A team of biomedical engineers have developed a prototype of a low-cost portable device that can detect bacterial meningitis in babies replacing the existing painful and difficult lumbar puncture puncture test.

The innovative procedure consists of a simple, non-invasive, high-resolution ultrasound scan of part of the brain, called the fontanelle, through an opening between the cranial bones of babies under 12 months of age. The researchers created algorithms that analyse the image and can indicate, within seconds, whether cellularity, a sign of infection, exists in the cerebrospinal fluid.

The economical procedure, aims to revolutionize the detection of this illness, especially in developing countries where hospitals do not have the facilities to carry out the lumbar puncture. Without the test many children die or suffer serious complications as a result of bacterial meningitis. The procedure can be used without specialized training, and has already been tested on a small number of babies at the La Paz University Hospital (Madrid, Spain).

The research was carried out by the Madrid-MIT M+Visi

A simple screening tool predicts sepsis early in trauma patients and reduces mortality, according to a new study.

New evidence has been gained for the success of faecal microbial transplantation in treating severe Clostridium difficile infection, a growing problem worldwide that leads to thousands of fatalities every year. The findings have important implications for a range of diseases associated with microbial imbalance, or dysbiosis, researchers say.

Research led by Michael Sadowsky, Alex Khoruts, and colleagues at the University of Minnesota in collaboration with the Rob Knight Lab at the University of Colorado, Boulder, reveals that healthy changes to a patient’s microbiome are sustained for up to 21 weeks after transplant, and has implications for the regulation of the treatment. Findings also demonstrate the dynamic nature of faecal microbiota in FMT donors and recipients.

In FMT, faecal matter is collected from a donor, purified, mixed with a saline solution and placed in a patient, usually by colonoscopy. In contrast to standard antibiotic therapies, which further disrupt intestinal microflora and may contribute to the recurrence of CDI, FMT restores the intestinal microbiome and healthy gut function.
Using DNA samples of healthy individuals from the Human Microbiome Project (HMP) as a baseline, Sadowsky and his team compared changes in faecal microbial communities of recipients over time to the changes observed within samples from the donor. Significantly, the composition of gut microbes in the both donor and recipient groups varied over the course of the study, but remained within the normal range when compared to hundreds of samples collected by the HMP.

According to Sadowsky, the findings have important implications for a range of diseases associated with microbial imbalance, or dysbiosis, and could influence the regulatory regime surrounding FMT, currently treated as a drug by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (USFDA).

‘The dynamic nature of fecal microbiota in both the donor and recipients suggests that the current framework of regulation, requiring consistent composition, may need to be re-examined for faecal transplantations,’ says Michael Sadowsky. ‘Change in faecal microbial composition is consistent with normal responsiveness to shifts in the diet and other environment factors. Variability should be taken into account when comparing microbial composition in normal individuals to those with dysbiosis characteristic of disease states, especially when assessing clinical interventions and outcomes.

Also discovered in the research, the performance of frozen and fresh preparations of faecal material was indistinguishable. Though the sample was limited and warrants further study with a larger cohort, it has several implications for the widespread adoption of FMT. The frozen preparation greatly simplifies the standardization and distribution of the faecal material. It also facilitates long-term storage of donor material for future study and makes FMT accessible to a greater number of physicians and patients. Finally, it offers advantages over fresh material in the testing of faecal samples for pathogens, which in some cases can take several weeks to complete. ScienceDaily

Treatment with inhaled nitric oxide (NO) has proven to be life saving in newborns, children and adults with several dangerous conditions, but the availability of the treatment has been limited by the size, weight and complexity of equipment needed to administer the gas and the therapy

Patients with liver cancer can be cured with a liver transplant. But because of the shortage of donated organs, these patients often die waiting for a liver. That