A new study suggests a pioneering testing technology could reduce hospital stays by up to eight days and lower annual health care costs for people with serious infections by approximately $2.2 million (
New research shows vulnerable patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) who received enhanced oral care from a dentist were at significantly less risk for developing a lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI), like ventilator-associated pneumonia, during their stay.
‘Bacteria causing healthcare-associated infections often start in the oral cavity,’ said Fernando Bellissimo-Rodrigues, MD, lead author of the study. ‘This study suggests that having a dentist provide weekly care as part the ICU team may improve outcomes for vulnerable patients in this setting.’
Brazilian researchers utilised an observer-blind randomized clinical trial design to analyse data from 254 adult patients who stayed in a general ICU for at least 48 hours. Patients were randomized to receive enhanced dental care provided by a dentist, or to receive routine oral hygiene performed by the ICU nurse staff.
Enhanced dental care included teeth brushing, tongue scraping, removal of calculus, atraumatic restorative treatment of caries, tooth extraction and topical application of chlorhexidine corresponding to each patients’ needs four to five times a week. Comparatively, regular treatment consisted of mechanical cleansing using gauze followed by topical application of chlorhexidine three times a day.
Patients provided enhanced dental care were 56 percent less likely to develop a respiratory tract infection during their ICU stay compared to the control patient group. Researchers note that enhanced dental treatment, including oral antisepsis routinely performed in ICUs could be more effective in reducing the oral bacteria and help prevent migration of these bacteria into the lungs. SHEA
A research consortium headed by Professor Hossam Haick of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology is developing a product that, when coupled with a smartphone, will be able to screen the user
A new test can guide treatment for patients with graft versus host disease (GVHD), an often life-threatening complication of bone marrow and stem cell transplants, according to research from the University of Michigan.
Better way to personalize treatment for bone marrow transplant patients
Patients with fatal blood cancers like leukaemia often need bone marrow or stem cell transplants to survive. But one of the most common and serious side effects that patients face is graft vs. host disease: when a patient
Oxford University doctors and scientists are starting the first safety trial of an experimental preventative Ebola vaccine regimen being developed by the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson (Janssen).
The Oxford Vaccine Group, part of the University of Oxford Department of Paediatrics, aims to have vaccinated all 72 healthy adult volunteers by the end of January.
The development of this prime-boost vaccine regimen has been accelerated in response to the current outbreak of Ebola virus disease in West Africa, which has claimed over 6,000 lives. An effective vaccine would be an important step in controlling the spread of disease.
Volunteers for the trial, aged 18
Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a technique that allows ultrasound to penetrate bone or metal, using customised structures that offset the distortion usually caused by these so-called
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
Drawing blood and testing it is standard practice for many medical diagnostics. As a less painful alternative, scientists are developing skin patches that could one day replace the syringe. One team reports they have designed and successfully tested, for the first time, a small skin patch that detected malaria proteins in live mice. It could someday be adapted for use in humans to diagnose other diseases, too.
Simon R. Corrie and colleagues note that while blood is rich with molecular clues that tell a story about a person
Examining post-mortem tissue from the brains of people with Alzheimer
Schizophrenia, which affects 2 million to 3 million people in the U.S., causes hallucinations, delusions and disorganization. Left untreated, the disease can cause a significant loss in quality of life, including unemployment and estrangement from loved ones. But many people with schizophrenia can control the disorder and live without symptoms for several years if they consistently take prescribed antipsychotic medication, typically a daily pill.
The problem is that many people don