February 13, 2007, 9:26 PM CT

Enzyme for growth of abdominal aortic aneurysms

Surgery is the only therapy for an abdominal aortic aneurysm, a weak spot in the body's main artery that dilates dangerously over time. If the vessel ruptures suddenly before surgery to repair it, a quick death is virtually certain. Now, researchers say they have identified a key enzyme that triggers chronic inflammation in the aorta and promotes the growth of aneurysms. Their finding raises hopes for developing a drug that could prevent small aneurysms from enlarging to the point where surgery is necessary.

Genetically engineered mice that lack the enzyme dipeptidyl peptidase I (DPPI) do not develop aortic aneurysms, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis report in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U.S.A. "We think DPPI is a viable therapeutic target that may keep the growth of aortic aneurysms in check, so they don't become life threatening," says Robert W. Thompson, M.D., professor of surgery and one of the senior researchers on the article.

The new research shows that DPPI is critical for the recruitment of inflammatory cells to the aortic wall, and that these cells push the inflammation from an acute phase into a chronic phase. The scientists suspect that this chronic inflammation eventually causes other enzymes to eat away at the structural proteins of the aorta, causing the vessel to balloon slowly and ultimately rupture in patients whose aortas are greatly distended......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

February 12, 2007, 10:02 PM CT

Simpler Way To Cure Atrial Fibrillation

Physicians have an effective new option for treating atrial fibrillation, a common irregular heart rhythm that can cause stroke. Heart surgeons at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have developed and tested a device that radically shortens and simplifies a complex surgical procedure that has had the best long-term cure rate for persistent atrial fibrillation.

The simplified procedure is termed Cox-maze IV, and the surgeons believe it can replace the older "cut and sew" Cox-maze III in which ten precisely placed incisions in the heart muscle created a "maze" to redirect errant electrical impulses.

"This technology has made the Cox-maze procedure much easier and quicker to perform," says Ralph Damiano Jr., M.D., the John Shoenberg Professor of Surgery and chief of cardiac surgery at the School of Medicine and a cardiac surgeon at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. "Instead of reserving the Cox-maze procedure for a select group of patients, we would urge use of this device for virtually all patients who have atrial fibrillation and are scheduled for other cardiac surgery."

The device is a clamplike instrument that heats heart tissue using radiofrequency energy. By holding areas of the heart within the jaws of the device, surgeons can create lines of ablation, or scar tissue, on the heart muscle. In the older Cox-maze III procedure, the lines of ablation were made by cutting the heart muscle, sewing the incisions back together and letting a scar form. The ablation lines redirect the abnormal electrical currents responsible for atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rhythm in which the upper heart chambers or atria wriggle like a bag of worms......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

February 12, 2007, 8:58 PM CT

Natural Selection Continues

Some breaking news, just in time for Valentine's Day: Scientists have identified something called "sperm competition" that they think has evolved to ensure a genetic future. In sexual reproduction, natural selection is generally thought of as something that happens previous to and in fact leads to -- the Big Event. This thinking holds, for example, that we are drawn to physical features that tell us our partner is healthy and will give us a fighting chance to carry on our genetic lineage. But a new article in the recent issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science suggests that the human male has evolved mechanisms to pass on his genes during post-copulation as well, a phenomenon dubbed "sperm competition." .

In their article, Todd Shackelford and Aaron Goetz at Florida Atlantic University describe this as "the inevitable consequence of males competing for fertilizations."

How much more romantic can you get?

For a monogamous species, sperm competition may seem beside the point. But as per the authors, extra curricular copulations (i.e. affairs) appear to be a significant part of our ancestral history and could, evolutionarily speaking, spell disaster. A male whose female partner engages in some off-line dalliances unwittingly may be investing his resources food, protection, credit rating -- in a genetically unrelated offspring......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

February 12, 2007, 8:56 PM CT

For Individuals With Genetic Disorders

A new study reported in the February 2007 issue of the American Journal of Medical Genetics reveals that individuals with genetic conditions are twice as likely to report having been denied health insurance than individuals with other chronic illnesses. The Johns Hopkins University study also observed that nearly 60 percent of all study participants believe a health insurance company can obtain medical information about them without their permission. Scientists conducted in-depth, personal interviews of 597 adults for the project, thought to bethe first large-scale study to systematically compare and contrast the health insurance experiences, attitudes, and beliefs of persons with genetic conditions versus individuals with other serious medical conditions. Respondents (or their children) had sickle cell disease, cystic fibrosis, breast cancer, colon cancer, diabetes, or HIV.

"Anyone with chronic medical conditions should be legitimately concerned about access to health insurance, but individuals with genetic conditions may have additional reasons to worry," said principal investigator Nancy Kass, ScD, deputy director for public health at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics and a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "We learned that there is considerable concern about being denied health insurance because of a genetic condition, as well as maintaining some privacy about the status of that condition"......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

February 9, 2007, 4:43 AM CT

Where Do We Draw The Line?

This October is the 40th year of the passing of the UK Abortion Act is certain to be marked by attempts to reopen the debate about lowering the upper limit for legal terminations. In a special report in this weeks BMJ, journalist Jonathan Gornall examines current arguments for reform.

Any challenge to the upper limit of 24 weeks poses big questions about viability, infant suffering, and the capabilities of neonatal care, writes Gornall and the danger is that this vital debate is taking place increasingly on emotional rather than scientific grounds.

The ProLife Alliance can take much of the credit for having put abortion back on the public and political agenda over the past decade. The organisation was set up in 1996 as a political party to show the reality of abortion and was also behind the ultimately failed attempt in 2003 by Joanna Jepson, a trainee vicar, to have police prosecute two doctors over the late abortion of a fetus with a cleft lip and palate.

Now the alliance has turned its attention away from pictures of dead babies to 4D ultrasound images of live ones in the womb.

The technique was pioneered by Stuart Campbell, head of obstetrics and gynaecology at St Georges Hospital, London, who is convinced that his 4D images have undermined the validity of the current time limit for abortion.........

Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

February 9, 2007, 4:29 AM CT

Restless Legs Syndrome And Compulsive Gambling

Compulsive gambling with extreme losses -- in two cases, greater than $100,000 -- by people without a previous history of gambling problems has been associated with a class of drugs usually used to treat the neurological disorder restless legs syndrome (RLS). A new Mayo Clinic study is the first to describe this compulsive gambling in RLS patients who are being treated with medications that stimulate dopamine receptors in the brain. The Mayo Clinic report appeared in the Jan. 23 issue of Neurology (http://www.neurology.org).

The extent of this problem is unknown. Apparently, it occurs only in a small number of RLS patients treated with drugs called dopamine agonists. Considering this potential side effect of dopamine agonists, the Mayo Clinic authors suggest that physicians screen all RLS patients for compulsive behaviors while taking a thorough medical history previous to prescribing dopamine agonists. Patients should be monitored closely for signs of compulsive behaviors once dopamine agonist therapy has begun. The report shows that the compulsion to gamble worsened with increasing doses of the dopamine agonists.

Current Report Builds on Earlier Findings.

Pathological gambling is an impulse control disorder. In 2005, Mayo Clinic physicians reported this disorder as a side effect of dopamine agonist treatment in 11 Parkinson disease patients. "Eventhough pathologic gambling has already been recognized in patients with Parkinson disease who often took high doses of dopamine agonists, the current report shows that pathological gambling is not restricted to patients with Parkinson disease -- and also can occur at low dosages" explains Maja Tippmann-Peikert, M.D., the lead author of the Mayo Clinic report on restless legs syndrome. "Physicians should not only monitor Parkinson disease patients for this behavior but also screen their RLS patients who may be on much lower doses of dopamine agonists." This includes encouraging the patient, family members and friends to report negative behaviors to the patient's physician.........

Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

February 8, 2007, 9:59 PM CT

Study Profiles Rate Of Autism In Wisconsin

A Wisconsin autism surveillance project reported today that approximately five out of every 1,000 Wisconsin children born in 1994 display symptoms indicative of autism.

The Wisconsin Surveillance of Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities System, part of a national study overseen by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, reviewed children in the first phase of a study to determine the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders in the U.S. The national study is the largest effort to date to obtain accurate counts and monitor affected populations over time. The CDC today (Feb. 8) released the first set of results from the project, reporting autism prevalence in study sites nationwide among children born in 1994.

Reported cases of autism - a developmental neurological disorder characterized by avoidance of social interactions, poor communication skills, and unusual behaviors - have increased dramatically over the past 15 years, but it is unclear whether those increases simply reflect growing awareness and recognition of the disorder or something more, says Maureen Durkin, an epidemiologist in the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health and leader of the Wisconsin project.

"The public health community was caught off-guard by the increasing numbers published in the 1990s," she says. "But there was no system in place for monitoring autism".........

Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

February 8, 2007, 8:50 PM CT

new vaccine effective against deadly viral disease

Scientists from Kansas State University's College of Veterinary Medicine have completed a study showing that a newly-developed vaccine is effective against a deadly viral disease that is affecting swine herds in Kansas.

The disease, most widely known as porcine circovirus associated disease, was first recognized in Kansas swine herds in November 2005. The disease complex is an immunosuppressive condition linked to porcine circovirus type 2 or PCV2.

Clinical signs of the disease in pigs include extreme and sudden weight loss, immune suppression, labored breathing, jaundice and diarrhea. Typically more severe cases of the syndrome are characterized by skin lesions, neurological deterioration, kidney failure and eventually death. Swine producers with infected herds have experienced a death loss of 20 percent to 40 percent in finisher pigs, which are pigs between 10 weeks to 20 weeks of age. This has resulted in a devastating economic loss.

The scientists began a field trial in summer 2006, testing a vaccine in commercial development. The researchers, all from the department of diagnostic medicine and pathobiology, were Bob Rowland, Dick Hesse, Steve Dritz, Jerome Nietfeld and Kyle Horlen. The field trial, directed by Dritz and Horlen, was conducted on a family-owned swine farm in northeast Kansas and concluded in January with promising results.........

Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

February 7, 2007, 8:36 PM CT

'Missing Link' in Alzheimer's Disease

Researchers at the University of Virginia have identified what appears to be a major missing link in the process that destroys nerve cells in Alzheimer's disease, an incurable disease that slowly destroys memory and cognitive abilities. The findings are published in the Nov. 20, 2006, issue of the Journal of Cell Biology and could eventually lead to new drugs that target and disrupt specific proteins that conspire in the brain to cause Alzheimer's.

In Alzheimer's disease, two kinds of abnormal structures accumulate in the brain: amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. The plaques contain fibrils that are made from protein fragments called "beta-amyloid peptides." The tangles also are fibrous, but they are made from a different substance, a protein called "tau." In the new U.Va. study, the scientists found a deadly correlation between beta-amyloid and tau, one that occurs before they form plaques and tangles, respectively.

As per George Bloom, the senior author of the study and a professor of biology and cell biology at U.Va., this connection causes the swiftest, most sensitive and most dramatic toxic effect of beta-amyloid found so far. What makes it most remarkable, though, is that it requires a form of amyloid that represents the building blocks of plaques, so called "pre-fibrillar beta-amyloid," and it only happens in cells that contain tau. Even though they account for just ~10 percent of the cells in the brain, nerve cells are the major source of tau, which likely explains why they are specifically attacked in Alzheimer's disease.........

Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

February 7, 2007, 5:07 AM CT

Children's sleep problems can lead to school problems

It is obvious that young children who have difficulties sleeping are likely to have problems in school. A new study shows that African-American children and children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds fare worse than their counterparts when their sleep is disrupted.

The study offers one of the first demonstrations that the relationship between children's performance and sleep may differ among children of different backgrounds. Conducted by scientists at Auburn University and Notre Dame University, it is reported in the January/February 2007 issue of the journal Child Development.

The study looked at 166 8- and 9-year-old African-American and European-American children from varying socioeconomic backgrounds. The children's sleep habits were measured through wristwatch-sized activity monitors they wore during sleep for one week, sleep diaries of bedtimes and wake-up times, and reports of sleep quality and sleep-related problems such as sleepiness during the day. The children also were given individual cognitive tests measuring a range of mental functions correlation to school achievement.

When children's socioeconomic status was taken into consideration, African-American and European-American children's performance on cognitive tests was similar when they slept well, the study found. But when sleep was disrupted, African-American children's performance was worse. Similarly, children from lower and higher socioeconomic backgrounds performed similarly on tests when they slept well and their sleep schedules were consistent. But when their sleep was disrupted, children from higher-income homes did better than children from lower-income homes. The study did not address why African-American children and youngsters from lower-income homes may be more vulnerable to the effects of sleep disruption.........

Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source