A small, implantable device that researchers are calling a cancer
A new vibration-based prevention technology tested in a NICU reduces apneic events and improves critical clinical parameters in prematurely born infants.
Scientists and clinicians at UMass Medical School, Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) have shown in a clinical trial that a new vibration-based prevention technology tested in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) reduces apneic events and improves critical clinical parameters in prematurely born infants. The apnea prevention system, initially conceived at UMass Medical School, was developed at the Wyss Institute and tested in a trial conducted at the BIDMC.
In the United States, one in nine infants is born prematurely and many are at higher risk for apnea of prematurity (AOP), typically defined as a prolonged pause in breathing of at least 20 seconds. In fact, such apneic episodes occur in more than 50 percent of infants born prior to 37 weeks and in almost every baby of very low birth weight. The episodes can be life threatening. Even if treated in NICUs, they can result in insufficient oxygen delivery to critical organs such as the brain, which is suspected to cause developmental delays and long-term cognitive deficits.
Epilepsy affects more than 65 million people worldwide. One-third of these patients have seizures that are not controlled by medications. In addition, one-third have brain lesions, the hallmark of the disease, which cannot be located by conventional imaging methods. Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have piloted a new method using advanced non-invasive neuroimaging to recognize the neurotransmitter glutamate, thought to be the culprit in the most common form of medication-resistant epilepsy.
Glutamate is an amino acid which transmits signals from neuron to neuron, telling them when to fire. Glutamate normally docks with the neuron, gives it the signal to fire and is swiftly cleared. In patients with epilepsy, stroke and possibly ALS, the glutamate is not cleared, leaving the neuron overwhelmed with messages and in a toxic state of prolonged excitation.
In localization-related epilepsy, the most common form of medication-resistant epilepsy, seizures are generated in a focused section of the brain; in 65 percent of patients, this occurs in the temporal lobe. Removal of the seizure-generating region of the temporal lobe, guided by preoperative MRI, can offer a cure. However, a third of these patients have no identified abnormality on conventional imaging studies and, therefore, more limited surgical options.
‘Identification of the brain region generating seizures in location-related epilepsy is associated with significantly increased chance of seizure freedom after surgery,’ said the new study’s lead author, Kathryn Davis, MD, MSTR, an assistant professor of Neurology at Penn. ‘The aim of the study was to investigate whether a novel imaging method, developed at Penn, could use glutamate to localize and identify the epileptic lesions and map epileptic networks in these most challenging patients.’
‘We theorized that if we could develop a technique which allows us to track the path of and make non-invasive measurements of glutamate in the brain, we would be able to better identify the brain lesions and epileptic foci that current methods miss,’ said senior author Ravinder Reddy, PhD, a professor of Radiology and director of Penn’s Center for Magnetic Resonance and Optical Imaging.
Reddy’s lab developed the glutamate chemical exchange saturation transfer (GluCEST) imaging method, a very high resolution magnetic resonance imaging contrast method not available before now, to measure how much glutamate was in different regions of the brain including the hippocampi, two structures within the left and right temporal lobes responsible for short- and long-term memory and spatial navigation and the most frequent seizure onset region in adult epilepsy patients.
The study tested four patients with medication-resistant epilepsy and 11 controls. In all four patients, concentrations of glutamate were found to be higher in one of the hippocampi, and confirmatory methods (electroencephalography and magnetic resonance spectra) verified independently that the hippocampus with the elevated glutamate was located in the same hemisphere as the epileptic focus/lesion. Consistent lateralization to one side was not seen in the control group.
Penn Medicinehttp://tinyurl.com/jrbr5se
Children who are often hospitalized in intensive care units are more likely to have attention deficit disorders later, and new research finds a possible culprit: a high level of plastic-softening chemicals called phthalates circulating in the blood. The researchers, who will present their study results Friday at the Endocrine Society
Magnetic resonance image isn
Postponing the start of adjuvant chemotherapy for more than 90 days following surgery may significantly increase risk of death for breast cancer patients, particularly those with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), according to a new study from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Further, the researchers found that factors such as socio-economic status, insurance coverage and ethnicity were associated with delayed treatment.
Adjuvant chemotherapy, which is given after primary surgery, has been demonstrated to benefit patients by decreasing the risk of recurrence and death, explained Mariana Chavez Mac Gregor, M.D., assistant professor, Health Services Research and Breast Medical Oncology. However, delaying the start of adjuvant chemotherapy may allow small remnants of the tumour to grow or become drug-resistant.
Currently, there are no guidelines recommending the optimal time to initiation of adjuvant chemotherapy. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) considers the administration of adjuvant chemotherapy within 120 days of diagnosis for certain patients as a quality metric. Eleven cancer hospitals, including MD Anderson, are now reporting on this metric.
Past studies have suggested that delaying the initiation of therapy could result in adverse patient outcomes, but the optimal timing for starting adjuvant therapy has not been defined. To clarify this time frame relative to modern treatments and identify factors contributing to delayed treatment, the researchers analysed data from the California Cancer Registry.
This population-based study examined data from 24,823 patients with Stage I to III invasive breast cancer diagnosed between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2010 and treated with adjuvant chemotherapy. This is the largest study investigating the effects of delayed chemotherapy initiation with contemporary treatment regimens.
Researchers at the University of Waterloo have developed a revolutionary system for monitoring vital signs that could lead to improved detection and prevention of some cardiovascular issues, as well as greater independence for older adults.
Using patent-pending technology called Coded Hemodynamic Imaging, the device is the first portable system that monitors a patient’s blood flow at multiple arterial points simultaneously and without direct contact with the skin. It is ideal for assessing patients with painful burns, highly contagious diseases, or infants in neonatal intensive care whose tiny fingers make traditional monitoring difficult.
‘Traditional systems in wide use now take one blood pulse reading at one spot on the body. This device acts like many virtual sensors that measure blood flow behaviour on various parts of the body. The device relays measurements from all of these pulse points to a computer for continuous monitoring,’ said Robert Amelard, a PhD candidate in systems design engineering at Waterloo and recipient of the prestigious Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. ‘By way of comparison, think of measuring the traffic flow across an entire city rather than through one intersection.’
Continuous data collection at different parts of the body provides a more complete picture of what
People suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) could experience higher levels of visual stress than those without the condition, according to new research from the University of Leicester.
CFS, also known as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME), is a condition that causes persistent exhaustion that affects everyday life and doesn’t go away with sleep or rest. Diagnosis of the condition is difficult as its symptoms are similar to other illnesses.
A research team from the University of Leicester led by Dr Claire Hutchinson from the Department of Neuroscience, Psychology and Behaviour has examined patients with and without CFS and has found that those suffering from the condition are more vulnerable to pattern-related visual stress, which causes discomfort and exhaustion when viewing repetitive striped patterns, such as when reading text.
The results of the study, could help in the diagnosis of CFS, as the findings suggest that there are visual system abnormalities in people with ME/CFS that may represent an identifiable and easily measurable behavioural marker of the condition.
Dr Hutchinson explained:
Between 5 and 30 per cent of those who receive a new hip prosthesis will require a re-operation during their lifetime. New research shows that a high-resolution X-ray method can predict which patients have the greatest risk of re-operation.
In Sweden, around 16,000 hip prosthesis operations are done annually, and about an additional 1,100 re-operations are done where part or all of the prosthetic must be replaced or removed.
The risk of re-operation varies with the patient’s age: around 30 per cent of patients under 50 undergo a re-operation within 15 years, while the corresponding percentage for patients older than 75 is 5-10 per cent.
The risk of re-operations also increases after each new operation on the hip joint.
Over 30 years, researchers at Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg have developed a special examination method that makes it possible to measure the prosthesis movement relative to the bone using high-resolution X-rays (called radiostereometry). The method, which has now been evaluated in a doctoral thesis, can be used to predict which patients are at risk of re-operation.
‘With the radiostereometric method, we can discover movements in the artificial joint socket. Since these movements increase the risk that the prosthesis will loosen on the long term, the information can be used to predict re-operation,’ says Maziar Mohaddes, who is presenting the studies in his doctoral thesis.
According to the researchers, the radiostereometric method can predict at an early stage if new prosthetic models and surgical techniques are safe, and if they can be expected to improve the outcome in patients.
The technique in question is so specialized that it is primarily used in research.
According to Maziar Mohaddes, broader clinical use could both identify and to some extent reduce the scope of complications in hip operations.
University of Gothenburghttp://tinyurl.com/hx4pmgf
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