Investigators at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have used magnetoencephalography (MEG) – a technology that measures brain activity by detecting the weak magnetic fields produced by the brain’s normal electrical currents – to measure levels of the iron-based mineral called magnetite in the human brain. While magnetite is known to be present in the normal brain and to accumulate with age, evidence has also suggested it may play a role in neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s disease.
“The ability to measure and localize magnetite in the living brain will allow new studies of its role in both the normal brain and in neurodegenerative disease,” says David Cohen, PhD, of the Martinos Center, corresponding author of the report published in Human Brain Mapping. “Studies could investigate whether the amount of magnetite in the hippocampal region could predict the development of Alzheimer’s disease and whether treatments that influence magnetite could alter disease progression.”
Cohen was the first to measure the magnetic fields generated by currents within the brain when he was at the University of Illinois in 1968. After he moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1969, the development of highly sensitive magnetic detectors – along with the availability of a room well shielded from external magnetic fields – significantly improved detection of the magnetic fields produced by the brain, as well as the heart and lungs. Since then, MEG has developed into a valuable tool for research – particularly for its ability to precisely measure when a brain signal occurs, in contrast to functional MRI that can reveal where it takes place – and to guide surgical treatment of brain tumours and epilepsy.
While magnetite particles were first reported in the human brain in 1992, until now their presence could only be studied in post-mortem brains. Previous studies found higher levels of magnetite in the brains of older individuals – implying age-associated accumulation of the particles – and suggested that magnetite may play a role in neurodegenerative diseases. For example, magnetite particles have been associated with the characteristic plaques and tangles in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. The current study came out of Cohen’s investigation of MEG signals produced by direct current (dc) magnetic fields, rather than the better understood alternating current fields.
The earliest dcMEG mapping studies found only a single source of dc magnetic fields of the head, produced when healthy hair follicles over the scalp were lightly pressed. The availability of an advanced dcMEG system at the Martinos Center has allowed the detection of new phenomena, including for the first time, fields produced by magnetic material within the head. This observation led Cohen, who joined the Martinos Center in 2001, and lead author Sheraz Khan, PhD, to investigate the ability of dcMEG to measure the amount and the location of magnetite in the brains of healthy volunteers.
The study enrolled 11 male participants aged 19 to 89 – all with little or no hair, to avoid interference from the hair-follicle signal – who underwent an initial baseline dcMEG scan before being placed in a powerful MRI scanner, both to acquire an MR image and to magnetize any magnetite particles within their brains. A second dcMEG scan taken several minutes later revealed changes in the magnetic field that reflect the size and shape of magnetite particles, as well as other factors. Alignment of the MEG and MRI images allowed precise localization of the magnetic signals.
The results found greater accumulation of magnetite in the brains of the oldest volunteers, primarily in and around the hippocampus – the structure in which memories are encoded – replicating the findings of post-mortem studies. The rate at which the magnetic signal dissipated, which could reflect the size of magnetite particles, was measured by subsequent dcMEG scans taken from hours to several days later. The authors note that this new tool will be valuable for determining whether and how magnetite can be used in the diagnosis and potentially the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and other disorders.
Massachusetts General Hospital
www.massgeneral.org/about/pressrelease.aspx?id=2315

The 34th Korea International Medical and Hospital Equipment show held in Seoul last March gathered 1,313 exhibiting companies from 34 countries, including 649 domestic Korean manufacturers over 40,122 sq m of exhibition space. The 4-day  event attracted over 73,000 visitors from 92 countries. About 30,000 items of medical equipment, including high tech devices, medical information systems, rehabilitation equipment and healthcare supplies were presented at the show. Over the years, KIMES has succeeded in establishing itself as the leading technology-oriented and most prominent medical exhibition in the whole of the South East Asian region.
In tune with this year‘s theme ‘Think the Future’, a number of exhibitors, mostly domestic,  were involved in robotic solutions applied to healthcare, showing a variety of robotic medical devices, for example medical sterilization robots, artificial joint orthopedic surgery robots, walking assistance robots as well as robotic rehabilitation systems. There was even a special rehabilitation robot booth in Hall B.
For the third consecutive edition of the show, the Global Bio & Medical Plaza organized by KOTRA (Korea Trade Investment Promotion Agency) provided extra business opportunities for domestic exhibitors by helping to develop commercial and business relationships between foreign and overseas guests and Korean companies.
KIMES is a definite must for international buyers interested in the latest product developments from the particularly dynamic and innovative Korean medical device industry as well as for foreign companies keen to boost their market share in the Korean growing healthcare industry fuelled by increasing consumer demand. KIMES 2019 will take place in Seoul from 14 to 17 March of next year.

KIMESwww.kimes.kr

Hologic, Inc. opened on March 21, 2019 its first Learning and Experience Centre in Zaventem, Belgium (a municipality neighboring Brussels). The state-of-the-art facility provides comprehensive training for customers, healthcare professionals and employees across Hologic’s Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, centralizing the education experience for Hologic’s technologies.
Radiologists, lab technicians, obstetrician-gynecologists and many other healthcare professionals count on Hologic solutions to perform when lives are at stake. The 1,500m2 Learning and Experience Centre contains fully equipped training labs with demonstration capabilities for technologies from all four of Hologic’s divisions (Breast & Skeletal Health, Diagnostic, Gynecological Surgical and Medical Aesthetics) to ensure the highest level of understanding and provide hands-on experience.
“The opening of our new Hologic Learning and Experience Centre in Brussels is a significant milestone in our company’s history and reflects our deep commitment to providing unparalleled training and support to our customers,” said Jan Verstreken, Regional President EMEA and Canada at Hologic. “Hologic is a global champion for women’s health and brings leading-edge technology to healthcare systems around the world. The patient is our greatest priority and when their health is in question, nothing is more important to us than providing the most accurate, effective, and timely diagnosis or treatment. As Hologic continues to gain recognition as a leader in women’s health, we commit to supporting the healthcare systems and their patients by ensuring the absolute best use of our truly unique technologies, for the direct benefit of millions of patients in the region.”
For the first time, Hologic will bring training and education for all its products under one roof – located at the heart of Europe – to offer the most cohesive, convenient and interconnected experience. Products featured at the Hologic Learning and Experience Centre include:
3Dimensions™, a mammography system that delivers the fastest, highest resolution 3D™ images and is clinically proven to be more comfortable and enhance workflow; Panther Fusion^®, a fully automated, integrated molecular testing platform with true sample-to-result automation, adaptable workflow options, and a consolidated testing menu; NovaSure®, a minimally invasive, one-time, five-minute endometrial ablation procedure to reduce or stop abnormal uterine bleeding; PicoSure^®, a laser workstation to remove tattoos and revitalize skin by reducing the appearance of wrinkles, acne scars and pigment-like freckles, sunspots and discoloration.
The creation of Hologic’s European hub and the consolidation of key European functions, including customer service, will create up to 60 new jobs in Belgium over the next 12 months. Each year, the new Learning and Experience Centre is expected to welcome several thousand visitors including healthcare professionals, key opinion leaders, current and prospective customers, distributor partners, and employees.

Common beliefs and misconceptions in the community about dementia are still proving obstacles to treatment despite a rise in public awareness campaigns,
Researchers from Flinders University in South Australia pooled the results of 32 dementia surveys from around the world published between 2012 and 2017 and found that public awareness of the causes of dementia has not changed.
Almost half of the total 36,519 respondents had the common misconception that dementia was a normal part of ageing and was not preventable. The importance of formal educational attainment and management of cardiovascular were acknowledged by less than half of respondents even though regular exercise has been proven as the single most powerful influencer of brain health.
The public also tended to endorse poorly supported risk reduction strategies such as taking vitamin supplements, ahead of more effective but time consuming and energetic strategies, such as exercise regimes.
“We were surprised to find that dementia literacy is still so poor, given how much effort has been put into improving understanding,” said lead researcher Monica Cations.
“The view that dementia is a normal part of ageing with few treatment options is a demonstrated barrier to both preventive health behaviours and to help-seeking and diagnosis in the event that symptoms emerge.”
The 32 surveys were sourced from Europe(12), the United States (11), Asia (7) and Australia (2).
The findings and associated problems are outlined in the paper, What does the general public understand about prevention and treatment of dementia? A systematic review of population-based surveys, which has been published by PlosOne.
There are about 47 million people living with dementia worldwide.
While research has not yet discovered a cure, there is accumulating evidence about the potential to prevent approximately one third of cases of dementia with management of risk factors such as poor educational attainment, hypertension, and depression.
The recently adopted World Health Organization (WHO) Global Action Plan on Dementia urges all countries to implement campaigns to raise awareness about dementia. The plan includes a global target that all member countries will have at least one public awareness campaign on dementia by 2025.
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0196085http://theleadsouthaustralia.com.au/category/industries/health/

In the last few decades, dozens of new breast cancer drugs — from chemotherapies to targeted compounds — have become available for clinical use, and mammogram technology has gone from film to digital. But are the changes making a difference in how many women die of breast cancer?
The answer to that question is a resounding yes, according to a multi-institutional network of researchers who have modelled the effect of breast cancer screening and treatment on mortality rates.
The researchers’ models showed that screening and treatment reduced breast cancer mortality by 49 percent in 2012, compared with 37 percent in 2000.
“These numbers represent very positive news for breast cancer patients,” said Sylvia Plevritis, PhD, professor of radiology and of biomedical data science at the Stanford University School of Medicine and lead author of the paper. “Advances in screening and treatment are saving patients’ lives, and this paper quantifies just how much of a difference these advances are making.”
In 2005, Plevritis and her colleagues in the Cancer Intervention and Surveillance Modeling Network used data from 1975 through 2000 to reveal the relative contributions of screening and treatment to reductions in breast cancer mortality rates. Using knowledge of how breast cancer advances, they developed models representing how many women would die of the cancer with no screening and no treatments, then simulated the effect of screening and treatment on those mortality numbers.  
The decrease in mortality from the modelled baseline, they found, was about 50 percent due to screening and 50 percent due to treatment.
“Now, over 10 years later, a lot has happened in the field,” said Plevritis, who heads the Stanford Center for Cancer Systems Biology. “We’ve moved from film-based mammography to digital; there are new molecularly targeted treatments and new types of chemotherapy regimens. We wondered whether these advances had changed the relative contributions of treatment and screening on breast cancer mortality.”
Advances in screening and treatment are saving patients’ lives, and this paper quantifies just how much of a difference these advances are making.
So researchers in the network updated their models to reflect molecular subtypes of breast cancer. Six independent teams — including researchers from Stanford, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Erasmus Medical Center, Georgetown University Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, the University of Wisconsin, Harvard Medical School and MD Anderson Comprehensive Cancer Center — put together models representing the effect of current treatment and screening.
The group added new data — spanning 2000 to 2012 — to the existing data and compared the conclusions of each model, calculating average effects on mortality of screening and of treatments, including chemotherapy, hormone therapy and the drug trastuzumab, which targets an epidermal growth factor receptor, ERBB2, overexpressed in some tumours. By comparing six models, the researchers were able to replicate the analysis, making the team more confident in results that were seen in all the models. Not only did they look at the effects on breast cancer as a whole, but on molecular subtypes of breast cancer, such as those that are ER positive, meaning that they grow in response to the hormone ostrogen.
“This time around, it was important to look at molecular subtypes because more women are being treated based on the molecular subtype of their tumour,” Plevritis said.
The researchers found that in 2012, screening and treatment together reduced breast cancer mortality by 49 percent. For all breast cancers together, 37 percent of that reduction was due to screening, and 63 percent was due to treatment.
However, when they looked at some molecular subtypes of cancer, the numbers varied. For ER-positive/ERBB2-positive cancer, the most common type and the type for which the greatest number of new targeted treatments are available, only 31 percent of the mortality decline was associated with screening, with 69 percent associated with treatment. For ER-negative/ERBB2-negative cancer, which has fewer treatment options, 48 percent of the mortality decline was associated with screening and 52 percent with treatment, similar to results from 2000.
“Newer drugs, particularly ones that are molecularly targeted, are associated with a greater reduction in breast cancer mortality than screening,” said Jeanne Mandelblatt, MD, MPH, professor of oncology and of medicine at Georgetown University and a senior author of the paper. “However, screening is still having a significant effect in reducing breast cancer deaths.”
In particular, the researchers pointed out, screening can lead to cancer detected at earlier stages and therefore less-intense treatments. Aside from reducing mortality rates, this can translate into fewer side effects and patient co-morbidities.

Stanford Medicinehttps://tinyurl.com/y87wczhd