Top 7 in medicine

linkurl:1. Drug helps - not hurts - in serious lung disease;http://bit.ly/RespDistress

iStockPhoto

Doctors have hesitated to give neuromuscular blocking agents to patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome, a life-threatening lung condition, out of fear the drugs could cause muscle weakness. But a clinical trial found patients who took a neuromuscular blocker were more likely than those on a placebo to survive 90 days, and showed no increase in muscle weakness. (Some F1000 Members, however, disagreed, arguing narcotics are more appropriate in these patients.) L. Papazian, et al., "Neuromuscular blockers in early acute respiratory distress syndrome," N Engl J Med, 363:1107-16. 2010. Evaluations by Hallie Prescott and Jim O'Brien, Ohio State Univ Med Cntr; Alexander Benson and Ivor Douglas, Univ of Colorado and Denver Health; Michael Gropper, UCSF; Rob Basner, Columbia Univ College of Physicians and Surgeons; Jacobo Sellares and Antoni Torres, Hosp Clinic de Barcelona; Marcelo Gama de Abreu, Clinic Carl Gustav Carus; Julia Neely and Alain Vuylsteke, Papworth Hosp; Greg Martin, Emory Univ; Michael O'Connor, Univ of Chicago; Philipp Fassbender and Matthias Eikermann, Mass General Hosp. linkurl:Free F1000 Evaluation;http://bit.ly/RespDistress linkurl:2. Skip the surgery?;http://bit.ly/TranscatImplantA nonsurgical treatment for severe aortic stenosis, a type of heart disease characterized by the narrowing of the aortic valve opening, may provide an alternative for patients who are not candidates for open-heart surgery. The treatment replaces the aortic valve through a catheter.M.B. Leon, et al., "Transcatheter aortic-valve implantation for aortic stenosis in patients who cannot undergo surgery," N Engl J Med, 2010. Evaluations by Alice Jacobs and Zoran Nedeljkovic, Boston Univ School of Med; Jerome Fleg, NHLBI; Saif Anwaruddin and Samir Kapadia, Cleveland Clin; Wolfgang Schoels, Herzzentrum Duisburg; Bernard Iung, Bichat Hosp; Nawwar Al-Attar, Bichat Hosp; Alvaro Alonso and John Paraskos, UMass Med School. linkurl:Free F1000 Evaluation;http://bit.ly/TranscatImplant linkurl:3. New source of stem cells;http://f1000.com/6938956?key=4zvbnmysfl0y6pvVascular endothelial cells that overexpress a receptor called activin-like kinase-2 (ALK2) can transform into stem cells, able to differentiate into bone, cartilage and fat cells in vitro and in vivo, providing a novel source of mesenchymal stem cells for tissue engineering.D. Medici, et al., "Conversion of vascular endothelial cells into multipotent stem-like cells," Nat Med, 16:1400-6, 2010. Evaluations by Jason Ho and Suneel Apte, Cleveland Clinic; Frank Zaucke, Inst for Biochem II; Debabrata Patra and Linda Sandell, Washington Univ Med School; Gadi Pelled and Dan Gazit, Hebrew Univ of Jerusalem; Mervin Yoder, Indiana Univ. linkurl:Free F1000 Evaluation;http://f1000.com/6938956?key=4zvbnmysfl0y6pv linkurl:4. Strong treatment for mild disease;http://f1000.com/6521956?key=545zdhsy6vgsxtlEplerenone -- a drug that blocks a nuclear receptor expressed in heart tissue -- significantly reduced the risk of hospitalization and death among patients with mild heart failure as compared with placebo, in a randomized, double-blinded clinical trial. The results complement previous trials showing similar benefits in patients with moderate to severe heart failure.F. Zannad, et al., "Eplerenone in patients with systolic heart failure and mild symptoms," N Engl J Med., 364:11-21, 2011. Evaluations by Scott MacKenzie and Eleanor Davies, Glasgow Cardiovas Res Cntr; Sunil Kumar and Sripal Bangalore, Brigham & Women's Hosp; Krishna Gaddam and Hector Ventura, Ochsner Clin Foundation; Florencia Halperin and Robert Dluhy, Brigham & Women's Hosp; Mark Cooper, Baker Med Research Inst and Alfred Hosp. linkurl:Free F1000 Evaluation;http://f1000.com/6521956?key=545zdhsy6vgsxtl linkurl:5. Surgery on the wrong side;http://f1000.com/5080957?key=8n8m6zqjq4bf067In 35 cases that occurred over 43 years, surgeons mistakenly cut into the wrong side of a patient's skull -- a wrong-side craniotomy -- primarily due to communication breakdown, inadequate preoperative checks, technical factors and human error, according to a review. The mistake is preventable through strict adherence to protocol, the authors conclude. F.L. Cohen, et al., "Wrong-site craniotomy: analysis of 35 cases and systems for prevention," J Neurosurg, 113:461-73, 2010. Evaluations by Zulfiqar Ahmed, Detroit Children's Hosp; Ian Herrick, Univ of Western Ontario; Robert Macdonald, Univ of Toronto. linkurl:Free F1000 Evaluation;http://f1000.com/5080957?key=8n8m6zqjq4bf067 linkurl:6. Skin straight to blood;http://f1000.com/6514956?key=24fn2949tv1lh2n

Red blood cells
MDougM, linkurl:Wikimedia Commons;http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sedimented_red_blood_cells.jpg

For the first time, scientists have created functioning blood stem cells from fibroblasts, skipping an intermediate pluripotent stage. The finding demonstrates that stem cells for cell-replacement therapies may be generated directly from adult cells without first deriving induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). E. Szabo, et al., "Direct conversion of human fibroblasts to multilineage blood progenitors," Nature, 468:521-6, 2010. Evaluations by Rosanna Botta and Anna Migliaccio, Mt Sinai School of Med; Xiaobing Zhang and Tao Cheng, Univ of Pittsburg; Eirini Papapetrou and Michel Sadelain, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Cntr. linkurl:Free F1000 Evaluation;http://f1000.com/6514956?key=24fn2949tv1lh2n linkurl:7. Notch your average blood cells;http://f1000.com/1821956?key=58c5m6j9nhc0fchA new cell-culturing recipe could substantially improve the success of blood cord transplants. Stimulating the Notch signal transduction pathway in cord blood cells results in a 100-fold increase the numbers of blood stem cells produced, and when transfused into human patients, the cells engrafted 10 days earlier than cord blood that was not stimulated with Notch ligands.C. Delaney et al., "Notch-mediated expansion of human cord blood progenitor cells capable of rapid myeloid reconstitution," Nat Med., 16:232-6, 2010. Evaluations by Hector Mayani, Siglo XXI Nat Med Cntr; Bindu Kanathezhath and James Feusner, Children's Hosp Oakland Res Inst; Patricia Benveniste and Juan Carlos Zuniga-Pflucker, Univ of Toronto and Sunnybrook Res Inst; B. G. Solheim, Oslo Univ Hosp. linkurl:Free F1000 Evaluation;http://f1000.com/1821956?key=58c5m6j9nhc0fch The F1000 Top 7 is a snapshot of the highest ranked articles from a 30-day period on Faculty of 1000 Medicine, as calculated on January 27, 2010. Faculty Members evaluate and rate the most important papers in their field. To see the latest rankings, search the database, and read daily evaluations, visit linkurl:http://f1000.com.;http://f1000.com
**__Related stories:__***linkurl:Top 7 in neuroscience;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/57955
[24th January 2011] *linkurl:Top 7 in genetics and genomics;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/57923
[18th January 2011] *linkurl:Top 7 from F1000;http://www.the-scientist.com/2011/1/1/20/1/
[1st January 2011]