Doc Blog

The utility of sex, according to an intriguing new theory of evolutionary biology, may be its ability to promote genes that play well with many other partners rather than those that shine with just one specific set of genes. This idea of genetic mixability, described in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences [...]

Artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs) could be almost as effective in reducing transmission of malaria as insecticide-treated bednets (ITNs) in areas of low transmission, a study based on data from Tanzania has found. In high transmission areas, long-acting antimalarial regimens may be needed to achieve significant transmission reductions. Experts from the London School of Hygiene & [...]

A provocative debate in this week’s PLoS Medicine examines whether the private sector should step up its involvement in delivering health care in low-income countries. These countries suffer a disproportionate burden of disease, and often struggle with weak health systems. Both the public and private sector deliver health care in these countries, but the appropriate [...]

There are more than 76,000 end-stage renal disease patients waiting for one of the 17,000 kidneys transplanted each year, making a host rejection an unacceptable waste. Kidney transplantation is the preferred treatment for patients with end-stage renal disease. As the demand for organs exceeds the supply, blood group (ABO)-incompatible kidney transplantations have gained much importance [...]

President-elect Barack Obama’s Health and Human Services Transition Team was presented with a series of nearly 50 legal and policy recommendations designed to combat the nation’s obesity epidemic. The document, developed by the Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI) at Northeastern University’s School of Law, was sent to the Transition Team by Richard Daynard, a professor [...]

A tale of two sisters has helped researchers solve a medical mystery and discover a familial genetic mutation that causes an inherited form of the lung disease Pulmonary Alveolar Proteinosis (PAP). Reporting their results in the Nov. 24 Journal of Experimental Medicine, a research team led by Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center also points to [...]

Continuously measuring blood pressure may help predict heart disease and related deaths among individuals with treatment-resistant hypertension, while blood pressure readings taken in a medical office do not appear to predict future heart risks, according to a report in November 24 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine. About 10 percent to 30 percent of individuals [...]

Researchers at the University of Washington (UW) have reported for the first time that mammals can be stimulated to regrow inner nerve cells in their damaged retinas. Located in the back of the eye, the retina’s role in vision is to convert light into nerve impulses to the brain. The findings on retina self-repair [...]

Labopharm Inc. has announced that its New Drug Application (NDA) for the Company’s novel once-daily formulation of trazodone (DDS-04A), a serotonin antagonist reuptake inhibitor (SARI), for the treatment of major depressive disorder, has been accepted for review and filed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The action date under the Prescription Drug User [...]

Hospital admissions for lung cancer remained relatively stable - at roughly 150,000 a year between 1995 and 2006 - despite a steady decline in the number of Americans diagnosed with the disease, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Admissions have remained constant, in part, because lung [...]