Archive for month: August, 2020

During the first 24 hours after a stroke, attention to detail – such as hospital bed positioning – is critical to patient outcomes.

Most strokes are caused by blood clots that block blood flow to the brain. Sitting upright can harm the patient because it decreases blood flow and oxygen to the brain just when the brain needs more blood.

Thus it

Findings show that imperceptible vibratory stimulation applied to the soles of the feet improved balance by reducing postural sway and gait variability in elderly study participants. The vibratory stimulation is delivered by a urethane foam insole with embedded piezoelectric actuators, which generates the mechanical stimulation. The study was conducted by researchers from the Institute for Aging Research (IFAR) at Hebrew SeniorLife, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, and Harvard Medical School, all of Boston, Massachusetts; and Merck Sharpe and Dohme (MSD) Consumer Care, Inc., of Memphis, Tennessee.

These findings are significant because poor balance and an irregular gait are directly related to fall risk. Falls are the leading cause of death from injury among seniors. Risk increases with age and even the fear of falling can reduce quality of life.

1 in 3 seniors falls each year, and 25% of those who fall suffer moderate to severe injuries, such as hip fractures.
Only 25% of hip fracture patients make a full recovery; 40% require nursing home care; and nearly 25% die within 12 months.
By 2020, the annual direct and indirect cost of fall injuries is expected to reach nearly $55 billion.
‘Although loss of sensation in the feet is a common problem among elderly people that can impair balance and gait and result in falls, there are currently no interventions available that can reverse sensory impairments and prevent these dangerous consequences,’ said study lead author Lewis Lipsitz, M.D., Director of the Institute for Aging Research. ‘We were very excited to discover that small amounts of vibratory noise applied to the soles of the feet may be able to do just that.’

This study follows earlier research that looked at how the physical principle of stochastic resonance could be applied to mitigate deficits in the human somatosensory systems that develop due to disease, injury, or age. The somatosensory system informs us about objects in our external environment through touch. Receptors are distributed all over the body and different types of receptors respond to many different kinds of stimuli. Stochastic resonance (SR) is a phenomenon whereby the detectability of weak signals in certain types of systems can be improved through the careful addition of low

A collaborative effort by scientists has led to the development of an innovative strategy that can considerably improve the capabilities of medical imaging with safer procedures for the patient.
Medical imaging is a significant part of healthcare today, with imaging techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT) scanning, and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) increasing greatly over the last 20 years. However, continuing problems of image resolution and quality still hinder these techniques because of the nature of living tissue. A solution is hyperpolarization, which involves injecting the patient with substances that can enhance imaging quality by following the distribution and fate of specific molecules in the body but that can be harmful or potentially toxic to the patient.
A team of scientists from Ecole Polytechnique F

Patient testing at the point-of-care has increased dramatically in recent years, as technology makes it more convenient to test patient samples at the bedside, which produces rapid results and allows immediate action. However, the benefits of this are only true if the results are both accurate and reliable, making quality control vitally important in the POC setting, just as it is in the laboratory. A recent survey in Ontario (Canada) identified that POCT is the largest source of error when compared to other sources of laboratory testing errors. Furthermore, the most common phase for errors in POCT is in the analytical stage, whereas in laboratory-based testing this is the least common source of errors. This highlights how vital it is to have a robust QC procedure in place for POCT as the potential risk of harm to a patient appears to be far greater for POC tests compared to those performed in a laboratory. Randox is launching a series of White Papers focusing on the importance of quality control in point-of-care testing (POCT). The White Papers are free to download and will help laboratories define an appropriate QC procedure for all POCT devices. The first White Paper covers the fundamentals of developing a POCT QC strategy in line with ISO15189 requirements, looking at who is responsible for QC, what QC is appropriate for different types of POC devices and tips for choosing IQC material and an EQA scheme. The second White Paper, scheduled for December, studies the importance of using 100% human serum controls to avoid lot-to-lot variations in immunoassay testing. The papers can be downloaded from the Randox website using the url below.

http://tinyurl.com/lcj2ry8