July 26, 2006, 5:48 PM CT

Treating Severe Psoriasis

NICE's announcement comes as welcome relief to the thousands of UK patients who have exhausted current available treatment options and failed to sustain a long-term benefit. It is a positive sign for patients throughout Europe, whose healthcare systems are influenced by NICE decisions. Leeroy Blake in England was fortunate enough to be offered treatment with a biological therapy, after years of trying every other available psoriasis treatment: "For many years, I tried every suitable treatment but nothing seemed to relieve the painful itching. As the itching got worse, I would get more stressed and this only made my condition worse. Following a treatment review with my doctor, I was prescribed a biological therapy and for the first time since developing psoriasis, my skin started to clear and my confidence came back. This treatment might not be suitable for everyone with severe psoriasis, but I think that it's important that patients at least discuss this option with their doctor".

Latest research has dismissed the preconception that psoriasis is merely a skin complaint, with recent data showing that severe psoriasis can affect a patient's quality of life to a similar extent as other prevalent chronic diseases such as diabetes and even heart diseases.

In addition to the impact on a patient's appearance, up to 30% of patients with psoriasis have been reported to have psoriatic arthritis, which causes pain, stiffness and swelling in and around the joints. Coinciding with its decision on the use of biological therapies in moderate to severe psoriasis, NICE has also given its backing for the NHS to use Enbrel and Remicade (infliximab) to treat patients with severe, active psoriatic arthritis. Professor Robert Moots, Professor of Rheumatology at the University of Liverpool, UK welcomes this guidance commenting, "the NICE guidance is a positive step forward for those patients whose condition is severe enough to warrant treatment with biologic therapies" adding that "the onus is now on NHS trusts to take note of this recent recommendation and ensure that the necessary funding is in place to allow patients access to these much-needed therapies".........

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July 26, 2006, 5:43 PM CT

Regular Multivitamin Use Near Time Of Conception

Pittsburgh, July 26 Women who are considering becoming pregnant may significantly reduce their risk of developing a common life-threatening complication called preeclampsia by taking a multivitamin supplement regularly three months before conception and during the first trimester of pregnancy. This finding is being reported in a University of Pittsburgh study available online now through an "advance access" feature of the American Journal of Epidemiology. The paper is scheduled for publication in the Sept. 1 print issue of the journal.

Overall, women who used multivitamins regularly showed a 45 percent reduction in preeclampsia risk, according to the study. However, results were even more remarkable for women who were not overweight prior to pregnancy.

"Our data show that women who are not overweight before pregnancy and who used multivitamins at least once a week before conception and in the first three months of pregnancy reduced their risk of preeclampsia by a striking 72 percent compared to those who didn't take a multivitamin during this time period," said Lisa Bodnar, Ph.D., M.P.H., R.D., assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH). "At this time, multivitamin use makes little apparent difference in preeclampsia rates for women who are overweight before pregnancy. Even so, the results suggest that regular multivitamin use in the pre-pregnancy period may help to prevent preeclampsia".........

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July 26, 2006, 4:59 PM CT

New MRI Technique And 3-d Images Of Knees

A faster magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data-acquisition technique will cut the time many patients spend in a cramped magnetic resonance scanner, yet deliver more precise 3-D images of their bodies.

Developed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the faster technique will enable clinics to image more patients - particularly the burgeoning group of older adults with osteoarthritis-related knee problems - and can help researchers more rapidly assess new treatments for such conditions.

Magnetic resonance has long been touted as the ideal method for capturing 3-D images of the human body. "But unfortunately, it is kind of a slow technique," says Walter Block, an associate professor of biomedical engineering and medical physics. "You can only sample a few pieces of information needed to build the image at a time".

Consequently, most magnetic resonance technicians acquire images as a series of 2-D slices, which yield high resolution in a single plane and poor resolution in the remaining direction, he says.

To capture an image, a magnetic resonance scanner commonly conducts hundreds to thousands of little "experiments," or encodings, that help to make up the big picture. Block's data-acquisition technique capitalizes on recent magnetic resonance hardware advances that, coupled with a novel way of maintaining a high-level magnetic resonance signal throughout the scan, will speed an MRI session. "But to maintain the high-level signal," he says," you need to be able to complete each of these smaller encodings within a couple of milliseconds".........

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July 26, 2006, 4:55 PM CT

how much the eye tells the brain

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine estimate that the human retina can transmit visual input at about the same rate as an Ethernet connection, one of the most common local area network systems used today. They present their findings in the recent issue of Current Biology. This line of scientific questioning points to ways in which neural systems compare to artificial ones, and can ultimately inform the design of artificial visual systems.

Much research on the basic science of vision asks what types of information the brain receives; this study instead asked how much. Using an intact retina from a guinea pig, the researchers recorded spikes of electrical impulses from ganglion cells using a miniature multi-electrode array. The scientists calculate that the human retina can transmit data at roughly 10 million bits per second. By comparison, an Ethernet can transmit information between computers at speeds of 10 to 100 million bits per second.

The retina is actually a piece of the brain that has grown into the eye and processes neural signals when it detects light. Ganglion cells carry information from the retina to the higher brain centers; other nerve cells within the retina perform the first stages of analysis of the visual world. The axons of the retinal ganglion cells, with the support of other types of cells, form the optic nerve and carry these signals to the brain.........

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July 25, 2006, 8:53 PM CT

Overweight Teens Reduce Risk Of Diabetes

Teens at risk of developing diabetes can prevent or delay its onset through strength training exercise, a University of Southern California study has observed.

Research led by Michael Goran, PhD, professor of preventive medicine in the Keck School of Medicine of USC, showed that overweight Latino teenage boys who lifted weights twice per week for 16 weeks significantly reduced their insulin resistance, a condition in which their bodies don't respond to insulin and can't process sugars properly. Insulin resistance is common in obese children and is a precursor of diabetes. The findings were reported in the recent issue of Medicine and Science of Sports Exercise.

Prior research has demonstrated that aerobic and resistance exercise is effective in improving insulin sensitivity in adults, but no controlled studies of resistance exercise had been done on overweight youth. Goran and his colleagues hypothesized that overweight teens would be more likely to stick with a resistance training regimen in comparison to aerobic exercise because it is less physically taxing and gives visible results quicker.

The scientists chose to focus on Latino teens because they are at particular risk for diabetes. As per the Centers for Disease Control, about half of all Latino children born in 2000 are expected to develop type 2 diabetes in their lifetime.........

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July 25, 2006, 6:38 PM CT

What is hepatitis A?

What is hepatitis A?

Hepatitis A is a liver disease caused by hepatitis A virus.

How is hepatitis A virus transmitted?

Hepatitis A virus is spread from person to person by putting something in the mouth that has been contaminated with the stool of a person with hepatitis A. This type of transmission is called "fecal-oral." For this reason, the virus is more easily spread in areas where there are poor sanitary conditions or where good personal hygiene is not observed.

Most infections result from contact with a household member or sex partner who has hepatitis A. Casual contact, as in the usual office, factory, or school setting, does not spread the virus.

What are the signs and symptoms of hepatitis A?

Persons with hepatitis A virus infection may not have any signs or symptoms of the disease. Older persons are more likely to have symptoms than children. If symptoms are present, they commonly occur abruptly and may include fever, tiredness, loss of appetite, nausea, abdominal discomfort, dark urine, and jaundice (yellowing of the skin and eyes). Symptoms commonly last less than 2 months; a few persons are ill for as long as 6 months. The average incubation period for hepatitis A is 28 days (range: 15-50 days).........

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July 25, 2006, 6:33 AM CT

Take a deep breath

Image courtesy of stottpilates.com
Ventilation therapy burst into the public consciousness more than 60 years ago with the "iron lung" and the polio epidemic. Mechanical ventilation has come a long way since then and is used today with patients who cannot breathe on their own because of trauma, lung injuries and chronic lung disease.

But ventilation demands a delicate balance between over inflating and under inflating the lungs, either of which can lead to further injury. Researchers have found that pumping too much air overdistends the lung, leading to ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI).

Doctors currently use small amounts of air (low tidal volume) to protect against VILI. But low tidal volumes can lead to progressive closure of the lungs' air cells, called alveoli, reducing the lung's ability to exchange gases. One way to reverse closure of the alveoli is to periodically give a more robust puff of air, known as deep inflation.

A new study in the online edition of the American Journal of Physiology-Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology shows that low tidal volume combined with periodic deep inflation provides the best balance between keeping the lung open and preventing VILI in mice. And, using mice, these researchers have shown for the first time that although deep inflation is necessary, it can be overdone.........

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July 22, 2006, 10:46 PM CT

Watching Real-time Chemical Activity In Cells

Attempts to identify potential drugs that interfere with the action of one particular enzyme associated with heart disease and similar health problems led researchers at Johns Hopkins to create a new tool and new experimental approach that allow them to see multiple, real-time chemical reactions in living cells. Their report on the work is published July 21 in the journal ACS Chemical Biology.

Most current drug development operations test chemicals on enzymes isolated from their normal environs and then take further steps to see if the chemical can get into the cell to do its work, and figure out how poisonous the chemical is to a cell.

"Living cells are critical to our work because they show us how and what is actually happening in a normal context and time span when a chemical is added," says Jin Zhang, Ph.D., an assistant professor of pharmacology and molecular sciences in Hopkins' Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences.

Testing chemicals on enzymes in living cells provides the opportunity to find potential drugs that work in new ways. For example, using living cells allows scientists to "see" where in the cell chemicals do their work. Researchers could then design new drugs to go to specific places within cells to work more efficiently. Also, streamlining the one-at-a-time approach offers the chance to study - and rule out or in - a number of potentially useful chemicals at once.........

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July 20, 2006, 6:46 PM CT

Marketing Fortified Water To Mothers-to-be

Gretchen Cook-Anderson couldn't forget the bottles and bottles of water her doctor ordered her to drink during a difficult pregnancy with her twin boys in 2001.

That eventually led the former public relations agent to her new role as president and chief executive of Saphia Lifestyle Beverages of Silver Spring. Its first product, offered online, is bottled water billed as specially formulated for "nursing moms, expectant moms and hopeful moms-to-be".........

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July 19, 2006, 9:46 PM CT

Spinal Cord Stem Cell Transplantation is Safe

Transplanting human embryonic stem cells does not cause harm and can be used as a therapeutic strategy for the treatment of acute spinal cord injury, according to a recent study by UC Irvine researchers.

UCI neurobiologist Hans Keirstead and colleagues at the Reeve-Irvine Research Center found that rats with either mild or severe spinal cord injuries that were transplanted with a treatment derived from human embryonic stem cells suffered no visible injury or ill effects as a result of the treatment itself. Furthermore, the study confirmed previous findings by Keirstead's lab - since replicated by four other laboratories around the world - that replacing a cell type lost after injury improves the outcome after spinal cord injury in rodents. The findings are reported in the current issue of Regenerative Medicine.

"Establishing the safety of implanted embryonic stem cells is crucial before we can move forward with testing these treatments in clinical trials," said Keirstead, an associate professor of anatomy and neurobiology and co-director of UCI's Stem Cell Research Center. "We must always remember that a human clinical trial is an experiment and, going into it, we need to assure ourselves as best as we can that the treatment will not cause harm. This study is an important step in that direction".........

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