New research demonstrates that the six-step hand-hygiene technique recommended by the World Health Organization is superior to a three-step method suggested by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in reducing bacteria on healthcare workers
Researchers have developed a new technique for killing bacteria in seconds using highly porous gold nanodisks and light, according to a study. The method could one day help hospitals treat some common infections without using antibiotics, which could help reduce the risk of spreading antibiotics resistance.
‘We showed that all of the bacteria were killed pretty quickly . . . within 5 to 25 seconds. That’s a very fast process,’ said corresponding author Wei-Chuan Shih, a professor in the electrical and computer engineering department, University of Houston, Texas.
Scientists create gold nanoparticles in the lab by dissolving gold, reducing the metal into smaller and smaller disconnected pieces until the size must be measured in nanometers. Once miniaturized, the particles can be crafted into various shapes including rods, triangles or disks.
Previous research shows that gold nanoparticles absorb light strongly, converting the photons quickly into heat and reaching temperatures hot enough to destroy various types of nearby cells
Two simple interventions — sterile tubing change in combination with hub scrub compliance — can significantly reduce the rates of central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) in children’s hospital neonatal intensive care units (NICUs), according to a multi-centre improvement collaborative.
“The practices we identified that are associated with lower central line infections should be considered by clinicians in efforts to decrease central line infection rates,” said Dr. Anthony J. Piazza, from Emory School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia. “These central line care practices can be incorporated into daily patient care. Lowering central line infections can decrease health care costs and may be associated with fewer deaths, shorter hospital stays, and improved developmental outcomes.”
Dr. Piazza and colleagues from 17 centres participating in the Standardizing Line Care Under Guideline (SLUG Bug) collaborative used orchestrated testing to identify infection practices that contribute to reductions in infection rates.
The collaborative CLABSI rate decreased from a baseline rate of 1.333 to 1.076 per 1000 line-days, a 19.28% reduction, according to the study.
Among the 14 centres that had decreased CLABSI rates during the study period, sterile tubing changes decreased rates by an average of 0.51 and the addition of hub scrub compliance monitoring decreased rates by an average of 1.25 per 1000 line-days.
“We are excited to have identified specific infection prevention practices that helped achieve very low rates of infection,” Dr. Piazza said. “We are hopeful these findings can spread to other areas of the hospital that are still working on lowering infection rates.”
Medscapehttp://tinyurl.com/hpbnysc
University of Miami Miller School of Medicine researchers have found a link between
Mindray has officially released its new premium Resona 7 ultrasound system recently. The system will be showcased for the first time at Medica 2015 in Dusseldorf, Germany, from November 16-19. Release in the North American market is scheduled for early 2016.
Resona 7 is powered by the revolutionary ZONE Sonography
The first prototype ultrasound sensors for a new improved breast screening technique have been developed as part of an Innovate UK funded collaboration between the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), University Hospitals Bristol (UHB), North Bristol NHS Trust (NBT), Precision Acoustics Ltd and Designworks. The team is now looking for commercial partners to translate the novel development into a clinical device.
NHS breast cancer screening in England is currently conducted using X-ray mammography, and further investigations may involve a clinical examination, more X-ray mammograms and conventional ultrasound.
During mammography, each breast is compressed between the two plates of an X-ray machine, which some women find very uncomfortable, and two X-rays are taken at different angles. However, the inability of 2D X-ray mammography to separate overlying tissue can lead to false positives and false negatives, and the hazards associated with ionizing radiation limit the frequency with which X-rays can be performed. Conventional ultrasound is highly operator-dependent and suffers from imaging problems, making cancerous tissue difficult to distinguish from healthy tissue.
NPL, UHB, NBT, Precision Acoustics and Designworks are developing a prototype clinical system for a new breast screening technique – using ultrasound computed tomography (UCT) – that may overcome the problems of diagnosing breast disease using conventional X-ray mammography and ultrasound scans. The new ultrasound method will be safer and lower cost than currently-used screening techniques, and the results should be easier for clinicians to interpret.
NPL has developed and patented a novel detection method employing pyroelectric sensors, which convert ultrasonic energy into heat, generating electrical signals which are eventually used to form the ultrasound image. These large-area thermal sensors should generate far fewer image artefacts than conventional piezoelectric detectors, which are sensitive to the phase of the arriving ultrasound waves.
In the new procedure, the patient
Physicists from the University of Sydney have devised a way to use diamonds to identify cancerous tumours before they become life threatening.
Their reveal how a nano-scale, synthetic version of the precious gem can light up early-stage cancers in non-toxic, non-invasive Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans.
Targeting cancers with tailored chemicals is not new but scientists struggle to detect where these chemicals go since, short of a biopsy, there are few ways to see if a treatment has been taken-up by a cancer.
Led by Professor David Reilly from the School of Physics, researchers from the University investigated how nanoscale diamonds could help identify cancers in their earliest stages.
‘We knew nano diamonds were of interest for delivering drugs during chemotherapy because they are largely non-toxic and non-reactive,’ says Professor Reilly.
‘We thought we could build on these non-toxic properties realizing that diamonds have magnetic characteristics enabling them to act as beacons in MRIs. We effectively turned a pharmaceutical problem into a physics problem.’
Professor Reilly’s team turned its attention to hyperpolarizing nano-diamonds, a process of aligning atoms inside a diamond so they create a signal detectable by an MRI scanner.
‘By attaching hyperpolarized diamonds to molecules targeting cancers the technique can allow tracking of the molecules’ movement in the body,’ says Ewa Rej, the paper’s lead author.
‘This is a great example of how quantum physics research tackles real-world problems, in this case opening the way for us to image and target cancers long before they become life-threatening,’ says Professor Reilly.
The next stage of the team’s work involves working with medical researchers to test the new technology on animals. Also on the horizon is research using scorpion venom to target brain tumours with MRI scanning.
University of Sydneyhttp://tinyurl.com/h8qj2ah
Plants and trees soak up water in the soil by letting it vaporize through pores in the leaves. Scientists have now taken this principle to develop a sweat sensor through which the sweat itself flows at a steady rate and is analysed.
Using laser micro-manufacturing, they made minuscule structures in flexible plastic and integrated a small analytic chip. Their work overcomes an important hurdle towards the development of flexible sweat sensors that can be stuck on the skin.
The substances in our sweat say much about our health, so sportsmen and women stand to gain quite alot as do medical applications. For instance, the saline concentration in sweat can tells us about cystic fibrosis while the acidity level is a decisive factor in certain skin diseases. To be able to monitor the development of this over time,
Researchers at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center have shown that patients who have chronic pain can reduce their emotional response to the pain through spinal cord stimulation.
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