Market opportunities in the women’s healthcare imaging and nutrition segment are ripe, especially in developing nations where awareness of preventive medicine is rising. Issues afflicting women include breast cancer, urinary tract infections, anemia, cardiovascular diseases and osteoporosis. In response, the healthcare industry is progressively employing early diagnosis through screening and prescribing preventive solutions in the form of nutrients supplemented through diet.
Analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Technology Trends in Women’s Health, explores developments in the fields of health nutrients and health imaging for women. Manufacturers are trying to customize nutrients according to a woman’s lifecycle since the needs of prenatal, postnatal and menopausal women are different. The main health nutrients women consume are calcium, iron and vitamin D.
In imaging, technological advancements will focus on platforms that:

• Reduce the ionizing radiation dose;
• Provide physiological image data to highlight cellular activities indicative of cancer, rather than only using anatomical data;
• Allow image acquisition and viewing in more than two spatial dimensions;

‘Customized innovation is essential in the women’s health sector,’ said Technical Insights Industry Analyst Darshana De. ‘In addition to age-related nutritional requirements, a woman’s health needs vary according to geographic and consumer preferences. Demand is high for natural supplements, strong scientific evidence of health claims and minimal side effects. For instance, the constipation and gastrointestinal symptoms caused by available calcium tablets are driving innovations within the industry to provide a more natural form of calcium.’
In the women’s imaging segment, digitization is a sweeping trend. Hospitals and screening centres worldwide are digitizing systems to optimize workflows and enhance image clarity. Government initiatives are pushing several advances. A U.S. federal bill (HR 3102) mandates breast density reporting on a national level to generate interest in newer technologies improving image screening accuracy.
‘Tomosynthesis will become the primary screening modality; it offers the ability to view slices of the breast to better differentiate actual lesions from areas of overlapping dense tissue,’ noted De.
Similarly, government-initiated screening programs, designed to diagnose osteoporosis in developed countries, are encouraging bone density scans and boosting the sales of densitometry systems. However, the high initial investment for scanning systems and reimbursement issues can bring challenges to the market.

Frost & Sullivanhttp://tinyurl.com/jkgj7xz

UHCW pathologist David Snead and scientists in Coventry are now using technology that could revolutionize how some cancers are diagnosed.
A high-tech computer system is able to read samples of human tissue and aid pathologists in the identification of minute changes in cells that can indicate cancer is present. More than 10,000 slides were examined in the first phase of the study which shows that pathologists are as good at accurately diagnosing cancer on a computer as they are with a microscope.
The ground breaking technology has the power to help pathologists grade some types of tumours, including lung, prostate and bladder tumours with precision. In prostate cancer, for example, this could make the difference between someone being offered surgery rather than drug based treatments.
The computer system known as The Omnyx Precision Solution, can help pathologists to see the small differences in cells in the same way that they have currently been using a microscope, allowing them to make sound decisions on many aspects of cancer diagnosis.
The Omnyx system digitizes slides which are traditionally placed on a microscope so that pathologists can look at them on a computer. Once on the computer, the UHCW scientists have written programmes which will separate normal from abnormal samples.
David Snead said: ‘I am delighted that University Hospital, Coventry has led this ground breaking study. This provides even greater evidence that digital pathology really works, and works well. The introduction of digital pathology has fantastic potential benefits for patients. We can expect to be able to read samples more quickly than before, and the big advantage is that we can use the computer to easily manipulate an image or its data. For some patients, this additional information may change how their disease is managed.’

University Hospitals Coventry http://tinyurl.com/gw4c993

Over sedation among critically ill adult patients in intensive care units has been shown to be associated with longer duration of ventilation, longer hospital stay and adverse patient outcomes, such as withdrawal and delirium. Daily sedation holds have been shown to mitigate many of these problems. However, the evidence in the critically ill pediatric population is not well established. Vet et al. have conducted a multicentre randomized control trial among intensive care units in the Netherlands comparing protocolized sedation (PS) to protocolized sedation with daily sedation interruptions (PS+ DSI).
There was no difference between groups in ventilator-free days. The cumulative drug doses did not significantly differ between the two groups. The need for intermittent bolus administration in the DSI + PS group counterbalanced the reduction in continuous sedation. The essence of DSI is to minimize sedation use. The authors argue that protocolized management in control arm may have minimized sedation such that it negated any potential beneficial effect in the treatment arm. However, not all studies demonstrate a benefit in protocolized sedation practice. Furthermore, the expected mean number of ventilator-free days in the sample size calculation was lower than observed in the study, likely due to the selection of relatively more stable patients.
The authors also discuss the increased mortality among the treatment group. This is most likely to represent a type 1 error. No explanation for the increased deaths was found by independent review, and similar studies do not demonstrate a similar finding. Furthermore, the authors claim that the ‘timeframe between active participation in the study and death makes a causal relationship unlikely’.
In the PS group, there were significantly more re-intubations compared to the PS +DSI group (9 vs. 2, p = 0.03). The authors suggest that patients in the DSI + PS group were possibly more alert and therefore extubation may have been more successful. However, relatively small numbers make it difficult to be certain.
There are two previous studies of DSI in pediatric populations. Both show shorter durations of mechanical ventilation, shorter ICU stays and less use of sedatives. However, protocolized sedation was not used in the control arm of one study and the primary pathology among patients in the other study was very different (with a predominance of neurological as opposed to respiratory illness).
It is difficult to draw any firm conclusions from this study based on the small number of patients enrolled. However, it raises a number of important issues, including the difficulty in recruiting patients in pediatric ICU studies. A pragmatic protocol, which may allow a greater proportion of screened patients to be enrolled, may benefit future studies.

European Society of Intensive Care Medicine http://tinyurl.com/hsajzzt

The UK-based inventors of CAERvest, a revolutionary new device for the treatment of heatstroke, are undertaking a clinical trial to be held at this year’s Hajj in September. The trial is being led by a team of doctors from the prestigious King Abdullah Medical City (KAMC) and will assess the effectiveness of treating heatstroke earlier than has ever before been possible. It is expected that hundreds of lives will be saved during the study.
Every year millions of pilgrims attend the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca (Makkah), Saudi Arabia which is scheduled to be performed over five days. Attendees travel from all over the world to undertake the ritual acts that all Muslims must perform (if able) at least once during their lifetime.
This annual event is a phenomenal undertaking for the Saudi Arabian government hosts. Many challenges have to be overcome when preparing for a mass gathering of millions of people in a confined area and over such a short space of time. Over the years there have been a variety of incidents that have led to fatalities and the Saudi authorities have taken many positive steps, often at great expense, to avoid further such issues.
One serious, progressive and very often fatal danger facing pilgrims is heatstroke. Heatstroke is a medical emergency in which people who are exposed to extreme temperatures (such as the daily average of over 45degree CelsiusC faced at Mecca) succumb to rapid body overheating which, at best, requires urgent medical treatment and, at worst (in up to 50percent of cases), can prove fatal.

The date for Hajj moves every year to follow the lunar Islamic calendar. This means that for the next decade or so Hajj will be moving from the relatively cooler autumn months into the much hotter summer period, increasing the likelihood of pilgrims suffering from the condition. For some time the Saudi authorities have been searching for a simple, effective and portable treatment that can be applied immediately.
CAERvest is a single use device which can be easily carried and is activated and applied in under a minute and gets to work at once. It has been shown to reduce human core body temperature from 42degree CelsiusC (which can be rapidly fatal) to safe levels in minutes and, if needed, continues cooling the patient down to normal on the way to hospital. The earlier that treatment can be started, the more favourable the outcome will be for the patient.

Caervest.com

Adelaide researchers have made a world-first breakthrough in the early detection of patients’ resistance to a common treatment for chronic myeloid leukaemia, offering some hope that the patients’ treatment could be changed sooner to improve their chances of survival.

The researchers – based in the Cancer Theme at the South Australian Health & Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) and the University of Adelaide’s School of Medicine – have developed a new test that they believe could be adopted by doctors worldwide.

Lead author and postdoctoral researcher Dr Laura Eadie says one-in-five chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) patients are resistant to the leading treatment of their condition.

‘The development of the targeted drug Glivec for chronic myeloid leukaemia has been one of the most remarkable success stories in cancer treatment over the past two decades. This is because the drug targets the mutant protein that causes their leukaemia,’ Dr Eadie says.

‘However, about 20% of patients have a poor response to Glivec, and until now we haven’t fully understood why. Unfortunately, this means that one-in-five patients could be receiving treatment that ultimately is not benefitting them, losing response to therapy and reducing their chances of survival.’

The study looked at the role of P-glycoprotein, a protein that pumps many drugs – including Glivec – out of leukaemia cells.

‘Some patients were found to have higher levels of P-glycoprotein in their leukaemic cells after just a few weeks of starting therapy. These patients were much more likely to develop resistance to Glivec later on,’ Dr Eadie says.

‘We’ve found the greater the increase in P-glycoprotein in patients, the greater their risk is of becoming resistant and not responding to their drug any more, or even succumbing to their disease.’

The research team’s work shows, for the first time, that assessing a patient’s levels of the P-glycoprotein soon after they start receiving Glivec therapy will help to predict that patient’s long-term response to the drug.

‘This new test, developed in our laboratory, may provide an opportunity for doctors around the world to change treatment strategies for those patients most at risk of doing poorly on Glivec before they actually lose response to the therapy,’ Dr Eadie says.

University of Adelaide www.adelaide.edu.au/news/news86562.html