The American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) has partnered with its Section on Geriatrics to publish six continuing education courses to the APTA Learning Center. This union reflects the first in a series of planned partnerships with APTA sections and chapters to provide quality, evidenced-based continuing education and professional development to members and the profession…

Biogen Idec (NASDAQ: BIIB) and Facet Biotech Corporation (NASDAQ: FACT) today announced the publication of Phase 2 data showing that the addition of daclizumab to interferon beta (IFNand#946;) led to a significant reduction in the number of new or enlarged multiple sclerosis (MS) lesions when in comparison to IFNand#946; alone in patients with active relapsing forms of MS. The trial, called CHOICE, also showed that daclizumab led to an increase in a subset of the natural killer (NK) cells that help regulate the immune system. These data were published in Online First, the online edition of The Lancet Neurology, and would be reported in the recent issue of the Lancet Neurology…….

Diamonds and gold may make some hearts flutter on Valentine’s Day, but in a University at Buffalo laboratory, silver nanoparticles are being designed to do just the opposite. The nanoparticles are part of a new family of materials being created in the laboratory of SUNY Distinguished Professor and Greatbatch Professor of Advanced Power Sources Esther Takeuchi, PhD, who developed the lithium/silver vanadium oxide battery. The battery was a major factor in bringing implantable cardiac defibrillators (ICDs) into production in the late 1980s. ICDs shock the heart into a normal rhythm when it goes into fibrillation……..

Doctors at Rush University Medical Center are offering pediatric patients diagnosed with chronic illnesses acupuncture treatment to help ease the pain and negative side effects like nausea, fatigue, and vomiting caused by chronic health conditions and intensive therapys. The confluence of Chinese and Western medicine at Rush Children’s Hospital is part of a study to analyze and document how acupuncture might help in reducing pain in children and increase quality of life……..

Researchers have determined that a new instrument known as PIB-PET is effective in detecting deposits of amyloid-beta protein plaques in the brains of living people, and that these deposits are predictive of who will develop Alzheimer’s disease. The finding, the result of a survey of more than 100 studies involving the instrument, including those by the scientists, confirms the sensitivity of the tool, still not commercially available. In clinical practice, amyloid deposits are detected only on autopsy……..

A number of clinicians think that depression goes hand in hand with cognitive difficulties such as memory problems or difficulties concentrating and paying attention, but a recent review of nearly 20 years of literature conducted by scientists from UT Southwestern Medical Center has observed that depression does not always lead to such impairments……..

Racial gaps exist in women’s heart-health awareness, women’s knowledge of heart attack warning signs requires attention and nearly half of women report they would not call 9-1-1 if they were having heart attack symptoms, as per new research published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, a journal of the American Heart Association……..

Doctors at Eastern Virginia Medical School’s Strelitz Diabetes Center have been stalking the culprit responsible for Type 1 diabetes. Now, they are one step closer. Members of a research team at the center, led by Jerry Nadler, MD, professor and chair of internal medicine and director of the center, have been studying the role of the enzyme 12-Lipoxygenase (12-LO) in the development of Type 1 diabetes. They hope that targeting this enzyme will hold the key to a cure……..

Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States. Despite evidence and guidelines supporting the value of screening for this disease, rates of screening for colorectal cancer are consistently lower than those for other types of cancer, particularly breast and cervical. Although the screening rates in the target population of adults over age 50, have increased from 20-30 percent in 1997 to nearly 55 percent in 2008 the rates are still too low. An NIH state-of-the-science panel was convened this week to identify ways to further increase the use and quality of colorectal cancer screening in the United States……..

For years, researchers have warned of the possible negative health effects of bisphenol A, a chemical used to make everything from plastic water bottles and food packaging to sunglasses and CDs. Studies have linked BPA exposure to reproductive disorders, obesity, abnormal brain development as well as breast and prostate cancers, and in January the Food and Drug Administration announced that it was concerned about “the potential effects of BPA on the brain, behavior and prostate gland of fetuses, infants and young children”……..