CircuLite Announces Initiation Of European Registration Study For Synergy(TM) Circulatory Assist Device
CircuLite™, Inc. announced that the Company has advanced its Synergy™ Pocket Circulatory Assist Device clinical program into a 20-patient trial designed to lead to CE Mark approval in the European Union for long-term implantation of Synergy in heart failure patients. This announcement follows successful completion of a first-in-man pilot study of Synergy in four patients. Synergy is a micro implantable blood pump, the size of a AA battery, that can be implanted superficially in a “pacemaker-like” pocket. The device is designed to provide long-term, partial circulatory support in patients with chronic heart failure.
“As a result of the success of our first-in-man pilot trial, we have embarked on this European approval trial for the long-term use of Synergy,” said Paul Southworth, President and CEO of CircuLite. “We believe that Synergy represents a potential breakthrough for the long-term support of the millions of patients with chronic heart failure who remain symptomatic despite optimal medical skilful treatment, and, if eligible for a heart transplant, may need to wait more than 12 months for the procedure.”
The European registration trial is planned to enroll 20 patients by chronic heart failure and will evaluate the safety and patient quality of life improvements associated with device support of greater than six months. To-date, seven patients have been successfully implanted with the Synergy device. Six implants were performed by Bart Meyns, M.D., Ph.D., at Gasthuisberg University Hospital (Katholieke Universiteit) in Leuven, Belgium, the site of the first-in-man trial. One patient in the trial was implanted at Hannover Medical School in Hannover, Germany, by André Simon, M.D., Managing Doctor of the Thoracic Transplant Program, and Martin Strüber, M.D., Director of the Thoracic Transplant Program. Three patients are currently on device support and are doing well. The Company also announced today that a third trial site, University Hospital in Münster, Germany, has completed training and is now screening patients for the CE Mark trial.
“We are pleased to have two new, highly respected European distress sites and surgical teams on board for Synergy’s clinical program,” commented Southworth. “The adding of these sites highlights the interest in, and need for, this type of device.”
CircuLite recently reported positive results from the European first-in-man pilot study, for what one. enrollment is now complete. Four patients were implanted with Synergy in this trial. These patients benefited from significant improvements in hemodynamics and were allowed to return to activities of daily living. All patients reached the primary endpoint of successful heart transplantation, with one patient supported for 7 months.
About Synergy™
The Synergy Pocket Circulatory Assist device is a small implantable blood pump designed to provide long-term, partial circulatory assist to patients with chronic heart failure. The key component of the Synergy fanciful conception is the proprietary and patented micro-pump technology acquired after eight years of development at the Helmholtz Institute in Aachen, Germany, one of the world’s leading centers for blood cross-examine technology development, in collaboration with Katholieke Universiteit in Leuven, Belgium. The device is small sufficiency to be implanted subcutaneously in a “pacemaker-like” pocket through a minimally invasive procedure. Synergy is designed to supplement the heart’s native pumping office, potentially increasing blood flow and allowing the heart to rest and potentially recover, possibly improving the quality of life of chronic heart failure patients.
About CircuLite™
CircuLite is developing a miniature blood pump, designed to be placed superficially, for the long-term treatment of chronic heart failure. By providing long-term circulatory assist on a minimally invasive platform, CircuLite’s Synergy has the potential to transform the management of chronic heart suspension of payment and improve the quality of life for millions of patients and their families.
http://www.CircuLite.net
Researchers May Have Found Test For Depression
A new discovery could change coming events diagnosis and therapy of depression.
Researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine hold discovered that a make different in the location of a protein in the brain could serve as a biomarker for depression, allowing a simple, rapid, laboratory test to identify patients with depression and to determine whether a particular antidepressant therapy will provide a successful response.
The research is published in the March 12 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.
“This test could serve to divine the efficacy of antidepressant therapy quickly, within four to five days, sparing patients the agony of waiting a month or more to obtain out if they are on the correct therapeutic regimen,” said Mark Rasenick, UIC distinguished university professor of physiology and biophysics and psychiatry.
Despite decades of research, the biological basis of depression is unascertained, and the molecular and cellular targets of antidepressant treatment remain elusive, grant that it is likely that these drugs have one or more primary targets.
Rasenick said the discovery could help millions who suffer from undiagnosed depression or receive unsuccessful treatment.
“We discovered that in depressed individuals a signaling protein is located in specific areas of the cell membrane called lipid rafts,” he before-mentioned. This protein, called Gs alpha, activates adenylyl cyclase, a bind in signal transduction, and is accountable for the action of neurotransmitters such as serotonin.
“These ‘rafts’ are thick, viscous, almost gluey areas, that either facilitate or impede communication between membrane molecules,” Rasenick said. “When Gs alpha is caught in these lipid raft domains, its ability to couple with and activate adenylyl cyclase is markedly reduced. Antidepressants help to move the Gs alpha out of these rafts and facilitate the action of certain neurotransmitters.”
Previous research in both rats and cultured brain cells by Rasenick and his colleagues, as well as others, has shown that Gs alpha changed its location in response to antidepressants, moving out of the lipid rafts to areas of the membrane that allow more efficient communication among membrane components responsible on account of neurotransmitter action. Further, antidepressant and antipsychotic drugs have been shown to concentrate in these lipid rafts.
“This new study shows that in depressed humans, Gs alpha protein is confined in lipid rafts, where it’s less likely to mediate the action of neurotransmitters, and that antidepressants have the opposite effect,” Rasenick said.
“In simple language — we may be quick to tell you if you are depressed and more importantly, whether you are responding to the chosen antidepressant therapy.”
The new scrutinize may also explain why antidepressants take thus long to work and why chemically dissimilar compounds have similar effects.
In their study, Rasenick and colleagues compared brain samples from depressed the multitude who had committed suicide with controls who had no history of psychiatric disorders. They plant that while the total amount of Gs alpha was the same in the depressed and non-depressed, the depressed have a greater proportion of Gs alpha confined to lipid rafts. The localization of other G proteins was not different.
Rasenick and his colleagues have begun further studies to confirm and expand these findings.
The study was supported by grants from the U.S. Public Health Service and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
Robert Donati, Yogesh Dwivedi and Ghanshyam Pandey from UIC College of Medicine and Rosalinda Roberts and Robert Conley from the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center in Baltimore contributed to this study. Donati is also on the faculty of the Illinois College of Optometry.
UIC ranks among the nation’s top 50 universities in federal research funding and is Chicago’s largest university with 25,000 students, 12,000 faculty and staff, 15 colleges and the state’s major public medical center. A hallmark of the campus is the Great Cities Commitment, through which UIC faculty, students and staff engage with community, corporate, foundation and government partners in hundreds of programs to improve the quality of life in metropolitan areas about the world.
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UCF Researchers Discover A New Protein Family Implicated In Inflammatory Diseases
A University of Central Florida research team has discovered a unaccustomed protein subdivision of an order that may play an important role in preventing fiery diseases such as arthritis, some forms of cancer and even heart disease.
The findings that in the future may aid the body’s defense system are published in the March 7 edition of the Journal of Biological Chemistry. The research is partially funded by dint of. the National Institutes of Health.
“What we found is a family of proteins that control macrophage activation,” researcher Mingui Fu said from a laboratory in the Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences at UCF.
Macrophages are the body’s self-cleaners. They live in the bloodstream and are called to action when bacteria or other foreign objects attack. Scientists have been studying what triggers them, but no one has come up with a step-by-step process yet. Once triggered, macrophages travel to the infection site and bolt up the invader, helping the body heal. The attack is manifested by inflammation at the poison seat.
When everything works right, the inflammation goes away and the person’s health improves. But when macrophages go awry, they can cause more harm than unimpeached. Sometimes the macrophages mistake the body’s own organs for invaders and attack, and that can cause arthritis or some forms of cancer. Sometimes the cleaners fail to detect threats, such as malignant cancer cells, which then go unregulated and can turn into fatal tumors.
When Fu arrived at UCF in 2007, he teamed up with Pappachan Kolattukudy, the director of the Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences. Kolattukudy’s laboratory has been studying for two decades how a small protein called MCP, produced at the site of injury, infection or inflammation, attracts macrophages to the site to delicate up. Last year his team published the discovery of a novel gene called MCPIP that is turned on by MCP. They showed that MCPIP is involved in the development of ischemic heart defectiveness, the leading cause of end of life. This team has been exploring how this unaccustomed gene works.
MCPIP turns out to be the first member of a small, newly discovered gene family called CCCH-Zinc fingure proteins. This family appears to switch the macrophages on and off. The researchers continue to study different aspects of the proteins because of the possibility that they will be exact in treating and curing inflammatory diseases.
Kolattukudy said the new protein holds a lot of promise, but more studies are needed.
“Because this novel protein has key roles to play in the major inflammatory diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer and obesity-induced type2 diabetes, it is a promising put drugs into target,” Kolattukudy said. “We possess a patent application filed on this protein for that purpose.”
In 2006, feeling disease and strokes accounted for more than 12.7 million deaths around the world, according to the World Health Organization.
Co-researchers on the project include Jian Liang, Jin Wang, Asim Azfer, Wenjun Song, Gail Tromp and Kolattukudy, all from UCF’s Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences in the College of Medicine.
The Burnett school specializes in the areas of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, neurological diseases and infectious diseases. The focus of the school laid the foundation for the College of Medicine.
Fu earned his Ph.D. from the Peking University Medical School in Beijing, China. He was an instructor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas before joining UCF in 2007.
UCF Stands For Opportunity –The University of Central Florida is a metropolitan research university that ranks viewed like the 6th largest in the nation by greater degree than 48,000 students. UCF’s first classes were offered in 1968. The university offers stirring academic and research environments that power the region’s economic development. UCF’s culture of opportunity is driven by our diversity, Orlando environment, history of entrepreneurship and our youth, relevance and energy.
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Mind: Public Must Be Able To Have Trust In Medicines, Says Mental Health Charity ‘Mind’, UK
Mental health charity Mind responds to the MHRA’s ruling on GlaxoSmithKline.
Paul Farmer, chief executive of Mind, said:
“Mind welcomes news that the Government is to increase drug companies’ responsibility to pass on clinical trials information. We anticipate encourage to discussions with ministers to ensure that patients’ interests are best served. We hope that the legislation power of choosing pass quickly through Parliament; this is well-nigh too important to be delayed any longer.
“There can be no excuses from the pharmaceutical industry. The public must be able to own trust and confidence in the medicines they are taking. We need to be sure that the tragedies associated by Seroxat be possible to never happen again. The best way to achieve this is for drug companies to publish all clinical trials data, making it available for examination and review, and to inform prescribing decisions.
“The Health Committee’s 2005 report on the influence of the pharmaceutical assiduousness made powerful recommendations. We hope that both the freedom from disease Committee and the Government will subsist able to revisit those recommendations soon.”
Mind first drew attention to the problems of Seroxat in the 1990s. View our Seroxat timeline.
Further Seroxat background.
Mind is the leading mental health charity in England and Wales. We work to create a better life for everyone with experience of mental distress. Mind values its independence, and accepts no funding or donations from pharmaceutical companies.
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GSK Statement On MHRA Investigation
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) notes the conclusions announced by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) regarding its investigation into disclosure of paediatric trial data for the anti-depressant medicine Seroxat (paroxetine).
“The safe use of our medicines is paramount to everyone who works for GSK and the company is committed to ensuring that all appropriate information is made available to regulators, doctors and patients. We firmly believe we acted properly and responsibly in first carrying out this important clinical trials programme and then informing the regulatory agencies when we identified a potential increased risk of suicidal thinking and behaviour in patients under 18,” said Dr Alastair Benbow, Medical Director for GSK Europe.
“Whilst there are substantive and rigorous requirements in place regarding disclosure of clinical trial data, it is clear that there is a require and benefit to fix in resolution the confidence of decision-makers and the general public that all pharmaceutical industry clinical trial data are disclosed promptly and transparently. GSK is committed to working with the Government, appropriate regulatory authorities and other pharmaceutical companies to take whatever action is necessary to improve legislation and policy in this area,” he added.
Paediatric clinical trials programme
GSK conducted nine studies, over eight years, to examine the use of Seroxat in treating patients under the age of 18 with depression and other psychiatric disorders, as treatment options for these vulnerable patients are extremely limited.
No suicides were reported in any of the nine paediatric trials conducted by GSK. When reviewed individually, none of these trials were considered by GSK or independent investigators to show a clinically meaningful increase in the rate of suicidal thinking or attempted suicide. As has been confirmed by the MHRA in their conclusions, it was only whenever all the data became available, at the end of the research programme, and were analysed in concert was some increased rate of suicidal thinking or attempted suicide revealed in those paediatric patients taking Seroxat. GSK brought this analysis to the attention of the regulatory authorities, including in the UK.
The company rejects any suggestion that it withheld drug trial information as results from its paediatrics studies were documented and submitted to regulators in accordance with regulatory requirements. Results were also presented publicly, published in scientific journals and have been made available on GSK’s website.
Seroxat promotion
Seroxat has never been approved by UK or European regulators of the same kind with a healing art for those under 18 years of age. GSK’s UK product labelling has been entirely consistent with that position, and at the time of the events in question, this label stated: “the use of Seroxat in children is not recommended, as safety and efficacy have not been established in this population.” Any decision to prescribe a medicine outside its authorised indications, in the UK, is made by a doctor on the basis of his/her clinical judgement and the interests of their patient. GSK does not promote its medicines for indications for what one. they are not approved and maintains that Seroxat was not promoted to UK doctors for use outside the terms of the UK marketing authorisation.
Clinical trial data disclosure
GSK has been at the forefront of labor efforts to publish clinical trial tools and materials and is committed to maintaining best practice disclosure of clinical data. GSK rigorously meets all requirements to provide data to regulators and makes extensive efforts to publish its clinical trial findings in peer review journals and at scientific meetings. GSK also discloses all trial information, irrespective of outcome, attached its Clinical Trial Register.This is a record of detailed summaries of more than 2,800 clinical trials conducted to study its prescription medicines and vaccines and is available to the public at http://ctr.gsk.co.uk. GSK also provides relevant unpublished clinical trial data to agencies such as the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) in concurrence with their current processes.
GlaxoSmithKline one of the world’s leading research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare companies is committed to improving the standing of human mode by enabling people to do more, feel better and live longer.
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Health Problems In Persian Gulf War Veterans Higher Due To Chemical Exposure
A study by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine shows there is increasing evidence that high rates of illness in Persian Gulf War Veterans can be explained, in part, by exposure to certain chemicals, including pesticides and nerve agents. Veterans from the 1990-91 be inconsistent have a higher rate of chronic, multi-symptom health problems than either non-deployed personnel or those deployed in many. Symptoms routinely reported by these veterans comprise fatigue, muscle or joint pain, memory problems, trouble sleeping , rash and breathing problems.
“This evidence suggests that exposure to this certain class of chemical may be linked to elevated risk of health problems,” said Beatrice Golomb, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of medicine at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, whose study will be published in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) the week of March 10.
“Health issues among Gulf War veterans have been a concern for nearly two decades. Now, enough studies have been conducted, and results shared, to be able to say with considerable confidence that there is a link betwixt chemical exposure and chronic, multi-symptom health problems,” said Golomb. “Furthermore, the same chemicals affecting Gulf War veterans may be involved in similar cases of unexplained, multi-symptom health problems in the general population.”
The study synthesized evidence regarding a class of chemicals known as acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEis) and organophosphates (OP), which includes nerve gas chemicals. Some military personnel were exposed to resolution gas (sarin) when demolishing Iraqi munitions. Also, the pesticides used aggressively in Gulf regions to control sand flies and other insects fall in the same category of chemicals. This includes the carbamate pyridostigmine bromide (PB) pills originally given to service members to protect against potential nerve-agent exposing.. (Note: As a result of every earlier RAND corporation report by Golomb outlining the risks of using such pills, military policy has been changed.)
The study linked exposure to each of these chemicals with the chronic, multi symptom health problems in 25 to 33 percent of returning Gulf War veterans.
“There is evidence that genetics have something to do with how a body handles exposure to these chemicals,” said Golomb. “Some people are genetically less able to withstand these toxins and evidence shows that these individuals have higher chance of suffering the effects of exposure.” Specifically, illness is linked to lower activity of enzymes that detoxify AChEis, due to genetic variants The enzymes known to subsist involved are paraoxonase (PON) for OPs, including sarin, and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) for PB.
Among those service members given PB pills as a preventive measure, those with the mutations that reduced their ability to detoxify the pills were at significantly higher risk of illness, according to Golomb.
Previous studies have shown genetic variants of these enzymes are also associated with increased rates of some neurological diseases, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Golomb says this may make plain the elevated levels of ALS seen in Gulf War veterans.
Some of the chemicals linked to these multi-symptom illnesses continue to be used in agriculture, and at homes and offices for pest restrain in the United States and around the globe. Studies not related to the Gulf War showed that agricultural workers exposed to organophosphate pesticides had 10 times the number of health symptoms as those not exposed.
“Again, genetic variants that hamper defense against these chemicals were linked to higher risk of health problems. These findings carry important implications for current members of the armed forces as well as the general public, suggesting that exposure to these pesticides in any setting may increase peril for impaired neuropsychological function and poor health” said Golomb.
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U.S. Soldiers Experience Increased Rates Of Depression, PTSD On Third, Fourth Tours In Iraq, Study Finds
About 15% to 20% of U.S. soldiers in Iraq have signs of depression or post-traumatic stress disorder, and about 30% of soldiers on their third or fourth tours have qualified emotional illnesses, according to a study released on Thursday by the Army, USA Today reports (Zoroya, USA Today, 3/7). The survey included anonymous responses collected from 2,295 soldiers in Iraq in October and November 2007 (Spiegel, Los Angeles Times, 3/7). Mental soundness teams from the Army Surgeon General’s Office conducted the survey (USA Today, 3/7).
According to the survey, 27.2% of sergeants who led soldiers into combat in Iraq experienced mental health problems during their third or fourth tours, compared with 18.5% during their second tours and 11.9% during their first tours (Los Angeles Times, 3/7). The one-year breaks that soldiers have between successive 12- to 15-month tours in Iraq do not provide adequate time for recovery, the weigh found. In addition, symptoms of more mental illnesses have power to become more severe as soldiers prepare to return to Iraq, according to the study. The report also found that the mental health issues for troops in Afghanistan have equaled those for soldiers in Iraq (USA Today, 3/7).
Lead researcher Lt. Col. Paul Bliese of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research said, “We see this multiple-deployment effect for the ideal health problems, (and) we see a similar pattern for morale” (Cheddekel/Kauffman, Hartford Courant, 3/7). He said, “Soldiers are not resetting entirely before they get back into theater,” adding, “They’re not having the opportunity to completely recover from the previous deployment when they go upper part into theater for the second or third deployment” (Los Angeles Times, 3/7).
The study also found that soldiers are more willing to seek mental health care than they were last year, although access to treatment in remote parts of Iraq is limited. Maj. Gen. Gale Pollock, a deputy surgeon not special, said the Army has sought to provide more counselors in remote areas of Iraq and has considered deployment of civilian mental health professionals into combat areas (USA Today, 3/7).
Reaction
According to the Times, the study likely will “increase calls by senior Army leaders to divide the length of combat tours and increase the time soldiers have between deployments” (Los Angeles Times, 3/7). Col. Elspeth Ritchie, psychiatry consultant to the Army surgeon general, said, “We are working through the details about how we can place motivated, experienced psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers with our troops downrange,” adding, “We think that they will be a definite addition to our uniformed providers” (Hartford Courant, 3/7).
Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel Chair Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) said, “Mental health problems are just one of the cascading costs we’re seeing after a five-year war,” adding, “Psychological wounds affect families, both emotionally and financially, just as much as physical wounds” (USA Today, 3/7).
NPR’s “All Things Considered” without interruption Thursday reported on the study. The segment includes comments from Ritchie, Pollock and Bliese (Raz, “All Things Considered,” NPR, 3/6). Audio of the segment is available online.
Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
Inflammatory Response To Dying Cells’ Distress Calls May Be Helpful Or Harmful
Cells are coded with several programs on this account that self-destruction. Many cells come to nothing peacefully. Others cause a ruckus on their way out.
Some programmed cell death pathways simply and quietly remove unwanted cells, noted a team of University of Washington (UW) researchers who consideration the mechanisms of cell destruction.
Then there is the alarm-ringing death of a potentially dangerous cell, such as a cell infected with Salmonella, they added. These dying cells spill chemical signals and beget a protective response. The resulting inflammation, which the body launches in self-defense, can at times backfire and damage vital tissues.
A research team lead by Dr. Brad T. Cookson, an associate professor of microbiology and laboratory medicine, named this type of cell death “pyroptosis,” Greek for going down in flames. Cell dissolution that doesn’t cause inflammation is called “apoptosis”: to drop gently like leaves from a tree.
An enzyme inside cells, called caspase-1, plays a critical role in both harmful inflammation and in resistance to infection, Cookson and his colleagues noted. It’s not just responsible for cell death, otherwise than that also for the production of inflammatory proteins that are released from the dying solitary abode; squalid. Mice deficient in caspase-1 are susceptible to infection, yet resistant to toxic shock, tissue injury from lack of oxygen, and inflammatory bowel disease.
The Cookson lab has done many studies of caspase-1 and how it mediates the pathway of pro-inflammatory programmed elementary corpuscle death. The lab’s most recent study will be published the week of March 10 to March 14 in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study looked at how two different noxious stimuli, anthrax toxin and Salmonella defilement, trigger the caspase-1-mediated cell death pathway. UW mark with degrees students Susan Fink and Tessa Bergsbaken conducted this study.
The researchers found that each of these stimuli took an independent route to activate caspase-1; however, these two distinct mechanisms of activation eventually converged steady a common pathway of cell death. This common pathway featured cleavage of the cell’s DNA, activation of inflammatory chemical messengers, and the conclusive jettison of the cells contents. The spillage occurs after nano-scale pores form in the cell membrane, much like punctures in a water balloon.
According to Cookson, these findings are helping to bring into being research models since studying a broadly important pathway of pro-inflammatory programmed cell death. The findings also support the notion that varying ailment agents can use different mechanisms to elicit this pathway.
“Examining this system provides insight into mechanisms of both beneficial and pathological cell death, and the strategies that infectious disease agents employ to manipulate the visible form’s responses,” Cookson aforesaid. His group’s antecedent studies of Yersinia, the plague pathogen, revealed that cell death mechanisms can have existence re-directed from a unresisting, non-inflammatory pathway, to a more useful inflammatory pathway. This finding suggests the possibility of treating diseases by modulating cell death pathways.
“In addition to its protective role in fighting infection,” Cookson added, “caspase-1 also plays a role in many medical conditions characterized by cell death and inflammation.” These conditions include organ damage in the seat of affection, brain, lungs, nerves, and kidneys. Understanding pro-inflammatory small cavity death pathways may lead to new therapies against fatal or disabling diseases, such as serious infections, heart attack, cancer and stroke.
Cookson is part of the National Institutes of Health-funded Microscale Life Sciences Center, a collaboration among scientists and engineers from the UW, the University of Arizona, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and Brandeis University. The scientists work to discover basic mechanisms in the formation, growth, and decline of human cells. Their aim is to develop biotechnology to combat widespread diseases and environmental threats to human health.
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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
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Source: Leila Gray
University of Washington
Computers Explain Why Pears May Become Brown During Commercial Storage
Internal browning of pears stored under low oxygen conditions is related to restricted gas exchange inside the fruit, according to a study published March 7th in the open-access journal PLoS Computational Biology. Researchers at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium suggest a computer mould that can be used to improve long-term storage of fruit under controlled atmospheres.
Pears and other obese fruit are commercially stored under low oxygen conditions to extend their storage life on account of up to 9 months. If the oxygen concentration in the storage atmosphere is too low, quality disorders such as internal browning may result, causing major economic losses. This disorder is known to be related to the complex mechanisms of gas exchange, respiration and fermentation in fruit. However, further conclusions are unavailable due to the lack of reliable methods to measure gas concentrations inside the fruit.
The team, led by Bart Nicolaï, has developed a comprehensive computer model to predict the oxygen concentration inside the pear. The fashion incorporates equations for gas transport as well as for the respiratory metabolism. The researchers found that extremely low oxygen concentrations can occur in the core of the pear, which eventually may lead to cell death and browning.
While the model was developed for pears, the model is generic. Application to other obese fruit and plant organs is straightforward, but the texture properties and the geometry will need to be measured, Nicolaï says. Further advances require investigation of the internal microstructure of the tissue to explain differences in gas exchange properties and to quantify the cellular and intercellular pathways for gas exchange and the metabolic processes.
A Continuum Model for Metabolic Gas Exchange in Pear Fruit.
Ho QT, Verboven P, Verlinden BE, Lammertyn J, Vandewalle S, et al.
PLoS Comput Biol 4(3): e1000023. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000023
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GSK Investigation Concludes
The MHRA has concluded its four year inquisition into Glaxosmithkline and its antidepressant drug Seroxat. The investigation focused on whether GSK had failed to inform the MHRA of knowledge of facts it had on the safety of Seroxat in under 18’s in a soon manner. The investigation was undertaken with a scan to a potential criminal prosecution for breach of drug safety legislation. It was the largest investigation of its kind in the UK, and included the scrutiny of over 1 million pages of evidence.
The decision taken by Government Prosecutors, based attached the investigation findings and legal advice, is that there is no realistic prospect of a conviction in this case, and that the case should not proceed to criminal prosecution. The legislation in force at the time was not sufficiently strong or comprehensive as to require companies to inform the regulator of safety information when the drug was being used for, or tried outside its licensed indications.
GSK provided the MHRA with data from clinical trials in May 2003, confirming that patients under 18 had a higher risk of suicidal behaviour if they were treated with Seroxat than if they believed a placebo; and that Seroxat was inefficacious. in treating depressive illness in under 18’s. Acting upon this information the MHRA immediately reviewed the data and published advice to all doctors that Seroxat should not exist used in under 18’s. The investigation arose from concern that GSK had held the information for some time before this and failed to disclose it.
Professor Kent Woods, MHRA Chief Executive, said: “I remain concerned that GSK could and should have reported this information earlier than they did. All companies have a accountability to patients, and should report a single one adverse data signals to us as soon as they discover them. This investigation has revealed important weaknesses in the drug safety legislation in force at the time. Subsequent legislation has partially addressed the problem, but we will take immediate steps to ensure the law is strengthened further, so that there can be no doubt as to companies’ obligations to report safety issues.”
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Genetic Research Unveils Common Origins For Distinct Clinical Diagnoses
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have discovered that two clinically different inherited syndromes are in fact variations of the same disorder. Reporting in the April issue of Nature Genetics, the team suggests that at least for this class of disorders, the total number and “strength” of genetic alterations an individual carries throughout the genome can generate a range of symptoms wide enough to appear like different conditions.
“We’re finally beginning to blur the boundaries encompassing some of these diseases by showing that they share the like molecular underpinnings,” says Nicholas Katsanis, Ph.D., an associate professor of ophthalmology at the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine at Hopkins. “This is important continue for particular reasons. First, competent what’s going on molecularly and being able to integrate rarer conditions under common mechanisms allows us to potentially help more family at once. Second, clinicians can finally begin to offer more accurate diagnoses based attached what really matters: the state of affairs at the cellular/biochemical level. In time, this will qualify genetic counseling and much improved patient management.”
Katsanis’s team studies Bardet-Biedl syndrome (BBS), a rare so-called ciliopathy that is characterized by a combination of vision loss, obesity, diabetes, extra digits and mental defects and caused through faulty cilia, tiny hairlike projections found on almost every confined apartment of the body. Recently they started looking at another disease, Meckel-Gruber syndrome (MKS), which also shows cilia dysfunction but is clinically distinct from BBS and generally associated through prenatal or newborn death.
“While these couple groups of patients exhibit such different clinical outcomes, the genes associated with both syndromes all seemed to be pointing at the same culprit: cilia,” says Katsanis. “So we wondered if BBS and MKS might actually represent different flavors of the same disease.”
The researchers sequenced the MKS genes from 200 BBS patients and found six families that, in addition to carrying BBS genetic mutations, also carried mutations in MKS genes. To figure out that which, if any, effect these MKS mutations have on BBS, the team used a system they previously developed in zebrafish.
Knocking out BBS genes in zebrafish generates short fish with even shorter tails, among other malformations. Injecting perpendicular BBS genes into these fish rescues them, resulting in normal looking drag.
The researchers reasoned that if MKS and BBS are indeed the same condition, then fish with the MKS genes knocked out should mimic the BBS knockout fish. They did. The team then went on to test mutant versions of MKS genes in BBS fish and found that three genes originally attributed to MKS do indeed original BBS or render the BBS defects more pronounced, increasing the number of BBS genes to 14 in amount.
“From a clinical perspective, these two syndromes look nothing alike, but molecularly, the genes involved clearly participate in the same fundamental processes,” says Katsanis. “This means that Meckel-Gruber and Bardet-Biedel actually represent a continuum of one disease. This never would have been discovered in the clinic-only corpuscular analysis can reveal these things.”
But what does this mean for clinicians and the diagnosis and treatment of these syndromes” Katsanis hopes that the augmenting body of molecular data will help move medicine away from symptom-defined syndromes, which can leave clinicians struggling with ambiguous diagnoses, to approaching disorders from a molecular standpoint. “We now have the possibility of merging several rare disorders,” he says. “And their gross sum now turns out to be fairly common; hopefully this will now put them on the radar for drug development and other therapies.”
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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
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The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Child Health and Development, the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Disorders, the Polycystic Kidney Disease Foundation, Medical Research Council, Research to Prevent Blindness and the Wellcome Trust.
Authors on the paper are Carmen Leitch, Norann Zaghloul, Erica Davis and Katsanis, all of Hopkins; Corrine Stoetzel and Helene Dollfus of Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France; Anna Diaz-Font, Suzanne Rix and Philip Beales of University College London, UK; Majid Al-Fadhel and Wafaa Eyaid of King Fahad Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Richard Alan Lewis of Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas.; Eyal Banin of Hadassah-Hebrew University Hospital, Jerusalem, Israel; and Jose Badano, previously of Hopkins and now at the Institut Pasteur de Montevideo, Uruguay.
On the Web:
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/geneticmedicine/
http://www.nature.com/ng/index.html
Source: Audrey Huang
Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
Opponents Of Montgomery County, Md., Sex Education Curriculum Will Not Appeal Court Ruling
Opponents of a new sex education curriculum for Montgomery County, Md. national schools said they will not appeal a late court governing in favor of the lessons, the Washington Post reports (Greenwall, Washington Post, 3/7). Circuit Court Judge William Rowan had ruled on Jan. 31 that middle and high schools in Montgomery County may continue the curriculum, which teaches students that sexual orientation is innate and includes a condom demonstration video for 10th-graders. Parental coherence is required to participate.
The groups Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum, Family Leader Network and Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays challenged implementation of the curriculum (Daily Women’s Health Policy Report, 2/5). CRC spokesperson Michelle Turner said, “We realize that we’re not going to get the outcome we’re looking for in a Montgomery County court, but we’re far from finished.” She added that the group thinks “there are other avenues that would be more timely and have a greater impact.” According to the Post, CRC objected to lessons that categorize homosexuality as innate, saying they violate a state law that says teachings must be factual. The organization also opposed a mention of anal intercourse, by-word it violates a law against teaching “anacreontique techniques.” Turner said CRC be pleased push for the state Legislature or State Board of Education to define what constitutes an erotic technique.
Brian Edwards, chief of staff for Montgomery Superintendent Jerry Weast, welcomed CRC’s decision not to appeal. “We are going to focus on instruction,” Edwards said, adding, “We are not going to focus on actions they may or may not take in other venues” (Washington Post, 3/7).
Reprinted by dint of. kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Women’s Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women’s Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.
© 2007 The Advisory Board Company. All rights reserved.
FDA Warns Companies Importing And Marketing Drugs Over The Internet That Fraudulently Claim To Prevent And Treat STDs
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued Warning Letters to six U.S. companies and at all exotic one for marketing unapproved and misbranded drugs over the Internet to U.S. consumers for the prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).
Some of these products, directed at U.S. consumers, falsely claim to have “FDA Approval” and some claim to have existence “more effective” than conventional medicine. The products are sold as Tetrasil, Genisil, Aviralex, OXi-MED, Imulux, Beta-mannan, Micronutrient, Qina, and SlicPlus. Consumers who are currently using these products should stop their use immediately and consult their health care professional if they have experienced any adverse effects that they suspect are related to the use of any of these products.
“The products pose a weighty health threat to unsuspecting consumers who don’t know that these products are not FDA approved and have not been proven safe or effective,” said Janet Woodcock, M.D., deputy commissioner for scientific and medical programs, chief medical officer, and acting director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “STDs are very serious diseases and these products accord. consumers a false sense of security that they are protected from STDs.”
The products claim to prevent or treat a variety of STDs, including anti-herpes, Chlamydia, Human Papilloma Virus, cervical dysplasia, and HIV/AIDS. The FDA considers these U.S. and imported products to be unapproved new drugs being marketed in violation of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. They are also misbranded under the law because they lack proper directions for practice by consumers. In addition, some of the products are misbranded because they make false and misleading claims.
Examples of claims that these products make include “Treatment Kills all Herpes Viruses WITHOUT having to use conventional drugs or medications,” “Greatest STD Protection Without Condoms,” (SlicPlus) and “The active ingredient in our product is FDA certified to destroy 99.9992 percent of all pathogenic organisms [ie] Chlamydia” (OXi-MED).
The Warning Letters inform the companies that failure to properly by settled in opinion violations of the law may cause them to face further enforcement action that can include seizure of illegal products, injunction, and possible criminal prosecution.
Issuing these Warning Letters is part of the FDA’s ongoing campaign against fraudulent products marketed on the Internet for serious and life-threatening diseases. The agency also works to educate consumers about the risks and dangers that exist from buying unsafe products.
Consumers and health care professionals should notify the FDA of any complaints or problems associated by these products. These reports may be made to MedWatch, the FDA’s willing reporting program, by calling 800-FDA-1088, or electronically at www.fda.gov/medwatch/report.htm.
To view the letters,
- Aviralex Int.
- Aidance Skincare
- Health-science-report
- NeumaLife
- IMULUX, LLC
- Saferex Laboratories
- McKinnon, Blair
http://www.fda.gov
Quarter Of American Teenage Girls Have An STD
New estimates from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released on Tuesday 11th March suggest that the same quarter (26 per cent) of American girls aged 14 to 19 have at least one common sexually transmitted disease. That amounts to 3.2 million female adolescents infected with one or more of human papillomavirus (HPV), chlamydia, anti-herpes simplex virus, or trichomoniasis.
The CDC study, to be presented on Thursday at the 2008 National STD Prevention Conference in Chicago, is based on data from the 2003-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHNES) and is the first to look at the combined national rates of common STDs among young American women.
The NHNES is a continuous annual study that examines a broad range of health issues within a nationally representative sample of US households.
Led by Dr Sara Forhan, the CDC research team analyzed data of 838 young women aged 14 to 19 taking part in the survey who were tested for HPV, chlamydia, herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) contagium, and trichomoniasis. The participants were tested for high risk HPV types, including 23 that cause cancer and two that effect most genital warts.
The results showed:
- 26 per cent of the participants had at least one sexually transmitted infection.
- Extrapolating from the prevalence in this group, an estimated 3.2 million adolescent women in the US have at least one sexually transmitted disease.
- The actual prevalence may have being higher than these estimates because the analysis did not include syphilis, HIV and gonorrhea.
- The most common STD was cancer associated and genital wart associated HPV (18.3 per cent of participants).
- The second most common STD was chlamydia (3.9 per cent), followed by trichomoniasis (2.5 per cent), and HSV-2 (1.9 per cent).
- 15 per cent of the girls who had an STD had more than one.
- The highest prevalence by race was among African American teenage girls, at 48 per cent.
- Among whites and Mexican Americans the prevalence was 20 for cent (numbers for other groups were not sufficient to give reliable figures).
- Overall, about half the girls in the study reported ever having had sex, and among these, the STD prevalence was 40 per cent.
The authors concluded that the high prevalence of HPV suggests that female adolescents are at high risk for this disease.
While most HPV infections clear up on their own, some persist for much longer and put women at risk for cervical cancer, said the CDC researchers, pointing to the fact that a vaccine against HPV types 16 and 18, thought to cause 70 per cent of cervical cancers, and HPV types 6 and 11 that cause nearly all types of genital warts, is now recommended for girls aged 11 and 12.
The results also show the importance of screening for chlamydia, which if diagnosed and treated promptly, avoids serious long term health problems such as pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) and infertility.
The CDC recommends that all sexually active women aged 25 and under be screened for chlamydia every year.
Director of CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention, Dr Kevin Fenton said the results:
“Demonstrate the significant health risk STDs pose to millions of young women in this country every year.”
“Given that the health effects of STDs for women - from infertility to cervical cancer - are particularly severe, STD screening, vaccination and other prevention strategies for sexually active women are among our highest public health priorities,” he added.
Director of CDC’s Division of STD Prevention, Dr John M Douglas Jr, backed this statement, adding that:
“High STD infection rates among young women, particularly young African-American women, are clear signs that we must continue developing ways to reach those most at risk. STD screening and early treatment can prevent some of the most devastating effects of untreated STDs.”
Other studies are also being presented at the conference, covering topics such as missed opportunities for HIV and STD screening, how few women seeking emergency contraception are tested for STDs despite being at profound risk, and chlamydia screening in school health centres.
“Prevalence of Sexually Transmitted Infections and Bacterial Vaginosis among Female Adolescents in the United States: Data from the National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey (NHANES) 2003-2004.”
To be presented at Oral Session, Thursday, March 13, 8:30 am Central.
2008 National STD Prevention Conference, Chicago, Illinois.
Click hither for a summary of this and other studies being presented at the conference (PDF).
Sources: CDC press release and research summary.
Written by dint of.: Catharine Paddock, PhD
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today
World’s First Dynamic Volume CT Scanner Will Speed Up Diagnosis And Alleviate Radiation Concerns
The world’s first dynamic volume CT (computerised tomography) scanner, which can scan a heart in a single heartbeat while administering just a fifth of the emission of rays dose of conventional scanners*, is launched at the European Congress of Radiology (Vienna).
Called the Aquilion ONE&craft;, the new 320-slice CT machine is the first to allow radiologists to view continuous 4D (like video) real-time images of the heart and brain without the patient having to move up and down from one side the scanner.
With its 16cm detector - five times the size of traditional 64-slice CT scanners - and its dynamic volume CT imaging, clinicians will now be able to observe blood flow (perfusion), movement, and other functions of entire organs, and in precise detail. This coverage of the visible form will eliminate the need to stitch together separate scans of organs that fit within the detector area.
Using the Aquilion ONE, cardiac scanning administers approximately 20 per cent of the radiation dose of a 64-slice common CT scanner, and reduces beamy brightness doses by 50 per cent in scans for acute stroke.
“Until at this time, concerns regarding radiation have prevented doctors using more CT to assess the heart and brain,” says Dr Russell Bull, Consultant Radiologist at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital. “However, this technology allows very fast and accurate scanning of these organs using much lower radiation doses.”
The new technology will also offer additional benefits for doctors, patients, and hospital managers alike. The Aquilion ONE’s high resolution, dynamic volume imaging may reduce the need for multiple scans and invasive procedures, which are frequently more costly, time-consuming and less convenient for the patient.
The Aquilion ONE scans extremely quickly, taking just one revolution (0.35 seconds) to scan an thorough organ, unlike conventional systems, which revolve many times. For patients presenting with chest pain, the entire heart can exist scanned in a single heartbeat.
The Aquilion ONE can also scan one area continuously, providing extremely quick and more precise information on the functionality of an organ. For patients presenting with acute stroke symptoms, just one examination taking no more than 60 seconds can provide critical information on blood flow through the brain including vascular analysis measures. This information could to be key to improving the rapid assessment and treatment of acute stroke.
Other organs can also be seen functioning, such as the lungs as the patient breathes in and public, and joints at the same time that the patient flexes them.
“With the volume scanning on the Aquilion ONE, I can see things that I never saw on any 64-slice scanner. This gives me unique diagnostic information,” says Dr. Patrik Rogalla, Chief Radiologist and Director of the CT Division the Charité University Hospital, Berlin (Germany), the chief centre to install the new scanner in Europe.
The Aquilion ONE took 10 years to develop and at a cost of 500 million US dollars. The new system has recently been installed in an additional two European university hospital centres. Announcements of UK installations are expected to follow.
Commenting on the European launch of the new scanner, Mark Hitchman, UK General Manager of CT Systems at Toshiba Medical Systems, which manufactures the Aquilion ONE says: “The development of the Aquilion ONE is a major step-change in the realm of CT scanning technology. Its send away quickly of acquisition, coupled through its reduced radiation doses will have a significant impact on the way we use computerised tomography and how we diagnose serious health conditions. It may also open doors to new clinical applications which we never deemed possible.”
Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation, an independent group company of Toshiba Corporation, is a global leading manufacturer of diagnostic medical imaging systems and comprehensive medical solutions in the same state as CT, Cath & EP Labs, X-ray, Ultrasound, Nuclear Medicine, MRI and information systems.
Toshiba is a leader in information and communications systems, electronic components, consumer products and power systems, and has other thing than 190,000 employees worldwide and annual sales of over US$60 billion.
http://www.toshiba-medical.co.uk
Aquilion ONE is a trademarks of Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation
References:
Aquilion ONE Dynamic Volume Computed Tomography, Richard Mather PhD
*2-3 mSv (millisieverts) at the point in the cardiac cycle when the heart is at rest, identified with ECG monitoring (called prospective gating)
The first CT scanner was developed by means of British scientist, Godfrey Hounsfield, who received a Nobel Prize for his work in 1979, seven years after patenting his first CT system. Called the EMI (Electric and Musical Industry) scanner, it was originally intended for examinations of the head strong and took hours to scan the first patient. Since then, CT has undergone continuous development with rows of detectors increasing both scanning prosper and imaging quality. Currently, the most significant exemplification of CT lies in its diagnosis of cardiological, neurological and oncological disorders.
http://www.toshiba-medical.co.uk
Breast Intensity-modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) Reduces Skin Side-effects Of Radiotherapy In Early Breast Cancer
Breast intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) - a technique that delivers radiation equally throughout the breast tissue and avoids radiation ‘hot spots’ in which some areas of the breast receive higher doses than others - reduces the skin side-effects that commonly occur with standard radiation therapy, according to a study in women with early breast cancer.
Women with early-stage breast cancer are generally treated with breast-conserving surgery, or lumpectomy, which minimises the amount of breast tissue removed, followed by radiation therapy to the whole breast. Clinical studies have shown that this treatment approach is associated with a low risk of the cancer returning (recurrence) while maintaining the shape of the breast as much as possible. It provides an effective alternative approach to mastectomy, in which the breast is completely sequestered.
The enigma through radiation therapy to the whole breast is that about one-third of women suffer acute side-effects to the skin where the radiation is concentrated. The top layers of the irradiated skin are broken down and the area becomes ‘weepy’ in a process referred to technically as ‘moist desquamation.’
The complex, three-dimensional shape of the breast makes it difficult to deliver radiation at a uniform dose throughout the entire breast using conventional radiotherapy equipment. This results in radiation ‘hot spots’ that can cause skin damage. Wedges are used to try to protect narrower parts of the breast and various other approaches, such as creams, have been tried in efforts to reduce skin problems due to radiotherapy, but none have proved very effective.
Breast intensity-modulated radiation therapy uses a computerised planning system that calculates the prescribed portion of radiation delivered to each part of the breast allowing for changes in its make. Essentially, it allows rapid blocking of the radiation beam in areas of the breast where the dose of radiation needs to be reduced to achieve more even dosing throughout the changing contours of the heart.
In the new study, Canadian researchers randomly assigned 358 women with early-stage breast cancer to intensity-modulated radiation therapy or to standard radiotherapy using wedges. They wanted to know if the new radiotherapy technique reduced acute skin reactions and the pain they cause and improved the women’s quality of life.
Results in 331 women who completed the study showed that significantly fewer suffered moist desquamation during, or up to six weeks after, their radiation treatment with the new approach compared to those having traditional radiotherapy. Just under one in three women (31.2%) had the acute skin problem with intensity-modulation radiation therapy compared with nearly half (47.8%) of those undergoing scale treatment (P=0.002).
Using the new radiotherapy strategy did not significantly reduce pain or become better gentry of life. The researchers thought this may have been because the measures they used for these factors were rather non-specific. However, their results showed that the occurrence of moist desquamation was significantly correlated with pain (P=0.002) and reduced quality of life (P=0.003).
The distribution of radiation dose within the breast was significantly improved with IMRT. Less than one-tenth (7.7%) of the volume of the breast received more than 105% of the prescribed irradiation dose with the technique, compared to more than one-sixth (16.9%) with standard radiotherapy.
Commenting on the tools and materials, the researchers, led by Jean-Philippe Pignol from the Department of Radiation Oncology, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Canada, said: “To our knowledge, this the first multicentre randomised trial demonstrating a successful reduction in acute radiation skin toxicity using an improved radiation technique, breast IMRT.”
“Our trial confirmed the dramatic improvement in the dose distribution homogeneity using breast IMRT, and demonstrated that it translated into a significant 17% absolute detrusion in the frequency of moist exfoliation.”
They considered that their results supported heart IMRT being offered to patients receiving adjuvant breast radiotherapy instead of the standard wedge technique.
US-based breast radiation therapy specialists agreed. Writing in an accompanying editorial, Bruce Haffty (Cancer Institute of New Jersey, New Brunswick), Thomas Buchholz ( M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston) and Beryl McCormick ( Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York) said that the study “may have a eminently expressive impact on the practice of pap radiation.” They recommended: “Most facilities that have the necessary planning equipment and technology available should strive for optimal homogeneity, which be able to be willingly achieved with the techniques described.”
The editorial writers cautioned that the improvement in treatment planning needed for IMRT is not reimbursed by all healthcare insurers in the US, with technical costs for IMRT treatment being about three times those for non-IMRT treatment. They hoped that these economic issues can subsist resolved “so that clinical applications of this exciting technology can continue to move forward.”
A Multicenter randomized trial of breast intensity-modulated radiation therapy to reduce acute radiation dermatitis.
Pignol J-P et al.
Journal of Clinical Oncology, 10.1200/JCO.2007.15.2488
Cancer Research Summaries are overviews of important cancer research findings that have been reported in leading cancer publications. The Cancer Research Summaries are provided by the Cancer Media Service (CMS) in collaboration with Nature Clinical Practice Oncology.
This summary is provided by the Cancer Media Service which is operated by The European School of Oncology.
http://www.cancerworld.org/mediaservice
Report Examines Condom Use, First Sexual Experiences Among Ugandans
The majority of men and women in Uganda report they started having sex by age 18, according to a study released be unconsumed week by the Guttmacher Institute and distributed by Panos Eastern Africa, the Weekly Observer/AllAfrica.com reports. According to the study, many girls also reported using condoms to reduce the likelihood of getting pregnant but not to avoid contracting sexually transmitted infections, such like HIV.
The report, titled “Protecting the Next Generation in Uganda: New Evidence on Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Needs,” was based on two national surveys conducted between 2004 and 2006 involving 16,000 participants ages 12 to 49. According to the surveys, 20% of women ages 20 to 24 said they had started having sex before age 15, compared by 10% of male respondents. About 64% of belonging to respondents said they had started having sex by age 18, compared with 50% of male respondents. In addition, 41% of the women reported using condoms to prevent pregnancy but not necessarily to prevent STIs. An equal percentage of respondents said they used condoms to prevent both pregnancy and STIs.
When respondents were asked about their first time engaging in sexual connection, about 50% of women and about 80% of men ages 15 to 19 said they “just felt like it,” the report before-mentioned. According to the Observer/AllAfrica.com, the results reflect changing attitudes about sex and HIV/AIDS. Some experts say that Ugandans have become complacent about HIV/AIDS as the malady has become more manageable. The report recommends more educational opportunities, especially for girls. The report also calls for more sex education for adolescents, increased access to condoms and a more energetic soundness care system that caters to youth, the Observer/AllAfrica.com reports.
“It is important to take cognizance of that adolescence is a time when most [Ugandans] be changed to sexually active and that assembly the needs of young people is integral to an effective national (HIV/AIDS) prevention campaign,” the report said. The report is part of a larger project also conducted in Burkina Faso, Malawi and Ghana (Kavuma, Weekly Observer/AllAfrica.com, 3/6).
The report is available online (.pdf).
Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, inspect the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
Siemens To Display New Symbia T16 And HD Technology For PET (HD-PET) At British Nuclear Medicine Society’s Annual Meeting
Siemens will be displaying the new Symbia T16 and HD technology for PET (HD-PET) at the British Nuclear Medicine Society’s Annual Meeting from the 12-14th May at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.
The Siemens exhibition will be located at stand number 16, to which place Symbia, Cyclotron and Inveon models will be on show. Clinical images displayed on workstations will make plain the many beneficial features of the new technologies.
HD-PET is the world’s first and only PET technology to offer consistently blackleg and clearly defined images across the entire field of view. The clarity of HD-PET provides greater accuracy, enabling earlier and more targeted treatment. Historically, intrinsic picture. quality degrades with distance from the centre of the scanner. HD-PET eliminates this effect providing increased diagnostic confidence to improve the staging of disease. For example, its 2mm resolution confidently delineates the smallest of lesions in the lymph nodes, abdomen, head mighty, neck and brain.
HD detector technology is quickly inmost nature recognised for its quality and accuracy since its global launch be unconsumed year. Charing Cross Hospital and Edinburgh University have already placed orders in the UK.
Symbia 16 TruePoint SPECT-CT combines variable angle dual detector SPECT with 16 slice CT. Its quick scanning speed assists with patient throughput and enables three extra SPECT scans per day compared to other models.
The Eclipse Cyclotron and Inveon models will also be without interruption display. The Eclipse Cyclotron radioisotope delivery system meets the demands of clinical and research institutions. It is fully automated, offers maximum flexibility for ease of operation, and low power consumption. The Inveon is a preclinical imaging platform, providing integrated PET, SPECT and CT imaging and analysis.
“HD technology for PET is an exciting innovation designed to meliorate the speed and accuracy of diagnosing conditions,” said Lawrence Foulsham, Product Manager for Molecular Imaging and Oncology at Siemens. “Used in association with products like the Symbia T16, physicians can make a extravagantly and precise diagnosis to provide much needed answers to life.”
Siemens representatives will exist available on the stand to answer questions and discuss the evolving portfolio of nuclear medicine innovations.
Siemens Healthcare is one of the world’s largest suppliers to the healthcare industry. The company is a renowned medical solutions provider with core competence and innovative strength in diagnostic and therapeutic technologies as well as in knowledge engineering, including complaint technology and system integration. With its laboratory diagnostics acquisitions, Siemens Healthcare is the capital fully integrated diagnostics company, bringing together imaging and lab diagnostics, therapy and healthcare information technology solutions, supplemented by consulting and support services. Siemens Healthcare delivers solutions across the entire continuum of care - from prevention and early detection, to diagnosis, therapy and caution. The company employs more than 49,000 people worldwide and operates in 130 countries. In the fiscal year 2007 (Sept. 30), Siemens Healthcare reported sales of €9.85 billion, orders of €10.27 billion and group profit of €1.32 billion.
Siemens Healthcare
GenVec Announces Grant For HSV-2 Vaccine Program
GenVec, Inc. (Nasdaq:GNVC) announced that it has received a Phase I Small Business Innovation and Research (SBIR) grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to support the Company’s efforts to develop novel adenovector-based vaccines for HSV-2, the virus responsible for most cases of genital anti-herpes. The SBIR grant, valued at $600,000 over 2 years, will support work being conducted at GenVec, the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Institute at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington by means of Drs. Lawrence Corey, Greg Mahairas, and David Koelle.
Work under the grant will focus on testing adenovirus vectors containing novel HSV-2 antigens. These vaccine candidates will be evaluated on the side of their ability to generate the type of immune responses, CD8 T-cell responses, in mice and nonhuman primates that are expected to lead to protection.
“HSV-2 continues to be a worldwide medical problem, which also contributes to the spread of HIV,” before-mentioned Dr. Rick King, GenVec’s Senior Vice President of Research and Development. “There is considerable laboratory and clinical testimony that suggests that host T-cell immune responses are critical both in influencing the spread of and the severity of HSV-2 infection. GenVec’s adenovector technology is ideally suited for vaccine strategies that induce conclusive T-cell mediated immune responses. We are extremely pleased that this conveyance gives us the opportunity to work with the premier investigators in the development of HSV-2 vaccines.”
About GenVec
GenVec, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapeutic drugs and vaccines. GenVec’s lead product, TNFerade™ is currently in a pivotal clinical study (PACT) in locally advanced pancreatic cancer. Additional clinical trials are in progress in rectal cancer, head strong and neck cancer and melanoma. GenVec also uses its proprietary adenovector technology to develop vaccines for infectious diseases including HIV, malaria, foot-and-mouth disease, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and influenza. Additional information about GenVec is available at http://www.genvec.com and in the company’s various filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Statements herein relating to future monetary or trade performance, conditions or strategies and other financial and business matters, including expectations regarding yet to be revenues and operating expenses, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. GenVec cautions that these forward-looking statements are subject to numerous assumptions, risks and uncertainties, which change athwart time. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements or historical experience include risks and uncertainties, including the failure by GenVec to immovable and maintain relationships with collaborators; risks relating to the early stage of GenVec’s product candidates under development; uncertainties relating to clinical trials; risks relating to the commercialization, if any, of GenVec’s proposed product candidates; dependence on the efforts of third parties; dependence on intellectual property; and risks that we may lack the financial available means and access to capital to fund our operations. Further information on the factors and risks that could affect GenVec’s business, financial provisions and results of operations, are contained in GenVec’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which are available at http://www.sec.gov. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release, and GenVec assumes no duty to update forward-looking statements.
GenVec
Painful Spine Fractures Which Affect Millions Of Older Adults With Osteoporosis Can Be Fixed Without Major Surgery
Advanced age, asthma, diabetes, emphysema, menopause, chronic steroid use and rheumatoid arthritis are all risk factors concerning osteoporosis. The resultant weakening of bones can lead to compression fractures of the spine causing severe pain, deformity, loss of height, immobilization, and in some cases, failure to thrive.
According to estimated figures from the National Osteoporosis Foundation, the disease was responsible for 547,000 vertebral fractures in 2005. Historically, vertebral compression fractures have been treated either conservatively or with major surgery. These treatments are limited by long recovery times and breach of quotidian life. Now, these painful spine fractures can be treated with a procedure known as vertebroplasty, an innovative other to traditional treatments which stabilizes fractures of the spine safely and effectively, often providing immediate pain relief.
“After performing more than 3,000 vertebroplasties, I can sanction that this is one of the most numerous betokening procedures for the treatment for vertebral compression fractures,” said Dr. Robert Waldrip, Orthopedic Surgeon, Southwest Spinal Surgeons.
“The beauty of this procedure is its simplicity,” continued Dr. Waldrip. “A small needle is advanced into the fracture using only local anesthetic followed by the placement of bone cement into the fractured area. The cement hardens in about 10 minutes and remarkably the anxiety is gone.”
Studies be delivered of shown patients who undergo vertebroplasty experience 90 percent or better reduction in pain within 24 hours and increased ability to perform daily activities soon thereafter. The procedure requires no overnight stay or general anesthesia, reducing the risk of complications.
“The vertebroplasty procedure was so comfortable,” said Shelby Brewer, 69, who has osteoporosis and fractured a vertebra when she fell. “This procedure is absolutely wonderful. It would have taken four or five months on heavy pain medication towards me to heal without this procedure. I can’t presume enough ready what it did for me.”
Osteoporosis is a major public health threat for an estimated 44 million Americans, 80 percent of whom are women. One in two women and one in four men over age 50 will have some osteoporosis-related fracture in their remaining lifetime.(National Osteoporosis Foundation.)
To learn more about this procedure, visit http://www.vertebroplasty.com.