ASO

Pulsating ultrasound enhances gene therapy for tumors

High-intensity focused ultrasound emitted in short pulses is a promising, non-invasive procedure for enhancing gene delivery to cancerous cells without destroying healthy tissue, according to a study in the May issue of the journal Radiology. High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) is more powerful than standard ultrasound. HIFU can destroy tumors through long and continuous exposures tha...

Bobbing birds do it for a reason

Pronounced head-bobbing behavior during walking is a characteristic of diverse species of birds, but how this behavior benefits the birds and under what circumstances it proves useful have remained uncertain. Researchers this week report findings that strongly suggest that for some birds head bobbing is critical for the stabilization of their visual world, despite the motion of their bodies, and...

Late peak may have prevented severe flu season from becoming worse

The 2004-2005 flu season was at least as severe as the 2003-2004 season, but peaked later according to data from Solucient, a leading provider of healthcare information. This later peak may have prevented the most recent flu season from being even worse. A flu season's severity is reflected in hospital admissions for community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), one of the most common complications...

Penn researchers study the use of ultrasound for treatment of cancer

For the first time, ultrasound is being used in animal models ?to treat cancer by disrupting tumor blood vessels. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine completed a study in mice in which they used ultrasound both to see a tumor's blood perfusion and then to treat it with a continuous wave of low-level ultrasound. After three minutes of treatment at an intensity similar...

The reason why antiviral therapy can't annihilate HIV infection, and what to do about it

Antiviral therapy has been used to suppress HIV replication and has dramatically improved the clinical course of disease in affected patients. But the existence of viral reservoirs precludes the complete elimination of HIV from treated patients. In a new study appearing on November 1 in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, Tae-Wook Chun and colleagues from the NIH offer new insight into the er...

3D ultrasound device poised to advance minimally invasive surgery

Three-dimensional ultrasound probes built by researchers at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering have imaged the beating hearts of dogs. The engineers said their demonstration showed that the probes could give surgeons a better view during human endoscopic surgeries in which operations are performed through tiny "keyhole" incisions. If the probes prove beneficial in human testing, the advanc...

Ultrasounds show mothers' drinking shrinks fetal brain

Routine ultrasounds show that heavy drinkers who continue to imbibe after learning they are pregnant may carry fetuses with reduced skull and brain growth compared to those of abstainers or quitters, says a new study. Although the alcohol-exposed babies' growth remained within normal range, the findings reveal effects of drinking on the developing human brain. The study will appear in the...

Amazon rainforest greens up in the dry season

The Amazon rainforest puts on its biggest growth spurt during the dry season, according to new research. The finding surprised the researchers. "Most of the vegetation around the world follows a general pattern in which plants get green and lush during the rainy season and then during the dry season, leaves fall because there's not enough water in the soil to support plant growth," said le...

Rare Chinese frogs communicate by means of ultrasonic sound

First came word that a rare frog (Amolops tormotus) in China sings like a bird, then that the species produces very high-pitch ultrasonic sounds. Now scientists say that these concave-eared torrent frogs also hear and respond to the sounds. The findings, to appear in the March 16 issue of Nature, represent the first documented case of an amphibian being able to communicate like bats, whale...

Ultrasound may help regrow teeth

A team of University of Alberta researchers has created technology to regrow teeth--the first time scientists have been able to reform human dental tissue. Using low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS), Dr. Tarak El-Bialy from the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry and Dr. Jie Chen and Dr. Ying Tsui from the Faculty of Engineering have created a miniaturized system-on-a-chip that offers a n...

3-D ultrasound scanner could guide robotic surgeries

Duke University engineers have shown that a three-dimensional ultrasound scanner they developed can successfully guide a surgical robot. The scanner could find application in various medical settings, according to the researchers. They said the scanner ultimately might enable surgeries to be performed without surgeons, a capability that could prove valuable in space stations or other remot...

A reason why video games are hard to give up

Kids and adults will stay glued to video games this holiday season because the fun of playing actually is rooted in fulfilling their basic psychological needs. Psychologists at the University of Rochester, in collaboration with Immersyve, Inc., a virtual environment think tank, asked 1,000 gamers what motivates them to keep playing. The results published in the journal Motivation and Emoti...

Leading reason for corneal transplants comes into focus

Guided by families with an unusual number of cases, scientists at Johns Hopkins have discovered the genetic origins of at least one form of Fuchs corneal dystrophy, FCD, the leading reason for corneal transplantation in the United States. In one form or another, FCD's trademark deterioration of the cells covering the clear, outermost lens of the eye affects more than 4 percent of the popul...

Air travel and flu: Post-9/11 restrictions delayed start of season

The onset of the flu season in the USA has been shown to be influenced by air travel. After flights were restricted following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, the flu season started about two weeks later than usual. In both the northern and southern hemispheres, influenza epidemics occur annually during the winter flu season. Given the concerns about global epidemics of serious strains...

Ultrasound upgrade produces images that work like 3-D movies

Parents-to-be might soon don 3-D glasses in the ultrasound lab to see their developing fetuses in the womb "in living 3-D, just like at the IMAX movies," according to researchers at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering. The same Duke team that first developed real-time, three-dimensional ultrasound imaging says it has now modified the commercial version of the scanner to produce a...

3-D ultrasound identifies women at risk for impending preterm birth

To help physicians non-invasively identify women at risk for preterm birth, 3-D ultrasound was used to measure the size of fetal adrenal glands, according to an abstract presented by Yale School of Medicine researchers at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine Conference February 8 in San Francisco. Preterm birth is a major public health problem with lasting repercussions on families and...

Proteasome activator enhances survival of Huntington's disease neuronal model cells

To function, each living cell needs both to build new and to degrade old or damaged proteins. To accomplish that, a number of intracellular systems work in concert to keep the cell healthy and from clogging up with damaged proteins. When proteins or peptides mutate, they can present major problems to the clearing up of the intracellular environment. In Huntington's disease (HD) the disease provok...

Premature births may be linked to seasonal levels of pesticides and nitrates in surface water

The growing premature birth rate in the United States appears to be strongly associated with increased use of pesticides and nitrates, according to work conducted by Paul Winchester, M.D., professor of clinical pediatrics at the Indiana University School of Medicine. He reports his findings May 7 at the Pediatric Academic Societies' annual meeting, a combined gathering of the American Pediatric S...

Focused ultrasound relieves fibroid symptoms in women

A noninvasive ultrasound procedure effectively shrinks uterine fibroids and significantly relieves fibroid-related symptoms in women, according to the results of a multicenter clinical trial reported in the June issue of the journal Radiology. Magnetic resonance-guided, focused ultrasound surgery (MRgFUS) allows radiologists to precisely target fibroids without harming healthy surrounding tiss...

3-D ultrasound scanner provides in-depth view of the brain

The “brain scope,” which is inserted into a dime-sized hole in the skull, may be particularly useful for the bedside evaluation of critically ill patients when compute...