Monthly Archives: March 2012

Stem cell, heart heath study

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HOUSTON -

Doctors from the Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital have found that patients with heart failure may be able to repair the damaged areas of the heart with stem cells from the patient's own bone marrow.

Doctors presented the findings at the American College of Cardiologys 61st Annual Scientific Session Saturday.

The results are from a multi-center clinical study that measured the possible benefits of using a patients own bone marrow cells to repair damaged areas of the heart suffering from severe heart failure, a condition that affects millions of Americans.

The study, which was the largest such investigation to date, found that the hearts of the patients receiving bone marrow derived stem cells showed a small but significant increase in the ability to pump oxygenated blood from the left ventricle, the hearts main pumping chamber, to the body.

The expectation is that the study will pave the way for potential new treatment options and will be important to designing and evaluating future clinical trials.

This is exactly the kind of information we need to move forward with the clinical use of stem cell therapy, said Emerson Perin, MD, PhD, Director of Clinical Research for Cardiovascular Medicine at THI, and one of the studys lead investigators.

The bone-marrow derived stem cells are helpful to the injured heart when they are themselves biologically active, added Dr. James T. Willerson, the studys principal investigator and President and Medical Director of THI.

This study moves us one step closer to being able to help patients with severe heart failure who have no other alternatives.

The study was conducted by the Cardiovascular Cell Therapy Research Network, the national consortium to conduct such research funded by the National Institutes of Healths National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

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Stem cell, heart heath study

Stem cell treatment could repair heart damage

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CHICAGO - Patients with advanced heart disease who received an experimental stem cell therapy showed slightly improved heart function, researchers said at a major U.S. cardiology conference on Saturday.

The clinical trial involved 92 patients, with an average age of 63, who were picked at random to get either a placebo or a series of injections of their own stem cells, taken from their bone marrow, into damaged areas of their hearts.

The patients all had chronic heart disease, along with either heart failure or angina, and their left ventricles were pumping at less than 45 per cent of capacity.

All the participants in the study were ineligible for revascularization surgery, such as coronary bypass to restore blood flow, because their heart disease was so advanced.

Those who received the stem cell therapy saw a small but significant boost in the heart's ability to pump blood, measuring the increase from the heart's main pumping chamber at 2.7 per cent more than placebo patients.

Study authors described the trial as the largest to date to examine stem cell therapy as a route to repairing the heart in patients with chronic ischemic heart disease and left ventricular dysfunction.

"This is the kind of information we need in order to move forward with the clinical use of stem cell therapy," said lead investigator Emerson Perin, director of clinical research for cardiovascular medicine at the Texas Heart Institute.

Perin's research, which was conducted between 2009 and 2011 across five U.S sites, was presented at the annual American College of Cardiology Conference in Chicago.

The technique involved taking bone marrow samples from the patients and processing the marrow to extract stem cells. Doctors then injected the cells via catheter into the heart's left ventricle.

The injections, comprising some 100 million stem cells in all, were specifically targeted at damaged areas, identified by real-time electromechanical mapping of the heart.

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Stem cell treatment could repair heart damage

Mr. Universe from 1952 shares keys to longevity

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In this Friday, March 16, 2012 photo, Indian body builder Manohar Aich flexes his muscles as he poses for a photograph in a gymnasium in Kolkata, India. Aich, who is only 4 foot 11 inches (150 centimeters) tall, won the Mr. Universe title in London way back in 1952. Happiness and a life without tensions are the key to his longevity, said Aich, who turned 100 on March 17. (AP Photo/Bikas Das)

Mr. Universe from 1952 shares keys to longevity

Bodybuilding Centenarian endorses simple diet, lifestyle.

Kolkata, India A former Mr. Universe who has just turned 100 said Sunday that happiness and a life without tensions are the key to his longevity.

Manohar Aich, who is 4 feet 11 inches tall, overcame many hurdles, including grinding poverty and a stint in prison, to achieve bodybuilding glory.

His children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren gathered last Sunday in the eastern city of Kolkata to celebrate his birthday the day before.

Hindu priests chanted prayers while a feast was laid out to honor Aich, winner of the 1952 Mr. Universe bodybuilding title.

Rippling his muscles and flashing a toothless grin, Aich says his ability to take his troubles lightly and remain happy during difficult times are the secrets to his long life.

That, and a simple diet of milk, fruits and vegetables along with rice, lentils and fish have kept him healthy.

He does not smoke and has never touched alcohol, he said.

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Mr. Universe from 1952 shares keys to longevity

RFA sophomore wins regional science fair

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Mary Ann Bulawa, a sophomore at Rome Free Academy, took top honors at Utica Colleges 34th annual Regional Science Fair Saturday.

Her project, Optimizing Algae Growth, garnered the senior level grand prize, which includes two years of half tuition at Utica College, along with an all-expense paid trip to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Pittsburgh in May.

The senior level runner-up was Grace Atik from Clinton, a ninth-grade student, for her project, We Didnt Start the Fire. She will be eligible for a one-year, half-tuition scholarship at Utica College.

Taking top honors in the junior level were Neila Rekic and Katelyn Zaleski, eighth-grade students from John F. Kennedy Middle School in Utica, for their project, The Electrolyte Challenge.

Local students in grades 7 through 12 from Oneida and Chenango counties presented their research and experiments in categories ranging from behavioral and computer science to microbiology and engineering.

Schools participating this year were: Clinton, Donovan Middle School, John F. Kennedy Middle School, New Hartford, Perry Junior High, Poland, Rome Catholic, Rome Free Academy, Strough Junior High, Proctor and Whitesboro.

Entrants competed in either the senior level (grades 9-12) or junior level (grades 7-8) for cash prizes, tuition scholarships, and select special prizes awarded by organizations such as the American Meteorological Association, Intel, the U.S. Army and many others.

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RFA sophomore wins regional science fair

Editorial: Medical education expansion needs buy-in – Sun, 25 Mar 2012 PST

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March 25, 2012 in Opinion

A week ago Friday was match day for the first class of students to complete their studies at the WWAMI medical school program inSpokane.

Six of the 20 matched with Spokane-area residencies, the most ever for the University of Washington School of Medicine, which administers the Spokane program in conjunction with Washington State University. Odds are, those doctors will remain in Eastern Washington, where they will help remedy an ongoingshortage.

If so, the potential that Spokane-trained doctors would remain in the region will have been realized, as it has been hundreds of times since WWAMI was established 40 years ago to educate and retain more doctors in the participating states: Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana andIdaho.

About 4,600 doctors in five states, including 400 in Spokane, help train WWAMI students. That multistate distribution of students into every corner of the region has been one of the programs uniquecharacteristics.

Students on the UW/WSU Riverpoint Campus still transfer to Seattle for their second year of training, but a pilot program to be launched in 2013 will allow them to stay in Spokane and root themselves more firmly in the InlandNorthwest.

Spokane businesses, individuals and foundations are raising $2.3million to sustain the pilot for two years, with the expectation its success will convince legislators to provide the money in the future. The community, which pushed doggedly to get a medical school here, is putting its money where its maxillais.

WWAMI is abargain.

The average cost of medical education in the United States is $105,000 per year, per student. WWAMI does the job for $65,000, yet is consistently named best program for educating rural doctors and familypractitioners.

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Editorial: Medical education expansion needs buy-in - Sun, 25 Mar 2012 PST

Atrium Medical Announces Positive Results of INFUSE-AMI Clinical Trial During the American College of Cardiology's …

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HUDSON, N.H., March 25, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Atrium Medical Corporation, a business unit of MAQUET Cardiovascular, today announced the results of the INFUSE-AMI study (Intracoronary Abciximab Infusion and Aspiration Thrombectomy in Patients Undergoing Percutaneous Coronary Intervention for Anterior ST Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction (MI)), a multi-center, multi-national clinical trial conducted to determine the optimal treatment strategy for patients with an acute anterior wall myocardial infarction (acute MI or heart attack) with ST segment elevation, commonly referred to as a STEMI. The study findings demonstrated that in patients with large anterior STEMI presenting early after symptom onset and undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), intracoronary administration of the platelet inhibitor abciximab delivered directly to the heart attack lesion site via Atrium's ClearWay RX Local Therapeutic Infusion Catheter significantly reduced the size of the MI at 30 days (primary endpoint). The data were presented today in a late-breaking session at the American College of Cardiology's (ACC) 61st Annual Scientific Session in Chicago and published online in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

"In patients who have suffered a heart attack, recovery of the heart muscle is often suboptimal despite restoration of blood flow. INFUSE-AMI was uniquely designed to be able to demonstrate whether therapies are able to reduce infarct size in patients with large heart attacks, those with the greatest clinical need," said Dr. Gregg W. Stone, principal investigator of INFUSE-AMI and professor of medicine and director of cardiovascular research and education at New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University Medical Center. "In these patients, the platelet inhibitor abciximab delivered to the infarct lesion site via the ClearWay RX Infusion Catheter resulted in a significant reduction in infarct size at 30 days. However, manual aspiration of the blood clot did not reduce infarct size."

INFUSE-AMI Study Design and Results

The INFUSE-AMI trial, a prospective, randomized, single-blind trial conducted at 37 clinical sites in the U.S. and five European countries enrolled 452 patients who presented within four hours of a STEMI involving the anterior wall of the heart. Study subjects were randomized to one of four study arms, which assessed four different ways to treat the thrombus (blood clot) causing the patient's heart attack:

The goal of the trial was to help identify which treatment strategy could provide better patient outcomes with the goal of reducing the infarct size (heart muscle damage) during a heart attack and restoring flow in the infarct related artery and microvasculature in the heart muscle without an increase in major and minor bleeding. Study endpoints included impact on infarct size at 30 days as measured by cardiac MRI, ST segment resolution, myocardial perfusion, impact on thrombus burden, and outcomes on bleeding.

Results showed that patients randomized to local therapeutic infusion of intracoronary abciximab with ClearWay RX compared to no abciximab had a significant reduction in 30-day infarct size (15.6 percent relative reduction). Patients randomized to local infusion of intracoronary abciximab also demonstrated a significant reduction in absolute infarct mass (22.1 percent relative reduction). In contrast, manual aspiration thrombectomy did not significantly reduce infarct size. No significant differences in any of the major safety or efficacy endpoints were present between the randomized groups at 30 days. Post hoc analysis revealed median infarct size was lowest in the intracoronary abciximab plus aspiration group compared with the other groups.

The INFUSE-AMI trial was led by the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF) in New York. Dr. Stone was the principal investigator and Dr. C. Michael Gibson, chief of clinical research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School in Boston, served as co-principal investigator. It was sponsored and funded by Atrium Medical Corporation, Medtronic and The Medicines Company.

About the Atrium ClearWay RX Local Therapeutic Infusion Catheter

The ClearWay RX Local Therapeutic Infusion Catheter is an extraordinarily thin, microporous PTFE balloon mounted on a .014" rapid exchange catheter. The ClearWay RX catheter provides super selective, local intracoronary infusion of medication, allowing more medication to act locally at a higher concentration and for a longer period of time to enhance its therapeutic effect on the occluding blood clot and diseased artery. The balloon controllably engages the vessel wall to gently and atraumatically occlude blood flow during infusion thus providing drug concentrations hundreds of times greater at the site of local delivery than traditional systemic drug administration. ClearWay RX maximizes drug availability, concentration, and residence time to greatly enhance the desired therapeutic effect. ClearWay RX is available in 1.0 to 4.0 mm balloon diameters and in balloon lengths ranging from 10 to 50 mm.

About Atrium Medical Corporation

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Harvard Medical School Adviser: Restless leg syndrome

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QUESTION: After years of struggling to fall asleep at night, my doctor diagnosed me with restless legs syndrome. What can you tell me about this condition?

ANSWER: Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a disorder of nerves and muscles that causes an irresistible urge to move the legs. It is often accompanied by an uncomfortable creepy-crawly sensation.

As you've experienced, symptoms of restless legs syndrome typically flare up at night, just as you're settling down in bed. RLS not only causes discomfort and distress, it can wreak havoc on sleep, causing daytime sleepiness and mood changes.

Fortunately, certain lifestyle strategies can help you manage it, and several medications can provide relief for more serious symptoms.

There's a common mistaken belief that RLS refers to the jittery, leg-bouncing movements some people make when they're anxious or overstimulated.

People with RLS describe the discomfort as feelings of prickling, pulling, itching, tugging or stretching that typically occur below the knees and are felt deep within the legs. In severe cases, the arms are affected as well.

Movement provides immediate relief, so people with the condition often fidget, kick or massage their legs, or get up to pace the floor or perform deep knee bends.

Primary RLS, the most common form of the disorder, has no known cause. But more than 40% of people with primary RLS have a family history of the condition. This suggests an underlying genetic component. Researchers found five gene variants that predict a greater likelihood of RLS.

One theory is that primary RLS arises from an imbalance of dopamine, a neurotransmitter with many roles in the body, including the regulation of muscle movement. Some of the medications used to treat RLS work by mimicking the action of dopamine in the brain.

RLS can also develop as a byproduct of other medical problems. One of the chief culprits in this secondary form of the disorder is iron deficiency, which may explain why the condition is more common in women, who are more prone to low iron levels. This is mainly due to blood loss during menstruation. Pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding deplete iron stores, too.

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Harvard Medical School Adviser: Restless leg syndrome

Is Stress Increasing Our Risk for Depression, Fatigue, Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease?

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Respected stress expert James L. Wilson DC, ND, PhD is invited by the Australasian Academy of Anti-Ageing Medicine to present medical lecture to Australian physicians with new solutions for stress-related depression, adrenal fatigue, and metabolic syndrome

(PRWEB) March 24, 2012

Depression, adrenal fatigue and metabolic syndrome can arise as stress maladaptations and are intimately related, yet are often slow to be recognized, if at all, by conventional medicine. U.S. physician James L. Wilson will present a new series of thought-provoking medical lectures to help Australian medical clinicians diagnose and treat stress-induced depression, adrenal fatigue and metabolic syndrome with increased efficacy.

Dr. Wilson will instruct Australian physicians to identify, differentiate and treat disruptions of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, adrenal dysfunction and imbalances in cortisol, one of the primary hormones secreted by the adrenals under stress.

Dysregulation of the HPA axis is one of the most common findings in patients with major depression and can disrupt optimal physiological and metabolic balance over time, as well as lower stress tolerance. Health problems that result are largely related to the levels of cortisol being produced by the adrenal glands. Cortisol levels affect the expression of neurotransmitters, including dopamine and serotonin imbalances of which are associated with depression.

Cortisol has a profound effect on every organ and system in the body. Both low and high cortisol can negatively affect sleep, libido, concentration, blood sugar metabolism, energy and immune function, among others. Dr. Wilson coined the phrase, The Cortisol Tightrope Walk to illustrate how this hormone affects health at both ends of its expression.

Chronically high levels of cortisol and glucose can lead to metabolic syndrome a symptom complex including high blood sugar, insulin resistance, excess belly fat, elevated cholesterol and triglycerides, high blood pressure, and inflammation. Metabolic syndrome is a predisposing factor in heart disease and diabetes. Ischemic heart disease is the leading cause of death in Australia; diabetes is the fastest growing chronic disease and sixth leading cause of death in Australia according to Diabetes Australia. Eroding health ailments such as these prompted the request for Dr. Wilson lecture to Australian doctors on diagnosing and treating stress related health conditions.

With adrenal fatigue at the other end of the spectrum, suboptimal output of cortisol and other adrenal hormones can exacerbate pre-existing health conditions such as hypoglycemia, hypothyroidism, allergies, asthma and autoimmune disorders. Inflammatory conditions, PMS and menopausal symptoms can also worsen. Stamina, immunity and libido all decline with adrenal fatigue.

The symptoms of stress today are too often treated as the end point rather than indicators of another cause of imbalance in the patient, said Dr. Wilson, an expert on stress and endocrine imbalances and their impact on health, and author of Adrenal Fatigue: The 21st Century Stress Syndrome. The traditional medical model of treating the presenting symptom with prescription medications, rather than with a more comprehensive assessment of the whole person, is not sufficient [for] stress-related disorders said Dr. Wilson. Adrenal fatigue can be the source of many of the most common symptoms of todays stress-related disorders, yet doctors frequently fail to recognize it because they lack the information necessary for its diagnosis and treatment, reported Dr. Wilson.

By the request of the Australasian Academy of Anti-Ageing Medicine (A5M), the leading organization advancing longevity science and promoting non-traditional approaches in Australian healthcare, Dr. Wilson will lecture at their conference, A Delicate Symphony: The Interrelationship between Adrenal Fatigue, Depression and Metabolic Syndrome, that is being held in Brisbane and Melbourne, Australia, March 23-25, 2012.

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Is Stress Increasing Our Risk for Depression, Fatigue, Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease?

Dutch man seeks child with father's sperm

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London, March 24 (IANS) A childless man in the Netherlands has turned to his father for his sperm after having failed to conceive with his wife despite three years of their marriage.

The couple has found a clinic which will honour their unusual request, the Daily Mail reported.

According to researchers in the journal Human Reproduction, while such arrangements have potential advantages over using donations from strangers, they do bring their own set of complications, such as confusion over the child's actual parent.

In this case, the child produced from this union of egg and sperm will have a "father" who is his biological half-brother and a "grandfather" who is his biological father.

There are varying views on the issue. But most experts agree so-called intra-familial assisted reproduction should not necessarily be banned.

"I don't know that laws should encompass forbidding intra-familial donation," said Adrienne Asch, director of the Centre for Ethics at Yeshiva University in New York City.

But couples who request it "should be very carefully counselled about the psychological pitfalls that could await them", said Asch.

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Cell therapy using patient’s own bone marrow may present option for heart disease

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Public release date: 24-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Kristin Wincek kwincek@mhif.org 612-863-0249 Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation

CHICAGO Cell therapy may present an option for patients with ischemic heart disease to use their own bone marrow cells to repair the damaged areas of their hearts, and may pave the way for future treatment options, according to the FOCUS trial, which will be presented as a late-breaking clinical trial March 24 at the 61st annual American College of Cardiology (ACC) scientific session.

This is the largest study to date to look at stem cell therapy, using a patient's own stem cells, to repair damaged areas of the heart in patients with chronic ischemic heart disease and left ventricular dysfunction. Researchers found that left ventricular ejection fraction (the percentage of blood leaving the heart's main pumping chamber) increased by a small but significant amount (2.7 percent) in patients who received stem cell therapy. The study also revealed that the improvement in ejection fraction correlated with the number of progenitor cells (CD34+ and CD133+) in the bone marrow; and this information will help in evaluating and designing future therapies and trials.

"FOCUS is an incredibly important trial, as it has informed the cell therapy community how to better treat this high-risk patient population, and allows us to enter into an exciting, next generation of stem cell therapy armed with more data," said study investigator Timothy D. Henry, MD, an interventional cardiologist at the Minneapolis Heart Institute (MHI) at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis and director of research with the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation.

This multicenter study was conducted by the Cardiovascular Cell Therapy Research Network (CCTRN), which is supported through a research grant from the National Institutes of Health's National, Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), with the goal to evaluate novel stem cell-based treatment strategies for individuals with cardiovascular disease.

FOCUS will be presented at ACC.12 by its lead investigator Emerson C. Perin, MD, PhD, director of clinical research for cardiovascular medicine at the Texas Heart Institute, one of the five sites in the CCTRN. The Minneapolis Heart Institute is another site of the five in the network, and a large number of CCTRN patients were enrolled in Minnesota.

For this study, which took place between April 2009 and April 2011, the five sites randomly selected 92 patients to receive stem cell treatment or placebo. The symptomatic patients, with an average age 63, all had chronic ischemic heart disease and an ejection fraction of less than 45 percent (baseline 34 percent) along with heart failure and/or angina and were no longer candidates for revascularization. "These patients had no other options, as medical management failed to improve their symptoms," explained the study's co-investigator Jay Traverse, MD, an interventionalist cardiologist at the Minneapolis Heart Institute at Abbott Northwestern Hospital and physician researcher with the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation.

Bone marrow was aspirated from the patients and processed to obtain just the mononuclear fraction of the marrow. In patients randomly selected to receive stem cell therapy, physicians inserted a catheter into the heart's left ventricle to inject 100 million stem cells in more than 15 sites that showed damage on the electromechanical mapping image of the heart.

"Studies such as these are able to be completed much faster because of the team approach of the network" said Sonia I. Skarlatos, PhD, NHBLI's deputy director of the division of cardiovascular sciences and program director of CCTRN.

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Tentative county fire pact calls for 2-year pay freeze, end to longevity bonus

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By Joe Schoenmann (contact)

Friday, March 23, 2012 | 4:04 p.m.

Future hires by the Clark County Fire Department will not be eligible for longevity pay, an incentive used to keep employees from leaving their job for other opportunities.

In addition, a contract worked out between the firefighters union and Clark County management calls for a wage freeze for the next two years. The contract must be ratified by the Clark County Commission before it can take effect.

The three-year contract, which will run from July 1 through June 2015, allows the salary schedule to be opened for negotiation in the third year.

County administrators estimate the longevity concession will save $60 million over the next 25 years.

"The local 1908 has come to the table and demonstrated a sincere willingness to address the short- and long-term financial issues the county faces, Assistant County Manager Ed Finger said. There have been some past challenges, but their assistance and partnership is real and deserves recognition."

The quick contract resolution marks a change from two years ago, when negotiations stalled until an independent arbitrator was called in to decide on a contract. Both county administrators and firefighters are looking ahead to 2014, when voters will be allowed to decide if they want to extend a 5.27 cent property tax, per $100, that helps the Fire Department pay capital and operational expenses.

The County Commission will consider the agreement on the April 17 agenda.

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Tentative county fire pact calls for 2-year pay freeze, end to longevity bonus

Understanding biology of the largemouth is key to catching them

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A professor holds plastic bait next to an aquarium containing largemouth bass. ( MCT file photo )

After a frustrating day on the water, many fishermen return to the dock and make the bass out to be the Ph.D of the fish world.

But here's some news for you: The largemouth isn't nearly as smart as it might seem.

"Some fishermen give the bass far too much credit," said Keith Jones, who is in charge of research at the Berkley Fish Research Station in Iowa. "The bass doesn't have the ability to reason. As soon as it hatches, it is genetically pre programmed to follow certain behavior.

"It relies on its senses to guide its actions. Its vision, hearing, sense of smell and taste . . . . that all plays a part. It's a sensory machine, and the sooner we as fishermen learn how those senses guide the bass's behavior, the more fish we will catch."

When it's time to feed, that sensory machine is fully operational.

The bass relies on its vision as its No. 1 asset. It has eyes that are specially adapted for underwater use, allowing for a wide range of vision. Jones said the bass has a maximum viewing distance of about 50 feet. But it has small binocular fields for close-up viewing to scrutinize its prey.

"We have seen many times in our research where a bass will rush across a tank at something, then stop to study it, then it will veer off," said Jones, who wrote the book

Whatever the case, the bass' s eyesight isn't nearly as sharp as a human's.

"The sharpness of their vision is only 10 percent of ours," Jones said. "When they look at an object, they don't see nearly the detail we do." That's why bass often rely on their unique hearing system to help. They have a lateral line that runs across the body to pick up vibrations.

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Understanding biology of the largemouth is key to catching them

Prevalence of migraine by Dr.Vivek Kumar DM (Neurology) – Video

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23-03-2012 09:46 This patient educational video is brought to you by Dr.Vivek Kumar MD DM (Neurology) Sr.Consultant Neurologist, Metro Multispeciality Hospital, Noida. The presentation is based on the clinical experience and the evidences available. Note : Please Consult you doctor before following anything given or spoken in this patient education video.

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Braun: UMDNJ's debt looms over proposed Rutgers takeover

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Gov. Chris Christies determined and sometimes angry push to remake New Jersey higher education has collided with financial realities that include Rutgers Universitys reluctance to take over nearly a half-billion in debt incurred by the states medical school.

Bruce Fehn, Rutgers chief financial officer, said the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey owes $450 million to bond holders for loans used to build campus facilities. If, as Christie has demanded, Rutgers immediately takes over the medical school and other facilities in Central Jersey, the university could be on the hook for the money.

Worse, the university must deal with conditions, or "covenants," in the loans that could trigger an acceleration repayment clause if UMDNJ loses 15 percent of its assets assets it would lose by transferring them to Rutgers. The long-term loans could become due and payable immediately.

"There has been no analysis of this problem by the state," Fehn said in a meeting of the universitys trustee board on Thursday. Many of the members angrily criticized the Christie plan including one financial expert who compared dealing with the governors office to working with "fourth-graders.

Fehn added that UMDNJs assets were "highly leveraged" so, while it may appear Rutgers was getting more than $400 million in assets, only $50 million was free of debt.

Under the Christie plan, Rutgers would take over UMDNJ facilities in New Brunswick and Piscataway but would lose the Rutgers-Camden campus, with its law and business schools, to Rowan University, a former state teachers college in Glassboro.

Fehn said he was not receiving adequate information from the state to make any judgment about the financial consequences of trying to take over the medical school, especially within the three months demanded by Christie.

The universitys senior vice president for finance and administration also said the university itself doesnt have staff and expertise to make the judgments necessary to assure the trustees they can carry out their "fiduciary" responsibilities. It hired Cain Brothers, an investment firm, to assist the university.

Michael Drewniak, Christies spokesman, issued this statement:

"Rutgers and UMDNJ have both hired independent financial consultants and attorneys to look at the issue, and those experts, along with the Governors Office, have been working collaboratively to ensure that post-integration, debt is appropriately apportioned between UMDNJ and Rutgers and that UMDNJ is stronger financially than it was prior to the higher education restructuring."

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Braun: UMDNJ's debt looms over proposed Rutgers takeover

Mayo Clinic's focus on integration on display at Mall of America

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Mayo Clinic is expecting a huge turnout this weekend at the Mall of America.

Clinic staff plan a variety of alternative-medicine offerings today, some of which will be free.

Dr. Brent Bauer, Mayo Clinic Complementary and Integrative Medicine Program director, said it's an effort to learn what the public wants at the mall.

"There seems to be quite a bit of demand there," he said. "It's a nice place to kind of test, and push a little bit, the idea of how do we promote wellness."

Mayo has two storefronts at the mall, one a prototype retail store near the main-floor rotunda, next to the Build-a-Bear Workshop. The other, similar to a doctor's office, is kitty corner from the first.

The clinical site now includes integrative medicine, which is sometimes called alternative or complementary medicine. Acupuncture, massage therapy and counseling about supplements are included.

Mayo officials have divulged few details about plans for the mall site.Sports Medicine, Cardiology, Women's Health and Integrative Medicine also provide service at the mall.

"Everything we're offering there now, we already offer here on campus," Bauer said from Mayo in Rochester.But Mayo plans to branch out to services such as reiki, a Japanese technique of improving patients' energy through hand placement.

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine says reiki is safe, though research into its effectiveness is ongoing.Patients should "not use reiki as a replacement for proven conventional care or to postpone seeing a doctor," the center says.

"We already know how to treat disease very well here," Bauer said. "How do we shift a little bit and also promote wellness equally as well as we treat disease?"

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Mayo Clinic's focus on integration on display at Mall of America

Stud up or sit down?

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ALLAN MAKI AND SEAN GORDON From Saturday's Globe and Mail Published Friday, Mar. 23, 2012 11:56PM EDT Last updated Saturday, Mar. 24, 2012 12:50AM EDT

It is a delicate balance, one many NHL players face as the games grow more meaningful and the playoffs loom: do they play hurt or do they take themselves out of the lineup for the good of the team?

Hockey, after all, celebrates the courageous, transforms players into legendary figures. Think of Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Bob Baun playing on a broken leg. Think of Anaheim Ducks forward Paul Kariya being laid out on the ice by Scott Stevens, only to return minutes later and score a key goal to force a Game 7 for the Stanley Cup. Those images are stitched in time.

What isnt remembered or even known is how many players put themselves or their team at risk by crossing the boundary between bravery and foolishness. Its a quandary with short-term, long-term implications. Playing beyond the usual aches and bruises is an expectation that can inspire teammates, spark a goal, win a game. But Ian Laperriere admitted he went beyond the norm when he hid his postconcussion symptoms from the Philadelphia Flyers for a go at the Stanley Cup.

Regaled for his grit, Laperriere began the 2010 playoffs by taking a puck in the face near his right eye. The force of the shot left him with orbital damage, a reported 70 stitches and a concussion. He sat out the rest of the opening-round series against the New Jersey Devils, missed the second round against the Boston Bruins along with the first three games of the Eastern Conference final against the Montreal Canadiens.

That was as long as Laperriere could bear to sit.

I was in the league for 16 years and never came close to winning the Cup, he said. I saw the team doing so well. I wanted to be part of it.

Laperriere wanted so badly to be part of the Flyers run, he didnt tell anyone he was still experiencing postconcussion symptoms. Before Philadelphia lost to the Chicago Blackhawks, Laperriere was voted the NHLs toughest player by The Hockey News. He tried a comeback in September of 2010, but has yet to play another game.

I really do believe there are guys playing right now with concussions, said Laperriere, who will have problems with his eye for the rest of his life. They dont want to say anything because they dont want to lose their job. Its not like Sidney Crosby who can miss two years and play, especially for the third, fourth liners.

So they play hurt and they lie about it. Canadiens forward Mathieu Darche did for as long as he could with what was later treated as a concussion. Asked about his injury, he replied with a laugh: You mean my really bad flu?

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Fertility treatment centre plans overseas expansion

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Home business Fertility treatment centre plans overseas expansion

THE NATION March 24, 2012 1:00 am

Sarayuth Assamakorn, chief operating officer, said Superior ART's pregnancy success rate was at international levels, and its reproduction technology among the most advanced in Southeast Asia. Foreigners make up 80 per cent of its clients.

This year, the company plans to maintain that proportion, and to open new centres both in Thailand and overseas, with Udon Thani and Burma among the targeted locations. Central to the firm's business is its "management chain" process of managing advanced assisted reproduction technology.

"Superior ART was set up more than five years ago. It has the most advanced assisted reproduction technology laboratories and has achieved international success rates in pre-implantation genetic diagnosis," Sarayuth said.

"Superior ART will expand into the global market using the 'management chain' approach. Our know-how is differentiated by high technology.

"For example, our controlled pregnancy environment - at 37 degrees Celsius - is similar to that of the human body. It features controlled light, similar to that in the uterus, and embryo feeding until the fifth day before being returned into the uterus - compared with the usual three days."

The aim of the firm's marketing strategy is to educate physicians and the public about its use of PGD-PCR (pre-implantation genetic diagnosis and polymerase chain reaction) technology for embryo screening to ensure freedom from congenital diseases, Sarayuth said.

One of the most common inherited disorders among Thais is the blood disease thalassaemia, which according to one report is carried by 25 per cent of Thais.

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Fertility treatment centre plans overseas expansion

American Chemical Society Presidential Sessions focus on outreach, chemistry innovations

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Public release date: 24-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Michael Bernstein m_bernstein@acs.org 619-525-6268 (March 23-28, San Diego Press Center) 202-872-6042

Michael Woods m_woods@acs.org 619-525-6268 (March 23-28, San Diego Press Center) 202-872-6293 American Chemical Society

SAN DIEGO, March 23, 2012 More than a dozen symposia and other events at the American Chemical Society (ACS) 243rd National Meeting & Exposition are being sponsored or recommended by noted science communicator and ACS President Bassam Z. Shakhashiri, Ph.D. They range from a science outreach event for children at PETCO Park to news from an emerging field of chemistry that promises to produce medicines inside patients' bodies, as well as a symposium on communicating science to the public.

Communicating science is a major part of Shakhashiri's presidential theme for the year. The William T. Evjue Distinguished Chair for the Wisconsin Idea at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Shakhashiri is noted internationally for pioneering the use of demonstrations in the teaching of chemistry in classrooms, as well as to the public in museums, convention centers, shopping malls and retirement homes and at his Science is Fun website. The Encyclopedia Britannica termed Shakhashiri the "dean of lecture demonstrators in America."

Shakhashiri said the symposia connect with the grand challenges that face society and scientists in the 21st century, challenges that range from helping to sustain Earth and its people in the face of population growth and climate change to finite resources, malnutrition and spreading disease.

A schedule of the sessions appears at the end of this press release, and individual topics can be accessed online.

Among the speakers in the plenary session, which is among Shakhashiri's recommendations:

Carolyn Bertozzi will deliver the Kavli Foundation Innovations in Chemistry Lecture. She is the T.Z. and Irmgard Chu Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology at UC Berkeley, an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Senior Faculty Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Her interests span the disciplines of chemistry and biology with an emphasis on studies of sugars that coat the surfaces of cells. Her innovations could someday lead to new ways of making medicines inside the human body.

Another highlight of the ACS 243rd National Meeting & Exposition is a session called, "Communicating Chemistry to the Public." A featured speaker is Paul Raeburn, winner of the ACS 2012 James T. Grady-James H. Stack Award for Interpreting Chemistry for the Public. Raeburn is a distinguished science writer, author, editor and program director of New Horizons in Science. Other speakers include ACS President Shakhashiri and the following:

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American Chemical Society Presidential Sessions focus on outreach, chemistry innovations