There are good bacteria and there are bad bacteria
Patients with bladder cancer are two times more likely to have complications after a radical cystectomy procedure if they have a biomarker for poor nutritional status before the operation, according to study findings presented last week at the 2013 Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons. Surgeons from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine and UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center identified a potentially modifiable risk factor for such post-surgical problems: a low preoperative level of albumin, a marker of the protein level in the blood.
David C. Johnson, MD, MPH, lead author of the study and a senior urology resident at UNC School of Medicine, and colleagues evaluated the impact that patients
Researchers at King’s College London have identified a biomarker
Despite major efforts to keep operating rooms sterile, surgical wound infections remain a serious and stubborn problem, killing up to 8,200 patients a year in the U.S. A study by Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers suggests that narrow-spectrum ultraviolet (UV) light could dramatically reduce such infections without damaging human tissue.
Approximately 200,000 to 300,000 patients suffer surgical wound infections in the U.S. each year, accounting for $3 billion to $10 billion in health-care expenditures, the researchers report. Patients with surgical wound infections, compared with those without such infections, are 60 percent more likely to spend time in an ICU, are five times as likely to be readmitted to the hospital, have twice the mortality rate, have longer hospital stays, and have roughly double the total health-care costs.
Scientists have known for many years that UV light from a standard germicidal lamp (which emits a broad spectrum of wavelengths, from about 200 to 400 nanometers [nm]) is highly effective at killing bacteria; such lamps are routinely used to decontaminate surgical equipment.
‘Unfortunately, this UV light is also harmful to human tissue and can lead to skin cancer and cataracts in the eye,’ said study leader David J. Brenner, PhD, the Higgins Professor of Radiation Biophysics, professor of environmental health sciences, and director of the Center for Radiological Research at CUMC. ‘UV light is almost never used in the operating room during surgery, as these health hazards necessitate the use of cumbersome protective equipment for both surgical staff and patients.’
Dr. Brenner and his team hypothesised that a very narrow spectrum of UV light
A small, wireless capsule has been developed that can restore the sense of touch that surgeons are losing as they shift increasingly from open to minimally invasive surgery.
During open surgery, doctors rely on their sense of touch to identify the edges of hidden tumours and to locate hidden blood vessels and other anatomical structures: a procedure they call palpation. But this practice is not possible in minimally invasive surgery where surgeons work with small, specialized tools and miniature cameras that fit through small incisions in a patient
Improving vaccination rates against the human papillomavirus (HPV) in boys aged 11 to 21 is key to protecting both men and women, says new research from University of Toronto Professor Peter A. Newman from the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work.
HPV has been linked to anal, penile and certain types of throat cancers in men. Since the virus is also responsible for various cancers in women, vaccinating boys will play a crucial role in reducing cancer rates across the sexes.
Doctors have been urged to change how they prescribe medicines to stop
Brain infarction, or stroke, is caused by a blood clot blocking a blood vessel in the brain, which leads to interruption of blood flow and shortage of oxygen. Now a research group at Lund University, Sweden, has taken an important step towards a treatment for stroke using stem cells.
The group shows in a new study that induced pluripotent stem cells have developed to mature nerve cells at two months after transplantation into the stroke-injured cerebral cortex of rats. These nerve cells have established contact with other important structures in the brain. The transplantation gave rise to improvement of the animals
New research from Japan brings hope of a new treatment for asthma patients resistant to corticosteroids. In a study researchers from the RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences and Keio University in Japan report that a type of lymphocytes called natural helper (NH) cells plays a critical role in corticosteroid resistance and demonstrate that the anti-psychotic drug Pimozide can be used to overcome resistance to steroids in severe asthma patients.
Asthma is a chronic disease characterised by a persistent inflammation of the airways. The condition can be controlled with a moderate dose of inhaled corticosteroids in most patients. However, 5-10% of patients with ‘severe asthma’ respond poorly to a maximal dose of steroids. These patients experience uncontrolled and frequent asthma symptoms that have a profound impact on their quality of life and health care costs. Unveiling the mechanism leading to steroid resistance in these patients is therefore crucial for the development of a new, effective therapy.
T lymphocytes and NH cells in the asthmatic lung produce proteins named interleukin (IL)-5 and IL-13 that are responsible for severe airway inflammation. In asthma patients, inhaled steroids function by suppressing both T lymphocytes and NH cells.
However, in severe asthma patients, another protein called interleukin-33 (IL-33) produced in the airways strongly activates NH cells to produce IL-5 and IL-13, leading to severe airway inflammation.
In the current study, the researchers led by Drs Shigeo Koyasu from RIKEN and Koichiro Asano from Keio University, employed an experimental mouse model for airway inflammation to study the pathway leading to IL-33-mediated NH activation. Their research shows that NH resistance to steroids is induced by the protein thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP), present in the airways of severe asthma patients.
The team tested reagents that block the intracellular signals triggered by TSLP in NH cells. They identified one drug, Pimozide, an approved anti-psychotic drug, that restored the effects of steroids on NH cells.
‘Therefore, administration of Pimozide or related drugs would be an effective treatment in human severe asthmatic patients,’ conclude the authors.
RIKEN
One of the keys to healthful living with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes is monitoring blood glucose (sugar) levels to ensure they remain at stable levels. People can easily and reliably do this at home using electronic devices that read sugar levels in a tiny drop of blood.
Now a team of German researchers has devised a novel, non-invasive way to make monitoring easier. Using infrared laser light applied on top of the skin, they measure sugar levels in the fluid in and under skin cells to read blood sugar levels.
‘This opens the fantastic possibility that diabetes patients might be able to measure their glucose level without pricking and without test strips,’ said lead researcher, Werner M
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