Jewish Hospital
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A new generation of implanted devices that help a failing heart function properly is significantly more effective than the previous version, making these new devices an appropriate permanent therapy for many of the more than 5 million Americans who suffer from heart failure.
Pediatricians and pediatric oncologists express differing views on religion and spirituality, largely based on the types of patients they treat, according to a survey that will appear in the curren
Chronic sleep deprivation in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease makes Alzheimer's brain plaques appear earlier and more often, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis report online this week in Science Express.
They also found that orexin, a protein that helps regulate the sleep cycle, appears to be directly involved in the increase.
Aug. 21, 2009 -- Low levels of vitamin D are known to nearly double the risk of cardiovascular disease in patients with diabetes, and researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis now think they know why.
When estrogen-lowering drugs no longer control metastatic breast cancer, the opposite strategy might work. Raising estrogen levels benefited 30 percent of women whose metastatic breast cancer no longer responded to standard anti-estrogen treatment, according to research conducted at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and collaborating institutions.
Decoding the complete DNA of cancer patients is giving scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis a clearer picture of the complexity of the disease and allowing them to see intriguing and unexpected genetic relationships among patients.
St. Louis, July 31, 2009 -- Parkinson's disease is well-known for impairing movement and causing tremors, but many patients also develop other serious problems, including sleep disturbances and significant losses in cognitive function known as dementia.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shed new light on a process that fixes breaks in the genetic material of the body's cells. Their findings could lead to ways of enhancing chemotherapy drugs that destroy cancer cells by damaging their DNA.
Pig heart valves used to replace defective aortic valves in human patients failed much earlier and more often than expected, says a report from cardiac surgeons at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. This is the first report to demonstrate this potential problem, the researchers say.
June 9, 2009 -- Many cancerous tumors possess a genetic mutation that disables a tumor suppressor called PTEN. Now researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown why inactivation of PTEN allows tumors to resist radiation therapy.
St. Louis -- With eight basic medical facts in hand, doctors can now estimate the risk of bleeding for a patient having a heart attack. Using clinical variables, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St.
St. Louis, MO -- The predominance of heartburn among asthma sufferers led many specialists to suspect that acid reflux could be a trigger for the coughing, wheezing and breathlessness of asthma. In fact, it has become standard practice to prescribe heartburn medication to people with poorly controlled asthma, even if they don't have overt acid reflux symptoms.
Patients with severe heart failure can be bridged to eventual transplant by a new, smaller and lighter implantable heart pump, according to a just-completed study of the device. Results of this third-generation heart assist device were reported at the 58th annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology on March 30.
Diagnosing acute stroke is a high-pressure decision. The speed with which treatment is delivered makes all the difference. Early treatment can stop brain damage, but if treatment is given inappropriately, it can dangerously increase the risk of bleeding in the brain.
A minimally invasive approach to curing the most common heart rhythm abnormality, atrial fibrillation, takes half the time of the traditional surgical procedure but is equally effective, according to research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. ''Our findings show that this technique is much easier to perform but works just as well as the more invasive approach.''
