An analysis of nearly 100,000 kidney donors finds that there is a small increased lifetime risk of developing end-stage renal disease following donation compared with healthy nondonors, although the risk is still much lower than that in the general population, according to a study in the February 12 issue of JAMA. Every year in the United States, approximately 6,000 healthy adults accept the risks of kidney donation to help family members, friends, or even strangers. "It is imperative that the transplant community, in due diligence to donors, understands the risk of ...

Researchers have found that preterm infants are more likely to have elevated insulin levels at birth and in early childhood compared to full-term infants, findings that provide additional evidence that preterm birth may be a risk factor for type 2 diabetes, according to a study in the February 12 issue of JAMA. In the United States, 1 in 9 live births are preterm, and l in 5 live births among African Americans are preterm. "There is growing evidence that fetal and early life events may result in permanent metabolic alterations, such as type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome ...

Although maximum reduction in the risk of genital warts (condylomata) was seen after 3 doses of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, receipt of 2 vaccine doses was associated with considerable reduction in risk, particularly among women who were younger than 17 years at first vaccination, according to a study in the February 12 issue of JAMA. HPV infection causes genital warts and cervical cancer, and HPV vaccine prevents both. The typical dose schedule requires 3 doses of vaccine, but small clinical trials have reported measures of vaccine efficacy with fewer than 3 ...

Among rehabilitation facilities providing services to Medicare fee-for-service patients, 30-day hospital readmission rates vary, from about 6 percent for patients with lower extremity joint replacement to nearly 20 percent for patients with debility (weakness or feebleness), according to a study in the February 12 issue of JAMA. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently identified 30-day hospital readmission as a national quality indicator for inpatient rehabilitation facilities; reporting will be required in 2014 by the CMS, according to background ...

From 2009-2012, 36 bills introduced in 18 states sought to modify school immunization mandates, with the majority seeking to expand exemptions although none of the bills passed, according to a study in the February 12 issue of JAMA. "School immunization mandates, implemented through state-level legislation, have played an important role in maintaining high immunization coverage in the United States," according to background information in the article. Immunization mandates permit exemptions that vary from state to state in terms of type of exemption (e.g., religious, ...

Washington, DC — Moderate aerobic exercise helps to preserve the structure and function of nerve cells in the retina after damage, according to an animal study appearing February 12 in The Journal of Neuroscience. The findings suggest exercise may be able to slow the progression of retinal degenerative diseases. Age-related macular degeneration, one of the leading causes of blindness in the elderly, is caused by the death of light-sensing nerve cells in the retina called photoreceptors. Although several studies in animals and humans point to the protective effects ...

Women who carry a mutation on the BRCA breast cancer gene - and are diagnosed with early stage breast cancer - are significantly less likely to die if they undergo a double mastectomy than those who have only one breast removed, suggests a paper published on bmj.com today. The authors say double mastectomy should be discussed as an option for young women with a BRCA mutation and early onset breast cancer. However, given the small number of women in this group, further research is required to confirm the findings. Women who carry a BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation face a ...

Annual screening in women aged 40-59 does not reduce mortality from breast cancer beyond that of physical examination or usual care, concludes a 25-year study from Canada published on bmj.com today. Furthermore, the study shows that 22% of screen detected breast cancers were over-diagnosed, representing one over-diagnosed breast cancer for every 424 women who received screening in the trial. Over-diagnosis refers to the detection of harmless cancers that will not cause symptoms or death during a patient's lifetime. Regular mammography screening is done to reduce ...

WASHINGTON D.C. Feb. 11, 2014 -- Shoot a beam of light or particles at certain special materials and you will liberate electrons -- pairs of them -- a phenomenon known as "electron pair emission," which can reveal fundamental properties of the solid and reveal information necessary to design novel materials for future applications. Measuring electron pair emission has always been difficult, however, because they were traditionally done using highly expensive synchrotron light sources, which are available in only a few laboratories worldwide. Nobody has found a way to ...

Scientists have found that carvacrol – the substance in oregano oil that gives the pizza herb its distinctive warm, aromatic smell and flavour – is effective against norovirus, causing the breakdown of the virus' tough outer coat. The research is published today (12 February) in the Society for Applied Microbiology's Journal of Applied Microbiology. Norovirus, also known as the winter vomiting disease, is the leading cause of vomiting and diarrhoea around the world. It is particularly problematic in nursing homes, hospitals, cruise ships, and schools, and is a very common ...

Researchers used data from satellite transmitters attached to the turtles to track their movements across the Atlantic Ocean. These movements were then overlapped with information on high pressure fishing areas to identify where the turtles are most susceptible to becoming entangled and where they may drown. The international study, jointly led by Dr Matthew Witt of the University of Exeter and Dr Sabrina Fossette of Swansea University, found that urgent international efforts are needed to protect the iconic species. Between 1995 and 2010, a total of 106 leatherback ...

Two doses of vaccine against human papillomavirus (HPV) provide good protection against genital warts, but three doses is better according to an extensive register study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. The results are published in the scientific periodical JAMA. Since 2012, girls in Sweden between the ages of 10 and 18 are offered free vaccination against HPV. The vaccine provides protection against various types of HPV, including some that cause cervical cancer and those that cause genital warts. Current recommendation is three doses of the vaccine ...

Moderate aerobic exercise helps to preserve the structure and function of nerve cells in the retina after damage, researchers at the Emory Eye Center and the Atlanta VA Medical Center have found. The findings, from a study of an animal model of age-related macular degeneration, are the first to suggest that aerobic exercise can have a direct effect on retinal health and vision. The results are scheduled for publication Feb. 12 in the Journal of Neuroscience. Senior authors are Machelle Pardue, PhD and colleague Jeffrey H. Boatright, PhD at the Atlanta VA Center for ...

Health professionals who treat people with psychiatric problems often overlook their patients' smoking habits, assuming it's best to tackle depression, anxiety or substance abuse problems first. However, new research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis shows that people who struggle with mood problems or addiction can safely quit smoking and that kicking the habit is associated with improved mental health. The study is published online in the journal Psychological Medicine. "Clinicians tend to treat the depression, alcohol dependence or drug problem ...

As humans have expanded into new environments and civilizations, man's best friend, dogs, have been faithful companions at their sides. Now, with DNA sequencing technology readily available to examine the dog genome, scientists are gaining new insights into canine evolution. In a new study published in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution, author Dong-Dong Wu, et. al., explored the genetic basis of high-altitude adaptation of Tibetan Mastiffs, which were originally domesticated from the Chinese native dogs of the plains. The authors examined genome-wide mutations ...

VIDEO: This TRMM flyover is a simulated 3-D view of Fobane that shows a few powerful thunderstorms near the center were reaching heights of over 14km (~8.7 miles) on Feb. 11.... Click here for more information. Tropical Cyclone Fobane was located southeast of Reunion Island in the southwest Indian Ocean when the TRMM satellite passed over and captured rainfall and cloud data on the storm. TRMM saw that despite Fobane weakening, there was still some punch left in a few of the thunderstorms ...

In the tech world, coolness takes more than just good looks. Technology users must consider a product attractive, original and edgy before they label those products as cool, according to researchers. That coolness can turn tepid if the product appears to be losing its edginess, they also found. "Everyone says they know what 'cool' is, but we wanted to get at the core of what 'cool' actually is, because there's a different connotation to what cool actually means in the tech world," said S. Shyam Sundar, Distinguished Professor of Communications, Penn State, and co-director ...

NIH-funded scientists have shown that boosting the production of certain broadly neutralizing antibodies can protect humanized mice from both intravenous and vaginal infection with HIV. Humanized mice have immune systems genetically modified to resemble those of humans, making it possible for them to become HIV-infected. Led by David Baltimore, Ph.D., of the California Institute of Technology, the investigators inserted the genes encoding the NIH-discovered broadly HIV neutralizing antibody VRC01 into a vector, a virus that infects mice but does not cause disease. In ...

University of California, Berkeley, researchers have shown that chronic stress generates long-term changes in the brain that may explain why people suffering chronic stress are prone to mental problems such as anxiety and mood disorders later in life. Their findings could lead to new therapies to reduce the risk of developing mental illness after stressful events. Doctors know that people with stress-related illnesses, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), have abnormalities in the brain, including differences in the amount of gray matter versus white matter. ...

LEBANON, NH (Feb. 10, 2014) – Options are limited in America's battle of the bulge. While diet and exercise can help in the short term, they are frustratingly ineffective in the long run. And, even the search for a magic weight-loss pill is falling short, said Drs. Steven Woloshin and Lisa Schwartz of The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice in the Feb. 10 issue of JAMA Internal Medicine. Many medications for weight loss have been proposed or are under development. The Federal Drug Administration has approved few drugs for long-term weight loss, ...

Nearly 12 percent of Medicare patients who receive inpatient rehabilitation following discharge from acute-care hospitalization are readmitted to the hospital within 30 days after discharge from the rehabilitation facility according to new research published in the Feb. 12 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Before now, there was a lack of research on the frequency and causes of patients returning to hospital after rehabilitation. The new research reports 30-day hospital readmission rates across rehabilitation impairment categories and examines ...

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 10, 2014) — A new study led by University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center researcher Peter Zhou shows that targeting Twist, a nuclear protein that is an accelerant of the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) program in human cells, may provide an effective approach for treating triple-negative breast cancer. Triple-negative breast cancer has an activated EMT program, which is a process that provides cells with the increased plasticity (or flexibility) to adapt to stressed environments during embryonic development, wound healing, tissue fibrosis ...

PHILADELPHIA -- Penn Medicine researchers have developed a better way to assess and diagnose psychosis in young children. By "growth charting" cognitive development alongside the presentation of psychotic symptoms, they have demonstrated that the most significant lags in cognitive development correlate with the most severe cases of psychosis. Their findings are published online this month in JAMA Psychiatry. "We know that disorders such as schizophrenia come with a functional decline as well as a concurrent cognitive decline," says Ruben Gur, PhD, director of the Brain ...

CHAPEL HILL, NC – Researchers at the UNC School of Medicine conducted a comprehensive genetic analysis of invasive bladder cancer tumors to discover that the disease shares genetic similarities with two forms of breast cancer. The finding is significant because a greater understanding of the genetic basis of cancers, such as breast cancers, has in the recent past led to the development of new therapies and diagnostic aids. Bladder cancer, which is the fourth most common malignancy in men and ninth in women in the United States, claimed more than 15,000 lives last year. The ...

Ann Arbor, Mich. – New American Diabetes Association (ADA) screening guidelines may lead to the missed diagnoses of type 2 diabetes in children, according to a new study by University of Michigan. The research, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, finds that both pediatric and family medicine providers who care for children are using screening tests for type 2 diabetes that may result in missed diagnoses for children, says lead author Joyce Lee, M.D., M.P.H., associate professor in U-M's Departments of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases and Environmental ...