A study by scientists at the Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies, South Africa, has shown that exclusive breastfeeding can significantly reduce the risk of HIV transmission from mother to child in infants aged under six months when compared to those also given solid foods or replacement feed (i.e. formula milk). The research, published recently in The Lancet, has implications for people in resource poor settings, such as in rural Africa. [click link for full article]

Women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer in one breast have a higher risk of contracting the disease in their opposite breast as well. A thorough examination of the opposite breast using mammography and ultrasound is therefore common practice. However, many tumours still remain undetected when using mammography. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) promises better results, as is shown in an inter-national study involving the University of Bonn. [click link for full article]

Obese and overweight men who are diagnosed with prostate cancer by biopsy are more likely than healthy weight men to actually have a more aggressive case of the disease than the biopsy results would indicate, according to a study led by a Duke University Medical Center researcher. [click link for full article]

Once-daily dosing with Otsuka’s investigational oral medication tolvaptan, a vasopressin receptor antagonist, was associated with improvements in signs and symptoms of acutely decompensated heart failure (ADHF) in hospitalized patients receiving conventional care, without an adverse effect on their long-term survival versus placebo. [click link for full article]

Is that pain in your chest a heart attack or indigestion? New research from Wake Forest University School of Medicine reveals that more areas of the brain than previously thought are involved in determining the location of pain.Spatial aspects of pain are a common problem in diagnosis, said Robert Coghill, Ph.D., senior researcher on the study and a neuroscientist at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. [click link for full article]

After surviving a heart attack, a big issue for a patient is the healing of the wound. Researchers at Thomas Jefferson University and Alfred I. DuPont Hospital for Children have found something that may help; they’ve identified a protein that contributes to the wound healing process after a heart attack.The researchers presented the study at the American College of Cardiology’s 56th Annual Scientific Session in New Orleans on March 27 at 10 am (abstract 1025-75). [click link for full article]

When a patient with chronic heart failure is admitted to the hospital, it is likely that she or he is already on a beta blocker therapy. Yet the role of these medications in the patient’s length of stay (LOS) as well as a treatment for her or his condition remains unclear. [click link for full article]

Although anemia is a common problem in heart failure patients, the medications the patients take to control their heart failure are not the cause of the anemia, according to researchers at Jefferson Medical College. Nor do they make the anemia any better or worse. [click link for full article]

The mammalian -1ber-clock in the supra-chiasmatic nucleus (SCN) sets the circadian rhythm based on photic input received over the day/night cycle. Resetting the clock with light stimulation occurs after continuous pulses, in which phase shifts result from integration or “photon counting” of long, relatively dim light pulses. However, as Vidal and Morin show this week in hamsters, brief trains of millisecond-long intense light flashes can cause significant phase shifts. [click link for full article]

Mina J. Bissell, Ph.D., is the recipient of the 2007 Pezcoller Foundation-AACR International Award for Cancer Research for her pioneering work on the relationship between cancer genetics and the three-dimensional structure of cells and tissues. [click link for full article]