A powerful new imaging technique called High Definition Fibre Tracking (HDFT) will allow doctors to clearly see for the first time neural connections broken by traumatic brain injury (TBI) and other neurological disorders, much like X-rays show a fractured bone, according to researchers from the University of Pittsburgh.
In the report, the researchers describe the case of a 32-year-old man who wasn
Preliminary results from an ongoing, large-scale study by Yale School of Medicine researchers shows that oxytocin
Dr. Fritz EilberResearchers from UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have found that by administering a PET scan to individuals with soft-tissue sarcomas after just a single cycle of neoadjuvant chemotherapy, they can predict increased survival in these patients.
Prior research by this multidisciplinary team of physician-scientists had shown that a combined PET/CT scan using a glucose uptake probe called FDG allowed them to determine the pathologic response of patients’ tumours after the first dose of chemotherapy drugs. They then wondered if the patients who showed a significant PET response after the first round of chemotherapy also were surviving longer.
‘We did find that patients who experienced an early PET response to treatment had significantly increased survival,’ said the study’s senior author, Dr. Fritz Eilber, an associate professor of surgical oncology and director of the Jonsson Cancer Center’s sarcoma program. ‘This is vital because patients want to know if the drugs are working and what that says about their ultimate outcome.’
In the study, 39 patients with soft-tissue sarcoma underwent a PET scan to measure their tumour
Hopes of at last controlling malaria in Africa could be dashed by the emergence of poor-quality and fraudulent anti-malarial medicines, warn experts. Unless urgent action is taken both within Africa and internationally, they argue, millions of lives could be put at risk. In a study published, an international team of researchers report that some cases of medicines on sale in Africa have been deliberately counterfeited by criminals or are of poor quality because of factory errors. Both types are not only potentially harmful to the patient but also risk promoting the emergence of drug resistance among the parasites that cause malaria.
According to the World Malaria Report 2010, malaria killed an estimated 781 000 people in 2009, mainly young children and pregnant women. It is caused by parasites that are injected into the bloodstream by infected mosquitoes.
The most effective anti-malarial drugs are the artemisinin derivatives, which have the advantages over other anti-malarial drugs (such as chloroquine and mefloquine) of having few side-effects but the fastest action. Although the drugs have been used on their own as monotherapy, fears over the development of resistance mean that they are recommended for use in conjunction with one or more other drugs as artemisinin-based combination therapies, now recommended by the WHO as the first-line treatment for uncomplicated falciparum malaria globally.
There has been a dramatic rise in reports of poor-quality and counterfeit anti-malarials in Africa. To find out more about the different types of medicines circulating and what they contain, and to look for evidence of where they might have come from, the researchers examined anti-malarials – collected in 11 African countries between 2002 and 2010 – that they believed to be either counterfeit or substandard.
Analysis of the medicines showed that some counterfeits contained a mixture of wrong active pharmaceutical ingredients, some of which might initially alleviate malaria symptoms but would not cure malaria. Worse still, these unexpected ingredients could cause potentially serious side-effects, particularly if they were to interact with other medication that a patient was currently taking, such as anti-retroviral therapies for HIV.
Some of the counterfeits also contained small amounts of artemisinin derivatives, perhaps to try to ensure that the drug would pass simple authenticity tests. Taken at such low levels, the drug is unlikely to rid the body of malaria parasites, leading to the emergence of strains of the parasite resistant to artemisinin.
The researchers identified pollen found in some of the tablets, which indicated that the counterfeit medicines originated in eastern Asia. Indeed, in 2001, police in Guangzhou, China, arrested Nigerian and Chinese men for production of counterfeits of the anti-malarial halofantrine. No evidence of counterfeit pharmaceutical production in Africa was found in the pollen analysis; however, production facilities for packaging materials for counterfeit anti-malarials have been seized in Nigeria.
Dr Paul Newton from the Wellcome Trust-Mahosot Hospital-Oxford University Tropical Medicine Research Collaboration in Laos, who led the research, says: ‘Public health organisations must take urgent, co-ordinated action to prevent the circulation of counterfeit and substandard medicines and improve the quality of the medicines that patients receive. We must move finally away from the use of single drugs and towards the exclusive use of combination therapies.
‘The enormous investment in the development, evaluation and deployment of anti-malarials is wasted if the medicines that patients actually take are, due to criminality or carelessness, of poor quality and do not cure. Malaria can be readily treated with the right drugs of good quality, but poor-quality medicines – as well as increasing mortality and morbidity – risk exacerbating the economic and social impact of malaria on societies that are already poor.
Wellcome Trust
A study found babies born after 42 weeks were more likely to suffer behavioural problems such as ADHD in early life. Most UK mothers are induced before 42 weeks but pregnancies lasting beyond 43 weeks are not unknown.
Women should be aware of the risks of prolonging pregnancy, experts report.
The research was carried out in The Netherlands, where until recently it was commonplace for women to choose not to be induced if they were overdue. A study of more than 5,000 babies found those born after 42 weeks were more likely to develop behavioural problems than those born around their due date, and had more than twice the risk of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
Lead researcher Dr Hanan El Marroun from the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Erasmus MC-Sophia in Rotterdam said post-term as well as pre-term births seemed to be associated with long-term health effects.
She told BBC News: ‘Every pregnant woman knows that if the child comes early that’s not good, so why don’t we question the long-term effects of when a child comes too late?’
In the UK, guidelines state than women should be induced between 41 and 42 weeks, and warned about the possible complications if they wish to prolong pregnancy. Complications include a higher risk of stillbirth and difficulties in delivering large babies.
However, a minority of women, dubbed ‘the 10-month mamas’, believe a baby will come in its own time and avoid medical intervention.
BBC
Laser-based measurements are proving to be a promising method for the assessment of osteoporosis. The team led by Professor Jussi Timonen has developed an ultrasound technique that use laser beams for a rapid and accurate assessment of osteoporosis. The research is part of the Photonics and Modern Imaging Techniques Research Programme of the Academy of Finland and involves input by researchers from the Universities of Jyv
A new method for measuring narrowing in the coronary arteries may allow patients to be assessed for a stent without having to take a drug with unpleasant side effects. Currently fractional flow reserve (FFR) involves inserting a wire into the artery to measure changes in blood pressure. This is sometimes used in addition to an angiogram to give a more clinically accurate measurement to help make the decision to insert a stent. However, FFR requires the patient to be given a drug such as adenosine to dilate blood vessels, which can cause unpleasant side effects including facial flushing and shortness of breath. Although there is good evidence that FFR is useful, it is done in only 5-10 per cent of cardiac stenting procedures because it is costly, time-consuming and some patients cannot receive adenosine, such as patients with certain heart conduction diseases. Now, researchers at Imperial College London, UK have developed a way to measure narrowings in the arteries instantaneously, using the same instruments as FFR but without the need for a drug. The new investigational method, termed the instant wave-Free Ratio could benefit patients by making it easier to determine whether a stent is the best option.Like FFR, iFR works by inserting a wire into the coronary artery to measure blood pressure on either side of the narrowing. However it is possible to obtain a measurement during a particular time in the heart
In a significant departure from earlier models, neural engineers and neuroscientists working at Stanford University have developed a new model for the brain activity underlying arm movements. Motor neurons do not represent external-world parameters as previously thought, but rather send a few basic rhythmic patterns down the spine to drive movement. The finding has implications in prosthetics, the understanding of motor disorders and other uses yet to be discovered.
The neurons that control movement are not a predictable bunch. Scientists working to decode how such neurons convey information to muscles have been stymied when trying to establish a one-to-one relationship between a neuron
About 71,500 women in the United States are diagnosed with a gynaecologic cancer every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Researchers from University Hospitals Case Medical Center have developed a more effective way to treat gynaecologic cancers, shortening radiation treatment time from five weeks to three days.
The new method, stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) has been used on other types of cancer, but University Hospitals Case Medical Center is the first treatment facility to apply it to gynaecologic cancers.
Dr. Charles Kunos, who co-authored the article, said the radiation therapy machine ‘looks like a robot you would make cars with, and targets specific cancer cells.’
Unlike traditional radiation therapy, SBRT uses focused radiation beams and targets well-defined tumours. In order to focus in on the region, the tumours need to be imaged and marked (using fiduciary markers) in advance. During treatment with the Cyberknife system (from Accuray), patients need to be immobilised, and even the movement from the patient
The driving bass rhythm of rap music can be harnessed to power a new type of miniature medical sensor designed to be implanted in the body.
Acoustic waves from music, particularly rap, were found to effectively recharge the pressure sensor. Such a device might ultimately help to treat people stricken with aneurisms or incontinence due to paralysis.
The heart of the sensor is a vibrating cantilever, a thin beam attached at one end like a miniature diving board. Music within a certain range of frequencies, from 200-500 hertz, causes the cantilever to vibrate, generating electricity and storing a charge in a capacitor, said Babak Ziaie, a Purdue University professor of electrical and computer engineering and biomedical engineering.
‘The music reaches the correct frequency only at certain times, for example, when there is a strong bass component,’ he said. ‘The acoustic energy from the music can pass through body tissue, causing the cantilever to vibrate.’
When the frequency falls outside of the proper range, the cantilever stops vibrating, automatically sending the electrical charge to the sensor, which takes a pressure reading and transmits data as radio signals. Because the frequency is continually changing according to the rhythm of a musical composition, the sensor can be induced to repeatedly alternate intervals of storing charge and transmitting data.
‘You would only need to do this for a couple of minutes every hour or so to monitor either blood pressure or pressure of urine in the bladder,’ Ziaie said. ‘It doesn’t take long to do the measurement.’
The device is an example of a microelectromechanical system, or MEMS, and was created in the Birck Nanotechnology Center at the university’s Discovery Park. The cantilever beam is made from a ceramic material called lead zirconate titanate, or PZT, which is piezoelectric, meaning it generates electricity when compressed. The sensor is about 2 centimeters long. Researchers tested the device in a water-filled balloon.
A receiver that picks up the data from the sensor could be placed several inches from the patient. Playing tones within a certain frequency range also can be used instead of music.
‘But a plain tone is a very annoying sound,’ Ziaie said. ‘We thought it would be novel and also more aesthetically pleasing to use music.’
Researchers experimented with four types of music: rap, blues, jazz and rock.
‘Rap is the best because it contains a lot of low frequency sound, notably the bass,’ Ziaie said.
The sensor is capable of monitoring pressure in the urinary bladder and in the sack of a blood vessel damaged by an aneurism. Such a technology could be used in a system for treating incontinence in people with paralysis by checking bladder pressure and stimulating the spinal cord to close the sphincter that controls urine flow from the bladder. More immediately, it could be used to diagnose incontinence. The conventional diagnostic method now is to insert a probe with a catheter, which must be in place for several hours while the patient remains at the hospital.
‘A wireless implantable device could be inserted and left in place, allowing the patient to go home while the pressure is monitored,’ Ziaie said.
The new technology offers potential benefits over conventional implantable devices, which either use batteries or receive power through a property called inductance, which uses coils on the device and an external transmitter. Both approaches have downsides. Batteries have to be replaced periodically, and data are difficult to retrieve from devices that use inductance; coils on the implanted device and an external receiver must be lined up precisely, and they can only be about a centimeter apart.
Purdue University
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