Health

The total package of good physical and mental health is elusive for most American adults, according to new research. Two-thirds of U.S. adults participating in a 1995 survey reported some degree of physical or mental infirmity that kept them from being completely healthy. The remaining third of the survey group was split into nearly equal percentages of completely healthy and completely unhealthy individuals, say the study’s authors.

A new study shows that two proteins are accurate predictors of heart attack or stroke in kidney dialysis patients. The research team found that high levels of C-reactive protein, a marker of inflammation, and low levels of albumin, a sign of malnutrition, had strong ties to heart disease in these patients, who are many times more likely to develop heart problems than the general population. “Both inflammation and malnutrition play an important role in the high risk of cardiovascular disease among dialysis patients,” says Josef Coresh, M.D., Ph.D., lead author of the study and associate professor of epidemiology, medicine and biostatistics at Hopkins. “Testing for these proteins will allow us to sooner identify patients at high risk, and to manage heart disease risk factors more effectively.”

A baby’s first look at the world is likely a dizzying array of shapes and motion that are meaningless to a newborn, but researchers at the University of Rochester say they have now shown that babies use relationships between objects to build an understanding of the world. By noting how often objects appear together, infants can efficiently take in more knowledge than if they were to simply see the same shapes individually, says the paper published in the current issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A survey has found that while 80 percent of attendees at a recent international biosecurity conference say their organizations — including first responder, medical, military and industrial outfits — have plans in place to counter bioterrorism, two-thirds doubt they would be safe in the event of a biological or chemical attack.

A discovery published in the current issue of The Lancet may lead to new treatments for a deadly liver disease of infancy — dramatically reducing the number of liver transplants in children. A team of researchers at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital have revealed a genetic underpinning to biliary atresia, the most common reason for liver transplant in children. Biliary atresia occurs in infants and usually becomes evident two to eight weeks after birth. Its cause has been unknown. Symptoms include unexplained jaundice, dark urine, clay-colored stools and weight loss. The disease destroys bile ducts in the liver, trapping bile, rapidly causing damage to liver cells and severe scarring.

A study involving almost 2,400 women has shown that a vaccine that prevents infection with one of the viruses linked to cervical cancer is generally safe and effective. In most of the world, cervical cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related death among women.

A novel approach to treating high-risk stroke patients who were poor candidates for traditional clot-busting therapy enabled one-third of patients in a prospective trial, all of whom otherwise would be expected to suffer severe deficits, to return to functional independence, neurosurgeons at the University at Buffalo report.