At the request of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce as part of an investigation into preventable medical errors, the Institute of Medicine has issued a report recommending further restrictions regarding duty hours for resident physicians and other actions to reduce resident fatigue and ensure patient safety.
New research finds that adolescents with bedtimes that were set earlier by parents were significantly less likely to suffer from depression and to think about committing suicide, suggesting that earlier bedtimes could have a protective effect by lengthening sleep duration and increasing the likelihood of getting enough sleep.
A new study shows that erectile dysfunction was more common in older men with restless leg syndrome (RLS) than in those without RLS, and the magnitude of this association increased with a higher frequency of RLS symptoms.
Lessons learned from the first 13 children at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center to become critically ill from the H1N1 virus show that although all patients survived, serious complications developed quickly, unpredictably, with great variations from patient to patient and with serious need for vigilant monitoring and quick treatment adjustments.
Preliminary studies show that a vaccine made with leukemia cells may be able to reduce or eliminate the last remaining cancer cells in some chronic myeloid leukemia patients taking the drug Imatinib mesylate (Gleevec).
Neuroscientists have forged an unlikely molecular union as part of their fight against diseases of the brain and nervous system, bringing together the herpes virus and a molecule known as Sleeping Beauty to improve gene therapy. The work has allowed scientists to reach a long-sought goal: shuttling into brain cells a relatively large gene that can remain on for an extended period of time.
Staying in a multi-bed hospital room dramatically increases the risk of acquiring a serious infectious disease, researchers in Canada have discovered.
Researchers have discovered the rules that dictate the 3-D shapes of RNA molecules, rules that are based not on complex chemical interactions but simply on geometry.
Frequent testing and treatment of infection does not reduce the prevalence of chlamydia in urban teenage girls, according to a long term study.
About eight percent of human genetic material comes from a virus and not from our ancestors, according to a new study. The research shows that the genomes of humans and other mammals contain DNA derived from the insertion of bornaviruses, RNA viruses whose replication and transcription takes place in the nucleus.
Researchers have developed a novel mathematical model that predicts the spread of the H1N1 virus on long airplane flights could be significant, particularly if the infected individual travels in economy class.
Updated guidelines for childhood and teen immunizations to include formal recommendations that children older than 6 months get the H1N1 influenza vaccine to guard against swine flu, and that combination vaccines are generally preferred over separate injections, says an pediatric infectious disease expert serving on the panel which drafted the updated schedule.
A new study has found that relatively young men with longstanding HIV infection and minimal cardiac risk factors had significantly more coronary atherosclerotic plaques — some involving serious arterial blockage — than did uninfected men with similar cardiovascular risk.
Just one more pound may help a newborn avoid tuberculosis later in life. Researchers looked at how much protection additional birth weight added against developing the disease years later. They found that every 1.1 pounds of birth weight decreases the risk of developing tuberculosis later by 46 percent among identical twins.
Children in Africa with sickle cell anemia are dying unnecessarily from bacterial infections, suggests the largest study of its kind. The study has prompted calls for all children in Africa to receive vaccinations against the most common bacterial infections.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients are partially protected by the influenza vaccine 6-10 months after treatment with rituximab. Researchers determined that while the flu vaccine is safe, it is ineffective for RA patients in the first six months following rituximab treatment.
Researchers report that Helicobacter pylori, the only bacterium known to survive in the harsh environment of the human stomach, directly activates an enzyme in host cells that has been associated with several types of cancer, including gastric cancer.
Proteins, which perform such vital roles in our bodies as building and maintaining tissues and regulating cellular processes, are a finicky lot. In order to work properly, they must be folded just so, yet many proteins readily collapse into useless tangles when exposed to temperatures just a few degrees above normal body temperature.
A new study finds that postmenopausal HIV-infected women have a high prevalence of low bone mineral density and high bone turnover, placing them at high risk for future bone fractures.
Neisseria meningitidis, the meningococcus, is a bacterium that can cause diseases with high fatality rates, and there has therefore been considerable concern that, like other bacteria, it might become resistant to antibiotics. But now a study shows that there has not been any increase in resistant meningococci in Sweden over the last 15 years. The reason for this may be that it is not especially advantageous for bacteria to develop resistance.
Music therapy can assist in the speech acquisition process in toddlers who have undergone cochlear implantation, as revealed in a new study.
Researchers have unlocked some of the secrets of a viral protein, known as Rev, which plays an essential role in the propagation mechanism of certain types of viruses within an organism.
New research has not reproduced previous findings that suggested chronic fatigue syndrome may be linked to a recently discovered virus. The authors of the study say this means that anti-retroviral drugs may not be an effective treatment for people with the illness.
Scientists have identified a gene underlying a disease that causes temporary paralysis of skeletal muscle. The finding, they say, illustrates how investigations of rare genetic diseases can drive insights into more common ones.
A cell type that causes significant scarring in lung disease appears to have a similar effect in Graves’ disease, researchers have found. The cells, called fibrocytes, are present at a higher than normal frequency in patients with Graves’ disease, according to a new study, the first to associate fibrocytes with this autoimmune disease.
