Rhode Island Hospital
PROVIDENCE, RI -- A commentary in the December issue of The Lancet Infectious Diseases brings to light the gaps in knowledge on the transmission of a common pathogen -- the influenza virus -- and its impact on decisions about how best to protect health care workers.
Babesiosis is a potentially dangerous parasitic disease transmitted by ticks and is common in the Northeast and the upper Midwest. Babesia lives inside of red blood cells, meaning it can also be transmitted through a blood transfusion from an infected but otherwise asymptomatic blood donor.
PROVIDENCE, RI -- The costs of drinking and driving are all too apparent, with alcohol involved in 41 percent of all motor vehicle crash fatalities in 2006. In addition to the mortality and morbidity associated with drinking and driving, the economic impact of alcohol impaired driving is considerable, estimated at $51 billion, with medical costs accounting for 15 percent of that figure.
- Screening and brief interventions for identifying alcohol problems are effective, but not often used in community hospital emergency departments
Study shows positive results when SBI model was implemented in a community hospital ED, but rate of screening returned to previous levels following study
Identified barriers that, if overcome, could allow model to work in a community
Providence, RI -- A year ago, a study by Rhode Island Hospital and Brown University researchers reported that fewer than half the patients previously diagnosed with bipolar disorder received an actual diagnosis of bipolar disorder after using a comprehensive, psychiatric diagnostic interview tool --the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID).
Providence, RI -- Researchers from Rhode Island Hospital's department of psychiatry propose that the definition for major depressive disorder (MDD) should be shortened to include only the mood and cognitive symptoms that have been part of the definition in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) for the past 35 years.
PROVIDENCE -- Rhode Island Hospital is one of only four sites across the country to participate in a new clinical trial called the DIGNITY Study. The study will investigate the effectiveness of a chemotherapeutic agent, ThermoDox, used in conjunction with mild hyperthermia (a form of heat therapy) for treating recurrent chest wall breast cancer.
PROVIDENCE, RI -- A letter to the editor by Rhode Island Hospital infectious diseases specialist Leonard Mermel, DO, identifies characteristics of the outbreak of H1N1 in 1977 and speculates its impact on this pandemic. His letter is published in the June 20 edition of the journal the Lancet 2009 (vol 373 p2108-09).
PROVIDENCE, RI -- Don't feel like you are getting full when eating a large meal? New research from The Miriam Hospital suggests that a physiological response may partially explain why severely obese individuals may not feel satisfied after eating and often have difficulty controlling the amount of food they consume during a meal.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- Actinic keratoses are sun-damaged rough patches or lesions on the skin -- often pink and scaly -- that doctors have long believed can turn into a form of skin cancer known as squamous cell carcinoma.
PROVIDENCE, RI - Researchers at Rhode Island Hospital have found that cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can reduce the frequency of seizures in patients with psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES), along with improving their overall quality of life. The study was published in the April 2009 edition of Epilepsy and Behavior.
Researchers at Brown Medical School and Rhode Island Hospital have shed new light on the activation of a protein key to the development of cancers, particularly breast and prostate cancer, the most commonly diagnosed cancers in the United States. The team of cell biologists has discovered a new chemical modification that activates STAT3. This so-called signaling protein is important for embryonic growth and development, helping cells grow, duplicate and migrate. In adulthood, STAT3 presumably falls dormant, but its unexpected and continuous activation causes breast and prostate cells to develop and move through the body.
Metabolism is regulated by a host of tiny proteins in the hypothalamus, the small segment of the brain controlling hunger. But those peptides can't perform their fat-fighting function without the aid of PC1 and PC2 enzymes, according to new research. Scientists found that PC1 and PC2 chop up the precursor of thyrotropin-releasing hormone, a process that sets the molecules in motion. The smaller TRH peptides go on, through a complex chemical cascade, to stimulate the pituitary gland and the thyroid.
