Mothers who are exposed to particulate air pollution of the type emitted by vehicles, urban heating and coal power plants are significantly more likely to bear children of low birth weight, according to an international study led by co-principal investigator Tracey J.
The presence of microscopic levels of blood in the urine is unreliable as an indicator for renal or bladder cancer, report researchers.
“An extremely small proportion of patients with microscopic hematuria are subsequently found to have cancer,” say Steven Jacobsen (Kaiser Permanente Southern California, Pasadena, USA) and team.
This suggests that many of the follow-up examinations of patients with asymptomatic microscopic hematuria, which often include radiologic and invasive procedures, are unnecessary and can safely be avoided, they say.
Currently, the American Urological Association recommends a thorough urologic evaluation of all asymptomatic patients aged 35 years or older who have a single analysis result with three or more red blood cells per high-power field (RBC/HPF).
Instead, Jacobsen and colleagues recommend that a history of gross hematuria (>50 RBC/HPF [when blood is present at levels visible in urine]) is a far more reliable indicator of the need for such patient follow up.
As reported in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, the team found that, of 2630 patients who underwent full evaluation for asymptomatic microscopic hematuria between January 2009 and October 2010, only 50 individuals were found to have malignant tumors, giving an overall cancer detection rate of 1.9%.
Five risk factors were associated with pathologically confirmed cancer, namely male gender, age of 50 years or older, a history of gross hematuria (>50 RBC/HPF), smoking history, and at least 25 RBC/HPF on a recent urine analysis.
However, in multivariate analysis only history of gross hematuria, age ≥50 years, and male gender were significantly associated with risk for cancer diagnosis, at odds ratios of 9.9, 16.3, and 2.5, respectively.
The researchers used this information to create a “Hematuria Risk Index” in which history of gross hematuria and age ≥50 years were awarded 4 points and the remaining three risk factors awarded 1 point each, giving index score groups that could be used to identify patients as at low (0-4 points), medium (5-8), or high risk (9-11) for a cancer diagnosis. The
Last spring, University Hospitals Case Medical Center and Case Western Reserve University recruited a physician-scientist whose key discoveries — made while in medical school — of a gene that suppresses cancerous tumors first put him on the scientific map more than a dozen years ago.
A native of California, Dr. Goutham Narla moved East after graduating from Santa Clara University. He would spend the next 15 years in New York City, first in medical school at the Mount Sinai Medical Center, then as a physician and faculty member at Mount Sinai Hospital.
It was there he conducted the bulk of his research on the gene KLF6, which acts as a tumor suppressor.
Originally a gas station and then a liquor store, the building at the corner of Third Street and North Limestone in downtown Lexington, Ky., is now the home of Doodle’s Breakfast and Lunch, a popular eatery. Back in 1945, the Central Shell station was a state-of-the-art facility with an office, two service bays and an exterior of shiny porcelain panels. By the early 1970s, a liquor store named Doodle’s occupied the premises until it was sold a couple of times. When Tim and Lynda Mellin, then owners of the Atomic Café across the street, purchased the property in 1993, they wanted the Doodle’s property for its parking lot.
Most cases involved young adults, 42 percent involved drugs or alcohol, government survey found.
— As the popularity of energy drinks has soared, so has the number of Americans seeking treatment in hospital emergency rooms after consuming these highly caffeinated beverages, federal health officials report.
Between 2007 and 2011, the number of ER visits more than doubled from roughly 10,000 to almost 21,000. In 2011, 58 percent of these ER visits involved energy drinks alone, while 42 percent also included drug or alcohol use.
Most of these cases involved teens or young adults, although there was an alarming spike in the number of people aged 40 and older showing up in the ER after consuming these drinks, according to the report from the U.S.
Just two months after her wedding to actor Jamie Bell, actress Evan Rachel Wood is expecting! The mom-to-be revealed the news on Twitter saying, Remember when i said, No baby on the way here Well, I didnt know there actually was!
This will be the first child for both the actress, who is 25, and her husband, who is 26.
Congrats to the parents-to-be!
Photo Splash News
BOSTON January 8, 2013 — As part of their ongoing research on the physiologic factors that contribute to the development of obesity, Joslin Diabetes Center scientists have identified a cell cycle transcriptional co-regulator TRIP-Br2 that plays a major role in energy metabolism and fat storage. This finding has the potential to lead to new treatments for obesity. The study is being published today ahead of print by Nature Medicine.
Transcriptional co-regulators manage the expression of DNA, either by activating or suppressing the expression of genes. TRIP-Br2 regulates metabolic genes involved in fat storage and energy metabolism.