Doctors strike work in Maharashtra |  |
- Doctors strike work in Maharashtra
- Zileuton may help in treatment of Alzheimer's disease
- Panel slams rural health scheme implementation
- Johns Hopkins scientists link DNA 'end-caps' length to diabetes risk
- A diabetes drug, sitagliptin, also has a potential to prevent diabetes
- Eye movement differs in British and Chinese populations
- Gambling problems are more common than drinking problems, according to first-of-its-kind study
- Math professor wins National Science Foundation award
- X-rays, ECG facilities planned in Maharashtra rural hospitals
- No small pox in Jharkhand: Officials
| Doctors strike work in Maharashtra Posted: 25 Mar 2011 05:18 PM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Mumbai, March 25 - Patients across Maharashtra were inconvenienced as hundreds of doctors went on strike Friday to press for better security and reduction in fees of post-graduate courses. As many as 1,500 resident doctors went on a token strike. They were supported by around 650 interns in all government and municipal hospitals, who were also demanding a hike in their monthly stipend similar to what interns in other states receive. 'Resident doctors expressed concern over the government's failure to implement the Doctor Protection Act and to protest the increasing fees for post-graduation courses in the state,' said Madhav Swamy, president of the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors -. The doctors also demanded that women interns and resident doctors be granted maternity leave. 'Close to 40 percent of our resident doctors are women and many get married during the long duration of the course. They should be granted proper maternity leave,' said Swamy. 'We want authorities to provide security for medical personnel as doctors are targeted frequently by disgruntled relatives of patients,' said Farhan Hamid, general secretary of MARD. http://www.rxpgnews.com    |
| Zileuton may help in treatment of Alzheimer's disease Posted: 25 Mar 2011 09:04 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) The drug Zileuton used to treat asthma has been shown to help reduce the formation of amyloid beta, a peptide in the brain that is implicated in the development of Alzheimer's disease, according to researchers at Temple University's School of Medicine. The researchers published their findings, "Pharmacologic Blockade of 5-Lipoxygenase Improves the Amyloidotic Phenotype of an AD Transgenic Mouse Model," in the American Journal of Pathology. In previous studies, the Temple researchers discovered that 5-lipoxygenase, an enzyme long known to exist in the brain, controls the activation state of gamma secretase, another enzyme that is necessary and responsible for the final production of amyloid beta. When produced in excess, amyloid beta causes neuronal death and forms plaques in the brain. The amount of these amyloid plaques in the brain is used as a measurement of the severity of Alzheimer's. In their current study, led by Domenico Praticò, an associate professor of pharmacology in Temple's School of Medicine, the researchers tested the drug Zileuton, an inhibitor of 5-lipoxygenase typically used to treat asthma, in a transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. At the end of the treatment they found that this drug, by blocking the 5-lipoxygenase, reduced gamma secretase's production of amyloid beta and the subsequent build up of amyloid plaques in the brain by more than 50 percent. Praticò said that gamma secretase is present throughout the body and, despite its role in the development of amyloid plaques, plays a significant role in numerous important functions. Direct inhibitors of gamma secretase are known, he said, but blocking the enzyme completely may cause problems such as the development of cancer. Unlike classical gamma secretase inhibitors, Zileuton only modulates the protein expression levels, which keeps some of its vital functions in tact while blocking many of its bad effects, which in this case is the... http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| Panel slams rural health scheme implementation Posted: 24 Mar 2011 09:19 PM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) New Delhi, March 24 - The implementation of the National Rural Health Mission - came under sharp attack from a parliamentary committee Thursday, with the health ministry being asked to carry out a 'complete re-appraisal and restructuring' of the project. In its report on the NRHM presented to parliament, the Public Accounts Committee - headed by Bharatiya Janata Party - leader Murli Manohar Joshi also lamented that the government's expenditure on public health was merely 1.1 percent of the GDP. An 'appalled' PAC also noted that the per capita expenditure in India on public health was still worse at $7, even less than that of neighbouring Sri Lanka at $30. 'It is a joke on rural health,' Joshi said at a media interaction on the state of the NRHM scheme, which was started in April 2005 with the objective of providing 'accessible, affordable and effective' public health care facilities in rural India. The PAC, in its report, said it was dismayed to note that health centres at various levels were being used as foodgrain godowns, community halls, local offices or cow sheds in many of the 18 states where the NRHM is being implemented. It said the health centres also lacked necessary infrastructure, doctors, medical supplies and trained health workers. 'The committee apprehended that the goal of universal health care to all the citizens as envisaged in the mission may remain a pious platitude and a distant dream unless the budgetary outlays for the NRHM for both the terminal year of 11th plan and for the 12th plan period are scaled up significantly commensurate with the problem,' it added. The PAC also recommended that the Department of Ayush should be converted into a full-fledged ministry and for the promotion of indigenous systems of medicine such as ayurveda, unani, siddha, naturopathy, homeopathy and yoga in rural areas. It also emphasised the formulation of a five-year special plan for the Ayush department to encourage... http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| Johns Hopkins scientists link DNA 'end-caps' length to diabetes risk Posted: 24 Mar 2011 05:00 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) New evidence has emerged from studies in mice that short telomeres or caps at the ends of chromosomes may predispose people to age-related diabetes, according to Johns Hopkins scientists. Telomeres are repetitive sequences of DNA that protect the ends of chromosomes, and they normally shorten with age, much like the caps that protect the end of shoelaces. As telomeres shorten, cells lose the ability to divide normally and eventually die. Telomere shortening has been linked to cancer, lung disease, and other age-related illnesses. Diabetes, also a disease of aging, affects as many as one in four adults over the age of 60. The Johns Hopkins research, described in the March 10 issue of PLoS One, arose from scientist Mary Armanios' observation that diabetes seems to occur more often in patients with dyskeratosis congenita, a rare, inherited disease caused by short telomeres. Patients with dyskeratosis congenita often have premature hair graying and are prone to develop early organ failure. Dyskeratosis congenita is a disease that essentially makes people age prematurely. We knew that the incidence of diabetes increases with age, so we thought there may be a link between telomeres and diabetes, says Armanios, assistant professor of oncology at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center. Armanios studied mice with short telomeres and their insulin-producing beta cells. Human diabetics lack sufficient insulin production and have cells resistant to its efficient use, causing disruption to the regulation of sugar levels in the blood. Armanios found that despite the presence of plentiful, healthy-looking beta cells in the mice, they had higher blood sugar levels and secreted half as much insulin as the controls. This mimics early stages of diabetes in humans where cells have trouble secreting insulin in response to sugar stimulus, says Armanios. Many of the steps of insulin secretion in these mice, from mitochondrial energy... http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| A diabetes drug, sitagliptin, also has a potential to prevent diabetes Posted: 24 Mar 2011 05:00 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Diabetes type 2 is caused by insufficient levels of insulin to keep blood glucose under control. Excessive levels of another hormone, glucagon, can also contribute to diabetes type 2 by causing the liver to flood the body with stored glucose. Diabetes type 2 does not arise overnight, but slowly progresses for many years as a condition known as prediabetes. In prediabetes, blood sugar rises to excessive levels after a meal, but is normal or nearly normal after an overnight fast. Researchers are seeking ways to prevent prediabetes from progressing to diabetes. Besides diet and exercise, the diabetic drug metformin can slow the onset of diabetes. In the March 2011 issue of Experimental Biology and Medicine researchers in the Department of Nutrition at Case Western Reserve University determined whether a newer diabetes drug, sitagliptin, might be effective in prediabetes. Sitagliptin works by boosting the levels of an intestinal factor known as GLP-1. This factor increases insulin output while also decreasing glucagon output. They used an animal model with prediabetes, the SHROB rat, which was developed at Case Western Reserve University beginning in the 1970's. These rats are extremely obese and have normal glucose after fasting but high glucose after a meal, like prediabetic humans. Also like prediabetic humans, they have excessive levels of glucagon. The prediabetic rats were divided into three groups and treated with either a placebo, sitagliptin, or another older diabetes medication, glyburide, which acts by boosting the production of insulin by the pancreas. Sitagliptin and glyburide were equally effective in lowering glucose levels after a meal. Surprisingly, only sitagliptin raised the total output of insulin by the pancreas and only sitagliptin lowered glucagon to normal levels. Neither of the diabetes medications had any effect on body weight, total body fat or food intake. This matches studies in humans, which show no... http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| Eye movement differs in British and Chinese populations Posted: 24 Mar 2011 05:00 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) The team, working with Sichuan University in Chengdu, China, investigated eye movements in Chinese and British people to further understanding of the brain mechanisms that control them and how they compare between different human populations. They found that a type of eye movement, that is rare in British people, is much more common in Chinese people, suggesting that there could be subtle differences in brain function between different populations. Tests of eye movements can be used to help identify signs of brain injury or disease, such as schizophrenia and multiple sclerosis, in populations across the world. Research at Liverpool, however, has shown that within the Chinese population there are a high proportion of healthy people that exhibit a pattern of eye movements previously thought to be rare in the absence of injury or disease. Findings, published in the journal Experimental Brain Research, suggest that this pattern may not be as effective as a signal of altered brain function, in every global community, as originally thought. Working in China and in Britain, the team tested fast eye movements, called saccades. Participants in the study were asked to respond to spots of light with their eyes as they appeared suddenly to the right or left of their line of sight. The reaction time of the eye movements was the key measure that differentiated between Chinese and non-Chinese groups. Dr Paul Knox, from the Institute of Ageing and Chronic Disease, explains: In a person from any country in the world we would expect the reaction time of fast eye movements to be approximately a fifth of a second. Very rarely we find some people with eye movement reaction times that are much shorter than this, at around a tenth of a second. This, however, is usually assumed to be a sign of an underlying problem that makes it difficult to keep the eyes pointing where you would like for a long enough period. In our study, as we expected,... http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| Gambling problems are more common than drinking problems, according to first-of-its-kind study Posted: 24 Mar 2011 05:00 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) BUFFALO, N.Y. -- After age 21, problem gambling is considerably more common among U.S. adults than alcohol dependence, even though alcohol dependence has received much more attention, according to researchers at the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions. In results published this month in the Journal of Gambling Studies, John W. Welte, principal investigator on the study and a national expert on alcohol and gambling pathology, concluded that there is a distinct inconsistency between his research and much of the other research literature. Other research supports the proposition that problem gambling is more common among adolescents than among adults. Problem gambling has often been described as rare. Even the National Council on Problem Gambling describes it as rare but treatable. Welte and colleagues conducted, then combined, results from two national surveys of gambling and alcohol -- one of youth ages 14-21 and the second of adults 18 and older -- to identify patterns of U.S. gambling and alcohol use across the lifespan. They found that gambling, frequent gambling and problem gambling increases in frequency during the teen years, reaches its highest level in the 20s and 30s and then fall off among those over 70. No comparable analysis has been done previously and therefore none is available for a direct comparison of these results, Welte says. But, given what we found about the persistence of frequent and problem gambling through adulthood, increased prevention and intervention efforts are warranted. Other results detailed in the article demonstrate that frequent gambling is twice as great among men (28 percent) as among women (13 percent). Men reach their highest rates of both any gambling and frequent gambling in the late teens, while females take longer to reach their highest rates. The odds of any gambling in the past year are significantly higher for whites than for blacks or Asians, although the... http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| Math professor wins National Science Foundation award Posted: 24 Mar 2011 05:00 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Julien Langou, PhD, assistant professor of mathematical and statistical sciences at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Colorado Denver, recently received the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) National Science Foundation (NSF) award, the second CAREER award for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the third for the University of Colorado Denver Campus. Langou's $400,000 CAREER award is a five-year project titled Foundations for Understanding and Reaching the Limits of Standard Numerical Linear Algebra. The NSF Early Career Development Program is one of the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards made to junior faculty. The award funds outstanding faculty in the Sciences who are at the early stages of their academic careers and have already been able to exhibit excellence in research and outstanding performance in education. Awardees must also display the ability to integrate both education and research as a faculty member, said Michael Jacobson, PhD, chair of the CU Denver Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Department. Dr. Langou has shown extraordinary growth as a faculty member since arriving at CU Denver. Not only has he become one of the leaders within the Department's Research Group in Computational Mathematics, he tirelessly supervises doctoral students, in addition to having taken on a departmental leadership role as the Director of Undergraduate Studies, over which time, the department has revamped the undergraduate degrees offered by the Department. According to the study abstract, faster numerical simulations are critical, having applications in numerous areas, for example, in the basic sciences for enabling novel scientific discoveries, or in engineering, for developing new products and ultimately maintaining the competitiveness of the industry. Numerical simulations are used virtually everywhere today, impacting daily life. For example, numerical simulations... http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| X-rays, ECG facilities planned in Maharashtra rural hospitals Posted: 24 Mar 2011 12:57 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Mumbai, March 23 - Maharashtra will augment medical facilities in non-metro cities and rural areas of the state, Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Ajit Pawar announced here Wednesday while presenting the budget for 2011-12. Pawar said that the government planned to provide patients the facility of X-ray and ECG at the primary health centres and blood banks at other rural hospitals. He said that an amount of Rs.241 crore has been sanctioned for construction of urban and rural health institutions under the public health department, which include several hospitals and medical colleges. The finance minister said that the centrally-sponsored National Rural Health Mission is being implemented effectively in the state and the government would provide Rs.160 billion as its share. Pawar also announced funds for certain ongoing and new construction works at medical colleges and their hospitals across the state. These include: Pune Sassoon General Hospital -, Government Medical College, Nanded -, Cancer Hospital, Aurangabad -, Government Medical College, Ghati, Aurangabad -, Cancer Centre at Kasturba Health Society, Wardha - and a new library building at Nagpur Medical College -. Pawar also assured that the government would provide funds to construct a new building of Government Medical College, Yavatmal. http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| No small pox in Jharkhand: Officials Posted: 23 Mar 2011 08:56 PM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Ranchi, March 23 - Rumours of small pox resurfacing in Jharkhand turned out to be false with health officials Wednesday categorically rejecting the claims of local media and attributing the false news to superstitious beliefs. Jharkhand had rushed doctors to Gumla district to verify reports that small pox - a contagious disease believed to have been eradicated from the world - had resurfaced and killed three people there. However, Jharkhand health secretary A.K. Sarkar told IANS that initial investigation revealed that it was a case of chicken pox and no evidence or symptoms of smallpox were found. He said that efforts were being made to ascertain the cause, and microbiological tests would be conducted on the samples taken from the site. Gumla's civil surgeon A.D.N. Prasad and his team of doctors went to the affected village where three people had lost their lives. Prasad said that in a state like Jharkhand, superstition reigns supreme amongst the villagers. He agreed that there were three deaths within a week, but emphatically added that not one was due to smallpox. According to Prasad, a 15-year-old boy, who had eruptions on his body and face, was suffering from convulsions leading to chicken pox. As his parents refused to give him any medicine on the superstition that it would anger the 'goddess', he ultimately died. The other two deaths were not even related to chicken pox but due to totally different reasons, he said. The village head had spread the fear amongst the villagers that the 'goddess' was in great anger and that resulted in smallpox resurfacing. The rumours of resurfacing of the disease was raising questions about the eradication programme and causing panic in Jharkhand's rural belt. Small pox was said to have been totally eradicated from the world as per reports published by the World Health Organization - a decade ago. According to health department sources, immunisation for small pox was stopped in... http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
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