Connecting Research and Experts with Journalists

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Researchers at the University of Chicago Hospitals are unlocking the mysteries of human heart disease with transgenic mice and a powerful new cardiovascular ultrasound imaging machine from Hewlett-Packard Company. The result of their efforts using mice could mean improved pharmaceutical treatments, prevention regimens, and possible genetic cures for the millions of humans suffering from heart disease worldwide.

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A multi-institutional team has taken a crucial step toward understanding and treating Rett syndrome, a rare and often-misdiagnosed neurodevelopmental disorder that affects 1 in 10,000 children, mostly females.

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Five percent of deaths from SIDS in African Americans can be traced to defects in one gene. Half of those deaths result from a common variation that increases an infant's risk of developing an abnormal heart rhythm during times of environmental stress.

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There is no difference between an over-the-counter decongestant and a prescription medication that costs almost four times as much in relieving hay fever symptoms. Daily doses of 240 mg of pseudoephedrine were just as effective as 10 mg daily of montelukast at relieving symptoms without additional side effects.

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Although their genes are virtually identical, humans and chimpanzees differ substantially. This study provides powerful new evidence for a 30-year-old theory, that the differences are due more to changes in gene regulation than differences in individual genes.

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The Jack Miller Center for Peripheral Neuropathy at the University of Chicago will present its second biennial scientific symposium on the "Frontiers of Peripheral Nerve Research," from 9 A.M. to 4:30 P.M. on Friday, April 28, 2006.

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Researchers have been able to confirm most but not all of the results of a high-profile study that brought new hope to diabetes patients. This study provides a boost for efforts to reverse type-1 diabetes in recently diagnosed patients but not for efforts to grow new islets from spleens.

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University of Chicago physicians propose the first general framework for withholding or discontinuing medications, adding life expectancy, goals of care, treatment targets and time until benefit to the usual equation of drug plusses and minuses.

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Linguists have argued that certain patterns of language organization are the exclusive province of humans. These syntactical capacities have been used to define the boundaries between humans and other creatures. Now researchers have discovered the capacity to recognize such patterns in starlings.

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Although 45 percent of physicians do not inquire about religious belief, 55 percent do; 10 percent of them do so "always." While 81 percent rarely or never pray with patients, 19 percent do. A survey of physicians' religious characteristics found no consensus about what is appropriate, suggesting that physicians will "need to grapple" with these deeply rooted differences.