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Canadian study demonstrates medical induction of labor increases risk of amniotic-fluid embollism

10-19-2006 · EurekAlert!

A Canadian population-based cohort study has revealed that medical induction of labor increases the risk of amniotic-fluid embolism. The study was led by Dr. Michael Kramer, Canadian Institutes of Health Research Senior Investigator from McGill University, and will be published in the Oct. 21 issue of the Lancet.

Keywords: canadian, study, demonstrates, medical, induction, labor, risk, amniotic-fluid, embollism, demonstrate, amniotic, fluid

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Canadian study demonstrates medical induction of labor increases risk of amniotic-fluid embolism
10-19-2006 · EurekAlert!
A Canadian population-based cohort study has revealed that medical induction of labor increases the risk of amniotic-fluid embolism. The study was led by Dr. Michael Kramer, Canadian Institutes of Health Research Senior Investigator from McGill University, and will be published in the Oct. 21 issue of the Lancet.
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Advance in understanding of blood pressure gene could lead to new treatments
02-04-2007 · EurekAlert!
Research by scientists at UCL (University College London) has clearly demonstrated for the first time the structure and function of a gene crucial to the regulation of blood pressure. The discovery could be important in the search for new treatments for illnesses such as heart disease, the UK's biggest killer. In a paper published online today in Nature Medicine, the team, led by Professor Patrick Vallance and Dr James Leiper, UCL Department of Medicine, reveal the role of the human gene dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase (DDAH), showing that loss of DDAH activity disrupts nitric oxide (NO) production. NO is critical in the regulation of blood pressure, nervous system functions and the immune system. The role of DDAH is to break down modified amino acids (Asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) and monomethyl arginine (L-NMMA)) that are produced by the body and have been shown to inhibit NO synthase. These molecules accumulate in various disease states including diabetes, renal failure and pulmonary and systemic hypertension, and their concentration in plasma (the fluid component of blood) is strongly predicative of cardiovascular disease and death. In a healthy human body, the majority of ADMA is eliminated through active metabolism by DDAH. Scientists have hypothesised that if DDAH function is impaired, NO production is reduced, and that this could be an important feature of increased cardiovascular risk. To examine this pathway in more detail, the researchers deleted the DDAH gene in mice. These mice went on to develop hypertension, or high blood pressure. They also designed specific inhibitors (small molecules) which bind to the active site of human DDAH. These small molecule inhibitors also induced hypertension in mice, confirming the importance of DDAH in the regulation of blood pressure. Dr Leiper, UCL Medicine, said: “These genetic and chemical approaches to disrupt DDAH showed remarkably consistent results, and provide compelling evidence that loss of DDAH function increases the concentration of ADMA and thereby disrupts vascular NO signalling. “There has been considerable scientific interest in this pathway and the role of ADMA as a novel risk factor, but so far there's been little evidence to support the idea that it's a cause of disease, rather than just a marker. Genes and their pathways are crucial to our understanding of cardiovascular disease and a better understanding of DDAH-1 could lead to important new treatments. “It could help us to establish if genetic variation predisposes certain people to these diseases, or whether environmental factors exert some of their effects through modulation of DDAH activity. “Our research also shows that this pathway could be harnessed therapeutically to limit production of NO in certain situations where too much nitric oxide is a bad thing; for example, hypotension and septic shock. These are some of the biggest problems in intensive care medicine and there is a huge unmet need for drug treatments.” The study, which was carried out at UCL's Rayne Institute, was funded by grants from the British Heart Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council. Professor Jeremy Pearson, Associate Medical Director of the British Heart Foundation, said: "The unexpected finding in the 1980s that a simple gas, nitric oxide (NO), is made by cells in the blood vessel wall and is a powerful control of blood vessel relaxation led to the award of the Nobel Prize in 1998 to its discoverers. "More recently, there has been increasing evidence that impairment of NO production is likely to be an important factor in the development of heart and circulatory disease, but the mechanisms responsible are not fully understood. "This study suggests for the first time that the loss of the activity of the enzyme DDAH-1 leads to reduced NO production and may cause heart and circulatory disease. These findings are likely to be important in the search for new ways to optimise the health of our blood vessels." ### Notes for Editors 1. For more information, please contact Ruth Metcalfe in the UCL Media Relations Office on tel: +44 (0)20 7679 9739, mobile: +44 (0)7990 675 947, out of hours: +44 (0)7917 271 364, e-mail: r.metcalfe@ucl.ac.uk2. 'Disruption of methylarginine metabolism impairs vascular homeostasis' is published in the February issue of the journal Nature Medicine. Advance online publication is embargoed to 18.00 GMT (13.00 US Eastern) Sunday 4 February 2007. Journalists can obtain copies of the paper by contacting the UCL Media Relations Office.3. The study was funded by the British Heart Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council. About UCL Founded in 1826, UCL was the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge, the first to admit students regardless of race, class, religion or gender, and the first to provide systematic teaching of law, architecture and medicine. In the government's most recent Research Assessment Exercise, 59 UCL departments achieved top ratings of 5* and 5, indicating research quality of international excellence. UCL is the fourth-ranked UK university in the 2006 league table of the top 500 world universities produced by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. UCL alumni include Mahatma Gandhi (Laws 1889, Indian political and spiritual leader); Jonathan Dimbleby (Philosophy 1969, writer and television presenter); Junichiro Koizumi (Economics 1969, Prime Minister of Japan); Lord Woolf (Laws 1954, Lord Chief Justice of England & Wales); Alexander Graham Bell (Phonetics 1860s, inventor of the telephone), and members of the band Coldplay.
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Divorce increases risk of Ritalin use
06-04-2007 · EurekAlert!
Divorce puts children at higher risk of Ritalin use compared to kids whose parents stay together, says new research by a University of Alberta sociologist, who cautions that this doesn't necessarily mean that divorce is harmful to a child. The study appears in this week's issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
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Chronic job strain doubles the risk of a second heart attack
10-09-2007 · EurekAlert!
People who experience chronic job strain after a first heart attack double their risk of suffering from a second one, reports a research team from Université Laval's Faculty of Medicine in the Oct. 10 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. This study is the first to clearly demonstrate the risks associated with job strain for workers who have been victim of a first heart attack.
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Scientists work to identify genes that contribute to early heart attack risk
11-29-2006 · EurekAlert!
Scientists at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and colleagues at four other medical centers have launched a $10 million multi-year study to identify genes that may contribute to early atherosclerosis.
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Overcrowded hospitals may risk adverse events on busiest days
04-23-2007 · EurekAlert!
Hospitals that operate at or over their capacity may be at increased risk of adverse events that injure patients, according to a study led by investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Woman's Hospital. The report in the May issue of the journal Medical Care suggests that efforts to meet two primary challenges facing hospitals today -- reducing costs and improving patient safety -- may work against each other.
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Study finds gene linked to aggressive prostate cancer
12-11-2007 · EurekAlert!
Results from two genome-wide association studies have identified a genetic variant of the DAB2IP gene that is associated with the risk of aggressive prostate cancer. Research teams from the Translational Genomics Research Institute, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, and Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions made the discovery jointly.
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High blood pressure pill cuts risk of Parkinson's disease
02-06-2008 · EurekAlert!
People taking a widely used group of drugs known as calcium channel blockers to treat high blood pressure also appear to be cutting their risk of Parkinson's disease, according to a study published in the Feb. 6, 2008, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
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Common parasitic infection leads to increased risk for HIV infection
01-25-2007 · EurekAlert!
A new study shows a significantly increased risk of HIV infection among women with a common sexually transmitted disease, trichomoniasis. Although studies have been undertaken in the past to show the link between sexually transmitted infections and susceptibility to HIV, the study published in the March 1 issue of the Journal of Infectious Diseases, now available online, is one of the first to demonstrate a statistically significant association between trichomoniasis and HIV infection.
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Clinical guidelines help identify which children at risk of bacterial meningitis
01-02-2007 · EurekAlert!
A set of guidelines have been developed that can help predict the risk of bacterial meningitis for children with cerebrospinal fluid pleocytosis (presence of greater number of white blood cells than normal), reducing unnecessary hospitalizations and antibiotics, according to a study in the Jan. 3 issue of JAMA.
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