The Oxford Academic Health Science Network (AHSN) has recently published a study exploring the use of point-of-care (PoC) testing within a busy GP group practice in the United Kingdom, using HORIBA Medical’s novel Microsemi CRP PoC haematology analyser.
The MedTech company Hologic, with a primary focus on women’s health, has acquired SOMATEX Medical Technologies, a leader in biopsy site markers and localization technologies, for approximately $64 million. The company was previously owned by E-Med Solutions, Berlin, a group of investors led by German private equity company Westlake Partners.
Thanks to a new study from Columbia Engineering School, USA it may now be possible to diagnose non-periodic arrhythmias noninvasively and at low cost within a single heartbeat.
Non-periodic arrhythmias include atrial and ventricular fibrillation, which are associated with severely abnormal heart rhythm that can in some cases be life-threatening. Using Electromechanical Wave Imaging (EWI), the researchers sent unfocused ultrasound waves through the closed chest and into the heart. They were able to capture fast-frame-rate images that enabled them, for the first time, to map transient events such as the electromechanical activation that occurs over a few tens of milliseconds while also imaging the entire heart within a single beat. This means that physicians won
Proton therapy, a type of external beam radiation therapy, is a safe and effective treatment for prostate cancer, according to two new studies.
In the first study, researchers at the University of Florida in Jacksonville, Fla., prospectively studied 211 men with low-, intermediate-, and high-risk prostate cancer. The men were treated with proton therapy, a specialised type of external beam radiation therapy that uses protons instead of X-rays. After a two year follow-up, the research team led by Nancy Mendenhall, MD, of the University of Florida Proton Therapy Institute, reported that the treatment was effective and that the gastrointestinal and genitourinary side effects were generally minimal.
‘This study is important because it will help set normal tissue guidelines in future trials,’ Dr. Mendenhall, said.
In the second study, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Loma Linda University Medical Center in Loma Linda, Calif., and the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group in Philadelphia performed a case-matched analysis comparing high-dose external beam radiation therapy using a combination of photons (X-rays) and protons with brachytherapy (radioactive seed implants).
Over three years, 196 patients received the external beam treatments. Their data was compared to 203 men of similar stages who received brachytherapy over the same time period. Researchers then compared the biochemical failure rates (a statistical measure of whether the cancer relapses) and determined that men who received the proton/photon therapy had the same rate of recurrence as the men who received brachytherapy.
‘For men with prostate cancer, brachytherapy and external beam radiation therapy using photons and protons are both highly effective treatments with similar relapse rates,’ John J. Coen, MD, a radiation oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, said. ‘Based on this data, it is our belief that men with prostate cancer can reasonably choose either treatment for localised prostate cancer based on their own concerns about quality of life without fearing they are compromising their chance for a cure.’
EurekAlert
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
The full ‘ESC Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Acute and Chronic Heart Failure 2012’ will be available is online as of 14:30 hrs on Saturday 19 May 2012.
New recommendations on devices, drugs and diagnosis in heart failure were launched at the Heart Failure Congress 2012, 19-22 May, in Belgrade, Serbia.
The ESC Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Acute and Chronic Heart Failure 2012 were developed by the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) in collaboration with the Heart Failure Association (HFA) of the ESC. The Congress is the HFA
A cheap medical device can dramatically reduce the number of premature births in some at-risk women, according to a team of doctors in Spain. Being born before 34 weeks of pregnancy is linked to a host of health problems.
The study showed that using a ‘cervical pessary’ reduced the rate in the at-risk group. Doctors said more studies were needed before the technique was used routinely.
The authors said 13 million babies were born prematurely every year.
In the trial, doctors were looking at women who had a cervix – part of the lower section of the uterus – which was shorter than 25mm. These pregnant women are thought to be at a higher risk of an early delivery.
The cervix was measured between 18 and 22 weeks into the pregnancy by an ultrasound scan. Of the 11,875 women who took part in the trial, 726 had a cervical length less than 25mm. Half of these women had a pessary, a small ring of silicone, inserted into their cervix.
In the group of women without the pessary, 27% of babies were born prematurely. The rate was six per cent among those fitted with a pessary.
Maria Goya, one of the researchers at the Vall d’Hebron Hospital, said: ‘Placement of a pessary is an affordable procedure, non-invasive, and easy to insert and remove as required.’
The study concluded the pessary was a ‘reliable alternative for prevention of preterm birth’ in a group of at-risk women.
Prof Steve Thornton of the University of Exeter, a spokesman for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said: ‘The difference in the two groups is pretty amazing.’
He said more research was needed to prove that it worked, and to find out if it could help other women at risk of a premature birth.
‘If this is borne out it could make a big difference,’ he added.
BBC
Healthcare imaging specialist Barco has signed an agreement to acquire UK-based JAOtech, a leading manufacturer of patient entertainment and point-of-care terminals for hospitals. The acquisition fits within Barco’s long-term vision of increasing healthcare efficiency and its growth strategy of expanding into multiple healthcare segments. With the JAOtech terminals and associated software, Barco builds a strong position in the fast growing point of care (POC) segment in healthcare.
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