Although there is no evidence that human prion disease, AD or cerebral amyloid angiopahy (CAA) is contagious (spread from person to person by direct contact), the study of eight patients suggests that amyloid beta (the peptides that form the main components of the amyloid plaques found in the brains of patients with AD) may potentially be transmissible via certain medical procedures.
Human transmission of prion disease has occurred as a result of various medical procedures (iatrogenic transmission), with incubation periods that can exceed five decades.
One such iatrogenic route of transmission was via the treatment in the UK of 1,848 persons of short stature with human growth hormone (HGH) extracted from cadaver-sourced pituitary glands, some of which were inadvertently prion-contaminated. The treatments began in 1958 and ceased in 1985 following reports of CJD among recipients. By the year 2000, 38 of the patients had developed CJD. As of 2012, 450 cases of iatrogenic CJD have been identified in countries worldwide after treatment with cadaverderived HGH and, to a lesser extent, other medical procedures, including transplant and neurosurgery.
John Collinge, Sebastian Brandner and colleagues at UCL conducted autopsy studies, including extensive brain tissue sampling, of eight UK patients aged 36

Statistically, about one in 20 women who undergo mammography screening can expect a suspicious finding. If further tests indicate a possibility of cancer, the screening physician recommends taking a tissue sample, or biopsy. Nearly 35,000 women every year face this situation. ‘However, in only about 17,000 of these cases is a malignant tumour actually found,’ says Dr. Sebastian Bickelhaupt, a radiologist at the DKFZ who has been investigating the use of advanced MR imaging in diagnosing breast cancer. ‘We have been looking at advanced imaging technologies as a potential way of reducing the number of invasive tissue examinations.’
In a mammogram, which examines the breast using X-rays, it is often impossible to distinguish benign from malignant abnormalities in tissues and thus exclude the existence of a malignant tumour to the physician’s satisfaction. If the situation can’t be clarified by further testing, such as an ultrasound examination, an invasive biopsy must be performed.
The DKFZ radiologists have optimized a method called diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) specifically for use in these cases. ‘Diffusion-weighted MRI is a special technique that allows us to see the movement of water molecules in tissues,’ explains Professor Heinz-Peter Schlemmer, head of Radiology at the DKFZ. ‘Since tumours strongly reduce the movement of these molecules, we decided to examine the potential of our optimized breast MRI for deeper investigations of suspicious findings, in hopes of avoiding an unnecessary biopsy.’
This idea led the DKFZ researchers to plan a study in close collaboration with the office-based physicians in Dr. Wolfgang Lederer’s team at Heidelberg ATOS Klinik and Dr. Heidi Daniel’s team at the Radiology Centre Mannheim, who routinely conduct mammography screenings. If a mammography shows a suspicious lesion, the patient is invited to the Radiology Centre Mannheim for further testing and, as a rule, also for biopsies.
‘For our study, we asked affected women if they were prepared to have an optimized breast MRI prior to the biopsy,’ Daniel explained. ‘We were surprised to get such a high rate of participation that we could proceed with the study quickly,’ Lederer adds. ‘We owe our thanks to the many participants,’ Lederer adds.
The DKFZ radiologists compared the MRI images with results from the biopsies. ‘Within the first 50 cases we investigated, we were already thrilled,’ says Bickelhaupt. ‘Adding the step of optimized breast MRI enabled us to classify over 90 percent of the suspicious findings correctly. That’s an enormous improvement over the 50-percent rate achieved by a combination of mammography and a subsequent ultrasound examination.’
In Schlemmer’s opinion, this does not mean that breast MRI is ready to replace screening mammography. ‘The positive results of our study are based on using MRI in combination with other tests. X-ray mammography also detects minute microcalcifications that indicate non-invasive breast cancer (DCIS), which do not appear in MRI.’ According to Schlemmer, optimized breast MRI is most suitable for clarifying a suspicious finding. A biopsy would only be required if the MRI indicates a high likelihood for a positive finding.

The German Cancer Research Centrehttp://tinyurl.com/hh7zsnl

New clinical-trial findings show that patients with a low-grade form of brain cancer who are treated with radiation plus a combination of chemotherapy drugs have better survival than patients treated with radiation alone.

The study comes from a randomized phase III clinical trial of 251 people with grade 2 gliomas, tumours that occur mostly in young adults and cause progressive neurological problems and premature death. Researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center

Amputees sometimes experience shooting pains or burning sensations in limbs that are no longer there. These sensations seem to originate in the spinal cord and brain, perhaps because neural pathways are receiving mixed signals that something is not right.

A clinical trial by Emory Saint Joseph

Acromio-clavicular joint dislocation is one of the most common shoulder injuries orthopedic surgeons treat. Severe dislocations are often treated with surgery, but patients who opt for non-surgical treatment typically experience fewer complications and return to work sooner, according to new research.
The AC joint is located at the top of the shoulder between the collarbone and top of the shoulder blade. The AC joint is most commonly injured during sports, but can also be caused by motor vehicle accidents or falls.
For minor AC joint dislocations, surgeons often suggest patients wear a sling for a few weeks and undergo physiotherapy, rather than undergo surgery using a plate and screws.