The heightened risk of death after admission to hospital at the weekend--the so-called 'weekend effect'--is a feature of several developed countries' healthcare systems, and not just a problem for hospitals in England, reveals research published online in BMJ Quality & Safety. The international nature of the findings suggests that this is a systematic phenomenon that not only crosses time, but also space, say the researchers. In a bid to look in more detail at the evidence for the link between higher rates of death for patients admitted to hospital at weekends compared ...

A new smartphone app warns drinkers if they go over the recommended maximum daily/weekly units of alcohol, to help them better manage their intake, reveals a commentary published in the online journal BMJ Innovations. The Alcohol Tracker, which has been developed by doctors and based on the clinical evidence of what works best, also provides built-in psychological therapies and helpline links for users to help steer them away from hazardous drinking. Excess alcohol kills millions worldwide every year, but many available smartphone apps to manage drinking are not informed ...

1. For patients with no history of stroke, even very small brain lesions increase risk for death Free abstract: http://www.annals.org/article.aspx?doi=10.7326/M14-2057 URL goes live when embargo lifts For asymptomatic patients with no history of clinical stroke, having even very small brain lesions (less than 3 mm) detected by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) triples their risk for stroke and death, according to a study published in Annals of Internal Medicine. Having both very small and larger lesions increases the risk to eight-fold. Subclinical brain infarctions ...

Scientists with the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) and colleagues found that very small brain lesions noted on brain imaging that would typically be disregarded by clinicians are associated with a heightened risk of stroke and death. The findings are in today's (July 7, 2015) Annals of Internal Medicine. The discovery about these tiny lesions -- areas of the brain where tissue may have been damaged by injury or disease -- may help physicians identify people at risk of stroke and death as early as middle age, even when they are displaying no symptoms of ...

A study in the online edition of Annals of Internal Medicine suggests that coronary artery calcification (CAC) scans could help physicians identify patients at risk for premature death. According to the National Institutes of Health, a CAC is an x-ray test that looks for specks of calcium in the walls of the coronary arteries. These specks of calcium are called calcifications and are an early sign of coronary artery disease. Researchers from Emory University School of Medicine, led by Leslee Shaw, PhD, professor of cardiology, collected and assessed CAC scores and ...

In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers have investigated the impact of different walking aids on patients with chronic obstructive disease (COPD). Walking with the help of a rollator (a frame with wheels, handlebars, and a built-in seat) resulted in the longest distance walked and most time spent walking. The use of walking with assistance of a draisine (a bicycle without pedals) improved walking speed with fewer strides but did not improve the time spent walking by COPD patients to cover a longer distance. "Patients with COPD walked significantly further and longer ...

In a study of 1159 males who illicitly used amphetamines, half of participants said drug use had no impact on their sexual functions, while the other half reported impacts such as reduced erectile rigidity and sexual satisfaction, enhanced orgasmic intensity, and delayed ejaculation. "Compared with 211 matched controls, amphetamine users were twice as likely to experience erectile dysfunction," said Dr. Bang-Ping Jiann, senior author of The Journal of Sexual Medicine study. Amphetamines are a group of drugs that stimulate the central nervous system and contain ingredients ...

Researchers have long had reason to hope that blocking the flow of calcium into the mitochondria of heart and brain cells could be one way to prevent damage caused by heart attacks and strokes. But in a study of mice engineered to lack a key calcium channel in their heart cells, Johns Hopkins scientists appear to have cast a shadow of doubt on that theory. A report on their study is published online this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "We confirmed that this calcium channel is important for heart function," says senior investigator Mark Anderson, ...

July 6, 2015 CHAPEL HILL, NC - Insulin resistance affects tens of millions of Americans and is a big risk factor for heart disease. Yet, some people with the condition never develop heart disease, while some experience moderate coronary blockages. Others, though, get severe atherosclerosis - multiple blockages and deterioration of coronary arteries characterized by thick, hard, plaque-ridden arterial walls. Researchers at the UNC School of Medicine created a first-of-its-kind animal model to pinpoint two biomarkers that are elevated in the most severe form of coronary disease. The ...

Researchers have found several key differences among people who receive hospice care--which maintains or improves the quality of life for someone whose condition is unlikely to be cured--in assisted-living facilities (ALFs) compared with people who receive hospice care at home. People receiving hospice care in ALFs were more likely to be older and female than people who received hospice care at home. Also, people living in ALFs enrolled in hospice care much earlier than patients living in home settings. This allowed them to receive more help from the hospice team before ...

Lyme disease is currently estimated to affect 300,000 people in the U.S. every year, and blacklegged ticks, the disease's main vector, have recently flourished in areas previously thought to be devoid of this arachnid. A new study finds that the newly detected tick populations likely arose mainly from southern populations that migrated to nearby northern locations. "The fine temporal and spatial scale of the samples analyzed allowed for precise estimates of the rate, timing, and direction of individual migratory events," said Dr. Camilo Khatchikian, lead author of the ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- Looking around at a 20th high school reunion, you might notice something puzzling about your classmates. Although they were all born within months of each other, these 38-year-olds appear to be aging at different rates. Indeed they are, say the leaders of a large long-term human health study in New Zealand that has sought clues to the aging process in young adults. In a paper appearing the week of July 6 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team from the U.S., UK, Israel and New Zealand introduces a panel of 18 biological measures ...

Madison, Wis. -- In rhesus monkey families - just as in their human cousins - anxious parents are more likely to have anxious offspring. And a new study in an extended family of monkeys provides important insights into how the risk of developing anxiety and depression is passed from parents to children. The study from the Department of Psychiatry and the Health Emotions Research Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison shows how an over-active brain circuit involving three brain areas inherited from generation to generation may set the stage for developing ...

Across the entire world, women can expect to live longer than men. But why does this occur, and was this always the case? According to a new study led by University of Southern California Leonard Davis School of Gerontology researchers, significant differences in life expectancies between the sexes first emerged as recently as the turn of the 20th century. As infectious disease prevention, improved diets and other positive health behaviors were adopted by people born during the 1800s and early 1900s, death rates plummeted, but women began reaping the longevity benefits ...

PITTSBURGH, July 6, 2015 - University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) scientists recently led a panel of experts in revising national guidelines for thyroid cancer testing to reflect newly available tests that better incorporate personalized medicine into diagnosing the condition. Their clinical explanation for when to use and how to interpret thyroid cancer tests is published in the July issue of the scientific journal Thyroid. The American Thyroid Association is revising its 2015 Guidelines for Thyroid Nodule and Thyroid Cancer Management to direct doctors to ...

Alexandria, VA - With the Internet, science and a little imagination, scientists are able to bring remote worlds to life. Dinologue.com brings the Mesozoic to life, and EARTH Magazine reviews it in the July 2015 issue. The website was created through a partnership between Parallax Film Productions and popular science writer, and amateur paleontologist, Brian Switek. The Dinologue portal is filled with captivating articles and adventurous videos to help bring science and paleontology to the masses. Get the geoscientist's perspective of Dinologue in EARTH Magazine: http://bit.ly/1JJDy7r. The ...

Researchers have provided a new roadmap for tackling future agricultural production issues by using solutions that involve crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM), a specialized type of photosynthesis that enhances the efficiency by which plants use water. Plants that use CAM, which include cacti and agave, are typically found in dry environments. Increasing agricultural production to accommodate society's growing population might be achieved by developing CAM crops as new sources for food, feed, fiber, and bioenergy or by engineering non-CAM crops to use CAM strategies to ...

Putnam Valley, N.Y. (July 6, 2015) - Peripheral nerve injuries often are caused by trauma or surgical complications and can result in considerable disabilities. Regeneration of peripheral nerves can be accomplished effectively using autologous (self-donated) nerve grafts, but that procedure may sacrifice a functional nerve and cause loss of sensation in another part of the patient's body. Searching for an alternative to autologous nerve grafts (autografts), researchers in Japan transplanted mobilized dental pulp stem cells (MDPSCs) into laboratory rats with sciatic nerve ...

By studying climate data in the British-Irish Isles over a 142-year period, researchers have confirmed the important role of cyclones. Seasonal precipitation totals were strongly related to cyclone frequency, especially during summer. The researchers found that relative to the 1961-1990 period, summers have become much wetter and more cyclonic. The move towards wetter summers in recent years is more of a re-establishment of conditions typical of the earlier half of the 20th Century rather than being unusual in the long term. Recent years have seen three of the stormiest ...

For the first time, researchers have used a simplified technique derived from a defense mechanism evolved by bacteria and other single-celled organisms to successfully insert a large DNA sequence into a predetermined genomic site in mammalian cells. The methods used may help investigators genetically engineer cells to produce high levels of certain proteins--for example by placing the DNA sequence of a particular protein at the site of a highly active gene. "The CRISPR-Cas system has been previously used to insert a foreign DNA sequence into a targeted genomic site ...

Since Ebola was first described in 1976, there have been several outbreaks, but all have been self-limiting. In a new Journal of Internal Medicine review, Dr. Ali Mirazimi of the Karolinska Institutet considers why the latest outbreak occurred and discusses the factors that contributed to making it the largest, most sustained, and most widespread outbreak of Ebola. He also notes that several potential treatments are now undergoing clinical trials and have shown initial promising results. "Emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases will continue to challenge both human ...

Researchers have developed a non-invasive technique that allows clinicians to accurately detect various forms of skin cancer. The current clinical "gold standard" non-invasive technique, called dermoscopy, is a highly subjective method. But by using what's called Raman spectroscopy, investigators found that malignant melanoma could be detected with an accuracy of 91% and non-melanoma skin cancers could be detected with accuracy between 73% and 85%. "The non-invasive and label-free nature of Raman spectroscopy enables the application in various medical fields. The method ...

Differences in the number of oil-secreting glands in the skin may help explain why wrinkles are shallower in the forehead than in the outer eye area, suggests new research conducted on cadavers. Investigators suspect that the presence of oil-secreting glands and a thinner inner layer of skin, or dermis, may let the skin deform more easily and might be a cause for the development of wrinkles. The findings are published in Clinical Anatomy. INFORMATION: ...

Long QT syndrome (LQTS), a rare hereditary heart condition, can lead to life-threatening arrhythmias, or fast heartbeat irregularities. New research indicates that children with LQTS who take medications for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are at increased risk of experiencing heart-related problems--especially syncope, or the loss of consciousness. "In light of these findings, special attention is needed when prescribing ADHD medications for LQTS patients, starting with the lowest effective dose and planning close follow-up," said Dr. Valentina Kutyifa, ...

WASHINGTON (July 6, 2015) - The prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors like hypertension, high cholesterol, and diabetes have been decreasing in the United States and Europe, however they appear to be on the rise in Asia, particularly Japan, according to a guest editor page published today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Using data from epidemiological studies and examining a health program launched by the Japanese government, guest editor Masafumi Kitakaze, M.D., Ph.D., found many risk factors in the Japanese population remain unchanged or even ...