Treatment for advanced hepatitis C doesn't work, researchers find

An NIH funded multi-center clinical trial found no benefit from "maintenance therapy," low-dose peginterferon used for hepatitis C patients who have not responded to an initial round of treatment. In addition, the study showed a surprising health decline in patients with liver disease over the course of four years. more  

Henry Ford neurologist outlines drug treatment for Parkinson's disease in NEJM

Levodopa has long been proven to provide the greatest relief of all available medications in the treatment of Parkinson's disease. It also is the most cost-effective drug for managing the full range of problems associated with this chronic neurological disorder, which affects an estimated one million Americans. more

Kidney disease patients with poor health literacy are less likely to receive kidney transplants

Kidney disease patients' ability to understand basic health information may have a significant impact on whether or not they will receive an organ transplant, according to a study appearing in the January 2009 issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology (CJASN). The findings reveal an important disparity in access to care and point to the need for more standardized procedures for referring patients for transplantation. more  

Angled gantry technique reduced breast radiation exposure by 50 percent

A novel angled gantry approach to coronary CT angiography reduced radiation exposure to the breast by more than 50%, according to Thomas Jefferson University researchers. more

Have numbness, pain or muscle weakness? Guidelines identify best tests for neuropathy  

New guidelines developed by the American Academy of Neurology find a combination of blood tests and other specialized assessments appear to be the most helpful tests for finding the cause of neuropathy. Also known as neuritis or distal symmetric polyneuropathy, this common nerve problem affects people of all ages. The guidelines are published in the December 3, 2008, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. more

Radiologists diagnose and treat self-embedding disorder in teens 

Minimally invasive, image-guided treatment is a safe and precise method for removal of self-inflicted foreign objects from the body, according to the first report on "self-embedding disorder," or self-injury and self-inflicted foreign body insertion in adolescents. The findings will be presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). more

Motor neurons derived from human embryonic stem cells provide insight into ALS

Two new research studies use motor neurons derived from human embryonic stem (hES) cells to demonstrate that multiple toxic pathways contribute to the devastating degeneration associated with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and that protective therapeutics will need to oppose the disease on multiple fronts. The separate studies, published by Cell Press in the December issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell, also underscore the validity of using human stem cells to both identify new strategies for protecting motor neurons and screen potential therapeutics. more

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