Cardiology – one of the fastest developing specializations, again takes a major step forward. After percutaneous interventions of stenting, valve replacements, atrial septal defect occlusion, atrial appendage occlusion, time has come for even greater interference in human heart’s structure. Now the scientists get closer to the total replacement of insufficient ventricles with artificial heart. Although, the mankind has dreamt of placing a machine inside the chest for generations, the mechanism of similar size, weight, and functioning as a human heart has not been created until now. The task has been accomplished by a French research group that developed a prototype named CARMAT. This artificial heart model has been recently launched into the first phase of clinical testing and this year it is to be implanted into several patients. Read the rest of this article »

A new blood test may predict patients at risk of an imminent heart attack. Researchers have discovered mutated circulating endothelial cells (CECs) that are released into the bloodstream days before the formation of a clot. A blood test may be used to identify this particular cell type up to 2 weeks before the heart attack is likely to occur. Read the rest of this article »

The most recent study presented in the Arthritis Research & Therapy journal reports, that cells from knee joints of persons with osteoarthritis have an extremely short telomeres. What’s more, it has appeared that the percentage of cells with ultra short telomeres increases with decreasing distance to the most damaged region of the joint. The published research was conducted by the scientists from Denmark. Read the rest of this article »

Alzheimer’s disease remains a mystery to the researchers. Scientists are doing their utmost, by analyzing the disease from the perspective of biochemistry, the potential impact of the environment or the education of patients. Their studies are extremely important, as the understanding of the pathogenesis of this complex disease might expand treatment options, perhaps prolong the lives of patients or at least improve it’s quality. Lately a new suspect has been introduced – dental X-rays. Read the rest of this article »

It is estimated that around 5-10% young patients suffer from asthma. Wheezing is one of the most common reasons that worried parents give for visiting the pediatrician. For many years the scientists have studied how to stop the allergic diseases epidemic. Unfortunately, many scientific findings seem opposing. Swedish researchers (1) observed that broad-spectrum antibiotic administration in the first week of neonate’s life increases the risk of wheeze in preschool children. Moreover early introduction of fish into infant’s diet results in decreased frequency of asthma in 4 year-olds. Read the rest of this article »

Very important conclusions for the early detection of lung cancer have been included in the recent publication summarizing the U.S. National Lung Screening Trial (NLST). This is the first study in which through the use of appropriate diagnostic methods managed to reduce mortality of patients with cancer of the lung. In this analysis supremacy of repeatedly performed low dose computed tomography (LDCT) over the standard chest x-ray was demonstrated. It is the first step, which in the future might allow the introduction of an effective screening program for lung cancer. Read the rest of this article »

A number of physical illnesses is caused by the body’s inability to cope with chronic stress conditions. A continuous stimulation of the immune system leads to resource depletion and thus diseases such as hypertension or heart attack. An early detection of chronic stress is extremely problematic, due to a lack of a typical biomarker. It turns out that hair analysis may solve more problems than originally expected. Read the rest of this article »

Malignant neoplasms change the rheological properties of the blood, leading to a higher risk of thrombosis. Treatment of a cancer also affects the haemostasis. Recent studies carried out in the Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum (Heidelberg) showed that not only the cancer is causing the thrombosis, but the prothrombotic trend may increase the risk of malignant neoplasm occurrence. Read the rest of this article »

Nowadays, especially in industrial countries it is more common to hear about psychiatric disorders. There are more and more described neuro-psychatric diseases. An interesting disease is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), first described in 1956 in England, and in the year 1988 it was recognized as individual syndrome by Center for Disease Control (CDC). Read the rest of this article »

The issue of aging and the mechanisms directing it has always attracted great interest. This subject is connected with the eternal human desire to prolong life and improve its quality. In May 2011, a team of researchers from the Mayo Clinic of Medicine under the leadership of Darren J. Baker published an article which shows the relationship between the elimination of aging cells from the body and the delay of processes associated with progression of age. Read the rest of this article »