A multinational study has identified a key gene mutation responsible for type 2 diabetes in nearly 10 percent of patients of white European ancestry.
The study, which originated in Italy and was validated at UCSF, found that defects in the HMGA1 g…
Asthma may have a surprising relationship with the composition of the species of bacteria that inhabit bronchial airways, a finding that could suggest new treatment or even potential cures for the common inflammatory disease, according to a new UCSF…
Scientists are reporting the first direct evidence that a subtle change in the physical properties of a tissue can affect its function. The finding has immediate implications for understanding several rare hearing disorders, they said, and ultimatel…
Patients who cannot discuss their diabetes with a doctor in their own language may have poorer health outcomes, even when interpreter services are available, according to a new study by researchers at UCSF and the Kaiser Permanente Division of Resea…
Smoking costs in California are nearly $16 billion annually, or $ 3,331 per smoker every year, according to a report by the UCSF School of Nursing Institute for Health & Aging. The healthcare costs alone would equal one-quarter of the projected state deficit, according to Wendy Max, PhD, co-director of the Institute for Health & Aging and UCSF professor of health economics. “Our study shows that even though tobacco control efforts in California are among the most successful in the nation, the cost of smoking in the state continues to increase,” said Max. “These numbers should be a wake-up call that we need to continue our efforts to reduce the health care costs, lives lost, and pain and suffering caused by smoking.”
Only 58 percent of patient care physicians in California are accepting new patients with HMO coverage, and the “California Model” of loose networks of private practice physicians organized into large managed care practice organizations is unraveling, according to University of California research. “California led the nation’s charge into managed care. Our study of the state’s physicians tells us that California has now sounded the retreat,” said Kevin Grumbach, MD, director of the Center for California Health Workforce Studies. “Private physicians are starting to abandon HMOs, IPAs and managed care networks.”
Another menopausal myth is challenged: Women with existing coronary disease do not realize improvement in their cognitive function as a result of taking the most common form of hormone replacement therapy, a UCSF study has found. Investigators followed more than 1000 women from ten US test sites for four years. Half took a placebo; the other half took hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Although other, smaller studies have shown an improvement, in the UCSF study the women who received HRT performed no better on standard tests of cognitive function than those who received placebo.
Pre-cells destined to become fat can be converted instead into true bone cells in
response to outside signals, say researchers at the University of California, San Francisco. The finding could pave the way for scientists to replenish lost bone cells in patients with conditions like osteoporosis, and to help repair bone defects. The new bone cells have all the hallmarks associated with mature bone formation, including production of bone proteins and calcification, the UCSF team says.