Health

A quarter of all babies in England are now delivered by emergency caesarean operations, BBC analysis shows - marking a significant rise over the last five years.

A miniaturized, biomimetic model of the human intestine has successfully reproduced long-term enterovirus A71 (EV-A71) infection, report researchers from Science Tokyo. Using this innovative platform, they shed light on how this virus grows in the intestine without triggering a strong immune response. Their findings, appearing in the Journal of Virology, could help develop effective treatments for EV-A71 infectious diseases.

Researchers at University of Tsukuba have developed an AI model capable of predicting light propagation in biological tissue in diffuse optical tomography, a noninvasive imaging technique for detecting abnormalities such as hemorrhages and tumors. The model performs these calculations in approximately 2 milliseconds, exceeding the speed of conventional simulation methods by more than 1 million times, paving the way for real-time diagnostic applications. The paper is published in Biomedical Engineering Letters.

The thresholds for kidney function currently used to diagnose chronic kidney disease (CKD) reflect a true increase in the risk of serious illness, according to a study from Karolinska Institutet and Leiden University Medical Center published in JAMA. The researchers also show that risk assessment becomes more accurate when two common blood tests, creatinine and cystatin C, are combined to estimate kidney function.

An international research team has succeeded in elucidating key immunological and biochemical mechanisms underlying granulomatous skin diseases. The findings, recently published in Science Advances, identify new therapeutic targets for these chronic inflammatory diseases.

New research co-led by a Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center leukemia expert highlights a promising investigational treatment approach using the targeted therapy ziftomenib for patients with a difficult-to-treat form of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The findings, published in the journal Blood, show encouraging results from a three-drug combination therapy in patients whose leukemia has returned or not responded to prior treatment.

A new statistical framework developed by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and Kaiser Permanente Northern California offers improved understanding of how genetics and environment contribute to autism risk.

Researchers at Kyushu University have developed a simple, rapid, and low-radiation X-ray technique that can evaluate the severity of a heart condition known as pulmonary valve regurgitation—a common and clinically significant complication after surgical repair of a congenital heart defect known as Tetralogy of Fallot. The test only requires a scan of seven seconds and can evaluate the patient with 93% accuracy.

Scientists at Université de Montréal's Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC) have identified a dynamic structure that forms a network on the surface of epithelial cells. Led by Gregory Emery, director of IRIC's vesicular trafficking and cell signaling research unit, and Ph.D. students Claire Baudouin and Léa Marpeaux, the research is published in the Journal of Cell Science. It shows that, in certain skin cells, actin fibers can connect with neighboring cells to form a shared network on the surface of the tissue.

Sunshine, heat, cold and rain all play a role in how active preschool children are during the day, according to a new study from Karolinska Institutet, published in the journal Environmental Research, in which researchers linked children's activity patterns to everyday weather conditions.

How do different cancer subtypes arise? Do they originate from distinct cells, or from a single multipotent cell capable of differentiating into multiple cell types? This question, debated for decades in cancer biology, is now gaining new insight thanks to the work of the Laboratory of Experimental Pathology at the University of Liège, in collaboration with researchers from Université Paris Cité and Sorbonne University. The paper is published in the journal Cell Reports.

When a person goes through a traumatic experience, they often find themselves thinking that what happened could have been different or even avoided. This process, known as counterfactual thinking, is an automatic psychological response to adverse events. Now, a study published in the journal Scientific Reports explores how this type of thinking affects women who have suffered an early pregnancy loss.

Becoming a mother changes the brain not just temporarily, but for life. Pregnancy and the postpartum period trigger lasting changes in the maternal brain through the brain chemical dopamine, producing long-term benefits to learning, memory, and maternal behavior, a process disrupted by chronic postpartum stress.

A free online NHS program is delivering meaningful health improvements for adults living with type 2 diabetes (T2D) across England, a new study by University of Manchester researchers has shown. The NHS program called "Healthy Living for people with type 2 diabetes" is a website containing written articles, videos, self-assessment quizzes and tools.

Wearable devices like smartwatches and fitness trackers have revolutionized the way we monitor our health. Worn around the clock, these devices quietly collect valuable data—from heart rate and blood oxygen levels to sleep quality—giving users a real-time window into their well-being without disrupting their daily lives.