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Cord Blood Awareness Month: Understanding Still Low, Despite Medical Advancements
Despite rapid advances using a child"s own cord blood stem cells in regenerative therapies to repair damaged tissue due to injury or disease, most pregnant women today don"t learn about the ability to save their newborn"s cord blood. According to research published in the Journal of Reproductive Medicine, 3 out of every 4 pregnant women consider themselves only "minimally informed." Buy arimidex to treat cancer.

Swine Flu: NIAID Set To Launch Clinical Trials To Test 2009 H1N1 Influenza Vaccine Candidates
Scientists in a network of medical research institutions across the United States are set to begin a series of clinical trials to gather critical data about influenza vaccines, including two candidate H1N1 flu vaccines. The research will be under the direction of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.

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Women Who Quit Smoking Early In Pregnancy Reduce Risks Of Preterm Birth, Stunted Fetal Growth
Pregnant women who quit smoking during the first trimester and women who never smoked during pregnancy have a similar risk of delivering preterm or very small infants, according to a study published in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology, Reuters reports. Premature delivery and stunted infant growth are the most well-documented side effects of smoking during pregnancy, and the risks increase for older women, according to study author Laura Polakowski of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and colleagues. For the study, the researchers analyzed 915,441 birth certificates for infants born in 2005 in 11 states that include information on whether the woman smoked during pregnancy.The study found that 10% of women who smoked for the entire pregnancy gave birth to "preterm but not too small for gestational age" infants, compared with 8% of women who quit during the first trimester. Fifteen percent of women who smoked the entire pregnancy gave birth to full-term infants who were small for their gestational age, while 2% gave birth to premature infants who were small for gestational age. Among women who quit smoking during the first trimester, these outcomes occurred 9% and 1% of the time, respectively.After adjusting for the women"s age, previous preterm births and other factors, the researchers found that women who quit smoking in the first trimester reduced their risk of giving birth to a preterm, normal-size infant by 31%. The risk of delivering a full-term, unusually small infant was cut by 55% and the risk for delivering a preterm, unusually small infant was reduced by 53%. The risks were also reduced for women who quit smoking during their second trimester, although less significantly. The researchers found that the risk reduction was particularly high for older women -- especially those older than age 40 -- who quit smoking during the first trimester. According to the study, the results indicate that the risk of delivering a preterm or small-for-gestational-age infant for pregnant women who quit smoking during the first trimester is "comparable to those who never smoke during pregnancy" (Reuters, 7/21).
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"Nature" And "Nurture" Variables Early Predictors Of AMD

Like many diseases, causes for age-related macular degeneration (AMD) can be categorized as either "nature" or "nurture". Researchers think these factors, when used in the proper model, can be strong predictors of the disease. AMD is the leading cause of vision loss in Americans 60 years of age and older. A study published in the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology"s peer-reviewed Investigative Ophthalmolgy & Visual Science ("Prediction Model for Prevalence and Incidence of Advanced Age-Related Macular Degeneration Based on Genetic, Demographic and Environmental Variables") shows that multiple genetic, ocular and environmental factors, including six genetic variants, age, smoking and body mass index heavily contribute to the incidence of AMD. Because all of these factors are related to AMD, they were combined and used to develop a predictive and possibly diagnostic model. "The determinants of the model can be assessed by completing a questionnaire and taking a blood test, and it is a tool which could be used to help guide prevention and treatments" said lead author and principal investigator, Johanna M. Seddon, MD, ScM, Professor of Ophthalmology at Tufts University School of Medicine and Director of the Ophthalmic Epidemiology and Genetics Service at Tufts Medical Center. "Such information may be also be useful for screening those at high risk of AMD due to a positive family history or having signs of early or intermediate disease even among those with normal vision," the study says. Over 1,400 individuals in the Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS) with an average follow-up time of 6.3 years were evaluated, and genetic specimens were genotyped in the collaborator"s lab in Boston. Both prevalence and development of advanced dry and wet AMD over the course of the study were included in the analyses. Researchers found all tested variables to be independently associated with AMD. The predictive power of the variables in the formula was very high, and the probability that the risk score based on the group of factors in that model for a progressor was higher than the corresponding risk score for a random non-progressor within the same 10 year age group was 83%. Their research also shows that although AMD has a strong genetic component, healthy behaviors can modify your genetic susceptibility. For example, among individuals with one genotype, the homozygous C3 risk genotype, the likelihood of progression to the advanced form of AMD increased from about three-fold for nonsmokers to nearly 10-fold for smokers. "Our algorithm could help with the selection of study participants for treatment trials and could one day enable doctors to choose the most efficacious treatment for individual patients," Dr. Seddon said. "It also gives any older person concerned about AMD, or any patient with early stages or a family history of AMD, even more incentive to avoid risk factors such as smoking and excessive weight." Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science is a peer-reviewed publication of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO). ARVO is the largest eye and vision research organization in the world. Members include more than 12,000 eye and vision researchers from 73 countries. The Association encourages and assists research, training, publication and dissemination of knowledge in vision and ophthalmology. Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology


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