Researchers at the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center report in the journal Cell Reports that certain short, repetitive sequences of DNA, or “junk,” play an important role in the development of Ewing sarcoma.
When developing a plan to care for elderly patients with hip fractures, amassing a multidisciplinary team is the first step. With all stakeholders present charting the patient’s journey from arrival to discharge, a discussion of all areas of care and opportunities to reduce unwanted variability and improve care can take place.
Individualized supplement doses help protect pregnant women from vitamin D deficiency, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
Patients could soon be diagnosed with early-stage arthritis several years before the onset of physical and irreversible symptoms, thanks to a new test developed by researchers at the University of Warwick.
Led by Dr Naila Rabbani of Warwick Medical School, the researchers developed a test that can provide an early diagnosis of osteoarthritis (OA) and also distinguish this from early-stage rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and other self-resolving inflammatory joint disease.
Scientists at the University of Chicago and Case Western Reserve University have found a way to produce realistic sensations of touch in two human amputees by directly stimulating the nervous system.
Low intensity ultrasound after surgical repair of a bone fracture is a popular treatment to improve recovery, but it doesn’t work, says a large international study led by researchers at McMaster University.
While astronauts on long space missions do not experience a change in spinal disc height, the muscles supporting the spine weaken, find researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine. The study provides new insights into the elevated rates of back pain and disc disease associated with prolonged spaceflight.
How does space travel affect the spine? Astronauts on long missions in space have atrophy of the muscles supporting the spine—which don't return to normal even several weeks after their return to Earth, reports a study in Spine, published by Wolters Kluwer.
Wearable “robot-assisted training” is quickly emerging as a method that helps improve gait rehabilitation. In a major advance, researchers from Beihang University in China and Aalborg University in Denmark have designed a lower-limb robot exoskeleton -- a wearable robot -- that features natural knee movement to greatly improve patients’ comfort and willingness to wear it for gait rehab. They describe their work in this week’s Review of Scientific Instruments.
In a proof-of-concept study with mice, scientists at The Johns Hopkins University show that a novel coating they made with antibiotic-releasing nanofibers has the potential to better prevent at least some serious bacterial infections related to total joint replacement surgery.
A study published in Scientific Reports describes a potential new strategy that may be utilized to correct hypospadias, a birth defect which occurs when boys are born with a urinary opening on the underside of the penis, found in up to one in every 200 boys. Current treatment involves surgical reconstruction with a graft using tissue taken from the inside of a child’s cheek. This approach is associated with multiple complications and sometimes requires repeated surgeries.
Two University of Delaware professors are looking into the connection between ACL surgery and osteoarthritis with the help of a National Institutes of Health grant. They want to find ways to prevent wear and tear by figuring out what happens to the knee in the first two years after surgery.
During their lifetime, as many as eight out of ten people experience back pain that lasts more than three days. However, for a vast majority of these people, the pain goes away with simple treatment.
In order to better understand the disparity between identifiable damage and chronic pain, the National Institutes of Health has awarded $7.5 million over five years to physician-scientists at the University of Michigan Health System.
Researchers from The Ohio State University have discovered that spinal cord injury alters the type of bacteria living in the gut and that these changes can exacerbate the extent of neurological damage and impair recovery of function. The study, “Gut dysbiosis impairs recovery after spinal cord injury,” by Kristina A. Kigerl et al., which will be published online October 17 ahead of issue in The Journal of Experimental Medicine, suggests that counteracting these changes with probiotics could aid patients’ recovery from spinal cord injuries.
Researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have been awarded a $10 million from the National Cancer Institute to explore the cellular and molecular mechanisms of acute graft-versus-host disease, a common side effect that occurs after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT), and to develop novel therapeutic strategies for BMT patients with cancer that begin in the cells of blood-forming tissue or hematologic malignancies.
UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers successfully boosted the regeneration of mature nerve cells in the spinal cords of adult mammals – an achievement that could one day translate into improved therapies for patients with spinal cord injuries.
For years, scientists have studied how stem cells might be used to treat many diseases, including osteoporosis. One consistent challenge has been observing and monitoring the process through which stem cells transform. Now, using an established scientific method, University of Missouri researchers are able to watch how human fat cells transform into bone tissue cells; in the process the research team has uncovered information about osteoporosis in older women.
A Northwestern University research team has developed a 3-D printable ink that produces a synthetic bone implant that rapidly induces bone regeneration and growth. This hyperelastic “bone” material, whose shape can be easily customized, one day could be especially useful for the treatment of bone defects in children. Antibiotics also can be incorporated into the ink to reduce infection. The printed biomaterial’s many unique properties set it apart from current bone repair materials.
This October, as part of National Chiropractic Health Month (NCHM) 2016, doctors of chiropractic across the country will raise public awareness of the availability of non-drug options for pain management.
Balance is an essential component of daily life, something many of us take for granted. But not everyone can. Studies have shown, however, that activity-based interventions offer a promising approach, and Columbia Engineering Professor Sunil Agrawal is at the forefront of research efforts to improve recovery through the development of robotic devices that help patients retrain their movements. He recently won a five-year $5 million grant from the New York State Spinal Cord Injury Board.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown that they can inject nanoparticles into an injured joint and suppress inflammation immediately following an injury, reducing the destruction of cartilage and lowering the risk for osteoarthritis.
Researchers from Columbia University Medical Center have uncovered new details of the structure and function of an intracellular channel that controls the contraction of skeletal muscle.
Exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) and other endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) may reduce levels of vitamin D in the bloodstream, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
In studies on rats, Johns Hopkins Medicine scientists report new evidence that the predominance of the hormone testosterone in males may explain why women are up to 10 times more likely than men to injure the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in their knees.
Language barriers can have dangerous consequences for children with special health care needs, according to a paper by authors including pediatric specialists at McGovern Medical School at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).
For the first time, scientists found that in spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), the affected nerve cells that control muscle movement, or motor neurons, have defects in their mitochondria, which generate energy used by the cell. Impaired mitochondrial function and structure in motor neurons were discovered before symptoms occurred, suggesting a role in disease development.
Physicians at Rush University Medical Center became the first in Illinois to inject AST-OPC1 (oligodendrocyte progenitor cells), an experimental treatment, into the damaged cervical spine of a recently paralyzed man as part of a multicenter clinical trial.
Leukemia survivor Michael Beltrame, a 42-year-old father of three, owes his life to a complete stranger who altruistically donated bone marrow cells for Mr. Beltrame’s successful bone marrow transplant. Mr. Beltrame met his donor for the first time during Loyola Medicine’s annual Bone Marrow Transplant Celebration.
Hospitals that take care of the oldest, sickest and most complicated patients could suffer financially under the Medicare system’s new approach to paying for some types of care, a new study finds. But there’s still time to adjust the approach to make the playing field more level.
The antidepressant fluoxetine causes bone loss by instructing the brain to send out signals that increase bone breakdown, but a beta-blocker can intercept the signals, a new study in mice has found.
A new drug therapy for peripheral T-cell lymphoma has been granted Orphan Drug Designation by the FDA and the University of Louisville will be the site of first-in-human study
A major milestone was reached when nusinersen, an investigational treatment for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), was shown to significantly improve achievement of motor milestones in babies with infantile-onset SMA.
Researchers at Mayo Clinic have reported a causal link between senescent cells — cells that accumulate with age and contribute to frailty and disease — and osteoarthritis in mice.
Krembil Research Institute researchers have discovered a pair of tissue biomarkers that directly contribute to the harmful joint degeneration associated with spine osteoarthritis.
Kennedy Krieger Institute announces that Mark Furst has been named the new Senior Vice President of External Relations. In his new position at Kennedy Krieger, Furst will assist Lainy LeBow-Sachs, Executive Vice President of External Relations, to expand national recognition of the Institute’s patient care, research, special education and community programs, many of which serve children with special needs from around the country and the world. Furst has served as president and chief executive officer of United Way of Central Maryland (UWCM) since December 2009.
Researchers at Lawson Health Research Institute are the first in Canada to develop clinical practice guidelines for managing neuropathic pain with patients who have experienced a spinal cord injury (SCI).
A new study has shown that a new class of drug candidates developed at The Scripps Research Institute increases bone mass by expanding bone formation (deposition of new bone) and bone turnover (a normal process of replacement of old bone).
Personalized Medicine Leads to Better Outcomes; Phase 1 Study Results of Selinexor Combination Therapy for Multiple Myeloma Patients; and the Latest from ASCO Sessions in the Cancer News Source
Researchers at Hospital for Special Surgery have launched a study to determine if a treatment using stem cells could help people with painful knee arthritis. To evaluate safety and efficacy, investigators are currently recruiting patients with osteoarthritis, which comes from wear and tear on a joint.
With a goal of treating worn, arthritic hips without extensive surgery to replace them, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have programmed stem cells to grow new cartilage on a 3-D template shaped like the ball of a hip joint. What’s more, using gene therapy, they have activated the new cartilage to release anti-inflammatory molecules to fend off a return of arthritis.
Scientists at Duke Health are part of a team that has discovered a type of cell surrounding blood vessels can also serve as a starting point for sarcoma, a form of cancer that occurs in bones and connective tissues.
Recent studies on a small number of patients with leukemia treated with bone marrow transplantation have suggested that the presence of the common cytomegalovirus (CMV) in patients or their donors may protect against relapse or even death after the transplant. A large international study published in the journal Blood now shows the opposite. The virus not only does not prevent leukemia relapse, but also remains a major factor associated with the risk of death.
Researchers have developed an index to better predict which women may experience faster bone loss across the menopause transition, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
Experts from the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and other leading national healthcare groups spoke about the emerging biosimilars market, including key policy and regulatory questions for patients, providers and the healthcare system, during a national policy briefing held today by the nonpartisan Alliance for Health Reform.