Posts in category: Uncategorized

A heartbeat is a carefully coordinated series of electrical signals led by sodium ion channels, which tell the heart when to contract and to relax. Any disruption to these signals may lead to cardiac diseases such as an irregular heartbeat, or arrhythmia. Two researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have taken a closer look at this process at the molecular level and have found what may provide new insights into different heart conditions and how to develop better therapies.

A study of more than 8,000 comprehensively characterized Medicare beneficiaries has found that the addition of self-reported functional impairments and physical frailty to claims-based measures of multi-morbidity and frailty identifies large differences in spending attributable to impairments and frailty. The findings are published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

The COVID-19 pandemic created a real-life experiment that demanded health care providers nationwide rapidly stand up clinics to administer an evolving offering of monoclonal antibody treatments that—while initially proven safe and effective in clinical trials and approved under federal emergency use authorization—had never been tested at such a scale.

LSU Health New Orleans Louisiana Tumor Registry (LTR) has published the sixth report of statewide cancer incidence rates by census tract. The publication, which reports 2010-2019 combined cancer incidence data, found that 81% of the census tracts in Louisiana met publication criteria for all cancers combined. For specific cancer types, fewer census tracts met the criteria.

Surrey scientists have developed a proof-of-concept test called PANDORA that was shown to be over 92% accurate at identifying patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). The test was also shown to be more than 80% accurate at identifying patients with pre-cancer or oral epithelial dysplasia (OED).

Between natural infection and a global vaccination campaign, most people now have some immunity against the virus that causes COVID-19. This widespread immunity hasn’t stopped people from getting infected, but it has dampened the massive waves of illness and death that roiled the globe in the early years of the pandemic. Keeping the virus in check requires maintaining this level of immunity, a difficult task because the virus is constantly spinning off new variants that can partially evade antibodies elicited by vaccines and prior infections.

As warming temperatures make many parts of the world increasingly hospitable to mosquitoes, the risk for dangerous tropical illnesses, such as dengue infection and chikungunya, is expected to spread.

Having a structured and consistent workout routine makes all the difference in your results. But even when you are seeing results, it is important to listen to your body—and your body may be telling you it’s time for a break from your routine.

Consuming too much salt can lead to serious health conditions, including high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke.

U.S. public health officials want high-risk individuals who haven’t been vaccinated for mpox—previously called monkeypox—to do so before a potential resurgence of the virus in the coming months.