neck cancer samples. The v2.0 also detected nearly three dozen variations in the non-coding D-loop, long considered to be a sequencing no-man's land and which the original MitoChip did not include.........
Posted by: Rose Permalink Source
Older Blog Entries
Older Blog Entries
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
