Content by SPIS MedWire

gene may cause hypertrophic cardiomyopathy by disrupting expression of two cardiac contractile proteins.

Acanthamoeba is a leading cause of eye infection on contact lens wearers, particularly in people that use soft lenses. It can cause keratis of the eye and may eventually lead to blindness. In the British Journal of Ophthalmology, K. Hiti and colleagues, from the University of Vienna, Austria, tested the ability of three types of cleaning solutions for soft contact lenses to kill the single-cell organism Acanthamoeba (Br J Ophthalmol 2002, 86:144-146).The organism has two distinct life stages: tr

Undifferentiated host cells can migrate to host donor tissue in transplanted hearts.

Blood triglyceride levels could be an important indicator of an individual's risk of having a stroke.

Vitamin C could protect against heart disease by reducing apoptosis in vascular epithelial cells.

The mystery over the antidepressant effects of physical activity may have finally been solved.

Schizophrenic teenagers undergo a wave of grey matter loss that envelopes increasing amounts of the cortex throughout adolescence.

Changes in the diet of the Inuit people of Nunavik, Canada, help explain the beneficial effect of n-3 fatty acids on the key risk factors of cardiovascular disease.

Surgeons in New York remove the gall bladder of a woman in hospital in Strasbourg, with the aid of a robot.

The once-reviled leech, recently lauded for its potential in preventing repeat heart attacks, could also have a role to play in the treatment of pain and inflammation. In the October Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases Gustav Dobos and colleagues at the Essen-Mitte Clinic, Germany, used leech therapy to treat a number of patients with chronic arthritis (Ann Rheum Dis 2001, 60:986).They studied 16 patients with an average age of 68 years who had suffered persistent knee pain for more than six months

Helicobacter pylori is present in approximately half the population of the world. It can exist innocuously for decades but is strongly implicated in the development of gastrointestinal disorders and cancers. In 13 September New England Journal of Medicine Naomi Uemura and colleagues from the Kure Kyosai Hospital, Kure, Japan examined 1,526 patients who had duodenal ulcers, gastric ulcers, gastric hyperplasia or nonulcer dyspepsia to ascertain how exposure to H. pylori related to incidence of can

Using copper surfaces for food preparation could reduce the risk of food poisoning.

Women who suffer recurrent miscarriages may be carrying a variation in a gene involved in blood vessel function.

Modified common cold viruses are to be injected directly into prostate tissue, making the recipients officially genetically modified organisms.

A new study suggests that a single dose of cocaine primes the brain for addiction.