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DISCOVERIES
Research Briefs
Test pattern
Getting an annual Pap smear to screen for
cervical cancer is a hard habit to break, even
if a woman's doctor advises otherwise, found
a DMS study. A Pap is recommended only
every two or three years for women over
30 who've had more than three normal
Paps, and no screening is advised for elderly
women. Of the 360 women aged 40
and older in the study, 75% wanted a Pap
at least annually and only 35% planned at
some point to stop getting the test. "The
strongest predictor of reluctance to reduce
the frequency of screening was a belief that
cost was the basis of current screening frequency
recommendations," wrote the authors
in the American Journal of Medicine.
Supplementary evidence
Vitamin E, the most popular supplement in
the U.S., isn't a cure-all and may even be
harmful in high doses, said a study in the January
4 Annals of Internal Medicine. In an accompanying
editorial, DMS epidemiologist
Robert Greenberg, M.D., questioned the
finding that Vitamin E may be harmful
but wrote, "I fully agree with the authors'
conclusion that high-dose vitamin E supplementation
is unjustified. . . . Our message
to the public must be clear on this point," he
added: "Vitamin E supplements won't help,
and might harm, so save your money."
Inflammatory matter
DMS researchers reported on a molecule that
seems to play a key role in diseases of the central
nervous system, such as multiple sclerosis
(MS), and inflammatory responses in general.
Pathologist William Hickey, M.D., and
others demonstrated the anti-inflammatory
effects of antisecretory factor
(ASF). Increased expression of ASF
may be "a means of counteracting
the pro-inflammatory environment and
limiting [the] tissue damage" associated with
MS and other inflammatory diseases of the
central nervous system, the authors wrote in
the Journal of Leukocyte Biology.
Brainstorm
A big brain-or, more accurately, a brain
with a lot of surface area-has long been associated
with higher-order cognitive ability.
Researchers at DMS and the University of
California discovered one of the genes responsible
for brain size. They found that
the gene Id4 regulates the timing,
number, and differentiation of cortical
neurons, the cells that make up
the cerebral cortex. "This study reveals
a crucial role for Id4 in cortical development
and identifies the molecular pathways over
which its effects are mediated, while suggesting
important new areas for future study,"
they wrote in the journal Development.
Nerve ending
The results are in from an eight-year study
on the safety and efficacy of vagus nerve
stimulation (VNS), a treatment for epilepsy
that can't be controlled with medication or
surgery. In the trial, conducted at
DHMC and a hospital in Belgium, 7%
of VNS patients were free of seizures
with impaired consciousness and 50%
had their seizure frequency halved.
There were no serious side effects, though 15
of 131 patients experienced hoarseness and
gagging. The verdict: "VNS proved to be efficacious
and safe," the authors wrote in the
Journal of Clinical Neurophysiology.
Breath of fresh air
A team of DMS pharmacologists has discovered
an enzyme that may help prevent lung
cancers, which kill more than 150,000 people
a year in the U.S. The enzyme, UBE1L,
seems to keep a particular protein, cyclin D1,
in check. Since cyclin D1 is often abundant
in lung cancers, the finding means
that UBE1L may be a good target for
chemopreventive strategies.
Smoking
cessation and prevention will ultimately
reduce the number of lung-cancer deaths,
the researchers wrote in Cancer Research, but
in the meantime, "there is a need to understand
better how to prevent lung cancers in
those [already] at high risk."
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Even doctors can misinterpret Latin abbreviations in medical records, research shows. DHMC is part of a national effort to use unambiguous terms like "daily" instead of "Q.D." (quaque die).
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How the brain's auditory cortex stores memories was the focus of a recent Dartmouth study. Published in Nature, it measured subjects' brain activity while they listened to familiar songs.
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A new model for studying a rare disorder caused by abnormal heme production, porphyria cutanea tarda, was reported by Dartmouth biochemist Peter Sinclair, Ph.D., in the journal Hepatology.
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