A new study by University of North Carolina School of Medicine researchers found that 31 percent of children identified as at risk for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) at 12 months received a confirmed diagnosis of ASD by age 3 years.
In addition, 85 percent of the children found to be at risk for ASD based on results from the First Year Inventory (FYI), a 63-item questionnaire filled out by their parents, had some other developmental disability or concern by age three, said Grace Baranek, PhD, senior author of the study and an autism researcher with the Program for Early Autism, Research, Leadership and Service (PEARLS) in the Department of Allied Health Sciences at the UNC School of Medicine.
‘These results indicate that an overwhelming majority of children who screen positive on the FYI indeed experience some delay in development by age three that may warrant early intervention,’ she said.
Lead author of the study, Lauren Turner-Brown, PhD, also a researcher with PEARLS and the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities said, ‘Identification of children at risk for ASD at 12 months could provide a substantial number of children and their families with access to intervention services months or years before they would otherwise receive a traditional diagnosis.’
The First Year Inventory was developed by Grace Baranek, PhD, Linda Watson, EdD, Elizabeth Crais, PhD and J. Steven Reznick, PhD, who are all researchers with PEARLS. All are also co-authors of the study with Turner-Brown, published online ahead of print.
In the study, parents of 699 children who had completed the FYI when their child was 12 months old completed additional screening questionnaires when their child reached age 3. In addition, children who were found to be at risk for ASD based on these measures were invited for in-person diagnostic evaluations.
‘These findings are encouraging and suggest promise in the approach of using parent report of infant behaviours as a tool for identifying 12-month-olds who are at risk for an eventual diagnosis of ASD,’ Turner-Brown said. University of North Carolina Health Care

A pioneering surgical blood salvage technology developed at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, is set to transform the way major surgery is carried out by reducing blood loss in patients.

HemoSep is set to revolutionise the health care sector after gaining the CE mark and receiving Canadian national approval, following highly successful clinical trials in the world leading University of Kirikkale University Hospital in Ankara, Turkey.

The device is designed to recover blood spilled during open-heart and major trauma surgery and concentrate the blood cells for transfusion back to the patient. This process, known as autotransfusion, reduces the volume of donor blood required and the problems associated with transfusion reaction.

Professor Terry Gourlay, who led the development of the technology at the University

For women with abdominal pain or vaginal bleeding during early pregnancy, patient history and clinical examination alone are insufficient to indicate or eliminate the possibility of ectopic pregnancy, while transvaginal sonography appears to be the single best diagnostic method for evaluating suspected ectopic pregnancy, according to an analysis of previous studies.
The rapid identification and accurate diagnosis of women who may have an ectopic pregnancy is critically important for reducing the maternal illness and death associated with this condition. Ectopic pregnancy is the leading cause of first-trimester pregnancy-related death, responsible for up to 6 percent of maternal mortality during early gestation, according to background information in the article. ‘Fewer than half of the women with an ectopic pregnancy have the classically described symptoms of abdominal pain and vaginal bleeding. In fact, these symptoms are more likely to indicate miscarriage.’
John R. Crochet, M.D., of the Center of Reproductive Medicine, Webster, Texas and colleagues conducted a study to systematically review the accuracy and precision of the patient history, clinical examination, readily available laboratory values, and sonography in the diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy in women with abdominal pain or vaginal bleeding during early pregnancy. The researchers conducted a search of the medical literature and identified 14 studies with 12,101 patients the met the criteria for inclusion in the analysis.
The authors found that presence of an adnexal (structures near the uterus, such as the ovaries and the Fallopian tubes) mass in the absence of an intrauterine pregnancy on transvaginal sonography, and the physical examination findings of cervical motion tenderness, an adnexal mass, and adnexal tenderness all increase the likelihood of ectopic pregnancy. ‘A lack of adnexal abnormalities on transvaginal sonography decreases the likelihood of ectopic pregnancy. Existing studies do not establish a single serum human chorionic gonadotropin [hCG; a hormone] level that is diagnostic of ectopic pregnancy.’
‘Women with abdominal pain or vaginal bleeding during early pregnancy may have an ectopic pregnancy. This systematic review of the literature and meta-analysis confirms that the patient history and clinical examination alone are insufficient to indicate or eliminate the possibility of ectopic pregnancy. In a hemodynamically stable patient, the appropriate evaluation includes transvaginal sonography and quantitative (serial) serum hCG testing. Patients with signs and symptoms of excessive blood loss or hemodynamic collapse should immediately have gynecological evaluation.’ EurekAlert

Replacing the combination of brand-name, antiretroviral drugs currently recommended for control of HIV infection with soon-to-be-available generic medications could save the U.S. health care system almost $1 billion a year but may diminish the effectiveness of HIV treatment.  A study led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators examines the potential impact of such a change.

"The switch from branded to generic antiretrovirals would place us in the uncomfortable position of trading some losses of both quality and quantity of life for a large potential dollar savings," says Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH, of the MGH Medical Practice Evaluation Center, lead author of the study.  "By estimating the likely magnitude of these offsetting effects now

Researchers at UCLA report that they have refined a method they previously developed for capturing and analysing cancer cells that break away from patients’ tumours and circulate in the blood. With the improvements to their device, which uses a Velcro-like nanoscale technology, they can now detect and isolate single cancer cells from patient blood samples for analysis.
Circulating tumour cells, or CTCs, play a crucial role in cancer metastasis, spreading from tumours to other parts of the body, where they form new tumours. When these cells are isolated from the blood early on, they can provide doctors with critical information about the type of cancer a patient has, the characteristics of the individual cancer and the potential progression of the disease. Doctors can also tell from these cells how to tailor a personalised treatment to a specific patient.
In recent years, a UCLA research team led by Hsian-Rong Tseng, an associate professor of molecular and medical pharmacology at the Crump Institute for Molecular Imaging and a member of both the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA and UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, has developed a ‘NanoVelcro’ chip. When blood is passed through the chip, extremely small ‘hairs’