Studies

Video • Automation in radiology

Machine learning techniques generate clinical labels of medical scans

Researchers used machine learning techniques, including natural language processing algorithms, to identify clinical concepts in radiologist reports for CT scans, according to a study conducted at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published in the journal Radiology. The technology is an important first step in the development of artificial intelligence that could interpret scans and…

News • New data

WHO: High levels of antibiotic resistance found worldwide

WHO’s first release of surveillance data on antibiotic resistance reveals high levels of resistance to a number of serious bacterial infections in both high- and low-income countries. WHO’s new Global Antimicrobial Surveillance System (GLASS) reveals widespread occurrence of antibiotic resistance among 500 000 people with suspected bacterial infections across 22 countries.

News • Interactive tool

Breast cancer: Improving patient knowledge of treatment options

Breast cancer patients face complex decisions about their treatment. “Knowledge is a key component of decision making, and yet it’s consistently low even among patients who have received treatment. We need better tools to make these decisions more informed,” says Sarah T. Hawley, Ph.D., MPH, professor of internal medicine at Michigan Medicine. Hawley and colleagues from the Cancer…

News • Scar evaluation

Surgical scarring: Why patients and doctors often disagree

When it comes to the physical scars surgery leaves behind, a new study shows patients and doctors often don’t assess their severity the same way. Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania found patients and physicians disagreed in their scar evaluations 28 percent of the time, with patients more likely to focus on the depth of the scar while physicians…

News • Survival rates

Grim outlook for chronic ischaemic heart disease patients

Nearly a quarter of patients with chronic ischaemic cardiovascular disease are dead or hospitalised within six months, reports a European Society of Cardiology (ESC) study published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. “Coronary artery disease is the leading cause of death worldwide yet some patients appear to get lost in the system after their initial visit to a hospital or…

News • Milestone

Researcher grow hairy skin in a dish

Researchers at Indiana University School of Medicine have successfully developed a method to grow hairy skin from mouse pluripotent stem cells - a discovery that could lead to new approaches to model disease and new therapies for the treatment of skin disorders and cancers.

News • Cryptography

How can blockchain accelerate innovation in healthcare?

Blockchain technology can be a potential industry disrupter in healthcare. It is a proven game changer in the business arena. In a recent IBM study, they surveyed 200 healthcare executives, of whom 16% expect to have a commercial blockchain solution sometime in the very near future. So, what is blockchain technology? In a nutshell, the concept is based on a list of records, called blocks, which…

News • Mirror neuron activity

This is where your brain makes up its mind about moral dilemmas

It is wartime. You and your fellow refugees are hiding from enemy soldiers, when a baby begins to cry. You cover her mouth to block the sound. If you remove your hand, her crying will draw the attention of the soldiers, who will kill everyone. If you smother the child, you’ll save yourself and the others. If you were in that situation, which was dramatized in the final episode of the ’70s and…

News • Getting in shape

Want to lose weight? Try moving near a gym

People living within a kilometre of physical activity facilities, such as gyms, swimming pools and playing fields, have smaller waist circumferences, lower BMI and lower body fat percentages than people who have no nearby exercise facilities, according to an observational study published in The Lancet Public Health. Living further away from a fast food outlet was also weakly associated with a…

News • Macrophages

How immune cells help early breast cancer spread

Mount Sinai researchers have discovered that normal immune cells called macrophages, which reside in healthy breast tissue surrounding milk ducts, play a major role in helping early breast cancer cells leave the breast for other parts of the body, potentially creating metastasis before a tumor has even developed, according to a study published in Nature Communications. The macrophages play a role…

News • Leafy greens vs. Alzheimer's

Putting a fork in cognitive decline

While cognitive abilities naturally decline with age, eating one serving of leafy green vegetables a day may aid in preserving memory and thinking skills as a person grows older, according to a study by researchers at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. The study results were published in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. “Adding a daily serving of…

News • Keep on moving

Just 4,000 steps a day to better brain health

Walking more than 4,000 steps a day can improve attention and mental skills in adults ages 60 and older, according to UCLA research published December 12 in a preprint edition of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. Various studies have found that physical activity is important in preventing cognitive decline and dementia in older adults. Cognitive decline occurs when people start having…

News • Genetic engineering

CAR-T: Landmark cancer study sheds new light on immunotherapy

Loyola University Medical Center is the only Chicago center that participated in the pivotal clinical trial of a groundbreaking cancer treatment that genetically engineers a patient's immune system to attack cancer cells. Patrick Stiff, MD, director of Loyola's Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center, is a co-author of the study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The treatment used in…

News • De-fragmenting efforts

Coordinated emergency care improves heart attack survival

Coordinating the response to heart attacks among emergency responders and hospitals reduces the time to treatment and saves lives - even on a large, regional scale, according to a study led by the Duke Clinical Research Institute with support from the American Heart Association. In the largest demonstration of the coordinated approach - 132 hospitals and 946 EMS agencies in 12 U.S. regions -…

News • Technique comparison

Contrast-enhanced digital mammography vs. breast MRI

Contrast-enhanced digital mammography is comparable to breast MRI in evaluating residual breast cancer after neoadjuvant endocrine therapy or chemotherapy, according to the results of a study presented by Mayo Clinic researchers at the 2017 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. “Our study aimed to compare contrast-enhanced mammography with breast MRI in evaluating residual breast cancer in…

News • Grim prognosis

Number of americans with Alzheimer’s will more than double by 2060

About 15 million Americans will have either Alzheimer’s dementia or mild cognitive impairment by 2060, up from approximately 6.08 million this year, according to a new study by researchers at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. The findings highlight the need to develop measures that could slow the progression of the disease in people who have indications of neuropathological changes…

News • Overdiagnosis

Screening has had “little impact” on falling breast cancer deaths

Breast screening in the Netherlands seems to have had a marginal effect on breast cancer mortality over the past 24 years, suggests research in The BMJ. Their findings show that screening would be associated with up to 5% reductions in breast cancer mortality in women aged 50 and over, whereas improved treatments would be associated with a 28% reduction. And they point out that overdiagnosis…

News • The psychology of food

Gluten-free diet - hope or hype?

Walk into the local grocery store and you’re likely to find an array of products with the words “gluten-free” splashed across the label. Everything from cereal to frozen pizza to pasta — and even water — is getting the gluten-free treatment. According to a recent survey, 30 percent of Americans said they were cutting down or avoiding gluten altogether. And yet, only four percent of the…

News • New study reveals

Treatment window for strokes might be larger than previously thought

Treating stroke has long been governed by the clock. If it has been less than three hours since the onset of symptoms, the clot-busting drug t-PA will likely work. If it has been four and a half hours, some selected patients might benefit. However, if it has been more than six hours, treatment options have been few. Now that conventional wisdom has been turned on its head. The final results of…

News • Key in the stem cells

This is why testicular cancer is so responsive to chemo

Cornell researchers have taken a major step toward answering a key question in cancer research: Why is testicular cancer so responsive to chemotherapy, even after it metastasizes? Professional cyclist Lance Armstrong, for example, had testicular cancer that spread to his lung and brain, yet he made a full recovery after conventional chemotherapy. The key to such success appears to lie in the…

News • New study

Prostate Health Index drastically cuts down biopsy rate

A study published in Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases demonstrated that physicians elected to perform fewer biopsies when Prostate Health Index (phi) testing was included in their overall, routine, clinical assessment. Phi testing is recommended for men presenting with elevated serum total prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in the 4-10 ng/mL range and a non-suspicious digital rectal exam…

News • Bleak prediction

Breast cancer treatment costs to strain medicare in the near future

With cancer care costs projected to increase 32% from 2010 to 2020, researchers are working to determine the main drivers of costs for treating breast cancer. Breast cancer accounted for the highest proportion (13%) of the $124.6 billion in Medicare money spent on cancer care in 2010. In a study led by Ami Vyas, PhD, MS, MBA (currently at the University of Rhode Island) and published in the…

News • Study

Secrets of Ebola uncovered - in the heart of a devastating outbreak

In a comprehensive and complex molecular study of blood samples from Ebola patients in Sierra Leone, published in Cell Host and Microbe, a scientific team led by the University of Wisconsin–Madison has identified signatures of Ebola virus disease that may aid in future treatment efforts. Conducting a sweeping analysis of everything from enzymes to lipids to immune-system-associated molecules,…

News • Study

Asthma and food allergies predictable at age one

Children at one year old who have eczema or atopic dermatitis (AD) and are sensitized to an allergen are seven times more likely than other infants to develop asthma, and significantly more likely to have a food allergy by age three. This new finding from the Canadian CHILD Study will help doctors better predict which children will develop asthma and allergies, according to a paper published by…

News • Study asks neurosurgeons

How old is too old to perform brain surgery?

People sometimes joke that easy tasks are “not brain surgery.” But what happens when it actually is brain surgery? How old is too old to be a neurosurgeon? In a new Mayo Clinic Proceedings study, most neurosurgeons disagreed with an absolute age cutoff, but half favored additional testing for neurosurgeons 65 and older. Some professions, including commercial pilots, FBI agents and air traffic…

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