August 31, 2011 – The digestive system is home to a myriad of viruses, but how they are involved in health and disease is poorly understood. In a study published online today in Genome Research (www.genome.org), researchers have investigated the dynamics of virus populations in the human gut, shedding new light on the gut "virome" and how it differs between people and responds to changes in diet. "Our bodies are like coral reefs," said Dr. Frederic Bushman of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, senior author of the study, "inhabited by ...

DURHAM, N.C.—Inserting intra-aortic balloon pumps prior to angioplasty in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) does not reduce the scope of heart muscle damage, a condition referred to as infarct size, according to a new study conducted by Duke University Medical Center researchers. The findings were published online today in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), and presented at the European Society of Cardiology in Paris, France. The intra-aortic balloon pump works by increasing the blood supply to the heart, which reduces the heart's ...

STANFORD, Calif. —A novel technique to "tame" the malaria parasite, by forcing it to depend on an external supply of a vital chemical, has been developed by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and the University of California-San Francisco. The scientists have, in effect, created a domesticated strain of Plasmodium — the one-celled parasite that causes malaria — that would no longer cause this dreaded disease. Their findings not only make it possible to grow large volumes of this modified parasite, but also reveal how the parasite's very survival ...

The profound success and awareness of the Sleep Train Foster Kids Program has inspired a number of other companies and organizations in the area to support regional foster children too. Collecting important material items and cash to contribute to current Sleep Train drives, area companies and organizations are leveraging Sleep Train's successful infrastructure and marketing efforts to offer their support for foster children. This summer alone, Under the Nile, a Milpitas-based cotton apparel company, hosted a drive to support Sleep Train's annual collection of pajamas, ...

[EMBARGOED FOR AUG. 30, 2011] Vaccinating infants against rotavirus also prevents serious disease in unvaccinated older children and adults, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This helps reduce rotavirus-related hospital costs in these older groups. The results of the study are published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases and are now available online. Rotavirus is a major cause of severe diarrhea in infants and young children. Before the vaccine, rotavirus was responsible for 58,000 to 70,000 pediatric hospitalizations each ...

How the brain controls impulsive behavior may be significantly different than psychologists have thought for the last 40 years. That is the unexpected conclusion of a study by an international team of neuroscientists published in the Aug. 31 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. Impulse control is an important aspect of the brain's executive functions – the procedures that it uses to control its own activity. Problems with impulse control are involved in ADHD and a number of other psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia. The current research set out to better ...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — An international team of researchers led by neuroscientists at Mayo Clinic in Florida has found a genetic variation they say protects against Parkinson's disease. The gene variants cut the risk of developing the disease by nearly 20 percent in many populations. The study, published in the online Aug. 31 issue of Lancet Neurology, also reports the discovery of different variants of the same gene, LRRK2— the most important Parkinson's risk gene found to date — that double Parkinson's risk in Caucasians and Asians. Parkinson's disease is a common movement ...

Berkeley – Exposure during pregnancy to flame retardant chemicals commonly found in the home is linked to lower birthweight babies, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley's School of Public Health. In the study, to appear Tuesday, Aug. 30, in the peer-reviewed publication American Journal of Epidemiology, researchers found that every tenfold increase in levels of PBDEs, or polybrominated diphenyl ethers, in a mother's blood during pregnancy corresponded to a 115 gram (4.1 ounce) drop in her baby's birthweight. "This is ...

Writing in the journal Nature Communications, a collaboration between the Universities of Manchester and Cambridge, which includes Nobel Prize winning scientists Professor Andre Geim and Professor Kostya Novoselov, has discovered a crucial recipe for improving characteristics of graphene devices for use as photodetectors in future high-speed optical communications. By combining graphene with metallic nanostructures, they show a twentyfold enhancement in harvesting light by graphene, which paves the way for advances in high-speed internet and other communications. By ...

The US economy continues to produce conflicting headlines and consumer anxiety on a daily basis as unemployment remains above 9 percent. Those looking for a short-term financial solution routinely turn to online lending resources such as Personal Cash Advance, which promotes best loan options such as secure cash advances, payday loans, and other personal loans. "Our new guide to finding the best loans has been met with much enthusiasm from consumers as the economy continues to heal," PersonalCashAdvance.com company spokesperson Neil Cutting said. "As a ...

"Our data indicate that the brain becomes hypersensitive to rewards when this co-signaling of glutamate and dopamine does not function. Lower doses than normal are enough to increase the propensity to ingest the substance, and this is true of both sugar and cocaine," says Åsa Mackenzie, associate professor of neuroscience at Uppsala University and the researcher who led the study. Addiction disorders are a major social problem, and we lack sufficient knowledge of how they arise and how various substances impact the brain. The brain's reward system gives us feelings of ...

Since 2007 Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI) has become an alternative treatment for elderly patients with severe aortic stenosis at high risk for surgical aortic valve replacement. At present, durability and hemodynamic performance of transcatheter aortic valves remain unclear. Our single center data of the German Heart Center in Munich demonstrates a sustained improvement of hemodynamic performance up to 3 years after CoreValve implantation. Aortic valve stenosis (AS) is the most frequent heart valve disease in Europe and North America. The most common ...

Primary PCI is the best reperfusion therapy for patients presenting with acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction. CJ Terkelsen and co-workers used the Western Denmark Heart Registry to describe the implementation of primary PCI in Denmark. Their study (including almost 10,000 patients) showed that a strategy with early diagnosis based on ECG recording in the ambulance and directing the patients straight to the catherization laboratory in the Primary PCI Centre, was associated with a lower mortality. Direct access to PPCI is unfortunately still not possible in many European ...

Results from the SCAAR study, presented at the ESC Congress 2011 today, showed that Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) with "new generation" Drug Eluting Stents, was associated with a 38% lower risk of clinically meaningful restenosis and a 50% lower risk of stent thrombosis compared to old generation DES. Although many trials and studies support the overall early and mid-term safety and efficacy of first-generation drug-eluting stents, there has been concern on their long-term safety, especially regarding the potential risk of late stent thrombosis as well as ...

With a great response from the audience Christopher Flach's film Madeleine Castaing, ended the last days of the Cesis Festival along with the final concert "Imants Kalnins and Philip Glass." Attended by more than 1800 visitors, this years 2011Festival contained a rich program featuring a diverse range of art forms included classical music concerts, visual art exhibitions, films and drama performances. Christopher Flach's film "Madeleine Castaing," is the documentary that explores the personality and influence of the French decorator and antique dealer. ...

Acute myocardial Infarction (AMI) is a major cause of death and disability. Worldwide, one in eight patients die of an ischemic heart disease. Its rapid and accurate diagnosis is critical for the initiation of effective evidence based medical management, including early revascularization, but is still an unmet clinical need. The gradual implementation of high-sensitive cardiac troponins (hs-cTnT) in clinical practice has helped clinicians to detect and treat patients with acute myocardial infarction earlier than with conventional assays. But, high-sensitive assays have ...

Compared to patients who had persistently high platelet reactivity, those who achieved low platelet reactivity, according to the VerifyNow P2Y12 Test, had a reduced incidence of cardiovascular death, heart attack and stent thrombosis, as indicated by a clinical trial presented today at the ESC Congress 2011. These findings were part of a secondary analysis of the Gauging Responsiveness with A VerifyNow P2Y12 Assay- Impact on Thrombosis and Safety (GRAVITAS) trial, the largest prospective trial to date to test the clinical efficacy of antiplatelet therapy modification, ...

Although medication which decreases the risk of angina attacks (chest pain caused by blockage of the arteries that supply the heart), are frequently prescribed in patients who have sustained a myocardial infarction, the possible influence of medication on long-term survival is not known, with the exception of beta-blocking agents, which have been shown to decrease mortality in clinical trials performed 30 years ago. Because antianginal drugs also protect the myocardium against ischemia (insufficient oxygen delivery to the heart muscle), there is a possibility that they ...

Results from a study presented today at the ESC Congress 2011, show that TAVI implantation in low risk patients, met with 100% procedural success (versus 95.3% in the high Euroscore group (p=0.1). "The most interesting point to observe is the absence of death at one month in the low Euroscore group, versus a mortality rate of 11.1% in the high Euroscore group (>20%), (p < 0.04) and this result is confirmed at 1-year with 5 vs 24.8 %, (p END ...

Because of improved management at the acute stage, the risk of dying in hospital after a heart attack has decreased by about 50% in the past 10 years. Likewise, the prescription of recommended medications when patients leave hospital, has resulted in improved survival and fewer recurrent heart attacks. One of the challenges is now to try and further decrease long-term mortality in patients who leave the hospital on "optimal" medical therapy (i.e. who are prescribed all the recommended medications). The French registry of Acute ST-elevation and non-ST-elevation Myocardial ...

The rapid growth of global sales by leading U.S. companies has once again placed Access Technology Solutions in the international spotlight. For the fourth straight year, Utah Business magazine has ranked Access Technology Solutions among its top companies on the Utah Fast 50 list of the fastest-growing companies in Utah. The Utah Fast 50 program was designed to recognize companies for their entrepreneurial spirit, innovative business tactics and skyrocketing revenue growth. Access Technology Solutions was honored at an event in Salt Lake City on August 25th. Access' ...

Thrombotic (clotting) and bleeding events are complications that may occur after surgery. With the aging population in the western world, there are more patients undergoing orthopedic surgery than ever before. This makes understanding the risk of complications from orthopedic surgery exceedingly important. However, there is a lack of data investigating the incidence of thrombotic and bleeding complications in orthopedic surgery. The new study by investigators at NYU School of Medicine was comprised of 3,082 patients undergoing orthopedic surgery of the hip, knee, and ...

With the increased prevalence of chronic heart failure (HF), there is a concomitant increase in the number of related hospitalisations; as chronic HF progresses, the risk of acute exacerbation increases. Registries and surveys of HF have been generally conducted in patients with either chronic or acute conditions, but a description of the whole clinical history of patients with HF, including the acute episodes, consequent changes in clinical conditions and management strategies, have not been available. The final results of the Heart Failure Pilot Study, a general ...

Bergen County, New Jersey Dentist Dr. Sherzoy is a well qualified Cosmetic Dentist who has helped his patients restore their smiles, beauty and self-confidence with Dental Implants. Dental Implants are a proven and effective solution for people who have damaged or missing teeth who find themselves embarrassed about their smiles and want a smile restoration. Dr. Sherzoy is well qualified in the field of Implant Dentistry, a specialized aspect of dentistry, dealing with the placement and restoration of dental implants. Dental Implants are Dr. Sherzoy's preferred method ...

Results presented today from the Atrial Fibrillation Ablation Pilot Study show that almost 40% of patients undergoing a catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation have no underlying disease associated with the arrhythmia, and precipitating factors are rare. The survey, which is a pilot survey from the ESC's EurObservational registry programme, also confirmed that symptoms are present in 86% of patients but vary considerably; symptoms include palpitations, fatigue, and shortness of breath or dizziness. "The AFib Ablation Pilot Study shows that, while symptoms remain the ...