News

Contrary to standard definitions of autism in play a decade ago, children on the autism spectrum do not have problems with learning language. What they have trouble with is using their language skills in communicating effectively, a new study confirms.

The results of a recently released study have once again shown the impact gut microbes can have on the health of patients with diabetes.

As Enterovirus D68 continues to spread across the US, the prognosis for children who are hospitalized with infections tends to be good. That applies to children with asthma, as well. "It's hard to say whether this virus is hitting kids with asthma harder than other viruses-but it is not causing as severe symptoms as other viruses out there, like adenovirus," said Christopher Carroll, MD, a pediatric intensivist and asthma specialist at Connecticut Children's Medical Center in Hartford, CT. "Even certain strains of rhinovirus are worse," Carroll said.

As Gilead's Sovaldi (sofosbuvir) hit the market in December 2013, its price of $84,000 for a 12-week treatment course caused many insurers to balk, including ExpressScripts, Catamaran Corp, Aetna, and CVS/Caremark.1 Their concerns were not unfounded: Recently, UnitedHealth reported an 8% dip in profits in the first quarter of 2014 due, in part, to $100 million in additional medical costs resulting from rapid uptake of Sovaldi.

Review by a German commission also found major benefits in patients who had not responded to prior treatment with other medications.

Physicians are often tasked with explaining vaccination safety to concerned parents. Parental fears that routine vaccines can trigger neurological diseases have led to decreasing vaccination rates in some countries and subsequent outbreaks of preventable illnesses. A team of Dutch researchers has debunked the idea that vaccination can cause severe epilepsy

Movantik (naloxegol), an oral peripherally acting mu-opioid receptor antagonist, has been approved by the FDA for the treatment of opioid-induced constipation in adults with chronic non-cancer pain.

Researchers have identified several combinations of drugs that outperform metformin monotherapy in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

As any athlete or active person knows, the health of the cartilage in the knee can make the difference between comfortably moving around and pain that can stop you in your tracks. Researchers in Australia have recently discovered a stronger than expected link between knee cartilage and rheumatoid arthritis.

The FDA has approved Baxter's Rixubis [Coagulation Factor IX (Recombinant)], an intravenous prophylactic treatment intended to control and prevent bleeding episodes and assist with perioperative management for children 12 years and younger with hemophilia B.

Researchers have long known that the risk for schizophrenia is inherited. In new findings published online Sept 15 in The American Journal of Psychiatry, senior investigator C. Robert Cloninger, MD, PhD, of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO, said his team identified distinct gene clusters that contribute to 8 different classes of the disease.

A new set of guidelines from the American College of Physicians (ACP) advises physicians to prescribe exercises and behavioral therapy-not drugs-as first-line treatment for many patients with urinary incontinence (UI).

Using an experimental and highly sensitive test for cardiac troponin, a team of Johns Hopkins researchers found undetected signs of heart muscle damage in people with diabetes and pre-diabetes. That may suggest that hypoglycemia directly damages the heart.

As reported in the EMBO Molecular Medicine journal, researchers have discovered there are several types of dendritic cells within human skin that play a role in both the earlier and more advances stages of psoriasis.

Taking human pluripotent stem cells, reprogramming them to act like embryonic stem cells, and then getting those cells to create neurons has enabled researchers to create a "brain in a dish." In a dramatic demonstration of this technique's potential in neurological research, scientists recently took some of these neurons and reprogrammed them by using genetic material in skin cells taken from people with schizophrenia.

A new blood test said to predict Alzheimer's disease up to 10 years before its onset will be available to researchers and pharmaceutical companies this fall, according to NanoSomiX, the company that developed it.

Medication commonly used to reduce cholesterol could also be used to help patients with diabetes reduce their risk of serious complications like blindness and amputations.

People who smoke and have more sodium in their diets than others could also be more likely to eventually develop rheumatoid arthritis (RA), according to a recent study.

Moderate disability due to multiple sclerosis could be treated with yoga, according to research from Rutgers investigators.

The US Food and Drug Administration recently approved a new algorithm that will enable many smart phones to detect signs of atrial fibrillation.

As the Ebola outbreak in West Africa continues to intensify and widen, the collection of obstacles in the way of the people trying to help those so desperately in need also seems to constantly be growing.

The quest for a non-pharmaceutical therapy for hypertension suffered a setback recently with the publication of two studies on renal denervation (RDN). Both articles appeared in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, and both reported on trials that showed the procedure did not lower blood pressure. But in an accompanying editorial, Vivek Reddy, MD, and Jeffrey Olin, DO, said they have critical questions about those studies that need to be answered before RDN therapy is written off.

Contrave (naltrexone hydrochloride and bupropion hydrochloride extended-release tablets) is a treatment option for chronic weight management in addition to a reduced-calorie diet and physical activity.

Researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center recently announced a breakthrough in the development of a replacement kidney.

A new report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention outlines the agency's recommendations concerning human papillomavirus vaccination and associated diseases.

Doctors may be undertreating patients for sickle cell disease, a US National Institutes of Health (NIH) panel said. A group of experts convened by the NIH's National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute issued new guidelines Sept. 9, calling for more aggressive treatment of these patients including periodic blood transfusions for pediatric patients. They also called strongly for greater use of hydroxyurea, a drug that promotes production of one type of healthy hemoglobin and thus dilute the amount of the faulty hemoglobin that causes the symptoms of sickle cells disease.

Breast feeding can potentially protect premature babies from a toxic gastrointestinal disease, according to a recent study published in in the American Journal of Pathology.

Investigators have found that many autoimmune diseases are implicated in the surge and development of eating disorders, according to a study published in PLoS One.

Vaccination coverage among US children ages 19 to 35 months in 2013 increased relative to 2012 data from the National Immunization Survey for some vaccines (rotavirus, Hep B birth dose, and ≥ 1HepA dose).

Psoriatic arthritis may be difficult to distinguish from other types of arthritis. According to results of a new study, assessing a patient's sense of balance and hearing ability may be an aid in the diagnosis.