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Wrinkles, not skin cancer risk, scare indoor tanners

May 18, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, May 18 (ANI): Young women were more likely to stay away from indoor tanning if they were warned that the practice could increase their risk of getting leathery, wrinkled skin, than being warned about risk of melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, a study found.

The study found a 75 percent reduction in indoor tanning visits if girls were warned of skin deterioration and turning unattractive.

“They””re not worried about skin cancer, but they are worried about getting wrinkled and being unattractive,” said June Robinson, a professor of dermatology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and senior author of the study.

The study examined the best strategy to wean college-age women who are considered addicted or pathological tanners from tanning salons.

“The fear of looking horrible trumped everything else. It was the most persuasive intervention, regardless of why they were going to tan,” said Robinson.

The research showed warning them about the effects on their appearance caused a 35 percent drop in their indoor tanning visits, which were measured at intervals up to six months after the intervention.

Joel Hillhouse, lead author of the paper, noted that some women in the study eventually stopped tanning.

“It was a progressive kind of thing. At first the women said they tried sunless tanning as an alternative, but over time they gave up tanning altogether,” he said.

Between 25 to 40 percent of older adolescent girls visit tanning salons, according to the study””s authors.

The study included 435 college women, ages 18 to 22, who visited tanning salons.

Within this population, researchers focused on women who visited salons up to four times a week – more than what is needed to maintain a tan – and who tanned for psychological reasons, not just for a special event.

These tanners included one group who strongly disliked the natural colour of their skin, which was related to a psychological condition called body dysmorphia.

“They thought their skin was disgusting when it was pale,” said Hillhouse.

The other group, who said tanning made them feel happier and more relaxed, showed symptoms of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) on a diagnostic psychological test.

“They were self medicating their own depression,” said Robinson, noting that lying in a tanning bed produces internal opioids.

The women received a 25-page booklet, authored by Hillhouse, that discussed the effect of tanning on appearance and explained how ultraviolet rays destroy collagen in the skin.

The booklet also offered many alternatives to meet the women””s needs for tanning, such as taking an exercise class for socializing and relaxation or getting a spray-on tan or self-tanning cream application at a spa.

After reading the booklet, the women reported their attitudes and behaviours twice a week in diaries.

The study results surprised researchers.

“The hypothesis was because this was an appearance intervention, it would have less of an effect on the people tanning for mood problems. We found the opposite. The intervention worked just as well for people with seasonal affective disorder as for people who didn””t like their skin color. That means it””s a really good intervention for everyone,” said Hillhouse.

Robinson stressed it was also important to offer women alternatives to tanning salons.

The study has been published in Archives of Dermatology. (ANI)

Mum”s voice ”can spur recovery from a coma”

May 11, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, May 11 (ANI): Mother”s voice can spur recovery from a coma, suggests a new American study.

In January 2009, Ryan, 21, a college student from Huntley, Ill., was in a coma after he had been flung from his snowmobile into a tree during an ice storm.

He had a traumatic brain injury; the fibres of his brain had been twisted and stretched from the impact.

Recordings from Ryan”s mother, father or sister were played through headphones for him four times a day.

Ryan”s mother Karen Schroeder”s voice, recorded on a CD, reminded him of his 4-H project when he was 10 and decided to raise pigs.

She said: “You bid on three beautiful squealing black and white piglets at the auction.

“We took them home in the trunk of our Lincoln Town Car, because we didn”t have a truck.”

All the recordings were part of a new clinical trial investigating whether repeated stimulation with familiar voices can help repair a coma victim”s injured brain networks and spur his recovery.

Ryan regained consciousness after nearly one month in the trial and has made steady progress during the past year.

Researchers, however, won”t know for certain if the therapy helped his recovery until the study is over.

Theresa Pape, a research assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a research health scientist at Hines VA Hospital, is leading the study.

The research may be useful to young people like Ryan as well as soldiers injured in combat, who have a high rate of traumatic brain injuries from roadside bombs.

Pape said: “Traumatic brain injury is a huge issue in our society.

“Every 21 seconds, we have a new head injury and about one-third of those will be severe.”

Pape hopes the study will provide an answer to the question that families are desperate to know when a loved one is in a coma: ”Can he hear me?”

She is especially eager to know if these family voices can facilitate repair of the brain to improve the subject”s ability to function and process and understand information.

Pape”s hypothesis is that repeated exposure to familiar voices could help repair the brain”s neural networks, some of which become sheared in traumatic brain injury.

In a previous small pilot study, Pape observed that subjects in a vegetative state responded more to the voices of people who are familiar to them compared with non-familiar voices.

When those subjects heard voices of their family members, an MRI scan showed that parts of their brain were activated, appearing as bright yellow and red blobs of light scattered in an unorganised pattern.

With unfamiliar voices, there was little activation.

Pape said: “The question became are the familiar voices therapeutic in some way?

“Will they spur an improvement in behavior?”

She added: “I was weaned on language processing, how the brain responds to different linguistic stimuli as well as familiar or non-familiar voices, different sounds.

“This is a very speech pathology-based study.” (ANI)

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Coronary artery calcium may help predict heart disease risk

April 28, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, April 28 (ANI): A new research suggests that adding coronary artery calcium scores (CACS) to traditional risk factors for coronary heart disease (CHD) events significantly improves predictions of risk, and results in more individuals being placed in the highest and lowest risk categories.

Tamar S. Polonsky, from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, and colleagues conducted the study to determine whether adding CACS to a prediction model based on traditional risk factors improves classification of risk.

CACS was measured by computed tomography (a type of imaging method) in 6,814 participants from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA), a population-based cohort without known cardiovascular disease.

Recruitment of participants began in July 2000, with follow-up through May 2008. Five-year risk estimates for new CHD were categorized as 0 percent to less than 3 percent, 3 percent to less than 10 percent, and 10 percent or more using hazards models.

Model 1 incorporated age, race/ethnicity, sex, tobacco use, antihypertensive medication use, systolic blood pressure and total and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol measurements.

Model 2 used these risk factors plus CACS. The researchers calculated the net reclassification improvement using model 2 vs. model 1.

Among a final group of 5,878 individuals, there were 209 CHD events during a median (midpoint) follow-up of 5.8 years, of which 122 were major events (heart attack, death from CHD, or resuscitated cardiac arrest).

The researchers found that model 2 resulted in significant improvements in risk prediction compared with model 1. In model 1, 69 percent of the cohort was classified in the highest or lowest risk categories compared with 77 percent in model 2.

With the addition of CACS to the model, an additional 23 percent of those who experienced events were reclassified as high risk and an additional 13 percent of those who did not experience events were reclassified as low risk.

Among intermediate-risk individuals, 16 percent were reclassified as high risk while 39 percent were classified as low risk.

“The results of this study demonstrate that when CACS is added to traditional risk factors, it results in a significant improvement in the classification of risk for the prediction of CHD events in an asymptomatic population-based sample of men and women drawn from 4 U.S. racial/ethnic groups,” the authors said.

“Incorporation of an individual”s CACS leads to a more refined estimation of future risk of CHD events than traditional risk factors alone,” the authors added.

The study has been published in the April 28 issue of JAMA. (ANI)

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High recurring heart attack, stroke rates prevail globally despite use of many medicines

September 1, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, September 1 (ANI): An international study has shown that patients with vascular disease have a surprising high rate of events like strokes, heart attacks, hospitalisations and mortality, despite the use of many medicines and other treatments.

The study has also shown that patients in North America, including the U.S., experience an above-average rate of such events.

While the highest rate of these events was observed among patients in Eastern Europe, the lowest was among those in Australia and Japan.

A presentation on the results from the international REACH (Reduction of Atherothrombosis for Continued Health) Registry was recently made by a researcher from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine at the European Society of Cardiology Congress 2009 in Barcelona on August 31.

The study examined data for 32,247 patients one and three years after they enrolled in the registry.

A European Heart Journal report on the study says that patients who had symptomatic vascular disease had a 14.4 percent rate at one year and 28.4 percent rate at three years of having a heart attack, stroke, rehospitalisation for another type of vascular event or vascular death.

The report further states that patients with vascular disease in more than one location of the body had the highest event rate at 40.5 percent at three years.

When projected over the global population who would mirror the patients in REACH, this represents millions of serious vascular events occurring every few years, many of which could be prevented.

“We were surprised by the high rate of these recurring vascular events,” said lead author Dr. Mark J. Alberts, a professor of Neurology at the Feinberg School and the director of the stroke program at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

“We know how to prevent vascular disease and the events that it produces. This points to the need for better prevention, better use of medications and a need to develop more potent medications. These are the number one and two causes of death throughout the world,” he added.

Many of the patients in the REACH study were taking the appropriate medications for their vascular disease.

“But that doesn’t mean the medications worked or were being adhered to properly. Perhaps they need more or different medications,” Alberts said.

According to him, this study shows the need for more patients to adopt healthier lifestyles with increased exercise, a healthy diet and smoking cessation.

The author points out that these are inexpensive approaches to reducing and preventing the occurrence of vascular events. (ANI)

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Immature egg cells grown to maturity in lab

July 14, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, July 14 (ANI): For the first time, scientists have used a new technique to grow immature human egg cells into nearly mature egg in laboratory-an accomplishment that could prove beneficial to cancer patients who have lost their ability to reproduce.

The researchers from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine are the first to grow a woman’s immature egg cells, contained in a tiny sac called a follicle, into a healthy and nearly mature egg in the laboratory.

This is the first step towards the development of a new technique, which, if successful in the next steps, may eventually provide a new fertility option for women whose cancer treatments destroy their ability to reproduce.he nearly mature follicles grown for 30 days in the lab had been plucked from ovarian tissue of cancer patients, before they began chemotherapy and radiation treatments that would destroy their fertility.

“By being able to take an immature ovarian follicle and grow it to produce a good quality egg, we’re closer to that holy grail, which is to get an egg directly from ovarian tissue that can be fertilized for a cancer patient,” said Teresa Woodruff, chief of fertility preservation at the Feinberg School.

She added: “This represents the basic science breakthrough necessary to better accomplish our goals of fertility preservation in cancer patients in the future.

In the next step, the researchers will try to induce the egg’s final division, called meiosis, so it sheds half of its DNA in order to be fertilized.

The ultimate goal is to freeze the immature follicles, and then thaw and mature them in a culture to the point where they are ready to be fertilized.

“This is a very significant achievement because the early stage of the human ovarian follicle is really hard to grow in vitro. They’re very fragile and delicate,” said Min Xu, a co-author of the study.

As the immature egg grew inside the follicle, it produced hormones just as it would inside a woman’s body.

However, if follicles could be removed from the tissue and grown in the laboratory successfully, then a new fertility preservation technique might become available for women who could not safely have an ovarian transplant.

The new advance was achieved by suspending the human ovarian follicle in two different kinds of three-dimensional gels.

Woodruff said that the discovery would enable researchers to understand how nurse cells (granulosa cells), the cells that support and surround the maturing egg, communicate with the egg.

And the information will help scientists understand how eggs grow and develop properly.

The study has been published in the journal Human Reproduction. (ANI)

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Component of vegetable protein linked to lower BP

July 7, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, July 7 (ANI): A new study has shown that consuming an amino acid commonly found in vegetable protein is associated with lower blood pressure.

The study, conducted by Jeremiah Stamler, M.D., lead author of the study, and colleagues, showed that a 4.72 percent higher dietary intake of the amino acid glutamic acid as a percent of total dietary protein correlated with lower group average systolic blood pressure, lower by 1.5 to 3.0 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg). Group average diastolic blood pressure was lower by 1.0 to 1.6 mm Hg.

In the study, researchers examined dietary amino acids, the building blocks of protein.

Stamler, professor emeritus of the Department of Preventive Medicine in the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago, Ill, said that glutamic acid is the most common amino acid and accounts for almost a quarter (23 percent) of the protein in vegetable protein and almost one fifth (18 percent) of animal protein.

In the study, researchers analyzed data from 4,680 middle-age people participating in an international population study on the effects of dietary nutrients on high blood pressure. Participants were from the U.S., U.K., China, and Japan.

The results showed that a nearly 5 percent higher intake of glutamic acid as a percent of total protein in the diet was linked to lower average blood pressure. Systolic blood pressure was lower by an average of 1.5 to 3.0 points and diastolic blood pressure was lower by 1.0 to 1.6 points.

Stamler said that the study might help explain on a molecular level why the Dieatary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet lowers blood pressure.

The DASH eating pattern, developed by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, is rich in fruits, vegetables and low-fat and nonfat dairy products as well as whole grains, lean poultry, nuts and beans.

The study has been published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. (ANI)

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Popular cancer drug rituximab may lead to oft-fatal viral brain infection

May 19, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 19 (ANI): Scientists are concerned that the popular cancer drug, rituximab, may increase a person’s chances of acquiring an often fatal viral brain infection, known as progressive multifocal leukoencephalitis (PML), which attacks the brain’s white matter.

The worries about this possible harmful effect of rituximab emerged after MRI brain scans and biopsies were conducted on a 57-year-old lawyer in New York and an 83-year-old woman in Chicago, both of whom had been taking the drug before they developed the brain infection.

The two patients are currently part of a new study from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine RADAR project, an international consortium of physicians that collaborate to identify adverse reactions to medications and devices, which is being led by Dr. Charles Bennett.

Knowing more about the suggested link between rituximab and PML is important because, besides its use as a cancer drug, this medicine is also used for treating rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, lupus erythematosus and autoimmune anaemias.

Bennett has revealed that, from 1997 to 2008, as many as 57 patients with anemia, rheumatoid arthritis or lymphoma developed the fatal brain disease after taking rituximab.

They died an average of two months after being diagnosed, he said.

“Rituximab is one of the most prominent drugs in a new class called monoclonal antibodies. It’s now the third monoclonal antibody that is associated with PML,” added Bennett.

The researcher points out that the brain infection is often overlooked and undiagnosed because it is so subtle at first.

“People may think it’s early Alzheimer’s disease or depression. Many of these patients have cancer and when they die, people assume it’s the cancer that killed them,” he said.

He admitted that it was yet to be found out how rituximab is connected to the brain virus and who might be at risk.

Bennett said that the study results illustrate a need for caution in prescribing rituximab.

“The drug has tremendous usefulness in lymphoma, but as its use expands to diseases that are not cancer, we might have to reconsider the risk benefit. Some cancer patients take this drug chronically for non-fatal chronic leukemia where the risk-benefit calculations differ from lymphoma,” he said.

He suggested if people on rituximab develop any strange neurological symptoms like forgetfulness, disorientation or mood changes, their doctors should be alerted.

A research article on the study has been published in the journal Blood. (ANI)

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Hypnotherapy may help ulcerative colitis patients socialize more

May 14, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 14 (ANI): People with ulcerative colitis should no longer think twice before becoming a bridesmaid in a friend’s wedding, travelling with the boss or even going to parties in peoples’ homes, all thanks to a hypnotherapy.

Laurie Keefer, a clinical health psychologist at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, reckons that the therapy could certainly help boost the quality of life for patients with ulcerative colitis, a nasty gastrointestinal disease that flares without warning and makes it vital for patients to find a bathroom fast.

She says that some of her patients have started embracing activities they once avoided, after they took part in a research study, which tested if hypnotherapy could extend the time between their flare-ups.

Currently, the treatments for ulcerative colitis include a maintenance medication called 5-ASA, which should be taken as many as 12 per day that reduce the risk of flares but that many forget to take, as well as steroids or surgery to remove their colon.

Taking an early look at the data for the ongoing study, Keefer has found that treatment with hypnotherapy enabled some subjects’ to socialize more and get involved in activities such as eating at restaurants, exercising and road trips.

Some subjects feel less impaired by their disease, and are better at remembering to take their pills.

The study will be enrolling a total of 80 patients over three years, and will track the progress of each patient for one year.

To date, 27 subjects have enrolled in the study and completed the required eight weeks of hypnotherapy sessions, which also includes listening to special relaxation tapes up to five times per week.

Although it’s early, it has been found that only two of 12 subjects, who have participated in the study for a full year, have experienced a relapse, whereas based on their history, all 12 subjects would have been expected to have had two or more relapses within the year.

“These numbers are encouraging because the study specifically targets individuals who flare a couple times a year,” said Keefer.

Subjects are also expected to take their routine maintenance medication during the trial.

The trial was aimed to see if hypnotherapy can help subjects learn to manage their stress and develop a sense of control over their health.

In the experimental hypnosis sessions, Keefer has suggested the subjects to closely monitor their stress and be aware of how it’s affecting them.Managing stress is really important for managing inflammatory bowel disease,” said Keefer.

She added: “There is quite a bit of data in a variety of diseases that shows people who have a higher sense of control over their health feel better and have fewer symptoms than people who don’t. This is a proactive approach. The preliminary results on the improved quality of life for the 27 subjects in this ongoing study (aiming for a total of 80 subjects) look positive so far.”

The findings were presented at the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America’s 13th Annual Medical Symposium and 14th Annual Patient and Family Conference in Chicago. (ANI)

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Bleach baths may help treat kids’ eczema

May 2, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

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Washington, Apr 27 (ANI): The simple household bleach is not only useful in whitening a load of laundry, but it can also turn out to be an effective treatment for kids’ chronic eczema, according to a new study. /pp
Eczema is characterised by severe itching, which is so bad that kids may break the skin from scratching and get chronic skin infections that are difficult to treat, especially from methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)./pp
And now, researchers from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine have discovered that diluted bleach baths could provide powerful relief from the problem./pp
It’s a cheap, simple and safe treatment that drastically improves the rash as well as reduces flare-ups of eczema, which affects 17 percent of school-age children. /pp
The researchers found that if paediatric patients with moderate or severe eczema (atopic dermatitis) are given diluted bleach baths, it would decrease the signs of infection and improve the severity and extent of the eczema on their bodies. /pp
Thus, bleach baths could translate into less scratching, fewer infections and a higher quality of life for these children. /pp
The typical treatment of oral and topical antibiotics increases the risk of bacterial resistance, something doctors try to avoid, especially in children. Bleach kills the bacteria but doesn’t have the same risk of creating bacterial resistance. /pp
Amy S. Paller, M.D., the Walter J. Hamlin Professor and chair of dermatology, and professor of pediatrics, at the Feinberg School, said that patients on the bleach baths had a reduction in eczema severity that was five times greater than those treated with placebos over one to three months./pp
We’ve long struggled with staphylococcal infections in patients with eczema, said Paller. /pp
She noted more than two-thirds of eczema patients have evidence of staphylococcus on their skin, the bacteria that most commonly causes infection and worsens the eczema./pp
This study shows that simple household bleach, which we think decreases the staphylococcus on the skin, can help these children, she said./pp
In the study, the researchers treated 31 paediatric patients (6 months to 17 years old) who had eczema and a bacterial staph infection for 14 days with oral antibiotics. /pp
While half of the patients received bleach in their bath water (half a cup per full standard tub), the other half received a look-alike placebo. /pp
Also, they asked the patients to put a topical antibiotic ointment or placebo control into their nose (where the staphylococcus can also grow) for five sequential days of each month. /pp
All were instructed to bathe in the bleach twice a week, and soak for five to 10 minutes for three months./pp
The eczema kept getting better and better with the bleach baths and these baths prevented it from flaring again, which is an ongoing problem for these kids. We presume the bleach has antibacterial properties and decreased the number of bacteria on the skin, which is one of the drivers of flares, said Paller. /pp
The study has been published in the journal Pediatrics. (ANI)/p

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Stem cell therapy helps diabetics become insulin free

April 15, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 15 (ANI): In a breakthrough study, a group of patients with type 1 diabetes were freed from daily insulin injections for up to four years following a transplant using their own stem cells.

According to the study in the April 15 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on diabetes, majority of patients with type 1 diabetes who underwent a certain type of stem cell transplantation became insulin free with good glycemic control, and also increased C-peptide levels, an indirect measure of beta-cell function.

Richard K. Burt, M.D., of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, presented the findings of the study at a JAMA media briefing at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

Clinical evidence indicates that there is an inverse association between beta-cell (a type of cell in the pancreas that secretes insulin) preservation and function and chronic complications of type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM), and the higher the C-peptide levels (a byproduct of insulin production, made up of amino acids), the lower the incidence of some types of complications of type 1 DM.

A previous study found that autologous nonmyeloablative hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) in 15 patients with newly diagnosed type 1 DM resulted in the majority of patients becoming insulin free during the follow-up, which averaged about 19 months.

“However, it was suggested that subsequent insulin independence was a prolonged honeymoon period due to dietary and exercise changes associated with close posttransplant medical observation,” the authors write, and it was not known if this change was because of an improvement in beta-cell preservation.

HSCT, which uses a patient’s own blood stem cells, involves the removal and treatment of the stem cells, and their return to the patient by intravenous injection.

Dr. Burt and colleagues conducted a study to determine if posttransplant insulin independence was due to improved beta-cell function by monitoring the C-peptide levels of 23 patients who underwent stem cell transplantation. The patients, with type 1 DM, were ages 13-31 years.

Of the 23 patients, 20 experienced time free from insulin (12 continuously and 8 transiently). Patients remained continuously insulin free for an average time of 31 months (range, 14-52 months). One patient had more than 4 years with no exogenous (produced outside the body) insulin use, 4 patients for at least 3 years, 3 patients for at least 2 years, and 4 patients for at least 1 year. Eight patients relapsed and resumed insulin use at low doses. The majority of patients achieved good glycemic control.

In the continuously insulin-free group, average area under the curve (AUC; a type of measurement) of C-peptide levels before transplantation (225.0 ng/mL per 2 hours) showed a significant increase at 24 months after transplantation (785.4 ng/mL per 2 hours) and at 36 months after transplantation (728.1 ng/mL per 2 hours). In the transient insulin-independent group, average AUC of C-peptide levels also increased from 148.9 ng/mL per 2 hours pretransplantation to 546.8 ng/mL per 2 hours at 36 months, which was sustained at 48 months.

In this group, 2 patients regained insulin independence after treatment with the antihyperglycemic drug sitagliptin, which was associated with an increase in C-peptide levels. Two patients developed pneumonia in the hospital, 3 patients developed late endocrine dysfunction, and 9 patients developed oligospermia (sperm deficiency). There were no deaths.

“In conclusion, autologous nonmyeloablative HSCT was able to induce prolonged and significant increases of C-peptide levels associated with absence of or reduction of daily insulin doses in a small group of patients with type 1 DM,” the researchers write. (ANI)

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Treadmill exercise boosts walking stamina in peripheral arterial disease patients

February 15, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Jan 14 (ANI): Supervised treadmill exercise can improve walking endurance and quality of life in patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD).

The treadmill exercise also improved walking performance for PAD patients without the classic symptoms of pain in the leg muscles.

Lower extremity PAD is a condition that develops when the arteries that supply blood to the legs become completely or partially blocked as a result of plaque build-up.

Most patients with PAD do not have symptoms of intermittent claudication (pain in the leg muscles that comes and goes), but PAD patients without these symptoms have greater functional impairment and functional decline than those without PAD.

No prior exercise interventions have been tested on PAD participants with and without symptoms of intermittent claudication. Also, benefits of lower extremity resistance (strength) training for PAD patients are unclear.

Researchers led by Mary M. McDermott, M.D., of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, conducted a study to determine whether supervised treadmill exercise and lower extremity-resistance training improves functional performance and other outcomes among participants with PAD with and without intermittent claudication symptoms.

The randomized controlled clinical trial included 156 patients with PAD who were randomly assigned to supervised treadmill exercise, to lower extremity resistance training, or to a control group, for six months.

Patients were tested for six-minute walk performance and a short physical performance battery, as well as brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (a measurement of change in the diameter of an artery in the arm), treadmill walking performance, the Walking Impairment Questionnaire, and the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey physical functioning (SF-36 PF) score.

For the 6-minute walk, those in the supervised treadmill exercise group increased their distance from baseline by an average of about 69 feet vs. those in the control group, whose distance decreased from baseline by an average of 49 feet, for an average increase of 118 feet between groups.

There were no differences in change in short physical performance battery score between the treadmill exercise and control groups or between the resistance training and the control groups at the 6-month follow-up.

Those participating in the treadmill exercise group had more favourable changes in brachial arterial flow-mediated dilation than the control group, whereas changes among participants in the resistance-training group were not different from the control group.

Those in the treadmill exercise and the resistance training groups each had significantly greater increases in average maximum treadmill walking time at the 6-month follow-up than the control group.

The treadmill exercise group had significantly greater average improvement in their SF-36 physical functioning score and in their walking impairment distance score than the control group.

“Based on findings reported in this trial, physicians should recommend supervised treadmill exercise programs for PAD patients, regardless of whether they have classic symptoms of intermittent claudication,” concluded the authors.

The study is published in the latest issue of JAMA. (ANI)

Filed Under: Health News Tagged With: exercise group, feinberg school of medicine, flow mediated dilation, functional decline, functional impairment, functional performance, impairment questionnaire, intermittent claudication symptoms, leg muscles, lower extremity, northwestern university feinberg school of medicine, pain in the leg, performance battery, peripheral arterial disease, peripheral arterial disease pad, physical performance, resistance training, sf 36, supply blood, treadmill exercise

Scientists provide new insights into endometriosis

January 18, 2009 By Rajesh Leave a Comment

London, Jan 18 (ANI): Scientists from Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine have found vital clues that may help explain the cause of endometriosis.

Endometriosis is a chronic disease characterized by infertility and chronic pelvic pain during intercourse.

The study led by Serdar Bulun, M.D., George H. Gardner Professor of Clinical Gynecology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, have discovered key epigenetic abnormalities in endometriosis and identified existing chemicals that now help treat it.

These abnormalities result from epigenetic defects that occur very early on during embryonic development and may be the result of early exposure to environmental toxins

One of the abnormalities he discovered is the presence of the enzyme aromatase — which produces estrogen — in endometriosis, the diseased tissue that exists on pelvic organs and mimics the uterine lining.

As a result, women with endometriosis have excessive estrogen in this abnormal tissue found on surfaces of pelvic organs such as the ovaries.

Bulun found the protein SF1 that produces aromatase, which is supposed to be shut down, is active in endometriosis.

“Estrogen is like fuel for fire in endometriosis. “It triggers the endometriosis and makes it grow fast,” Bulun said.

Bulun launched clinical trials in testing aromatase inhibitors — currently used in breast cancer treatment — for women with endometriosis.

The drug blocks estrogen formation and secondarily improves progesterone responsiveness.

“We came up with a new treatment of choice for post-menopausal women with endometriosis,” Bulun said. Moreover, treatment with an aromatase inhibitor is a very good option for premenopausal women with endometriosis not responding to existing treatments, he said.

Another molecular abnormality Bulun found is that women with endometriosis have a progesterone receptor that is inappropriately turned off.

In the absence of appropriate progesterone action, endometriosis tissue remains inflamed and continues to grow.

“This may be a disease that women are born with. Perhaps when a baby girl is born, it has already been determined that she is predisposed to have endometriosis,” Bulun said.

“Maybe research can now be directed toward the fetal origins of the disease and raise the awareness of how the disease develops,” he added.(ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: abnormal tissue, aromatase inhibitor, aromatase inhibitors, breast cancer, breast cancer treatment, chronic pelvic pain, diseased tissue, drug blocks, embryonic development, endometriosis, feinberg school of medicine, london jan, Northwestern University, pain during intercourse, pelvic organs, premenopausal women, progesterone action, progesterone receptor, serdar bulun, uterine lining

Scientists develop novel mouse model for peanut allergy

January 13, 2009 By Rajesh Leave a Comment

Washington, Jan 13 (ANI): Chicago researchers have announced the development of new mouse model for food allergy that mimics symptoms generated during a reaction to peanuts.

According to the experts at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the new animal model will help in understanding the causes of peanut and other food allergies and in finding new ways to treat and prevent their occurrence.

“Finding an animal model that mimics a severe human allergic reaction to peanuts will help us better understand peanut allergy and develop new and improved treatment and prevention strategies,” said NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D.

Allergic reactions to food can range from mild hives to vomiting to difficulty breathing to anaphylaxis, the most severe reaction. Anaphylaxis may result from a whole-body allergic reaction to the release of the chemical histamine, causing muscles to contract, blood vessels to dilate and fluid to leak from the bloodstream into the tissues.

These effects can result in narrowing of the upper or lower airways, low blood pressure, shock or a combination of these symptoms, and also can lead to a loss of consciousness and even death.

The research team led by led by Paul Bryce, Ph.D., of the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University fed the mice with a mixture of whole peanut extract (WPE) and a toxin from the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus, called staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB) to simulate the human anaphylactic reaction to peanuts in mice.

“Persistent S. aureus colonization is commonly found on the skin of people with eczema and in the nasal cavities of people with sinusitis,” said Dr. Bryce.

“The history between S. aureus and allergic diseases led us to use staphylococcal toxins to stimulate food allergy in animals,” he added.

The researchers showed that the SEB/WPE mixture stimulated severe symptoms in mice that closely resemble those found in human anaphylaxis, including swelling around the eyes and mouth, reduced movement and significant problems breathing.

Additionally, mice given the SEB/WPE mixture had high blood levels of histamine, which indicates a severe allergic reaction.

The study appears in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: allergic diseases, allergic reaction to peanuts, allergic reactions to food, anaphylactic reaction, anthony s fauci, chicago researchers, enterotoxin, feinberg school of medicine, food allergies, food allergy, loss of consciousness, low blood pressure, nasal cavities, national institute of allergy and infectious diseases, peanut allergy, pressure shock, prevention strategies, s aureus, staphylococcus aureus, wpe

Synthetic ‘good cholesterol’ designed to keep heart problems at bay

January 10, 2009 By Rajesh Leave a Comment

Washington, Jan 10 (ANI): Fearing that gorging on chocolate cake and juicy beef roast might send your blood cholesterol levels sky high? Well then here’s your ultimate saviour- synthetic high-density lipoprotein (HDL).

Scientists at Northwestern University have designed synthetic HDL, the “good” cholesterol, which could help fight chronically high cholesterol levels and the resulting deadly heart disease.

The researchers have shown that their nanoparticle version of the is a promising new weapon to bind cholesterol irreversibly.

The synthetic HDL, based on gold nanoparticles, is similar in size to HDL and mimics HDL’s general surface composition.

“We have designed and built a cholesterol sponge. The synthetic HDL features the basics of what a great cholesterol drug should be,” said Chad A. Mirkin, George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, who led the study with Shad Thaxton, M.D., assistant professor of urology in Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine

He added: “Drugs that lower the bad cholesterol, LDL, are available, and you can lower LDL through your diet, but it is difficult to raise the good cholesterol, HDL. I’ve taken niacin to try and raise my HDL, but the side effects are bad so I stopped. We are hopeful that our synthetic HDL will one day help fill this gap in useful therapeutics.”

To create synthetic HDL the researchers started with a gold nanoparticle as the core, which was then layered on a lipid that attaches to the gold surface, followed by another lipid and last a protein, called APOA1.

APOA1 is the main protein component of naturally occurring HDL.

The final high-density lipoprotein nanoparticles are each about 18 nanometers in diameter, a size similar to natural HDL.

“Cholesterol is essential to our cells, but chronic excess can lead to dangerous plaque formation in our arteries. HDL transports cholesterol to the liver, which protects against atherosclerosis. Our hope is that, with further development, our synthetic form of HDL could be used to increase HDL levels and promote better health,” said Thaxton.

Mirkin said: “HDL is a natural nanoparticle, and we’ve successfully mimicked it. Gold is an ideal scaffolding material — it’s size and shape can be tailored, and it can be easily functionalized. Using gold nanoparticles, which are non-toxic, for synthetic HDL bodes well for the development of a new therapeutic.”

The scientists are now planning to further study the synthetic HDL in biologically relevant conditions and measure and evaluate the cholesterol-binding properties.

The study is published online by the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS). (ANI)

Filed Under: Educational News, Health News Tagged With: bad cholesterol, beef roast, blood cholesterol levels, chocolate cake, cholesterol drug, cholesterol hdl, cholesterol ldl, feinberg school of medicine, gold nanoparticles, gold surface, good cholesterol, hdl cholesterol, high cholesterol levels, high density lipoprotein, mirkin, nanometers, plaque formation, protein component, surface composition, weinberg college