Scientists have moved a step closer to understanding how our genetic make-up can lead us to develop heart disease and to predicting who is most at risk. They have confirmed six new genetic variants that increase the likelihood of developing coronary artery disease. Heart disease is the UK’s largest killer, accounting for 105,000 deaths annually. [click link for full article]

An international team of researchers has identified the first gene associated with Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS), a common sleep disorder affecting tens of millions of people worldwide. The findings are published in the online edition of the New England Journal of Medicine and will appear in an upcoming printed edition of the journal. The work was led by scientists at Emory University and deCODE Genetics, Inc., in Reykjavik, Iceland. [click link for full article]

There is currently no evidence available of a superiority of rapid-acting insulin analogues over human insulin in the treatment of adult patients with diabetes mellitus type 1. The evidential value and design of studies available so far are inadequate and do not allow conclusions regarding most patient-relevant therapy goals, such as the reduction in long-term complications or overall mortality. [click link for full article]

Little evidence supports using rosiglitazone (Avandia) to improve the quality or length of life among adults with diabetes, according to a systematic review of data by German researchers.Furthermore, data suggest that the drug might worsen complications of the disease such as weight gain, swelling, bone fractures and heart disease. [click link for full article]

A Bluetooth heart monitor could text your local hospital if you are about to have a heart attack, according to research published in Inderscience’s International Journal of Electronic Healthcare. The device measures electrical signals from the heart, analyses them to produce an electrocardiogram (ECG) and sends an alert together with the ECG by cell phone text message. [click link for full article]

A research group of the UAB Institute of Biotechnology and Biomedicine and the UAB Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, directed by Francesc Xavier Aviles, is the coordinator of a European project aimed at studying proteases with fluorescent molecules that allow their monitoring in healthy and pathological situations. [click link for full article]

A NASA researcher has developed a new method to anticipate food shortages brought on by drought. Molly Brown of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and her colleagues created a model using data from satellite remote sensing of crop growth and food prices. Brown conceived the idea while working with organizations in Niger, West Africa, that provide information regarding failed crops and help address local farmers’ worries about feeding their families. [click link for full article]

According to a new study in Value in Health women coping with the strain of being mistakenly diagnosed with breast cancer have not been adequately studied in the past. The focus of the study is a new survey that accurately assesses the negative effects of false diagnosis and provides useful information to health care practitioners and researchers. “We know that having a false alarm at a breast cancer screening causes significant negative psychological harm,” says Dr. [click link for full article]

MIT researchers have identified a critical link between two proteins found in brain tumors, a discovery that could eventually help treat a form of brain cancer that kills 99 percent of patients. Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most aggressive brain tumor in adults, strikes about 15,000 people in the United States each year. [click link for full article]

An obese person is more likely than a lean person to develop multiple myeloma, according to researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and Harvard School of Public Health. Their findings indicate that Body Mass Index (BMI) - a statistical measure that scales weight to height - provides an indicator for one’s risk of developing multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood cells that produce antibodies. Multiple myeloma currently affects more than 50,000 people in the U. [click link for full article]