Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers have taken some initial steps toward the creation of bioengineered human hearts using donor hearts stripped of components that would generate an immune response and cardiac muscle cells generated from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which could come from a potential recipient. The investigators described their accomplishments - which include developing an automated bioreactor system capable of supporting a whole human heart during the recellularization process -- earlier this year in Circulation Research.

The introduction of screening colonoscopy in Germany is showing results: Within ten years of the start of this screening program for the early detection of colorectal cancer, the number of new cases has significantly dropped in the age groups 55 years and over. This is the conclusion drawn by Hermann Brenner, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg and co-authors in the current issue of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2016; 113: 101-6).

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- When it comes to display advertising -- especially online -- simpler can be better. That's the implication of new research from the University of Maryland and Tilburg University in The Netherlands.

 
One theory of advertising holds that display ads need a degree of nuance or visual complexity in order to capture the viewer's attention. But that fails to take into account the increasingly cluttered and hectic context in which ads are viewed today, according to Michel Wedel, distinguished university professor and PepsiCo Chair in Consumer Science at UMD's Robert H. Smith School of Business.

I wrote this soon after ExoMars's successful launch to Mars, 2015. Hurray! In the program about the mission, before and during the launch, the presenters talked about the care they take to sterilize the lander of microbes to protect Mars. And indeed, kudos to all the space faring countries, and the planetary protection officers, for doing this. But in the same program they talked about ideas to send humans to Mars, talking about all its benefits. For some reason it never seems to occur to anyone to ask if humans can be sterilized in the same way as robots. There is nothing unusual about this - it's the same for programs from NASA, or programs about Mars on UK television, and anywhere.

One in four seniors is bringing along stowaways from the hospital to their next stop: superbugs on their hands.

Moreover, seniors who go to a nursing home or other post-acute care facility will continue to acquire new superbugs during their stay, according to findings made by University of Michigan researchers published today in a JAMA Internal Medicine research letter.

The study focused on patients who have recently been admitted to the hospital for a medical or surgical issue and temporarily need extra medical care in a PAC facility before fully returning home. Older people often need extra time in a post-acute care facility for rehabilitation after common procedures such as hip and knee replacements.

DALLAS, March 14, 2016 -- Genetically inherited high levels of cholesterol are twice as common in the United States as previously believed, affecting 1 in 250 adults, according to new research in the American Heart Association's journal Circulation.

The condition, familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), leads to severely elevated cholesterol levels from birth and is a leading cause of early heart attack.

DURHAM, N.C. -- A new study from Duke Health suggests that patients who need to have their thyroid gland removed should seek surgeons who perform 25 or more thyroidectomies a year for the least risk of complications.

Thyroidectomy is one of the most common operations performed in the U.S, often due to cancer, over-activity, or enlargement of the gland, which is located at the base of the throat and produces hormones that regulate metabolism. But most consumers would be surprised to learn that about half (51 percent) of surgeons who perform thyroidectomy do so just once a year, according to the study published in the Annals of Surgery.

Brides and the bereaved beware: You, like many shoppers, may have a tendency to reject thriftiness when your purchase is a matter of the heart, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado Boulder.

People are reluctant to seek cost-saving options when buying what they consider sacred -- such as engagement rings, cremation urns, or even desserts for a birthday party -- for or to commemorate loved ones. The paper, published in the most recent volume of Judgment and Decision Making, is the first to examine the implications of this phenomenon.

Smokers who try to cut down the amount they smoke before stopping are less likely to quit than those who choose to quit all in one go, Oxford University researchers have found. Their study is published in journal Annals of Internal Medicine.

Most experts say that people should give up in one go, but most people who smoke seem to try to stop by gradually reducing the amount they smoke before stopping. This research helps to answer the questions 'Which approach is better?', and 'Are both as likely to help people quit in the short and long term?'.

PASADENA, Calif., March 14, 2016 -- Surgical patients who received the flu vaccine during their hospital stay did not have an increased risk of emergency department visits or subsequent hospitalizations in the week following discharge, compared with surgical patients who did not receive the vaccine. The new study from Kaiser Permanente, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, also found that compared with unvaccinated surgical patients, vaccinated surgical patients did not have an increased risk of fever nor did they have an increased number of laboratory tests checking for infection.