Health Highlights: Jan. 25, 2009

Jan. 26 -- Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:

Protein's Removal from Platelets May Help Control Harmful Clotting

Laboratory results from British scientists at the University of Bristol have found a possible way to prevent arterial blood clots, which can cause heart attacks.

According to BBC News, the researchers were able to remove the protein PKC alpha from blood platelets in laboratory mice, and this prevented clots from developing. PKC alpha is an essential element in clot formation.

Eventually, this method may be a reasonable alternative to anti-clotting medicines, which run the gamut from aspirin to prescription drugs, BBC News reports.

Lead researcher Alastair Poole told the BBC that one surprising result was that not having PKC alpha in a person's blood may not prevent normal bleeding control: "... we have also found that absence of PKC alpha doesn't seem to impair the normal control of bleeding, unlike some current anti-clotting medicines," Poole said.

The study appears in the current issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

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Fourth Human Avian Flu Victim Dies in China

Avian flu has claimed a fourth death in China this year.

The Associated Press reports that a 31-year-old woman from a far western region in China died Friday from the H5N1 strain of bird flu, the same strain that has caused the deaths of 251 people since the World Health Organization (WHO) started keeping statistics in 2003.

The other three deaths appear not to be related, the wire service reports, coming in three different geographic regions. In all, 22 people in China have died from this strain of flu since 2003, the A.P. reports. As in all other human cases reported by WHO, this incident of bird flu appeared to be contracted by contact with poultry or fowl and not transmitted from human to human.

Scientists have been carefully monitoring avian flu outbreaks, in which millions of birds have been put to death, to see whether the H5N1 virus has mutated. The fear is that a mutation causing human-to-human infection could lead to a worldwide influenza pandemic.