Rounds
Psychiatry, the law and the death penalty
For more than 30 years a Yale program has examined the interface of law and psychiatry.
Although death penalty decisions are always controversial, the case of convicted serial murderer Michael B. Ross has proven to be one of the most complex legal battles seen in Connecticut in recent...
Complex congenital heart patients live longer, need new treatment paradigm
“Sometime in the next decade,” said James C. Perry, M.D., professor of pediatrics (cardiology) and chief of the Section of Pediatric Cardiology, “there will be, for the first time, more people over...
Et Cetera
Molecule linked to immune attack
A Yale scientist has found that blocking a key molecule protects implants, pacemakers, artificial joints and other...
The School of Medicine will lead a $33 million trial to examine a novel approach for preventing stroke—the Insulin...
From Other Issues
Autumn 2009
$4 million for stem cell research
The state of Connecticut in April awarded close to $4 million to Yale scientists to study ways in which human embryonic...
Autumn 2009
Markers for prostate cancer
Scientists at Yale and the VA Connecticut Healthcare System in West Haven have reported a link between molecular...
Autumn 2009
Sight restored with artificial cornea
Sixteen years ago, when Awilda Irizarry was 33, glaucoma was diagnosed in her right eye. Over the years, her vision...
Autumn 2009
Nanoparticles loaded with siRNAs are new vehicle for silencing genes in pathogens
During the past 10 years researchers have puzzled over how best to deliver small interfering RNA (siRNA) molecules,...
Spring 2009
Lost in translation
Even as the number of Americans with limited English-language proficiency has continued to grow, many physicians try to...
Spring 2009
Elderly want say in treatment
Elderly patients with multiple medical conditions want to be involved in their treatment decisions, Yale researchers...
Spring 2009
Pediatric AIDS clinic reports success
Born HIV-positive, for 20 years “John” relied on the Yale Pediatric AIDS Clinic to keep him healthy. That meant visits...
Spring 2009
A revitalized trauma section increases staff and improves care in emergency cases
On February 16, 2007, Quinnipiac University senior Benjamin Shapiro was driving down a secondary road in Hamden, Conn.,...
Winter 2009
New approach to thyroid surgery
Over the last two years the Yale Pediatric Thyroid Center has treated 30 patients by using a new approach—the pairing...
Winter 2009
Preventing falls in elderly patients
Teaching clinicians and older patients how to prevent falls can reduce the likelihood—by up to 11 percent—of falls that...
Winter 2009
Blood test in the OR speeds surgery
Since Robert Udelsman, M.D., M.B.A., came to Yale in 2001 ...
Winter 2009
As doctors hand off patients, miscommunication at sign-outs can cause errors
“Sign-out,” the conversation at shift change when hospital patients’ information is handed off from one team of doctors...
Autumn 2008
A viper’s venom and stroke
What does snake venom have to do with stroke? Depending on the results of a study in which Yale-New Haven Hospital...
Autumn 2008
Chocolate and pre-eclampsia
Eating chocolate may lower the risk of pre-eclampsia, a dangerous condition in pregnancy characterized by increased...
Autumn 2008
A stroke of luck saves New London patient
When Jeanne Munnelly went for a swim at a high school in East Lyme one August morning, she could not have known she was...
Autumn 2008
With virtual lives on the line, simulations help responders assess triage systems
Imagine being the first paramedic on the scene after a tanker truck has plowed into a city bus. Traffic is snarled,...
Spring 2008
Technique promotes new bone
A novel technique—removing bone marrow and injecting a hormone—promotes rapid formation of new bone in rats, Yale...
Spring 2008
Colon screening questioned
Colorectal cancer screenings for the severely ill may do more harm than good, according to a Yale study published in...
Spring 2008
Yale team implants new prosthetic ankle
The ankle’s position in the hierarchy of artificial joints corresponds roughly to its location at the bottom of the...
Spring 2008
Scientists report link between high levels of a protein and severe asthma
Late last year two Yale researchers reported a link between severe asthma and a certain protein, YKL-40, which appeared...
Winter 2008
Yale joins hypertension network
Two School of Medicine scientists will join colleagues in Switzerland, France and Mexico in a collaboration to pinpoint...
Winter 2008
Residents fall short on stats
Most medical residents don’t understand statistics in medical literature, calling into question their ability to...
Winter 2008
A gene mutation passes down generations
Horizontal scars across their throats, although now fading, remind members of the Block family of what they have ...
Winter 2008
Blood vessels made from scaffolds and stem cells soon to be in clinical trials
Two Yale physician-scientists are creating a living organ from scratch, coaxing cells to form artificial tissue that...
Autumn 2007
Errors and transplant patients
Patients recovering from organ transplants run a high risk of medication errors that can land them back in the...
Autumn 2007
New treatment for SVCS
About 15,000 people in the United States have superior vena cava syndrome (SVCS), a blockage of the large vein that...
Autumn 2007
Danger to patients seen in repeated tests
Since the 1970s, computed tomography (CT) has become an increasingly important diagnostic tool
Autumn 2007
Yale joins national effort to reconsider the benefits of hormone therapy
In 2002, the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), a research program begun in 1991 by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood...
Spring 2007
Higher risk for cardiac patients
About a third of heart attack patients also have an active, noncardiac condition that could warrant admission to the...
Spring 2007
Medicare coverage leads to more screening
The expansion of Medicare in 1998 to cover colonoscopies appears to have led to both an increase in demand for the...
Spring 2007
After 10 years of research, a rare skin disease is traced to a chemical used in MRIs
In 1997 investigators in California came across a mysterious skin disease. It often started with redness of the skin...
Spring 2007
HIV screening should be routine
Voluntary screening for HIV should be routine for all adults, not just those at high risk, according to a study by Yale...
Winter 2007
Stroke, heart attack and firing
Losing a job just as retirement approaches more than doubles the chances of a heart attack or stroke, according to a...
Winter 2007
Kidney patients left out of trials
Although at high risk for cardiovascular death, patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) are frequently left out of...
Winter 2007
Consistency lacking in transfer of patient data
No matter how swift the runners, a relay race is lost if they don’t pass the baton properly.
Winter 2007
New forum offers a place for doctors and nurses to discuss issues of patient care
On a Thursday afternoon last fall, 23 physicians, nurses and social workers at Yale-New Haven Hospital (YNHH) met to...
Autumn 2006
Work, habits and health
Researchers in Epidemiology and Public Health have received $1.7 million from the National Institute on Aging to study...
Autumn 2006
Yale to study leishmaniasis
Yale researchers have received a $5.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health for the study of cutaneous...
Autumn 2006
Beauty of Botox is more than skin deep
For centuries, botulinum toxin has been known as the cause of the paralytic and sometimes fatal illness known as...
Autumn 2006
Anesthesiologist finds a new way to manage blood loss in the operating room
The most common method for tracking blood volume during surgery—a catheter inserted into the heart that transmits...
Spring 2006
Pesticide linked to infertility
A common pesticide may interfere with the reproductive tract, leading to reduced fertility in women, according to Yale...
Spring 2006
Cell phones reduce errors
Cell phones have long been banished from hospitals over fears of interference with medical devices. A study by a Yale...
Spring 2006
How to fix the broken telephone
As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she regretted them: while returning phone calls for a colleague, Anna B....
Spring 2006
Study finds sleep apnea is a major risk factor for stroke and death
Although previous studies have suggested links between sleep apnea and stroke, it was never clear whether the increased...
Autumn 2005
Alcohol lowers cancer risk
The incidence of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) is rising throughout the world—in industrialized nations it ranks as the...
Autumn 2005
Music and sedatives
For decades, doctors and nurses in the operating room have turned to music to soothe the nerves of anxious patients....
Autumn 2005
Biomarkers warn of a “silent killer”
Epithelial ovarian cancer ranks as the most lethal of gynecological malignancies. It is only 10 percent as common as...
Autumn 2005
With the Canary Database, animals become sentinels for environmental hazards
Before the effects of mercury poisoning showed up in the children of Minamata, Japan, in the 1950s, cats were getting...
Spring 2005
Melanin can be good, or bad
It’s common knowledge that blondes and redheads need more protection from the sun to prevent skin cancer, but a Yale...
Spring 2005
Gambling and elder health
A study by Yale researchers published in The American Journal of Psychiatry in September has found a link between good...
Spring 2005
Minority patients wait longer for angioplasty
Minority patients with heart attack symptoms wait longer for treatment than whites do, according to a recent study led...
Spring 2005
Camera in a pill gives an unprecedented view of the small intestine
When the White Queen assured Alice in Wonderland that she was able to believe “as many as six impossible things before...
Fall/Winter 2004
High-fat diet raises cancer risk
It’s long been a tenet of good nutrition that too much fat and animal protein can clog the arteries and raise...
Fall/Winter 2004
High volume not always best
The conventional wisdom suggests that only hospitals that perform at least 400 angioplasties a year should be allowed...
Fall/Winter 2004
Quickening the pace from bench to bedside
Just eight months after scientists in a lab on Cedar Street devised a new approach for treating ovarian cancer,...
Fall/Winter 2004
Study suggests marijuana induces temporary schizophrenia-like effects
Anyone who inhaled in the 1960s can recall the effects of cannabis—euphoria, paranoia, changes in perception, an...
Summer 2004
Some vets better after 9/11
After the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, veterans with pre-existing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) showed...
Summer 2004
Cutting down helps smokers quit
Cutting down on the number of cigarettes smoked can help older smokers kick the habit, according to a Yale study.“Most...
Summer 2004
Searching for a second skin
Before the arrival of artificial skin in the 1970s, medical options for severe dermatological damage (widespread burns,...
Summer 2004
Increased risk of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma linked to hair dye
WARNING: The prolonged use of hair dye, especially permanent black, brown and red, may be hazardous to your health....
Spring 2004
Obesity bias a problem for doctors
Health professionals surveyed at an obesity conference in Quebec last year learned something surprising about...
Spring 2004
Same chemical, different reaction
Drugs designed to improve memory consolidation in the elderly may also worsen working memory, according to a study by...
Spring 2004
At Liver Center, a vital organ gets its due
Poets and philosophers may rhapsodize about the human heart, but James L. Boyer, M.D., HS ’67, says it’s actually the...
Spring 2004
Spike in blood pressure may make weight lifters vulnerable to aortic aneurysm
In a research letter published in JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association in December, a team of Yale...
Winter 2004
Clozapine and diabetes risk
Patients taking the antipsychotic drug clozapine have a higher-than-average chance of developing diabetes, but recent...
Winter 2004
Drugs and the adolescent brain
The adolescent mind that impels teenagers to dye their hair purple and go airborne on skateboards also makes them more...
Winter 2004
The surgical approach to morbid obesity
Rising demand for gastric bypass procedure keeps Yale surgeon busy and looking for reinforcements.Americans spend $33...
Winter 2004
When it comes to defining outcomes, caregivers and patients don’t always agree
Physicians often turn to a patient’s friends or family members to make a decision on medical treatment. But a Yale...
Autumn 2003
Fending off delirium
Taking daily walks and talking about current events can lower the risk of delirium in the elderly, according to a study...
Autumn 2003
Carbs? It’s calories that count
Researchers at Yale and Stanford have concluded that cutting out potatoes, pasta and bread doesn’t necessarily...
Autumn 2003
Thinking nationally, acting locally
n 1973 Yale was one of the founding sites for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s (RWJF) Clinical Scholars Program, a...
Autumn 2003
Residents hold their own research day
For a couple of hours on May 29, the Fitkin Amphitheater resembled the Hope Building on Student Research Day—with...
Autumn 2003
New center opens with goal of streamlining treatment for women with breast cancer
Breast cancer is one of those frightening diseases that inspires races, ribbons and celebrity support for those...
Summer 2003
Seizures and drug resistance
Researchers have shown for the first time how long it takes to establish resistance to drugs that control partial...
Summer 2003
A new cardiac risk factor
Women with a history of pre-eclampsia are at increased risk for cardiovascular disease, according to a study presented...
Summer 2003
“Hidden” fat poses serious health risk
Postmenopausal women who exercise regularly won’t necessarily see dramatic changes on their bathroom scales or in their...
Summer 2003
Ovarian tumors need not cause infertility
A conservative approach to the treatment of a rare form of ovarian cancer, called ovarian germ cell malignancies,...
Spring 2003
A step against smallpox
Travels abroad led James L. Hadler, M.D., M.P.H. ’82, to seek inoculations against smallpox at least four times before...
Spring 2003
New approach to ovarian cancer
The School of Medicine has joined in an international study of a new drug, phenoxodiol, that unblocks receptors needed...
Spring 2003
In autism study, it’s all about the eyes
When Yale scientists wanted to find out what people with autism looked at, they turned for help to Elizabeth Taylor and...
Spring 2003
Busing and better housing are found to have an impact on pedestrian safety
Analyzing New Haven accident statistics during a seven-year period, a Yale team has found that interventions by city...
Winter 2003
A closer look at clot-busters
Clot-busting drugs are almost always administered to stroke patients incorrectly, sometimes with serious consequences,...
Winter 2003
Cats and the pregnant woman
There’s good news and bad news for pregnant women who live with cats. On the up side, they face little risk of...
Winter 2003
From the mouths of ticks
An anti-coagulant protein in the saliva of the deer tick allows it to suck blood from a single wound for days,...
Winter 2003
Brain scans reveal disruption in the neural circuitry of children with dyslexia
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), researchers at Yale have found
Winter 2003
As the sperm turns, success
Although intracytoplasmic sperm injection—in which a single sperm is placed inside a mature egg—increases the chances...
Autumn 2002
Old drug, new treatment
A postoperative pain reliever has a new role in the delivery room, according to a study by Yale doctors. When diluted,...
Autumn 2002
Employment and well-being
Being out of a job increases one’s chances of dying, according to a Yale scientist. “Employment is the essential...
Autumn 2002
When a death defies explanation
Even before last fall’s anthrax attacks, physicians and public health experts worried about the nation’s ability to...
Autumn 2002
A tool for predicting mortality among older patients, across populations
Any one of 10 conditions—ranging from congestive heart failure to major stroke to diabetes—suggests that geriatric...
Autumn 2002
A better take on beta blockers
A Yale study has debunked the myth that beta blockers—prescribed following a heart attack to guard against future...
Autumn 2002
An easier operation for kidney donors, laparoscopy still carries a risk
When potential kidney donors meet transplant surgeons Marc I. Lorber, M.D., and Amy L. Friedman, M.D., many have...
Autumn 2002
A new tool for autism treatment
Risperidone, an antipsychotic drug, has proven effective for the treatment of behavioral problems in autistic children,...
Autumn 2002
Scientist sees a connection between endometriosis and tampon use, orgasm
Tampons and sex appear to protect women from endometriosis, a painful condition that afflicts about 10 million American...
Summer 2002
Schwann cells transplanted again
A second patient at Yale has received a transplant of cells in an ongoing clinical trial that is attempting to treat...
Summer 2002
Quieting the voices of schizophrenia
Nearly 20 years ago when Stan W. was out on the high seas, menacing voices began to torment him. They told him that his...
Spring 2002
No laughing matter
A new study suggests there might be something to the notion, first proposed by physicians in ancient Greece, that...
Spring 2002
Cocaine vaccine advances
Scientists at Yale are exploring a new method to help cocaine users stay clean and sober. A vaccine that produces...
Spring 2002
A boost from nicotine
Why do so many patients with schizophrenia smoke? It may be because nicotine improves one aspect of cognitive function...
Spring 2002
War and its impact on American health
For American society, the war in Vietnam was unlike any other. It spawned widespread protests, a questioning of the...
Spring 2002
First the stud, then the sequela
At last, the news that horrified parents everywhere have been waiting for: piercing certain parts of one’s anatomy...
Winter 2002
For some patients, the enemy is anemia
Although clinicians have long been uncertain about the benefits of blood transfusions in patients with heart attacks, a...
Winter 2002
meat the culprits
Eating one’s vegetables could help ward off a form of cancer that has been on the rise for the last quarter-century,...
Winter 2002
Sedative linked to delirium
Older, hospitalized patients who take diphenhydramine, an often-prescribed antihistamine and sedative, run a 70 percent...
Winter 2002
Another approach to ADHD
The drug guanfacine can treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) without worsening tics, Yale...
Winter 2002
Life and death on the gridiron
This year across America, a handful of apparently healthy athletes will die on the playing field. Though efforts are...
Autumn 2001
Slot machines and the cingulate cortex
From the green towers of the world’s largest casino rising up from the Connecticut farmland to the smash-hit television...
Autumn 2001
Multiple sclerosis the target of experimental Schwann cell transplant
Physicians and researchers are hoping that cells from a nerve in a patient’s ankle will stem the degeneration of the...
Autumn 2001
Home monitors deemed inadequate for spotting SIDS
Events that home monitors routinely detect as warning signs for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), such as a...
Autumn 2001
Instead of a needle, simple measurements rule out Down syndrome
Yale researchers have developed an algorithm that allows physicians to gauge the risk of Down syndrome in fetuses...
Autumn 2001
Pathologists set new criteria for cancer precursor
Pathologists tracking the progression of disease from acid reflux to esophageal inflammation to Barrett’s esophagus, a...
Autumn 2001
Jobs and brain cancer may be linked
Farm workers, waitresses and people who work with rubber or cleaning chemicals are at a higher risk for brain cancer,...
Summer 2001
Vaccine may spell the end of chickenpox
When the new vaccine against varicella infection, or chickenpox, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration...
Summer 2001
Depression hastens death for women with HIV
For women with HIV, depression can be deadly. A Yale study of women with the aids virus found that death rates for...
Summer 2001
Linking genes to addiction
Investigators have long known that genetic inheritance makes a contribution both to the likelihood that someone who...
Summer 2001
Coming soon to an operating room near you: HDTV
Most people think of high-definition television (HDTV) as a technology that will make their favorite programs appear...
Spring 2001
Patients underestimate risks, overestimate benefits of elective angioplasty
When it comes to electing to undergo angioplasty, many patients believe that the procedure to open up clogged blood...
Spring 2001
Study knocks popular cough and cold medication ingredient off the market
A study by Yale investigators of phenylpropanolamine, or PPA, one of the most frequently used ingredients in many cough...
Spring 2001
Third of doctors don't practice what they preach
Public health experts decry health care conditions that result in 20 percent of the American population not getting...
Spring 2001
Shedding new light on depression
A Yale investigator and his Israeli colleagues have shown for the first time that the body has light receptors other...
Spring 2001
A molecular clue for detecting bladder cancer
Discovered three years ago, a gene called survivin holds promise as a diagnostic marker for bladder cancer, according...
Spring 2001
Radiation multiplies Salmonella's anti-tumor properties
Traditional radiation therapy, when combined with a genetically modified form of the deadly bacterium Salmonella, could...
Spring 2001
With chest pain, need for treatment can be a matter of perspective
Chest pain is not the same for everyone. It keeps some patients from enjoying daily activities. For others, despite...
Fall 2000 | Winter 2001
Drug offers hope for a brighter start for premature babies
Prematurely born babies score lower on intelligence tests than their healthy, full-term siblings and frequently require...
Fall 2000 | Winter 2001
Combination therapy, acupuncture shown effective in curbing cocaine cravings
Many heroin addicts also abuse cocaine and continue taking the drug even after they stop using heroin. Currently...
Fall 2000 | Winter 2001
New clue to cocaine addiction
“A lot of people try drugs, but only some of them become addicted,” says David Self, M.D., an assistant professor of...
Fall 2000 | Winter 2001
Stress testing may hold older persons back from healthy exercise
The standard recommendation to get a stress test before starting to exercise may hinder efforts to keep older people...
Fall 2000 | Winter 2001
When it comes to diet, parents weigh in heavily with their children
A Yale study has found that children’s perceptions of their parents’ attitudes toward eating and weight have a big...
Fall 2000 | Winter 2001
Screening for alcohol abuse with a few key questions
There are a variety of screening methods available for detecting alcohol problems. According to a review by Yale...
Fall 2000 | Winter 2001
An odd silver lining in unhappy marriages
“Freud said that ambivalent, conflicted relationships would predispose the survivor to pathological grief,” said Holly...
Summer 2000
NIH funds $5.6 million center for PKD research
A five-year, $5.6 million grant awarded by the National Institutes of Health has established Yale as one of four...
Summer 2000
Mental illness a barrier to cardiac care
In a first-ever study of the role mental illness plays in cardiovascular care, a team of Yale psychiatric and public...
Summer 2000
Anti-cocaine vaccine passes first hurdle
Most of the 900,000 cocaine abusers who seek treatment for their addiction each year in the United States eventually...
Summer 2000
Stress worsens arrhythmias, increasing risk of sudden death
Stress is as much a part of daily life as traffic jams and taxes. For those susceptible to arrhythmia, an abnormal...
Summer 2000
Rate of tick-borne disease higher than suspected
Ehrlichiosis, a disease carried by the same tick that transmits Lyme disease, is occurring at much higher rates than...
Summer 2000
Conventional Lyme treatment found effective
Patients who undergo conventional antimicrobial treatment for Lyme disease report no greater level of health problems...
Spring 2000
Malaria makes a comeback, even in the U.S.
When two cases of malaria surfaced in New Haven late last year, they were of interest to clinicians not because of any...
Spring 2000
Ultrasound provides an alternative to amnio
Yale scientists have devised a test for fetal anemia that eliminates the risks of invasive procedures such as...
Spring 2000
Is it ever right to practice on the dying?
Early in 1998 a student approached Lauris C. Kaldjian, M.D., HS ’91, with a question about something disturbing seen on...
Spring 2000
Breast-cancer genes factor into treatment
Young women with breast cancer who carry either of two mutated genes may be at higher risk for a new cancer years after...
Spring 2000
Aspirin, on its own, shown to reduce heart-attack risk
An aspirin a day is as effective alone as with a powerful drug at preventing blood clotting in coronary vessels after a...
Spring 2000
Antibody test is a reliable screen for ehrlichiosis
A collaboration between scientists at Yale and the State of Connecticut has yielded a simpler and more reliable blood...
Spring 2000
Much heralded medication for autism is ineffective
A drug thought to work marvels on autistic children has no more effect than a placebo, according to a Yale...
Spring 2000
A new therapy for prostate cancer
A new radioactive isotope, palladium-103, used for radiation implant therapy for early prostate cancer has proven as...
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