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.
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.
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.
Gonorrhea, a common sexually transmitted infection, can double the risk of bladder cancer in men, researchers said. Earlier studies had already suggested a link and scientists from the Harvard School of Public Health in Massachusetts who monitored the health of 51,529 American men found 286 cases of bladder cancer in men who had had the infection.
Yale researchers now have some answers about how the bacterium that is the leading cause of food-borne illness in the United States enters cells of the gut and avoids detection and destruction, according to a presentation at the annual meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology in San Diego in December.
According to an Indiana University School of Medicine study, bullying can be curbed, but many common methods of dealing with the problem, such as classroom discussions, role playing or detention, are ineffective. Whole school interventions involving teachers, administrators and social workers committed to culture change are the most effective. Pediatricians need to be advocates to get schools to effectively intervene to improve environments where children study.
Scientists have identified a set of biomarkers that could help clinicians identify a group of hematologic malignancies known as myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), which affect approximately 300,000 individuals worldwide and often progress to acute myeloid leukemia.