SAN DIEGO - About one in 14 toddlers diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) no longer met the diagnostic criteria in elementary school, but most continued to have emotional/behavior symptoms and required special education supports, according to a study to be presented Sunday, April 26 at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in San Diego. Previous studies have shown that ASD symptoms resolve in some children over time. It is not clear, however, if these children continue to have cognitive, behavioral or learning deficits. Researchers, led by ...

SAN DIEGO - Labeling healthy foods with smiley faces and offering small prizes for buying nutritious items may be a low-cost way to get students to make healthy choices in the school lunch line, according to a study to be presented Sunday, April 26 at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in San Diego. Making poor food choices in school cafeterias is a risk factor for childhood obesity. Therefore, efforts have focused on improving the quality of school lunches and enticing children to eat them. One such effort was a two-phase intervention to improve ...

NEW HYDE PARK, NY - Fifteen year olds are not only able to buy over-the-counter dietary supplements from a sampling of health food stores across the country, the staff at those stores actually went so far as to recommend certain products, despite labels reading "for adult use only." The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends against using body-shaping supplements -- supplements are unregulated by the US Food & Drug Administration -- for males and females under age 18. Despite the adults-only labeling, it is legal for minors to buy these products in 49 states. Results ...

SAN DIEGO - Pediatric research discoveries over the past 40 years haveled to prevention and treatment strategies that have saved millions of lives worldwide. Seven of the greatest research achievements will be presented on Sunday, April 26 at the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting at the San Diego Convention Center. "Today, we often take these research discoveries for granted," said presenter Tina Cheng, MD, MPH, FAAP, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Pediatric Research. "Because of research and science in these seven areas, American ...

April 25, 2015, Vienna, Austria: New data presented today at The International Liver Congress™ 2015, supports the use of sofosbuvir (SOF)- and daclatasvir (DCV)-based regimens in patients with recurrence of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) following liver transplantation (LT). The results are based on data from patients with HCV being treated with second-generation DAAs in the large French prospective ANRS CO23 CUPILT study. Among them, 296 patients were treated with a combination of SOF+DCV, with or without ribavirin. SOF- and DCV-based regimens offered high rates of ...

April 25, 2015, Vienna, Austria: Results presented today at The International Liver Congress™ 2015 demonstrate that hepatitis C (HCV)-infected genotype-3 (GT-3) patients, with and without cirrhosis, receiving 24 weeks of sofosbuvir (SOF) in combination with ribavirin (RBV) and peginterferon (PEG) achieved the highest sustained virologic response rates at 12 weeks (SVR12), observed in a Phase 3 study, to date. Among GT-3 patients, SVR12 rates were highest in those receiving SOF+PEG/RBV for 12 weeks (93%) as compared to SOF+RBV for 24 (84%, p = 0.008) or 16 weeks ...

April 25, 2015, Vienna, Austria: Results presented today at The International Liver Congress™ 2015, show that alcohol use disorders (AUD) have a serious, negative prognostic outcome with higher mortality risks in the general population and patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in particular. The study found that chronic HCV infection has a limited impact on mortality, unless the patient also has other severe comorbidities, such as HIV infection, cancer or chronic kidney disease. In contrast, those with AUDs are at significant risk of death with a higher ...

April 25, 2015, Vienna, Austria: Results presented today at The International Liver Congress™ 2015 show that the sofosbuvir (SOF)/daclatasvir (DCV) treatment combination is effective amongst hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype-1 mono-infected patients. These results are significant because whilst other combinations have been widely reported on, there have been few data until now regarding the use of SOF/DCV combination in real world situations. Overall, the sustained virologic response rate at 4 weeks (SVR4) for SOF/DCV was 81.6% after 12 weeks of treatment and 93.9% ...

April 25, 2015, Vienna , Austria: Phase 3 results presented today at The International Liver Congress™ 2015 show that a combination of daclatasvir (DCV), sofosbuvir (SOF) and ribavirin (RBV) for 12 weeks was effective and well tolerated amongst patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection with advanced cirrhosis and post-transplant recurrence. Sustained virologic response rates at 12 weeks (SVR12) were >90% in patients with Child-Pugh class A or B cirrhosis but lower in Child-Pugh class C. SVR12 was achieved by 94% of liver transplant recipients with HCV recurrence. ALLY-1 ...

April 25, 2015, Vienna, Austria: According to the World Health Organization, excessive alcohol drinking is the most common cause of cirrhosis worldwide. A new worldwide study presented at The International Liver CongressTM 2015 has shown the significant influence of daily drinking on this disease burden. New data shows that the cirrhosis burden caused by alcohol increased by 11.13% when moving from the moderate to heavy daily drinking (up to one drink/day for women; two drinks/day for men) classification (p END ...

April 25, 2015, Vienna, Austria: Preliminary data from an ongoing study revealed today at The International Liver Congress™ 2015 suggest that a combination of three direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) plus dasabuvir is well tolerated in patients with severe renal impairment or end-stage renal disease when used either with or without ribavirin. In addition, the combination led to rapid hepatitis C viral load suppression with no virological failures seen in the preliminary data from the ongoing open-label study. In the study, treatment naïve non-cirrhotic adults ...

April 25, 2015, Vienna, Austria: The apparent dearth of research on hepatitis B and C testing in many European countries could be hampering efforts to identify infected individuals, according to results from a comprehensive review of 136 studies presented today at The International Liver CongressTM 2015. The systematic review concluded that the current evidence base on hepatitis B and C testing appears to be lacking in many European countries. At present it is informed primarily by published articles and conference abstracts from just 6 out of 53 member countries of ...

April 25, 2015, Vienna, Austria: Results from a study presented today at The International Liver Congress™ 2015 demonstrate that the use of a pocket-sized ultrasound device (PUD) helps to reduce the need for further testing in both the inpatient and outpatient setting. The study evaluated the effectiveness of the PUD when testing for the following conditions: biliary-duct dilation, gallstones, ascites, splenomegaly, pleural effusion, pericardial effusion, urinary retention, urinary stones, abdominal mass and aortic aneurysm. PUDs offer a comparable performance ...

April 25, 2015, Vienna, Austria: Study results presented today at The International Liver Congress™ 2015 show that the occurrence of advanced liver fibrosis is similar for patients infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV), whether or not they have been diagnosed. Most individuals with HCV remain asymptomatic, which makes the diagnosis difficult. The study authors used the hypothesis that individuals whose HCV is not diagnosed are less likely to have advanced fibrosis than those who have been diagnosed. They then compared liver fibrosis between respondents of the ...

Barcelona, Spain: The first large international study to investigate the late side-effects of a combination of two forms of brachytherapy to treat cervical cancer has shown that the technique successfully delivers higher radiation doses to the tumour without an increase in treatment-related problems afterwards. Brachytherapy is a type of internal radiotherapy that involves putting a radioactive source close to, or in the tumour. It is often performed after a CT or MRI scan has pinpointed the exact position of the cancer, so that the radiation treatment can be targeted ...

Depression is not linked to violence among males Some delinquent youth with current psychiatric illness may be violent Providing treatment could reduce violence CHICAGO --- Most psychiatric disorders - including depression -- do not predict future violent behavior, according to new Northwestern Medicine longitudinal study of delinquent youth. The only exception is substance abuse and dependence. "Our findings are relevant to the recent tragic plane crash in the French Alps. Our findings show that no one could have predicted that the pilot - who apparently ...

PORTLAND, Ore. - A new study released today found that drugs used to treat multiple sclerosis have soared in price in the past two decades, in some cases more than 700 percent, even though newer drugs have come to the market - a process that normally should have stabilized or reduced the cost of at least the older medications. There are no multiple sclerosis drugs now available in the United States with a list price below $50,000 a year, which is two to three times more than the price in Canada, Australia or the United Kingdom. The group of drugs available to treat this ...

When Microsoft released the Kinect for Xbox in November 2010, it transformed the video game industry. The most inexpensive 3-D camera to date, the Kinect bypassed the need for joysticks and controllers by sensing the user's gestures, leading to a feeling of total immersion into the game. Microsoft sold 8 million Kinect units within 60 days, making it the fastest-selling electronic device ever. "But then something interesting happened," said Oliver Cossairt, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Northwestern University's McCormick School ...

Northwestern University scientists have developed the first liquid nanoscale laser. And it's tunable in real time, meaning you can quickly and simply produce different colors, a unique and useful feature. The laser technology could lead to practical applications, such as a new form of a "lab on a chip" for medical diagnostics. To understand the concept, imagine a laser pointer whose color can be changed simply by changing the liquid inside it, instead of needing a different laser pointer for every desired color. In addition to changing color in real time, the liquid ...

TORONTO, April 20, 2015-- Although National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines consider 18F-PET/CT (FDG PET/CT) appropriate for systemic staging of newly diagnosed stage III breast cancer, the technique may not be equally valuable for all breast cancer histologies. Researchers at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center found that while FDG PET/CT is valuable for systemic staging of stage III ductal breast cancer, it adds little to the systemic staging of ILC. "We are evaluating patient and disease factors that affect the value of FDG PET/CT for systemic ...

PULLMAN, Wash. - Text messaging that connects teens with sexual health educators is effective for delivering sexual health information, according to a recent study in The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University. The research abstract is online and the work will appear in an upcoming print issue of the journal Health Education and Behavior. "What we found is that teens identified as 'at-risk' use this text messaging service at a higher rate that other teens," said Jessica Willoughby, lead investigator on the project and an assistant professor ...

Children with hemophilia A require three to four infusions each week to prevent bleeding episodes, chronic pain and joint damage. The effect on quality of life can be significant, due to time and discomfort associated with infusions. For these reasons, under dosing is common, leaving children at increased risk for bleeding episodes and even death. This extended half-life factor VIII enables patients to receive one or two infusions each week without an increased risk of bleeding. The first report on the safety and efficacy of this therapy in children under 12 years old ...

Ahmad M. Khalil, PhD, knew the odds were against him -- as in thousands upon thousands to one. Yet he and his team never wavered from their quest to identify the parts of the body responsible for revving up one of the most aggressive forms of breast cancer, HER2+. This month in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, Khalil and his colleagues at Case Western Reserve University proved the power of persistence; from a pool of more than 30,000 possibilities, they found 38 genes and molecules that most likely trigger HER2+ cancer cells to spread. By narrowing what was once ...

TORONTO, April 24, 2015-- Preliminary results of a study of patients with prostate cancer show that MR tractography may be a reliable quantitative imaging biomarker to assess prostate cancer treatment response to androgen deprivation and radiation therapy, according to a team of researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Quantitative evaluation shows higher tract densities after androgen deprivation and radiation therapy, reflecting gland shrinkage and subsequent fibrosis. Twenty-two patients with elevated prostate-specific ...

Stem cells naturally cling to feeder cells as they grow in petri dishes. Scientists have thought for years that this attachment occurs because feeder cells serve as a support system, providing stems cells with essential nutrients. But a new study that successfully grew stem cells with dead, or fixed, feeder cells suggests otherwise. The discovery, described in the Journal of Materials Chemistry B, challenges the theory that feeder cells provide nutrients to growing stem cells. It also means that the relationship between the two cells is superficial, according to ...