Frailty among older people with cardiovascular disease appears to be more predictive than age for gauging their risk of heart attack, stroke and death, according to an international study that included researchers at Duke Medicine.
Repeated alcohol exposure during adolescence results in long-lasting changes in the region of the brain that controls learning and memory, according to a research team at Duke Medicine that used a rodent model as a surrogate for humans.
Divorced women suffer heart attacks at higher rates than women who are continuously married, a new study from Duke Medicine has found. A woman who has been through two or more divorces is nearly twice as likely to have a heart attack when compared to their stably-married female peers, according to the findings.
Researchers found enhanced rather than suppressed immune function in animals with increased biodiversity. Publishing online in the April 8, 2015, issue of PLOS ONE, the findings add to the growing understanding of the complex environment in the digestive tract and its role in maintaining health.
An estimated 9 percent of adults in the U.S. have a history of impulsive, angry behavior and have access to guns, according to a study published this month in Behavioral Sciences and the Law. The study also found that an estimated 1.5 percent of adults report impulsive anger and carry firearms outside their homes.
One in nine patients released from the emergency department after treatment for a kidney stone will face a repeat visit, according to findings by Duke Medicine researchers.
One way many cancers grow resistant to treatment is by generating a web of blood vessels that are so jumbled they fail to provide adequate oxygen to the tumor. With oxygen starvation, the tumor gains a sort of cloaking device that protects it from the toxic effects of chemotherapy drugs and radiation, which are designed to seek out well-oxygenated tissue. Researchers have long tested various approaches to improving blood flow to the tumor in the hopes of restoring potency to treatments. Not much has shown promise. Until researchers investigated exercise.
A new type of CT scan initially costs slightly less than the traditional stress test to diagnose blocked coronary arteries in patients with chest pain, but its lower cost did not translate into medical care savings over time, according to an analysis by Duke Medicine researchers.
Patients with chest pain have similar rates of heart attacks and other major cardiac events within two years whether they were evaluated with a new type of CT scan or the traditional stress test, according to results presented today by Duke Medicine researchers at a meeting of the American College of Cardiology.
The newest guidelines for the use of cholesterol-lowering statins in people at risk of heart disease may be too generic, excluding middle-aged adults who could benefit from the drugs, and over-prescribing in older adults, according to a new study from the Duke Clinical Research Institute.
Despite legal and ethical mandates for disclosure, results from most clinical trials of medical products are not reported promptly on a registry specifically created to make results of human studies publicly available, according to Duke Medicine researchers.
An innovative approach using a tetanus booster to prime the immune system enhances the effect of a vaccine therapy for lethal brain tumors, dramatically improving patient survival, according to a study led by Duke Cancer Institute researchers.
Federal efforts to curb Medicare costs for unclogging blood vessels in the limbs slowed the growing use of the treatments, but also coincided with a marked increase in doctors using a more expensive approach, according to an analysis by Duke Medicine researchers.
Treatment for painful episodes of blood vessel obstruction in sickle cell anemia is currently limited to controlling pain, but an investigational therapy might be able to interfere with the underlying cause of these events, known as vaso-occlusion crises, researchers at Duke Medicine report.
Nearly all women and people over 65 in the U.S. with atrial fibrillation are advised to take blood thinners under new guidelines based on an analysis from the Duke Clinical Research Institute.
Using a portable, non-invasive imaging device, a team of Duke Medicine doctors have identified swelling in the back of the eyes of premature infants that correlates with poorer neurodevelopment as the babies grow.
Duke Medicine researchers have shown how gene mutations may cause common forms of cartilage tumors. In a study published in the Feb. 16, 2015, issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Duke researchers and their colleagues revealed that mutations in the isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) gene contribute to the formation of benign tumors in cartilage that can be a precursor to malignancies.
For at least 40 years, scientists who study how the body metabolizes sugar have accepted one point: there are four enzymes that kick-start the body’s process of getting energy from food. But this biochemical foursome may not deserve all of the credit. According to research by scientists at Duke and Northwestern universities, the hexokinase team actually has a fifth player.
Most young adults might assume they have years before needing to worry about their cholesterol. But new findings from researchers at the Duke Clinical Research Institute suggest that even slightly high cholesterol levels in otherwise healthy adults between the ages of 35 and 55 can have long-term impacts on their heart health, with every decade of high cholesterol increasing their chances of heart disease by 39 percent.
The antibody response from an HIV vaccine trial in Thailand was made possible by a genetic trait carried over in humans from an ancient ancestry with monkeys and apes, according to a study led by Duke Medicine researchers.
A team of researchers led by Duke Cancer Institute has identified key events that prompt certain cancer cells to develop resistance to otherwise lethal therapies.
Doctors who treat cancer are vigilant when it comes to the physical side effects of the therapies they prescribe, but financial stress from accumulating medical bills can also weigh on patients’ health — even those who have finished their treatments and are cancer-free.
Women over the age of 70 who have certain early-stage breast cancers overwhelmingly receive radiation therapy despite published evidence that the treatment has limited benefit, researchers at Duke Medicine report.
A blocked artery causes a deadly kind of heart attack known as STEMI, and a rapid response to clear the blockage saves lives. But in more than half of cases studied recently by Duke Medicine researchers, one or both of the patient’s other arteries were also obstructed, raising questions about whether and when additional procedures might be undertaken.
Doctors at Duke University Hospital have developed a new collaborative model in cancer care that reduced the rates at which patients were sent to intensive care or readmitted to the hospital after discharge. The Duke researchers shared their findings today at the Palliative Care in Oncology Symposium sponsored by the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
Like discriminating thieves, prostate cancer tumors scavenge and hoard copper that is an essential element in the body. But such avarice may be a fatal weakness.
Researchers have known for decades that stress contributes to heart disease. But a new analysis by researchers at Duke Medicine shows mental stress may tax women’s hearts more than men’s. The research appears online Oct. 13, 2014, in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
– A new genetic finding from Duke Medicine suggests that some people who are prone to hostility, anxiety and depression might also be hard-wired to gain weight when exposed to chronic stress, leading to diabetes and heart disease.
Coaching patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to manage stress, practice relaxation and participate in light exercise can boost a patient’s quality of life and can even improve physical symptoms, researchers at Duke Medicine report.
Dangerous new pathogens such as the Ebola virus invoke scary scenarios of deadly epidemics, but even ancient scourges such as the bubonic plague are still providing researchers with new insights on how the body responds to infections.
Applying the benefit of hindsight, researchers at Duke Medicine have reanalyzed the findings of two historic pediatric HIV vaccine trials with encouraging results. The vaccines had in fact triggered an antibody response -- now known to be associated with protection in adults -- that was previously unrecognized in the infants studied in the 1990s.
Implantating deep brain stimulation devices poses no greater risk of complications to older patients than it does to younger patients with Parkinson’s disease, researchers at Duke Medicine report.
Normal microorganisms in the intestines appear to play a pivotal role in how the HIV virus foils a successful attack from the body’s immune system, according to new research from Duke Medicine.
Harnessing a natural process in the body that pumps lethal doses of copper to fungi and bacteria shows promise as a new way to kill infectious microbes, a team of scientists at Duke University report.
Scientists at Duke Medicine have found an immunologic mechanism that makes broadly neutralizing antibodies in people who are HIV-1 infected.
In a cost-effectiveness analysis of commercial diet programs and pills, the Weight Watchers program and the drug Qsymia showed the best value for the money. The Jenny Craig regimen generated the greatest weight loss, but was also the most expensive option tested, according to researchers at Duke-National University of Singapore (NUS) Graduate Medical School.
Mice consuming a supplement of omega 3 fatty acids had healthier joints than those fed diets high in saturated fats and omega 6 fatty acids, according to Duke Medicine researchers.
The changing dynamic of health studies driven by “big data” research projects will empower patients to become active participants who provide real-time information such as symptoms, side effects and clinical outcomes, according to researchers at Duke Medicine.
Duke University, through its Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI), announced this week it has entered into a novel collaboration with Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) to promote open access to clinical information from company-sponsored studies.
Bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical commonly used in plastics, appears to increase the proliferation of breast cancer cells, according to Duke Medicine researchers presenting at an annual meeting of endocrine scientists.
National and state air pollution controls that went into effect in the early 1990s coincide with decreasing death rates from emphysema, asthma and pneumonia among people in North Carolina, according to a study led by Duke University researchers.
A team of scientists from Duke Medicine, the University of Michigan and Stanford University has determined the underlying architecture of a cellular signaling complex involved in the body’s response to stimuli such as light and pain.
Researchers at Duke Medicine have identified a new strategy for treating neuroblastoma using a modified version of heparin, a century-old injectable drug that thins the blood to prevent clots from forming. The study, conducted in mice and published June 17, 2014, in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, found that when heparin is altered to remove its blood-thinning properties, it can suppress and shrink neuroblastoma tumors without causing severe bleeding.
Combining two smoking cessation therapies is more effective than using just one for male and highly nicotine-dependent smokers who weren't initially helped by the nicotine patch, according to researchers at Duke Medicine.
Children with heart disease are exposed to low levels of radiation during X-rays, which do not significantly raise their lifetime cancer risk. However, children who undergo repeated complex imaging tests that deliver higher doses of radiation may have a slightly increased lifetime risk of cancer, according to researchers at Duke Medicine.
In the battle against stubborn skin infections, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a new single-dose antibiotic is as effective as a twice-daily infusion given for up to 10 days, according to a large study led by Duke Medicine researchers.
Gamma and neutron imaging offer possible improvements over existing techniques such as X-ray or CT, but their safety is not yet fully understood. Using computer simulations, imaging the liver and breast with gamma or neutron radiation was found to be safe, delivering levels of radiation on par with conventional medical imaging, according to researchers at Duke Medicine.
RSS
Medicine keyboard_arrow_right
Sciencekeyboard_arrow_right
Life keyboard_arrow_right
Business keyboard_arrow_right
Journal News keyboard_arrow_right
By Location keyboard_arrow_right
Meetings, Grants, and Events keyboard_arrow_right