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Octopuses occasionally stroll around on two arms, UC Berkeley biologists report

In a stunning example of evolution at work, scientists have now found that changes in a single gene can produce major changes in the skeletal armor of fish living in the wild. "Our motivation is to try to understa...

Doctors closer to using gene analysis to help trauma patients

A genetic tool with the potential to identify which trauma and burn patients are most likely to become seriously ill has worked consistently in a wide range of experimental clinical settings ?an important hurdle to overcome before the method is routinely used in emergency rooms and intensive care units. In a report published today (March 7) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sc...

Survey reveals women and doctors aren't talking about HPV

Eighty-eight percent of women rely on their healthcare providers to learn about gynecological issues, yet only 19 percent said their doctor has talked to them about cervical cancer and its cause - the human papillomavirus (HPV) - according to a new survey released by the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals (ARHP). HPV is extremely common, affecting an estimated 80 percent of sexually...

New defibrillator signals doctor of patient's irregular heartbeat or device malfunction

Loyola first in U.S. to implant new FDA-approved device In a major advance for heart patients, Loyola University Health System is the first hospital in the U.S. to implant into a patient a new FDA-approved defibrillator which automatically signals the doctor via wireless satellite transmission if the patient's heart beats abnormally or if the device malfunctions, e.g., battery failure.</p...

Doctors should stop prescribing antibiotics for the common cold, review advises

Antibiotics should not be prescribed to patients with the common cold because there is scant evidence they stop other infections, and the benefits do not outweigh the risks, according to a new systematic review of current evidence. "Antibiotics appear to have no benefit in the treatment of acute upper respiratory tract infections," conclude Dr. Bruce Arroll and Dr. Timothy Kenealy of the U...

Stanford doctors advance in bid to turn mice stem cells into blood vessels

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have taken a first step toward growing blood vessels from stem cells that could eventually be transplanted into living organisms. Starting with embryonic stem cells derived from mice, surgical resident Oscar Abilez, MD, and colleagues have successfully differentiated the stem cells into myocytes, one of the building blocks of blood...

New Discovery May Help Doctors Treat Infertility

New research suggests that medications commonly referred to as fertility drugs may be ineffective for women who lack a gene called the estrogen receptor beta. The study showed that fertility drugs did not improve ovulation rates in mice that were genetically engineered to lack estrogen receptor beta. The estrogen receptor beta is one of two estrogen receptor proteins which mediate the effects of...

Should doctors tell patients about expensive, unfunded drugs?

It is unethical and paternalistic for doctors to withhold information from patients about new drugs that are not yet publicly funded, say researchers in this week's BMJ. This raises several ethical dilemmas for doctors. Is it reaso...

For one Stanford doctor, the beat goes on during open-heart surgery

In a Stanford Hospital surgery room on a recent afternoon, heart surgeon Kai Ihnken demonstrated how he repositions the beating heart while it's still inside the chest of a 78-year-old man undergoing triple bypass surgery. The surgeon reached into the chest, lifted the beating heart out, then craned his neck to the side, just so, searching for the right spot on the back of the heart to attach the...

How the octopus forms an elbow

The octopus arm is extremely flexible. Thanks to this flexibility--the arm is said to possess a virtually infinite number of "degrees of freedom"--the octopus is able to generate a vast repertoire of movements that is unmatched by the human arm. Nonetheless, despite the huge evolutionary gap and morphological differences between the octopus and vertebrates, the octopus arm acts much like a three-...

Efficiency, not more doctors, is the prescription for aging population

Recent news reports that threaten a shortage of doctors to treat the burgeoning elderly population are wrong, according to researchers at Dartmouth Medical School's Center for the Evaluative Clinical Sciences (CECS). In a study published in the March/April issue of Health Affairs, they argue that if employed efficiently, the current supply of physicians and medical students will be adequate thro...

Patients and their doctors have different perceptions about HIV and its treatment

According to results of a nation-wide study published in the latest issue of SAGE Publications' Journal of the International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care (JIAPAC), HIV positive patients and their doctors have very different views about the disease and how it's treated. The study uncovered differences of opinion between patients and physicians about the initiation of treatment, th...

Does missing gene point to nocturnal existence for early mammals?

A gene that makes cells in the eye receptive to light is missing in humans, researchers have discovered. The findings ?published in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Biology ?reveal how our experience of the light environme...

Brown scientists map structure of DNA-doctoring protein complex

More than half of the human genome is made up of bits of mobile DNA, which can travel inside the body and insert genes into the chromosomes of target cells. This DNA doctoring not only shapes species over time, it also spreads antibiotic resistance and is used by bacteria that spread Lyme disease and by viruses linked to certain forms of cancer. Last year in Nature, scientists working in...

Negative effects of caffeine are stronger on daytime sleep than on nocturnal sleep

A new study at the Université de Montréal has concluded that people drinking coffee to get through a night shift or a night of studying will strongly hurt their recovery sleep the next day. The study published in the current issue of Neuropsychopharmacology was conducted by Dr. Julie Carrier from the Department of Psychology at the Université de Montréal. Dr. Carrier runs the Chronobiology Labora...

Free drug samples influence prescribing, say one in three doctors

One in three doctors agree that free drug samples influence prescribing, finds a small but representative US survey published in the Journal of Medical Ethics. In March 2003, the research team surveyed 397 members of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecol...

Reminding doctors which antibiotics to prescribe cuts C. difficile infection rates

A study published today in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy1 provides the best available evidence that cases of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI)---one of the most common and increasing types of hospital-acquired infection---can be reduced in hospital wards if doctors prescribe narrow-spectrum antibiotics rather than broad-spectrum agents. Researchers at the Royal Free Hospit...

Bats prey on nocturnally migrating songbirds

It was until now believed that nocturnally migrating songbirds, while venturing into the unfamiliar night sky for accomplishing their long, challenging trans-continental migrations, could at least release anti-predator vigilance thanks to the concealment of darkness. A new study by Spanish and Swiss scientists ?published this week in PLoS ONE ?shows that migration at night is not without predatio...

Genes and biomarkers that allow doctors to choose the right therapy for the right patient

Genetic and epigenetic variations ensure that no two people are exactly alike, and the same holds true for any two cancers. Now, researchers have the tools and the knowledge to help predict how individuals will respond to cancer therapies, enabling them to create more effective therapies for individual cancers ?personalized medicine. At the 2007 Annual Meeting of the American Association for Can...