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Tag: Massachusetts General Hospital
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Health
Researchers learn more about ways to regenerate the ear’s hearing cells
Massachusetts General Hospital researchers have made important progress in their ongoing effort to regenerate the inner ear’s hair cells, which convert sound vibrations to nerve impulses. In the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they report successfully creating a mouse model that allows them to build on earlier findings about the effect of deactivating…
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Campus & Community
Mad cow protein found to have a sane side
It’s a devastating disease, changing behavior, causing uncontrolled movements, blindness, coma, and, finally, death. And we all have the makings of it in our heads. When it topples cows, it’s known as mad cow disease. The human form is called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. In sheep, it’s scrapie. It’s a rare malady caused by a misshapen protein…
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Health
Sense of security may be false with tried and true anti-inflammatories
For all the tender joints and headaches they relieve and colon cancer they may prevent, the older nonsteroidal anti- inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) raise another serious health risk. The highly publicized danger of heart attacks and other cardiovascular side effects first discovered in randomized control trials of newer, selective NSAIDs are being found in the older…
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Science & Tech
Researchers create pigs that produce omega-3 fatty acids
Researchers report they have created pigs that produce omega -3 fatty acids, which are known to improve heart function and help reduce the risks for heart disease, representing the first cloned transgenic livestock in the world that can make the beneficial compound. The research could be a boost to both farmers and health-conscious consumers seeking…
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Health
X inactivation seen as contact sport
At an early stage in a female embryo’s development, one of the two X chromosomes in each of its cells becomes inactivated. In two recent papers, the lab of Jeannie Lee makes important breakthroughs in uncovering how the two X chromosomes decide their fate. A study in the Jan. 20, 2006 Science shows that the…
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Campus & Community
Judge Baker Children’s Center welcomes a groundbreaking research project that may shed light on autism
Harvard-affiliated Judge Baker Children’s Center is launching a research project to study autism. Jerome Kagan and Nancy Snidman, director and research director, respectively, of Harvard’s Infant and Child Study Center, in conjunction with Martha Herbert and Katherine Martien from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), are beginning to study the brain-processing mechanisms in children with autism and…
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Campus & Community
Advances in stem cell biology presented at symposium
Stem cell science is revolutionizing the field of cancer biology, changing the understanding of the structure of some tumors, and potentially shifting the treatment emphasis from eliminating all tumor cells to the destruction of specialized cancer stem cells believed responsible for tumor growth. These findings were among several presented Dec. 2 at the Harvard Club…
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Health
Teen suicide and antidepressants
With the recent FDA warning about the use of antidepressants with children and adolescents, doctors and patients are more cautious about treating youth with antidepressants. Parents and doctors are challenged to make a balanced assessment of risk and benefits. Dr. Nancy Rappaport, Dr. Jefferson B. Prince, and Dr. Jeff Q. Bostic of the psychiatry department…
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Health
International multi-center study confirms value of blood test to diagnose heart failure
Congestive heart failure, which occurs when an impaired heart muscle cannot pump blood efficiently, is a growing health problem and major cause of cardiac death. The diagnosis of heart failure may be challenging because its symptoms can overlap those of other conditions. Now a large-scale international study has demonstrated the usefulness of a blood test…
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Campus & Community
HapMap reveals roots of common diseases
The genes that everyone inherits contain coded information that influences which diseases any individual is most at risk of getting. Countless studies show that small variations in genes play a major role in a host of common maladies that produce untold suffering and premature death. However, progress in tying these variations to specific maladies has…
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Health
Barrier found to nerve regeneration
Scientists have long dreamed of prompting adult neurons of the central nervous system to regenerate. But these cells have the deck stacked against them in several ways. Molecules from the myelin sheath surrounding their axons actively discourage growth. After injury, nearby astrocytes form a dense scar to block them. Even the signals that once guided…
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Campus & Community
HapMap: First look at ‘order in variety’ of human genome
The completion of the human genome sequence in 2003, though momentous, was only the first step toward grasping the core mechanisms of human biology and disease. This ultimate biomedical goal also requires a comprehensive catalog of the genetic diversity in the human genome sequence across human populations. A flurry of high-profile scientific papers published this…
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Science & Tech
First edition of HapMap released
A flurry of high-profile scientific manuscripts published in October 2005 describe both the content and uses of HapMap, a catalog that maps human genetic variation and relates it both to disease and to human evolutionary history. HapMap gives scientists worldwide a first good look at the “order in variety” that is the human genome. All…
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Health
Brain injury reversed in animal model of AIDS
Depending on the circumstances, missing N-acetylaspartate (NAA) in the brain may indicate Alzheimer’s disease, ischemic stroke, a brain tumor, or traumatic injury. And, as doctors soon learned with the AIDS epidemic, NAA levels drop in tandem with the neurological deterioration that further cripples people with HIV. Yet Gilberto Gonzalez was unprepared for the precipitous fall…
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Health
Stroke patients with mild symptoms may still need clot- dissolving drug
“Our primary finding was that about 30 percent of those patients judged ‘too good to treat’ either died or were discharged to a rehabilitation facility,” says Eric Smith, MD, FRCPC, of MGH Neurology, the study’s lead author. “Unfortunately we were not able to find any features that could predict which of the untreated patients would…
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Science & Tech
Harvard, MGH researchers track egg cell production to marrow
In a series of experiments on sterile female mice, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers were able to restore egg production by transplanting bone marrow from fertile mice. The researchers believe that egg stem cells in the donor bone marrow established themselves in the sterile mice and began producing egg cells. The results are published in…
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Campus & Community
New route to cell death found
Damaged or unusable cells in our bodies will commit suicide to protect us from harm. That’s a well-known process with the awkward name of “apoptosis.” There’s also necrosis, meaning “to make dead,” when brain, heart, and other cells die from disease and trauma. These suicides and uncontrolled deaths have always been thought of as separate…
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Health
Size of brain structure could signal vulnerability to anxiety disorders
Individuals respond with physical and emotional distress to situations that recall traumatic memories. Such responses usually diminish gradually, as those situations are repeated without unpleasant occurrences; this is called “extinction memory.” But some people continue to respond fearfully and develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Studies in animals have suggested that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC)…
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Health
CT significantly reduces the need for appendectomy
For the study, the researchers analyzed 663 patients who were examined on CT for suspected appendicitis. An appendectomy was performed on 268 of the CT-screened patients. Of these 268 patients, only eight had a negative appendectomy. “Prior to CT, the negative appendectomy rate was 20 percent, because there was no way to be sure whether…
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Health
Imaging may not be major driver of hospital cost increases
“There have been several news stories and reports from insurers claiming that imaging costs are catching and even surpassing drug costs as major drivers of health care inflation,” says Scott Gazelle, M.D., MPH, Ph.D., and an MGH radiologist who is director of the Institute for Technology Assessment. “Those of us who work in imaging believe…
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Health
TB gene identified
As many as one out of three people in the world are infected with the bacteria that causes tuberculosis, public health experts estimate. That could lead to a global plague were it not for the fact that only one out of 10 infected people actually develops the disease. Still, TB is a major global health…
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Campus & Community
Low-fat dairy may help reduce risk of type 2 diabetes
The consumption of low-fat dairy foods may reduce men’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes, according to a study in the May 9 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine. The report from researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), and Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) – the first large-scale, prospective…
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Health
Study finds men who consume more dairy products have lower incidence of diabetes
A report from researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) – the first large-scale, prospective examination of a relationship between dairy intake and diabetes risk – analyzes data from the HSPH-based Health Professionals Follow-up Study. “Our study found that men consuming higher levels of…
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Health
Low-fat dairy foods may help reduce risk of type 2 diabetes
“Our study found that men consuming higher levels of dairy products, especially low-fat dairy foods, had a significantly lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes during a 12-year period,” says Hyon Choi, M.D., Dr.PH, director of Outcomes Research in the MGH Rheumatology Unit and the paper’s lead author. Recent research has implied that dairy foods…
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Health
Routine HIV screening recommended for most
Researchers at Harvard, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Yale University have shown that routine screening for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, could increase survival, prevent transmission of the disease, and be done at reasonable cost. The study was prompted in part by the fact that despite current recommendations of HIV screening in high-risk populations, roughly…
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Health
Blood test can accurately diagnose heart failure in emergency patients
“We found that testing with the NT-proBNP assay was an extremely accurate way to identify or exclude heart failure in patients with shortness of breath,” says James Januzzi Jr., M.D., of the MGH Cardiology Division and the paper’s lead author. Since current standards of treatment are inconsistent, Januzzi says, this new test could prove a…
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Campus & Community
Decoding the babel of brain cells
If brain cell messages could be separated from the “noise” of other brain activity and clearly understood, researchers would be closer to repairing damage caused by a number of nervous system diseases paralyzing injuries and combat wounds. Researchers at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston have actually done this with mice. They…
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Campus & Community
New drug eases effects of Parkinson’s disease
A successful test of a new drug indicates that it can improve life for those with moderate and advanced Parkinson’s disease. Called rasagiline, the medication promises to reduce the time when other drugs are least effective and symptoms of tremors, stiffness, and impaired movement are at their worst, researchers report. “It made life easier and…
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Health
Phobic anxiety increases risk of sudden cardiac death in women
According to lead author Christine M. Albert, M.D., M.P.H., an epidemiologist at BWH and an electrophysiologist and cardiologist at MGH, “Phobic anxiety is associated with coronary heart disease risk factors. However, in this study, in which these risk factors were controlled, we found a correlation between higher levels of phobic anxiety and death from CHD,…
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Health
Anti-psychotic drugs may be associated with increased risk of diabetes in schizophrenia patients
According to the article’s background information, “Recently, the newer ‘atypical’ antipsychotic agents have been linked to several forms of morbidity, including obesity; hyperlipidemia; type 2 diabetes mellitus; and diabetic ketoacidosis [a severe complication of diabetes].” David C. Henderson, M.D., from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and colleagues evaluated 36 non-obese outpatients with schizophrenia…