PEPTIC trial comparing strategies to prevent stress ulcers in ICU patients needing mechanical ventilation

What The Study Did: Researchers report on a randomized clinical trial that compared two strategies (proton pump inhibitors vs. histamine-2 receptor blockers) to prevent stress ulcers among adult patients in intensive care units who needed mechanical ventilation. The trial was conducted at 50 ICUs in five countries to compare in-hospital death rates using the two strategies. The…

Green in tooth and claw

Go ahead, take a big bite. Hard plant foods may have made up a larger part of early human ancestors’ diet than currently presumed, according to a new experimental study of modern tooth enamel from Washington University in St. Louis. Scientists often look at microscopic damage to teeth to infer what an animal was eating.…

Doubling down on cancer-causing genes

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — One way to tackle cancer, the second-leading cause of death in the United States, is to target oncogenes — genes that have the potential to cause cancer. The University of California, Riverside, has received a $2.2 million grant from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health that will help…