Celebrex may affect low-dose aspirin use
ANN ARBOR, Mich., Dec. 18 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers suggest celecoxib or Celebrex may keep low-dose aspirin from limiting blood clots.
Researchers at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor say their study used biochemical measurements and X-ray crystallography to discover Celebrex binds to COX-1 -- an enzyme that promotes clotting -- and slows aspirin's COX-1-blocking action.
"There are many people who take low-dose aspirin, perhaps as many as half of men over the age of 50. If they are also prescribed Celebrex for arthritis or other pain, our results suggest that the Celebrex will probably interfere with the aspirin's action," senior author William Smith said in a statement.
"The greatest risk is having people take Celebrex who are taking aspirin for cardiovascular problems that are known to be mitigated by aspirin, including patients with unstable angina or those at risk for a second heart attack."
Smith also finds more clumping of platelets -- the initial stage of clotting -- in blood from animals given Celebrex and low-dose aspirin than in animals given only low-dose aspirin.
Should this effect hold true in humans, it will be important to determine if a balance in dose and/or dose regimens could allow both the aspirin and Celebrex to be effective, Smith says.
Northern Lights burst captured on film
LOS ANGELES, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Cameras for the first time have filmed waves of aurora borealis colliding to produce spectacular bursts of light, scientists in California said.
"Our jaws dropped when we saw the movies for the first time. These outbursts are telling us something very fundamental about the nature of auroras," space scientist Larry Lyons of the University of California, Los Angeles, said in a release Thursday.
The images have been captured since December 2007 by a network of NASA cameras spread across thousands of miles around the Arctic.
Each burst of light was preceded by a broad wave, or curtain, of slow-moving auroras and a smaller knot of fast-moving auroras, initially far apart. The slow curtain hung almost immobile while the fast-moving knot rushed in from the north to collide with the slow curtain and produce a blast of light.
The collisions occurred on such a vast scale that isolated observers, with limited fields of view, had never noticed them before, said Lyons, who led the expedition team.
CDC: Autism up by more than 50 percent
ATLANTA, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Health officials say they have no single explanation for why autism is up by half among American children.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report said a study found an average of one in 110 U.S. children age 8 have an autism spectrum disorder. One-in-70 U.S. boys and 1-in-315 girls have an autism spectrum disorder -- an average 60 percent increase for boys and 48 percent for girls, officials say.
No single factor explains the changes in prevalence for the time period studied, the report said. The CDC said in a release that better detection accounts for some of the increases, but adds "a true increase in risk cannot be ruled out."
Autism spectrum disorders cause severe and pervasive impairment in thinking, feeling, language and the ability to relate to others. These disorders, usually first diagnosed in early childhood, range from a severe form called autistic disorder to pervasive development disorder to a much milder form, Asperger syndrome.
The researchers used data based on a retrospective review of health and education records from reporting communities, which includes 8 percent of the U.S. population of 8-year-olds.
"All children in the studies were 8 years old because previous research has shown that most children with an autism spectrum disorder have been identified by this age for services," the report said. "All 10 communities participating in both the earlier 2002 and 2006 study years observed an increase in identified autism spectrum disorder prevalence ranging from 27 percent to 95 percent, with an average increase of 57 percent."
Erupting volcano filmed in deep sea
FALMOUTH, Mass., Dec. 18 (UPI) -- For the first time, video and still photographic images have captured a deep-sea volcano erupting molten lava, scientists in Massachusetts said.
Scientists used a remotely operated vehicle named Jason to capture the event nearly 4,000 feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean near Fiji, Tonga and Samoa, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Falmouth, Mass., said in a release.
Scientists in a control van on a research ship guided Jason to within 10 feet of the erupting volcano to collect samples of rocks, hot spring waters and biological specimens, expedition leader Albert Collasius said.
"There were 15 exuberant scientists in the control van who all felt like they hit a home run," Collasius said.
Through a fiber optic tether, Jason transmitted high-definition video of the eruption as it occurred during the first week of May. The video was shown publicly for the first time at this week's meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.
