Saira Diaz uses her fingers to count the establishments selling fast food and sweets near the South Los Angeles home she shares with her parents and 13-year-old son. “There’s one, two, three, four, five fast-food restaurants,” she says. “And a little mom and pop store that sells snacks and sodas and candy.” In that low-income,…
The fabella, a small bone in the knee once lost to human evolution; has made a surprising resurgence over the last century. The new findings could help clinicians treating patients with knee issues and provide insight into human evolution over the past 100 years. The bone, linked to knee problems and pain; is in a tendon…
University of Texas at Dallas scientists have demonstrated that the growth rate of the majority of lung cancer cells relates directly to the availability of a crucial oxygen-metabolizing molecule. In a preclinical study, recently published in Cancer Research, biologist Dr. Li Zhang and her team showed that the expansion of lung tumors in mice slowed…
In late 2017, the 7 administrative contractors that Medicare currently uses to administer Parts A and B; benefits and pay these claims proposed new payment policies concerning hemodialysis (HD) treatments; for patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). These contractors represent all geographical jurisdictions in the United States and 100% of dialysis patients nationally. Their proposals,…
Simulation training can significantly improve the ability to manage operating room (OR) fires, according to results from a randomized trial. You never want your first experience of an OR catastrophe to be in the operating room, with a patient’s life on the line,” said Dr. Bailey Su from NorthShore University Health System, in Evanston, Illinois,…
Current guidelines advise the prompt diagnosis and treatment of urinary tract infection (UTI) in children to improve both short and longer term outcomes. However, the risk of long-term complications following childhood UTI is unclear. UTI is relatively common but difficult to diagnose in children as symptoms are non-specific. Diagnosis requires a urine sample; so but…
Lead author Emmanuel Stamatakis and colleagues fInd that sitting was associated with an increase risk for death among the least active individuals. However, this risk could be reduced or even eliminate by engaging in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) at currently recommended levels. In their study, sitting time was associate consistently with both overall premature mortality;…
In a small study of patients referred to the Johns Hopkins Early Psychosis Intervention Clinic (EPIC); Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers report that about half the people; referred to the clinic with a schizophrenia diagnosis; didn’t actually have schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe and disabling disorder; marked by disordered thinking, feelings and behavior. People who…
Angela Scott has heard many reasons why she shouldn’t donate blood. Friends and family wonder what might really be done with it. They worry that someone might inject her with something. You can’t always trust the medical establishment, she is told. Still, Scott, who is black, donates blood whenever she can, knowing how important it is for those…
A large, multi-ethnic genome-wide association study (GWAS) of asthma identified novel associations with potential relevance for asthma susceptibility in older adults of diverse racial backgrounds. The study, “Large-scale, multi-ethnic genome wide association study identifies novel loci contributing to asthma susceptibility in adults,” appears in the April issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. Asthma is…
Threading a needle is hard, but at least you can see it. Think about how challenging it must be to thread a screw through a rod inside a bone in someone’s leg. Rice University seniors at the Brown School of Engineering set out to help doctors simplify the process of repairing fractured long bones in…
Glaucoma comprises a group of optic neuropathies by progressive degeneration of RGCs; resulting in characteristic changes in the ONH and RNFL, and VF defects. The biological basis of glaucoma is poorly understood, and the factors contributing to its progression have not been fully characterized. Diagnosis of glaucoma is by a combination of identifying characteristic changes…