News • Study
Blood group may affect heart attack risk
Researchers have found that people with A, B, and AB blood types may be at greater risk of cardiovascular events - particularly heart attack - than individuals with O blood types.
Studies
News • Ophthalmology
New eye test detects earliest signs of glaucoma
A simple eye test could help solve the biggest global cause of irreversible blindness, glaucoma. In clinical trials, the pioneering diagnostic test - developed by researchers at UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and the Western Eye Hospital - allowed doctors to see individual nerve cell death in the back of the eye.
News • Intoxication
Oktoberfest study: beer drinking may lead to heart problems
Researchers who studied beer drinkers at the Munich Oktoberfest have found that the more alcohol consumed the higher was the likelihood of developing abnormal heart rhythms called cardiac arrhythmias.
Article • Perception
Do football fans of rival teams see the same game differently?
When on the 26th of April, FC Bayern München and Borussia Dortmund confront each other, a great many football enthusiasts will watch the semi-final of the DFB (German Football Association) cup together. Experience shows that after such a game, fans will remember it differently - that is, in favor of their own team. At what point does this distortion actually begin?
News • ECCMID 2017
The cost of Clostridium difficile infections
Repeated infection with the bacterium Clostridium difficile (C. difficile), which causes stomach upsets and diarrhoea, is linked to higher death rates, as well as having a significant impact on health services in terms of cost and hospital beds occupied. This issue will be adressed in two presentations at the 27th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID),…
Article • Study
Hepatitis control must be accelerated
Last year the WHO launched a global strategy on viral hepatitis aiming to eliminate hepatitis B (HBV) and C (HCV) as public health threats by 2030.
News • Investigating deaths
Wide variability in coroner decision-making
Coroners in England and Wales don’t seem able to agree on what caused a person’s death or whether the death merits an inquest or not - despite being faced with identical case information - reveals a small study published online in the Journal of Clinical Pathology.
News • Bad Health Years
Longer Life, Healthier Life?
The average human being is living longer than ever before. Nearly every country on the planet has seen an increase in life expectancy since the beginning of the 21st century. But though we are living longer, not all of us are living healthier. Health Adjusted Life Expectancy (HALE), or healthy life expectancy, is a metric used by the World Health Organization to measure the number of years a…
News • Market Overview
Endoscopy Devices Market to Reach $40,854 Million, Globally, by 2022
Endoscopy Devices Market Report, published by Allied Market Research, forecasts that the global market is expected to garner $40,854 million by 2022 from $27,273 million in 2015, registering a CAGR of 5.7% during the period 2016 to 2022. The flexible endoscopes are expected to dominate the global endoscopy devices market. North America is projected to continue its lead, accounting for more than…
Article • White matter
Age-appropriate disease? Doesn’t exist
What can we learn from population studies? According to Gabriel Krestin MD PhD there are things that we can un-learn, as well as learn, from population imaging studies.
News • Lab Study
A protein called PERK - Treating progressive supranuclear palsy
The brain disease “progressive supranuclear palsy” (PSP) is currently incurable and its symptoms can only be eased to a very limited degree. PSP impairs eye movements, locomotion, balance control, and speech. Scientists at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have now discovered a molecular mechanism that may help in the search…
News • Infections
World still “grossly underprepared” for infectious disease outbreaks
The world remains “grossly underprepared” for outbreaks of infectious disease, which are likely to become more frequent in the coming decades, warn a team of international experts in The BMJ today.
Article • Parsimony in genetic data study
Simplifying what is complex
Genetics stepping ahead as Spain-based researchers develop biomedical robots that can help in the study of rare diseases, neurodegenerative disorders and cancer, as well as the creation of orphan drugs.
News • breath samples
You are what you exhale
An international team of 56 researchers in five countries has confirmed a hypothesis first proposed by the ancient Greeks – that different diseases are characterized by different “chemical signatures” identifiable in breath samples. The findings by the team led by Professor Hossam Haick of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology Department of Chemical Engineering and Russell Berrie…
News • Study
A gene that limits desire to drink alcohol
In the largest study of its kind, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers and colleagues in Europe identified a gene variant that suppresses the desire to drink alcohol.
News • Multidrug-resistant TB
Another facet to the migration crisis in Europe
Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is widespread globally, with an estimated 480,000 cases in 2014.Although rare in European countries, the risks posed by the current migrant crisis makes MDR-TB an important and urgent public health priority.
Is it okay for a doctor to attend a patient's funeral?
New research at the University of Adelaide has shed light on how many doctors are attending the funerals of their patients and the reasons behind their choice. The researchers say more needs to be done within the medical profession to openly discuss the issue.
News • Diabetes
Recommended blood pressure targets are being challenged
The Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare recently raised the recommended target blood pressure for patients with diabetes. This may lead to more patients suffering from stroke or heart attack, according to a new study from the Sahlgrenska Academy. The new study is the world’s largest on the subject and is based on data from the National Diabetes Register.
News • Infection
Zika: 1.6 million childbearing women are at risk
Research by scientists in the US and UK has estimated that up to 1.65 million childbearing women in Central and South America could become infected by the Zika virus by the end of the first wave of the epidemic. Researchers from the WorldPop Project and Flowminder Foundation at the University of Southampton and colleagues from the University of Notre Dame and University of Oxford have also found…
Sponsored • Management
Consolidating with Randox Quality Control
Quality Control is our passion and with more than 30 years' experience developing QC for the in vitro diagnostics market we believe in producing high quality material that can help streamline procedures, whilst saving money for laboratories of all sizes and budgets. These qualities have been reflected in our RIQAS External Quality Assessment (EQA) programmes which, as outlined in Case Study 1,…
News • Staphylococcus aureus
Women more likely to die within 30-days from bacterial blood infection
Clinicians around the world have long suspected that bacteraemia due to Staphylococcus aureus has a worse outcome in women compared to men, but direct evidence has been elusive. A study just published confirms that significantly more women than men diagnosed with Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia (SAB) – a blood infection of the common bacteria – die within 30 days.
News • Study
Predict early stages of Alzheimer’s disease
Researchers from Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC), New York State Psychiatric Institute, and NewYork-Presbyterian reported that an odor identification test may prove useful in predicting cognitive decline and detecting early-stage Alzheimer’s disease. Their two studies, presented at the Alzheimer’s Association’s International Conference in Toronto, Canada, suggest that the…
News • Neurology
The aging brain's memory functions
A European study led by Umeå University Professor Lars Nyberg, has shown that the dopamine D2 receptor is linked to the long-term episodic memory, which function often reduces with age and due to dementia. This new insight can contribute to the understanding of why some but not others are affected by memory impairment.
News • Discovery
Potential genetic trigger of autoimmune disease
Researchers at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) have uncovered a potential genetic trigger of systemic autoimmune disease. The study, the culmination of more than 10 years of research, discovered virus-like elements within the human genome linked to the development of two autoimmune diseases: lupus and Sjogren's syndrome.
News • Herpes zoster
Shingles doubles stroke risk for several years
The study by researchers from the Department of Neurology at the University of Ulsan College of Medicine in Seoul showed that herpes zoster infection not only raised the risk of ischaemic and haemorrhagic stroke but also that of a transient ischaemic attack (TIA), a warning mini-stroke often preceding a full-blown stroke.