SAN FRANCISCO (March 11, 2013) — Bypass surgery done without a heart-lung machine, known as off-pump, may provide better post-operative outcomes than on-pump bypass surgery for high-risk patients, according to research presented today at the American College of Cardiology's 62nd Annual Scientific Session. In the first study to look specifically at on-pump versus off-pump bypass surgery among patients deemed to be at high operative risk, researchers examined the primary endpoint of patients' combined outcomes of all-cause death, stroke, heart attack or renal failure requiring ...

Des Moines, IA - A short walk around the barn might improve the future fertility of Yorkshire gilts. According to research presented by Samantha Kaminski, a graduate student at North Dakota State University, swine fetuses showed significant ovarian development after their mothers exercised. Kaminski and fellow researchers already knew that uterine blood flow could affect blood flow to the ovaries of developing fetuses. To further study the relationship between uterine blood flow and ovary development, Kaminski and fellow researchers designed an experiment to increase ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Children who avoid situations they find scary are likely to have anxiety a Mayo Clinic study of more than 800 children ages 7 to 18 found. The study published this month in Behavior Therapy presents a new method of measuring avoidance behavior in young children. The researchers developed two eight-question surveys: the Children's Avoidance Measure Parent Report and the Children's Avoidance Measure Self Report. The questionnaires ask details about children's avoidance tendencies, for instance, in addressing parents, "When your child is scared or worried ...

The downed limbs and other woody debris that are inevitable byproducts of timber harvest could be among the most important components of post-harvest landscapes, according to a new study led by the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station. Researchers found that retaining moderate levels of logging debris, also known as "slash," helped to both directly and indirectly increase the growth rate of Douglas-fir seedlings replanted after harvest. The findings, which are among the first to speak to the benefits of second-growth logging debris, are published ...

SAN FRANCISCO (March 10, 2013) — The prescription drug eplerenone appears to reduce the risk of cardiovascular mortality and heart failure after a heart attack by more than one-third, according to research presented today at the American College of Cardiology's 62nd Annual Scientific Session. The REMINDER (Reduction of heart failure morbidity in patients with acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction) trial was a randomized, double-blind trial of 1,012 patients who had a heart attack caused by a complete blockage of one of the heart's arteries. Patients had no signs or ...

SAN FRANCISCO (March 10, 2013) — A single dose of an investigational anti-inflammatory drug, inclacumab, reduced damage to heart tissue during angioplasty in a study presented today at the American College of Cardiology's 62nd Annual Scientific Session. More than 1 million coronary angioplasty procedures are performed in the United States each year, at a cost of more than $10 billion. Heart tissue can be damaged during angioplasty, often leading to additional procedures, poor outcomes and higher health care costs. In this trial, researchers compared a single dose of ...

SAN FRANCISCO (March 10, 2013) — A clot-busting therapy may benefit some heart attack patients who cannot have immediate angioplasty, according to research presented today at the American College of Cardiology's 62nd Annual Scientific Session. "Drug therapy before transfer is at least as effective as [angioplasty], and an urgent catheterization was avoided in two-thirds of patients," said Frans Van de Werf, MD, PhD, professor of cardiology at University of Leuven, Belgium, and the study's lead investigator. "It gives [clinicians] time to consider other options, such ...

SAN FRANCISCO (March 10, 2013) — A commonly used anti-anginal drug reduces chest pain in patients with type 2 diabetes and appears to have a more pronounced effect in those with poorer glucose control, according to research presented today at the American College of Cardiology's 62nd Annual Scientific Session. Ranolazine is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of chronic angina, or chest pain, both as first line therapy and as an add-on when symptoms are not relieved with other anti-anginal drugs, including beta-blockers, calcium channel ...

SAN FRANCISCO (March 10, 2013) — Heart attack patients given a combination of high-dose oral vitamins and minerals do not exhibit a significant reduction in recurrent cardiac events, according to research presented today at the American College of Cardiology's 62nd Annual Scientific Session. However, the results of one component of the NIH-funded Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy (TACT) study, shows that when combined with active chelation therapy, high-dose vitamins and minerals may provide some additional benefit. The TACT study tested the safety and effectiveness of ...

SAN FRANCISCO (March 11, 2013) —Digoxin significantly reduces the likelihood of hospital admission due to all causes among ambulatory older patients with chronic heart failure and reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), according to research presented today at the American College of Cardiology's 62nd Annual Scientific Session. Researchers reviewed patient outcomes from 1995 in the Digitalis Investigation Group (DIG) trial of 6,800 patients with HFrEF—a condition in which the heart is too weak to pump and patients suffer from breathlessness and fatigue. Patients with HFrEF ...

SAN FRANCISCO (March 11, 2013) — The clot-busting drug tenecteplase prevents death or circulatory collapse in a subgroup of patients with a blood clot in the lungs and appears to be especially useful in patients younger than 75, according to research presented today at the American College of Cardiology's 62nd Annual Scientific Session. Pulmonary embolism occurs when part of a blood clot in a vein breaks off and travels to the lungs. It is fatal about 10 percent of the time, killing between 60,000 and 100,000 Americans each year. The most common cause of death is progressive ...

SAN FRANCISCO (March 11, 2013) — For at-risk patients, a simple screening and management program can be effective in preventing heart failure, according to research presented today at the American College of Cardiology's 62nd Annual Scientific Session. The five-year STOP-HF study enrolled asymptomatic patients over 40 years of age with risk factors for heart failure and randomized them into an intervention and a control group. Patients in the intervention group were screened for blood levels of B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), a hormone that indicates how well the heart ...

SAN FRANCISCO (March 11, 2013) —Despite high hopes that a blood pressure-lowering medication called aliskiren would help people following hospitalization for heart failure, no beneficial effects were found, according to research presented today at the American College of Cardiology's 62nd Annual Scientific Session. Heart failure is the leading cause of hospitalization for people over age 65, costing Medicare billions of dollars annually, and researchers are always on the lookout for more effective treatments. The Aliskiren Trial on Acute Heart Failure Outcomes (ASTRONAUT) ...

SAN FRANCISCO (March 11, 2013) — Despite high expectations for a commonly used erectile dysfunction drug to treat patients with diastolic heart failure, no beneficial effects were found in a study presented today at the American College of Cardiology's 62nd Annual Scientific Session. The RELAX Study is the first multicenter trial to look at the effect of chronic therapy with sildenafil in diastolic heart failure. Sildenafil is a phosphodiesterase-5 (PDE-5) inhibitor, a class of drugs used to treat erectile dysfunction and certain types of pulmonary arterial hypertension. ...

Charlottesville, VA (March 12, 2013). In a study of 90 patients undergoing surgery for brain tumor, researchers in Lithuania (Lithuanian University of Health Sciences) and the United States (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Brigham & Women's Hospital, Harvard University) have discovered that the finding of low T3 (triiodothyronine) syndrome is predictive of unfavorable clinical outcomes and depressive symptoms. Details of this study are furnished in the article "Low triiodothyronine syndrome as a predictor of poor outcomes in patients undergoing brain tumor ...

The human skin is home to countless microorganisms that we can't see, but these microbes help define who we are. Our invisible passengers – known as the skin microbiome - contribute to our health in numerous ways including educating our immune system, protecting us from pathogens, and mediating skin disorders. In a new study, researchers investigated how the skin microbiome is transmitted between players in a contact sport, using roller derby as their model system. The skin is the largest organ and an important barrier that regulates microbial entry into the human body. ...

HEIDELBERG, 12 March 2013 – Attaching chains of the small molecule ADP-ribose to proteins is important for a cell's survival and the repair of DNA damage, making this process a promising target for the development of new cancer drugs. Researchers have now identified a much sought after enzyme that removes such ADP-ribose modifications from proteins by studying a genetic mutation that causes neurodegenerative disease in humans. These findings, published today in The EMBO Journal, suggest that not only addition but also removal of ADP-ribose from proteins is essential for ...

Pasadena, CA—For only the second time in history, a team of scientists--including Carnegie's Michele Fumagalli--have discovered an extremely rare triple quasar system. Their work is published by Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. It is available online. Quasars are extremely bright and powerful sources of energy that sit in the center of a galaxy, surrounding a black hole. In systems with multiple quasars, the bodies are held together by gravity and are believed to be the product of galaxies colliding. It is very difficult to observe triplet quasar ...

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo will soon decide whether to approve hydraulic fracturing for natural gas in the state. To date, no alternative to expanded gas drilling has been proposed. But a new study finds that it is technically and economically feasible to convert New York's all-purpose energy infrastructure to one powered by wind, water and sunlight (WWS). The plan, scheduled for publication in the journal Energy Policy, shows the way to a sustainable, inexpensive and reliable energy supply that creates local jobs and saves the state billions of dollars in pollution-related ...

Coral reefs not only provide the world with rich, productive ecosystems and photogenic undersea settings, they also contribute an economic boost valued at hundreds of billions of dollars. But their decline in recent years due to a variety of threats—from pollution to climate warming—has lent urgency to the search for new ways to evaluate their health. A new study by Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego scientists has revealed that fluorescence, the dazzling but poorly understood light produced by corals, can be an effective tool for gauging their health. As ...

Human norovirus (hNoV), also known as the winter vomiting bug, is one of the most common stomach bugs in the world. The virus is highly contagious, causing vomiting and diarrhea, and the number of affected cases is growing. Currently there is no cure; sufferers have to let the virus run its course for a few days. The consumption of fresh produce is frequently associated with outbreaks of hNoV but it remains difficult to identify where in the supply chain the virus first enters production. A new study, published in the International Journal of Food Microbiology investigated ...

Enriching crops by adding a naturally-occurring soil mineral to fertilisers could potentially help to reduce disease and premature death in the African country of Malawi, researchers have said. An international study led by academics at The University of Nottingham has shown that dietary deficiency of the mineral selenium — which plays a vital role in keeping the immune system healthy and fighting illness — is likely to be endemic among the Malawi population. They found that most Malawi soils cannot supply enough selenium for adequate human nutrition and, in a paper ...

Babies have a dark side under their cute exteriors, according to University of British Columbia-led study that finds infants as young as nine months embrace those who pick on individuals who are different from them. While previous research has shown that babies generally prefer kind actors, the new study – published by the Association for Psychological Science – is the first to suggest that infants condone antisocial behavior when it is directed at individuals who are dissimilar. "Our research shows that by nine months, babies are busy assessing their surroundings, ...

Infants as young as nine months old prefer individuals who are nice to people like them and mean to people who aren't like them, according to a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. In our social lives, we tend to gravitate toward people who have things in common with us, whether it's growing up in the same town, disliking the same foods, or even sharing the same birthday. And research suggests that babies evaluate people in much the same way, preferring people who like the same foods, clothes, and toys that ...

The energy produced by solar panels, be it heat or electricity, has to be used right away. It is hard to store and preserve and also its transportation can be rather complicated. Creating solar cells capable of producing energy in an easily storable and transportable way, that is to say fuel, is therefore the future challenge of solar energy. For this reason the scientists at SISSA are working on a catalyst that imitates and improves what nature has been able to do for millions of years. Plants turn solar energy into sugars, the true "green" fuel, through photosynthesis. ...