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More Progress Still To Be Made On Mental Health
Commenting on the final biennial report from the Mental Health Act Commission released by the Care Quality Commission, Mental Health Network director Steve Shrubb said:
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UC Davis Researchers Develop New Test For Fragile X Syndrome
Researchers at UC Davis have developed a new test that will measure the protein deficit responsible for fragile X syndrome - the single-most common cause of intellectual impairment and the most-commonly inherited cause of autism. The test, described in a study appearing online in the July 2009 issue of The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics, is the first to measure an individual"s level of the fragile X mental retardation 1 (FMR1) protein.
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Discovery Of Molecule That Regulates Heart Size By Using Zebrafish Screening Model
Using zebrafish, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have identified and described an enzyme inhibitor that allows them to increase the number of cardiac progenitor cells and therefore influence the size of the developing heart. The findings are described in the advance online version of Nature Chemical Biology.
Cardiovascular

Association Between Blood Transfusions And Infection

A study of almost 25,000 coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) patients has shown that receiving blood from another person is associated with a two-fold increase in post-operative infection rates. The research, published in the open access journal BMC Medicine, also found considerable hospital variation in transfusion practices. Mary Rogers, from the University of Michigan, USA, led a team of researchers who carried out the study. She said, "Clearly, blood transfusions are vital in the treatment of some conditions, such as life-threatening bleeding. However, over the past several decades a body of evidence has accumulated that indicates various adverse effects in patients who receive transfusions, particularly with exposure to allogeneic blood". The researchers sought to assess hospital variation in blood use and outcomes in cardiac surgery patients, to see if unnecessary blood transfusions may be putting the safety of some patients at risk. Overall, 30% of the variation in transfusion practices was found to be attributable to the hospital where the CABG was performed. According to Rogers, "The safety of patients undergoing CABG will likely be improved if hospitals carefully review current guidelines on allogeneic blood transfusion, closely adhere to such guidelines, and institute interventions to reduce inappropriate use of blood transfusions in recipients of CABG". Notes: Hospital variation in transfusion and infection after cardiac surgery: a cohort study Mary A. M. Rogers, Neil Blumberg, Sanjay Saint, Kenneth M. Langa and Brahmajee K. Nallamothu BMC Medicine (in press) http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcmed/ Graeme Baldwin BioMed Central


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