Flu Virus Wipes Out First Wave of Immune Response
The immune system has the capacity to "remember" particular viruses and store those details in B memory cells that reside in the lungs to help ward off future infections. But a new study shows the flu virus takes advantage of this and uses the way the memory cells store its details to recognize and kill them, thus wiping out the immune system's first wave of defense against virus re-infection.Continue Reading
Flu Shots Tied to Lower Risk of Cardiac Events
Influenza vaccination was associated with a reduced risk of major adverse cardiovascular events among patients at high risk for heart disease, a meta-analysis showed.continue Reading
New Technology Lets Doctors Watch Patients From Afar
Many people carry or own devices that can act as sensors. Smartphones have accelerometers that can measure physical activities and advanced cameras that can provide evidence for interpretation. These devices are becoming more sophisticated; Microsoft's Kinect camera, for instance, can estimate blood pressure based on how flushed a user appears. Continue Reading
Decades Later, Condemnation for a Skid Row Cancer Study
A medical researcher from Columbia University, Dr. Perry Hudson, made the skid row alcoholics in Lower Manhattan an offer: If they agreed to surgical biopsies of their prostates, they would get a clean bed and three square meals for a few days, plus free medical care and treatment if they had prostate cancer. It was the 1950s, and Dr. Hudson was trying to prove that prostate cancer could be caught early and cured. But he did not warn the men he was recruiting that the biopsies to search for cancer could cause impotence and rectal tears. Or that the treatment should cancer be found — surgery to remove their prostates and, often, their testicles — had not been proven to prolong life. Continue Reading
No comments:
Post a Comment