Archive for the 'Health News' Category

A 9 year old girl who went to hospital in central Greece suffering from stomach pains was found to be carrying her embryonic twin, doctors said Thursday.

The girl was examined by the Doctors at Larissa General Hospital and removed surgically a growth which they later discovered was an embryo more than two inches long.

“The doctors could see on the right side that her stomach was swollen, but they could not suspect that this tumor would hide an embryo,” hospital director lakovos Brouskelis said. He old that the girl has made a full recovery.

Head of the hospital’s pediatric department, Andreas Markau, said the embryo was a formed fetus with a head, hair and eyes, but no brain or umbilical cord. He also said that the cases where one of a set of twins absorbs the other in the womb occurs in one of 500,000 live births.

Source: Yahoo

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Recognizing the distinction between healthy and cancerous cells has traditionally been up to the eye of highly-trained cytologists and pathologists.

Northeastern University professor Max Diem and his team have developed an automatic method based on vibrational microspectroscopy that identifies the presence of metastatic cancer cells without the need for staining, and without human input.

The innovative method aids classical cytology (where visually inspection is used to detect changes in the morphology of cells obtained from bodily fluids, exfoliation or thin needle biopsy) and classical pathology (where stained tissue sections are examined visually).

“The method is entirely machine-based and computer-interpreted, and thus reduces the workload in diagnostic laboratories,” added Diem. “It allows us to increase the overall accuracy and decrease the time required to render medical diagnoses.”

“We have identified three major milestones for this particular research,” said Diem. “We want to develop a rapid sample preparation methodology, refine the imaging instrumentation, and construct reliable databases and algorithms for the detection.”

Source: ScienceDaily

Scientists funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) have found a fast and effective way to investigate important aspects of human ageing. Working at the University of Oxford and The Open University, Dr Lynne Cox and Dr Robert Saunders have discovered a gene in fruit flies that means flies can now be used to study the effects ageing has on DNA.

Dr Lynne Cox from the University of Oxford said: “We study a premature human ageing disease called Werner syndrome to help us understand normal ageing. The key to this disease is that changes in a single gene (called WRN) mean that patients age very quickly.

Scientists have made great progress in working out what this gene does in the test tube, but until now we haven’t been able to investigate the gene to look at its effect on development and the whole body. By working on this gene in fruit flies, we can model human ageing in a powerful experimental system.”

Source: EurekAlert

Actemra is the first of a new class of drug with a novel mechanism of action that brings new hope to RA patients.

It is a humanized interleukin-6 (IL-6) receptor-inhibiting monoclonal antibody which works by suppressing the activity of IL-6, an important trigger of the inflammatory process.

This novel mode of action reduces inflammation of the joints and relieves the systemic effects of rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Roche announced that Actemra (tocilizumab) can significantly inhibit structural damage to joints in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a critical measure of effectiveness of an RA treatment.

Actemra also improved the patients’ physical function after one year of therapy, leading them to a better quality of life.

The outcome of this study is good news for RA patients as presently many either fail to achieve an adequate response or cannot tolerate therapies currently available.

New treatment options are needed, particularly those that can target different pathways to bring relief and inhibit joint damage in patients suffering from RA.

Source: Medical News Today

In the online version of the International Journal of Cancer, Dr. Sara Strom and associates evaluated the association between saturated fat intake and biochemical failure among men who underwent radical prostatectomy (RP).

Men who consumed high saturated fat diets (HSF) were younger and had higher BMIs at diagnosis than men who consumed low saturated fat diets (LSF).

There were statistically no significant differences in clinicopathologic characteristics, family history of prostate cancer, education, history of diabetes or physical activity between the 2 groups.

Men who were both obese and ate HSF diets had the shortest biochemical failure-free survival (19 months) and non-obese men on LSF diet had the longest (46 months). The data from the model were not altered by the inclusion of amount of physical activity performed by the subjects.

More Information can be found at: ScienceDaily

The vitamin D deficiency that makes the bones weak now has been associated with an increased risk of heart disease in a recent study.

Lack of vitamin D is associated with increased heart disease risk and it is particularly seen among individuals with high blood pressure.

Low levels of vitamin D are highly prevalent in United States, especially in places where sunshine is less. 20 to 30 percent of the population present in those places has moderate to severe deficiency of vitamin D.

It has not been proven yet that lack of vitamin D actually causes increased risk of cardiovascular disease. It requires a large randomized trial to show whether correcting vitamin D deficiency will result in a reduction in heart disease risk.

For more research information, visit: http://www.sciencedaily.com

A new study has found that people who have shorter index finger than their ring finger are at greater risk of osteoarthritis. Index to ring finger length ratio 2D:4D is a distinguishing feature for its differences between the sexes.

These fingers are tend to be equal in length in women. Men have shorter second than fourth digits. Smaller 2D:4D ratios have effecting hormonal connections, high sperm counts and low estrogen concentrations. Reduction in finger length ratio has also been linked to athletic and sexual prowess.

According to the Research, having short index finger than their ring finger raise the risk of developing osteoarthritis of the knee.

Get more research information at: http://www.sciencedaily.com

According to the recent report, antibiotic therapy is useful in reducing the stroke risk in patients with infective carditis. Infective carditis is a heart infection that involves heart valves.

The stroke rate is decreased after giving antibiotic therapy and the rate continued to fall the longer these antibiotics were given.

Surgery is often used to treat infective carditis. But, the results suggested that if the only reason to prevent stroke is surgery, then such an operation may not be needed after a week of antibiotic therapy.

Know more on the use of antibiotics to cut stroke risk here:

http://www.reuters.com

Obese women with polycystic ovarian syndrome are at increased risk of developing heart disease, a new study shows. The study highlights the need to screen and treat these women to prevent early heart disease.Polycystic ovarian syndrome is usually diagnosed in women in their 20s or 30s.

Detection of coronary artery calcium is an indication of atherosclerosis. But, women without polycystic ovarian syndrome and with coronary artery calcium do not have heart disease risk factors compared to women with ovarian syndrome.

The study concluded that long term studies to follow the progression of coronary artery calcium in women with polycystic ovarian syndrome are urgently needed.

Study source: http://www.reuters.com

The research which has been conducted on childhood cancer and body abnormalities found that the children who had childhood cancer certainly develop some abnormalities in their body like curvature of the spine, asymmetric lower limbs, etc.

Experts thought that genetic defect can be the main thing which is responsible for the occurrence of such type of abnormalities in the children. But, the recent studies have proved that this genetic defect itself is responsible to develop cancer in small children.

Some genetic syndromes also increase the risk of development of cancer tumors. The developmental genes, which play a key role in the formation of body plan during embryogenesis, are also responsible for the development of childhood cancer.

More research information on childhood cancer and associated body abnormalities at:

http://www.sciencedaily.com