University of Minnesota researchers have developed a novel virus-like particle vaccine against COVID-19. Having been successfully tested in animals, the novel vaccine—created as part of a study whose findings were recently published in the scientific journal PLOS Pathogens—offers a new approach in the global battle against COVID-19 and its emerging variants. The researchers combined the […]
De novo variants (DNVs), genetic mutations that were not previously identifiable in the family history of one of two prospective parents, may cause disease in any children they have. Where a disease-causing DNV is present in one parent, the risk of passing it to a child can be as high as 50% and being able […]
Good news: Scientists won’t have to worry about their mouse sperm vials breaking in transit ever again. Researchers in Japan have developed a way to freeze dry rodent ejaculate between thin plastic sheets and sticky tape it to postcards, with the samples surviving long journeys to produce healthy pups. The team from the University of […]
An international research team led by HKUST has developed a simple but robust blood test from Chinese patient data for early detection and screening of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) for the first time, with an accuracy level of over 96%. Currently, doctors mainly rely on cognitive tests to diagnose a person with AD. Besides clinical assessment, […]
One in 7 (14%) adults with coronavirus infection developed at least one new condition that required medical care during the post-acute phase of illness, which is 5% higher than adults with no coronavirus infection in 2020, finds a US study published by The BMJ today. The post-acute phase in this study started 21 days (or […]
Researchers at Penn Medicine have identified more genetic mutations that strongly predispose younger, otherwise healthy women to peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM), a rare condition characterized by weakness of the heart muscle that begins sometime during the final month of pregnancy through five months after delivery. PPCM can cause severe heart failure and often leads to lifelong […]
An abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a bulging of the aorta, the body’s main blood vessel, which runs from the heart down through the chest and stomach. Prevalence of AAA in the population is high, up to nearly 13% depending on age group, particularly for men aged 65 and over. An AAA can get bigger […]
It does not happen often. But on rare occasions, physicians make mistakes and may make a wrong diagnosis. Patients may have many diseases all at once, where it can be difficult to distinguish the symptoms of one illness from the other, or there may be a lack of symptoms. Errors in diagnosis may lead to […]
Patient-reported outcomes have become a critical part of improving surgical care because of their ability to capture patient experiences, such as quality of life and satisfaction, that can help inform treatment. However, for patients undergoing abdominal hernia repair—a common procedure performed on about 400,000 patients a year in the United States—a tool to effectively and […]
Physicians and researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, the Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center, VA Connecticut Healthcare System, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center created a new prediction model which, when compared to older and widely-used models, provided better estimated risk of mortality after surgery for patients […]
