Many volcanoes are located in densely settled areas. Every time one of these becomes active, large populations are put at risk. Hence, one of the primary goals of the current generation of volcanologists is to develop tools that can accurately predict when volcanoes will erupt. In the case of an impending eruption, these tools are of key importance to those charged with making decisions about what action to take and when. "However, the tools available for predicting eruptions are still in their infancy. We can't always successfully predict an eruption as we lack an understanding ...

Bile duct cancer is rare and is usually detected too late. Often only extensive liver surgery can help or, in rare cases, liver transplantation. But which patients will benefit from surgery and which will not, because their risk of cancer recurrence is too high? With the oncogene MACC1 as a biomarker, physicians for the first time have a tool to decide which treatment option is best for patients with Klatskin carcinoma, one type of bile duct cancer. If MACC1 expression is low, the patients have a good chance that surgery will prolong survival. By contrast, if the gene is ...

London, UK - 30 Aug 2015: Patients with atrial fibrillation who receive antithrombotic management according to ESC guidelines have better outcomes than those who do not, according to one year follow up results from the ESC's EORP-AF Pilot General Registry presented today at ESC Congress 20151 and published online in Europace. 2 "This is the first study to show better outcomes using the 2012 ESC guidelines on atrial fibrillation," said principal investigator Professor Gregory YH Lip, from the University of Birmingham, UK and Aalborg University, Denmark.3 "This is novel ...

London, UK - 31 Aug 2015: Respiratory infection is associated with a four-fold increased risk of in-hospital cardiovascular mortality after acute myocardial infarction (AMI), according to research presented at ESC Congress today by Dr Catarina Quina-Rodrigues, a cardiologist at Hospital de Braga in Portugal.1 The findings highlight the importance of diagnostic alertness for respiratory infections in AMI patients so that therapeutic measures can be promptly taken. "Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death in Europe and around the world," said Dr Quina-Rodrigues. ...

London, UK - 31 Aug 2015: Women aged 45 years and under with diabetes have a six-fold risk of heart attack, according to research presented at ESC Congress today.1 The study in more than 7 000 women also found that young women who had a heart attack (myocardial infarction, MI) were more likely to be smokers than older women with MI. "Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) affect mainly the elderly, but for many years an increase in incidence has been observed in young people as well, regardless of gender," said Professor Hanna Szwed, last author and head of the 2nd Department ...

TORONTO, ON - It's like something out of a science-fiction movie - time-lapse photography showing how wounds in embryos of fruit flies heal themselves. The images are not only real; they shed light on ways to improve wound recovery in humans. Researchers at the University of Toronto (U of T) and the Hospital for Sick Children have found that the process of endocytosis - how cells "eat" by absorbing molecules - drives rapid embryonic healing. "Endocytosis removes the junctions between wounded and non-wounded cells, to allow the non-wounded cells to move and stretch over ...

Teens are often warned to beware the undue influence of peer pressure, but new research suggests that following the pack in adolescence may have some unexpected benefits for physical health in early adulthood. The study was published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Psychological scientists Joseph P. Allen, Bert N. Uchino, and Christopher A. Hafen found that physical health in adulthood could be predicted based on the quality of close friendships in adolescence. In addition, efforts to conform to peer norms were actually ...

Contrary to recent reports, Boston-based researchers found that osteoarthritis patients who had total knee or hip joint replacement surgery, known as arthroplasty, were at increased risk of heart attack (myocardial infarction) in the early post-operative period. However, findings published in Arthritis & Rheumatology, a journal of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), indicate that long-term risk of heart attack did not persist, while the risk for venous thromboembolism--blood clot in veins and lungs--remained years after the procedure. Osteoarthritis is the most ...

Scientists have identified a new protein (C5orf30) which regulates the severity of tissue damage caused by rheumatoid arthritis (RA), an autoimmune disease that causes inflammation, pain, stiffness and damage to the joints of the feet, hips, knees, and hands. Following the discovery published in the scientific journal PNAS, rheumatoid arthritis patients most likely to suffer the severest effects of the condition can now be identified early and fast-tracked to the more aggressive treatments available. Although there is no cure for RA, new effective drugs are increasingly ...

Researchers using fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) have found that even first-episode psychotic* patients process information differently from a control group. To ensure both groups experienced the same brain stimuli, the measurements were taken while the subjects watched a movie, Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. The work is being presented at the 28th ECNP Conference in Amsterdam. High-precision fMRI is often used in neuroscience to locate brain activity in response to stimuli. With psychotic patients, these experiments often look at chronically ill patients, ...

Results of a clinical trial seem to show the first effective treatment for the negative symptoms - withdrawal, lack of emotion, and apathy - associated with schizophrenia. This work is presented at the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology conference in Amsterdam. Schizophrenia is one of the most common serious mental health conditions, with around 1 in 100 people experiencing schizophrenia in their lifetime*. The main symptoms fall into 3 categories: positive symptoms, such as delusions and hallucinations; negative symptoms, such as lack of drive and social withdrawal; ...

An international group of researchers have found that food craving activates different brain networks between obese and normal weight patients. This indicates that the tendency to want food may be 'hard-wired' into the brain of overweight patients, becoming a functional brain biomarker. Obesity is one of the most difficult problems facing modern society. Treating obesity is a health priority, but most efforts (aside from bariatric surgery) have met with little success. In part, this is because the mechanisms associated with the desire to eat are poorly understood. Recently, ...

Brain imaging shows that testosterone therapy given as part of sex reassignment changes the brain structures and the pathway associated with speech and verbal fluency. This result supports research that women in general may deal with speech and interaction differently than men. The sex hormone testosterone exerts a substantial influence on human behaviour and cognition. Previous studies have shown that testosterone has a particular influence on verbal fluency. But these investigations (which due to ethical reasons are mostly observational studies or one-off hormone administrations) ...

According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 800,000 Americans die each year from heart disease and stroke. Acute coronary syndrome, which includes heart attack and unstable angina, a condition that can lead to a heart attack, are among the leading causes of death and disability worldwide. In addition to lifestyle changes, medications that lower blood cholesterol are helpful in preventing future cardiac and vascular events, including heart attack and stroke. New data from a clinical trial led by cardiologists at Brigham and Women's ...

London, UK - 30 Aug 2015: Efforts to improve automated external defibrillator (AED) usage increase bystander defibrillation in public places but not at home, reveals a study of more than 25 000 cardiac arrest patients presented at ESC Congress today by Dr Steen Hansen, a PhD student in the Department of Health, Science and Technology at Aalborg University in Denmark.1 Efforts included increased numbers of AEDs, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) education and a nationwide AED registry. "An AED promptly used by a person present at the cardiac arrest site before the emergency ...

London, UK - 30 Aug 2015: Bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) has been linked to a 30% lower risk of nursing home admission and brain damage in survivors of cardiac arrest outside hospital in research presented at ESC Congress today by Dr Kristian Kragholm, a PhD student in the Department of Anesthesiology, Cardiovascular Research Centre, Aalborg University Hospital, Denmark.1 "We know that survival after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest has improved in recent years but until now the degree of disability in survivors was unknown," said Dr Kraghom. "Our study examined ...

London, UK - 30 Aug 2015: Ezetimibe reduces cardiovascular events in patients with diabetes and a recent acute coronary syndrome, according to a subgroup analysis of the IMPROVE-IT trial presented at ESC Congress today by co-principal investigator Dr Robert Giugliano, physician in cardiovascular medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, US.1 Ezetimibe achieved greater reductions in LDL cholesterol than statins alone, resulting in lower risks of cardiovascular events in patients with diabetes. The benefits observed in diabetics were greater than in those without ...

London, UK - 30 Aug 2015: Particulate matter and NO2 air pollution are associated with increased risk of severe heart attacks despite being within European recommended levels, according to research presented at ESC Congress today by Dr Jean-Francois Argacha, a cardiologist at University Hospital Brussels (UZ Brussel-Vrije Universiteit Brussel), in Belgium.1 "Dramatic health consequences of air pollution were first described in Belgium in 1930 after the Meuse Valley fog," said Dr Argacha. "Nowadays, the World Health Organization (WHO) considers air pollution as one of ...

London, UK - 30 Aug 2015: Young adults living in a polluted city show early signs of cardiovascular risk, according to research presented at ESC Congress today by Dr Krzysztof Bryniarski from Jagiellonian University, Collegium Medicum in Krakow, Poland.1 Residing in a polluted city was associated with higher levels of inflammatory markers in otherwise healthy adolescents and young adults, which indicate a greater risk of having a heart attack in future. Dr Bryniarski said: "This study was conducted by a group of medical students from Jagiellonian University in Krakow, ...

London, UK - 30 Aug 2015: Cold weather is associated with a higher risk of severe heart attack, according to research presented at ESC Congress today by Dr Shuangbo Liu, adult cardiology resident at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada.1 The six year study found that each 10°C drop in temperature was associated with a 7% increased risk of ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), the most severe form of heart attack. "We studied the effects of temperature on the risk of heart attacks in Winnipeg, Canada, one of the coldest large cities in the world," said ...

London, UK - 30 Aug 2015: Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest should be conducted for at least 35 minutes, according to research presented at ESC Congress today by Dr Yoshikazu Goto, associate professor and director of the Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine at Kanazawa University Hospital in Kanazawa, Japan.1 The study in more than 17 000 patients found that nearly all survivals were achieved within 35 minutes and longer CPR achieved little benefit. Dr Goto said: "The decision regarding when to stop resuscitation efforts ...

London, UK - 30 Aug 2015: Cold weather is associated with increased risk of ischaemic stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation, according to research presented at ESC Congress today by Dr Tze-Fan Chao, cardiologist at Taipei Veterans General Hospital and the National Yang-Ming University in Taiwan.1 The study in nearly 290 000 patients suggests that cool climate may be an underrated issue for health that deserves more attention. "Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained cardiac arrhythmia and it increases the risk of ischaemic stroke by four- to five-fold," ...

LONDON, UK - In patients with long-standing persistent atrial fibrillation (AF) despite standard treatment, additional electrical isolation of an area called the left atrial appendage (LAA) can improve freedom from AF without increasing complications, results of the BELIEF study show. The findings were presented today in a Hot Line session at ESC Congress 2015. "Empirical left atrial appendage isolation, along with the standard approach of pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) and ablation of extra-pulmonary triggers is superior to the standard approach alone in enhancing the ...

LONDON, UK - Adherence to the oral anticoagulant apixaban among patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) was no better for those who received an educational program compared to those who did not, results of the international, randomised AEGEAN trial show. The results, presented today at ESC Congress 2015, were nevertheless "quite encouraging," according to lead investigator Gilles Montalescot, MD, PhD, from the Institut de Cardiologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Pitié-Salpêtri?re, in Paris, France. "We used the best possible tools for the educational program, ...

LONDON, UK - Late recurrence of atrial fibrillation (AF) is not reduced in patients whose pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) treatment incorporates the addition of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), according to results of the UNDER-ATP trial. Results of the trial, presented at ESC Congress 2015, add to the ongoing debate about ATP use in this setting. The major cause of AF recurrence after PVI has been reported to be electrical reconnection between the left atrium and pulmonary veins, which re-establishes abnormal rhythm, said study investigator Atsushi Kobori, MD, from Kobe ...