A new nanotechnology-based technique for regulating blood sugar in diabetics may give patients the ability to release insulin painlessly using a small ultrasound device, allowing them to go days between injections
Scientists at Bonn University Hospital and at the Max Planck Institute for neurological research in Cologne have developed a method with which the chances of success of a surgical procedure for temporal lobe epilepsy can be accurately predicted. The rate of accurate predictions is more than 90%.
When many nerve cells simultaneously fire in the brain, an epileptic seizure results. The most frequent form is temporal lobe epilepsy. It originates in one of the two temporal lobes which contain, among other things, important structures for co-ordinating memory. Because many patients do not respond to medication over the long term, the seizure focus in the affected temporal lobe is often removed in a neurosurgical procedure. However, approximately one-third of patients who undergo surgery do not experience any subsequent improvement.
A new report released by the Epidemiological Research Unit on Perinatal Health and Women
A simple measurement of the sweat gland activity of a depressed person can determine if he or she is suicidal
After a diving accident left Jason DiSanto paralysed from the neck down in 2009, he had to learn how to navigate life from a powered wheelchair, which he controls with a sip-and-puff system. Users sip or puff air into a straw mounted on their wheelchair to execute four basic commands that drive the chair. But results from a new clinical study offer hope that sip-and-puff users like DiSanto could gain a higher level of independence than offered by this common assistive technology.
In the study, individuals with paralysis were able to use a tongue-controlled technology to access computers and execute commands for their wheelchairs at speeds that were significantly faster than those recorded in sip-and-puff wheelchairs, but with equal accuracy. This study is the first to show that the wireless and wearable Tongue Drive System outperforms sip-and-puff in controlling wheelchairs. Sip-and-puff is the most popular assistive technology for controlling a wheelchair.
The Tongue Drive System is controlled by the position of the user
New research from Japan brings hope of a new treatment for asthma patients resistant to corticosteroids. In a study researchers from the RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences and Keio University in Japan report that a type of lymphocytes called natural helper (NH) cells plays a critical role in corticosteroid resistance and demonstrate that the anti-psychotic drug Pimozide can be used to overcome resistance to steroids in severe asthma patients.
Asthma is a chronic disease characterised by a persistent inflammation of the airways. The condition can be controlled with a moderate dose of inhaled corticosteroids in most patients. However, 5-10% of patients with ‘severe asthma’ respond poorly to a maximal dose of steroids. These patients experience uncontrolled and frequent asthma symptoms that have a profound impact on their quality of life and health care costs. Unveiling the mechanism leading to steroid resistance in these patients is therefore crucial for the development of a new, effective therapy.
T lymphocytes and NH cells in the asthmatic lung produce proteins named interleukin (IL)-5 and IL-13 that are responsible for severe airway inflammation. In asthma patients, inhaled steroids function by suppressing both T lymphocytes and NH cells.
However, in severe asthma patients, another protein called interleukin-33 (IL-33) produced in the airways strongly activates NH cells to produce IL-5 and IL-13, leading to severe airway inflammation.
In the current study, the researchers led by Drs Shigeo Koyasu from RIKEN and Koichiro Asano from Keio University, employed an experimental mouse model for airway inflammation to study the pathway leading to IL-33-mediated NH activation. Their research shows that NH resistance to steroids is induced by the protein thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP), present in the airways of severe asthma patients.
The team tested reagents that block the intracellular signals triggered by TSLP in NH cells. They identified one drug, Pimozide, an approved anti-psychotic drug, that restored the effects of steroids on NH cells.
‘Therefore, administration of Pimozide or related drugs would be an effective treatment in human severe asthmatic patients,’ conclude the authors.
RIKEN
The human brain is exquisitely adept at linking seemingly random details into a cohesive memory that can trigger myriad associations
Finnish company Merivaara is launching a new version of its integrated operating room system, OpenOR
Nurses caring for ostomy patients will now be equipped with an essential new tool that provides them with the first comprehensive guide to optimise ostomy management and enhance patient safety.
Janice Beitz, a professor at the Rutgers School of Nursing
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