For the most part, dementia and delirium have been viewed as separate and distinct conditions. But a special section of the Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences, appearing in January 2007, looks at their interface, asking: Can delirium itself lead to the development of a cognitive disorder? Do delirium and dementia represent opposite ends of the same spectrum of disease, rather than two separate conditions?
An international team of researchers, led by Columbia University Medical Center, Boston University School of Medicine and the University of Toronto, has uncovered a major new gene — SORL1 — implicated in late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Replicated in four distinct ethnic groups, SORL1 is only the second genetic variant for late-onset Alzheimer’s, the type of Alzheimer’s found in 90 percent of people with this devastating disease. ApoE4, the first, was identified in 1993.
In a surprise finding, scientists have discovered that histamine, the inflammatory compound released during allergic reactions that causes runny nose, watery eyes and wheezing, can be produced in large amounts in the lung by neutrophils, the white blood cells that are the major component of pus.
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the School of Arts and Sciences have shown that a well-known protein structure acts as a molecular spring, explaining one way that clots may stretch and bend under such physical stresses as blood flow. This knowledge will inform researchers about clot physiology in such conditions as wound healing, stroke and cardiovascular disease.
In laboratory tests on mice, researchers found that a medication often used to reduce toxic side effects of chemotherapy induced bone loss and helped tumors grow in bone. So the researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are recommending increased awareness of bone health during cancer treatments.
The Lancet reports that China is now seeing the rise in syphilis rate in the country with alarming intensity. It is noted that China virtually eliminated syphilis in the 1960s and 70s.
Cough and cold medicines can be harmful, and even fatal, and should be used with caution in children under 2 years of age, said Dr. Adam Cohen, an officer in the Epidemic Intelligence Service at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study appears in the Jan_12 issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a publication of the CDC.
US President Bush would veto legislation requiring the government to negotiate with drug companies for lower prices under Medicare. The House is to debate and vote on the bill on friday.
In the first nationally representative study to examine the relationship between survey measures of household firearm owenrship and state level rates of homicide, the Harvard Injury Control Research Center found that homicide rates are higher in states where more households have guns.
A survey of 104 vacationers boarding flights for Mexico revealed that their general level of knowledge about the prevention of this condition was generally adequate; however, there were still some things they needed to know more about how to avoid a nasty case of travellers’ diarrhea, but they don’t know everything they should, according to a University of Alberta study.