Tue, 03 Apr 2007 06:17:52 GMT

A tale of two cancers

Mr R and Mrs D live within five hundred yards of each other. They have never met, but they have much in common.

They both have lung cancer with secondary spread.

They were both treated at the respiratory medicine department of the local District General Hospital, and they were both referred to the same radiation oncologist Dr M.

The final thing they have in common is that Dr M has recommended that they should each have a course of Tarceva.

I saw both Mr R and Mrs D this morning. They were sitting in the waiting room It is just as well they do not know each other.

I advised Mrs D about the Tarceva induced diarrhoea from which she is suffering. I counselled Mr R about his treatment.

I looked on the computer screen and saw the most recent letters from the oncologist.

Mrs D's letter is short and to the point.

click to enlarge

Mr R's letter is a little longer.

click to enlarge

What is going on here? This is not the post-code lottery. It is worse. This is about wealth. Mrs D's husband is a successful business man. The whole family has private health insurance. Mr R is retired, living on a pension, and does not have private health insurance.

Mr R will almost certainly die before Mrs D. He will have the benefit of the lung cancer nurse specialist who sees him from time to time and pats his hand. Occasionally he sees the registrar.

Mrs D does not have the benefit of the nurse patting her hand. She does have Tarceva. Consultants do not delegate the care of their private patients to nurses, so Mrs D sees the consultant personally on each trip to the hospital.

After the second consultation, I had to walk up and down the corridor for a while.Labels: lung cancer, tarceva Posted by: Dr John Crippen      Read more     Source

Tue, 03 Apr 2007 06:08:50 GMT

Patricia Hewitt resigns

In an unexpected statement made earlier this morning, too late for the Sunday newspapers, the Secretary of State for Health, Patricia Hewitt, announced that she was stepping down from office for personal reasons.

After the usual exchange of letters, the Prime Minister said:
I know that all who have worked in the NHS will be grateful to Patricia Hewitt for the sterling service she has provided. Most of all, countless users of the NHS will appreciate the many health care improvements for which she has been responsible. She leaves the NHS in a stronger state than it has ever been.
Her successor has not yet been named, but an announcement is expected from Downing Street later in the day. Posted by: Dr John Crippen      Read more     Source

April 2, 2007, 11:04 PM CT

Chronic Lung Disease Affecting Premature Infants

Scientists from Massachusetts General Hospital, in collaboration with researchers from the Genzyme Corporation, have identified a potential therapy for a chronic lung disease affecting premature infants. In a study to appear in the American Journal of Physiology - Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology, which has received early online release, the researchers find that the activity of transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta, a protein that controls a number of essential cellular functions) is elevated in the lungs of an animal model of bronchopulmonary dysplasia and that therapy with an antibody to TGF-beta both decreased the growth factors activity and improved lung development.

"Our findings show for the first time that TGF-beta is a major player in causing bronchopulmonary dysplasia and that inhibiting its activity in the injured newborn lung may decrease the severity or occurence rate of this disease," says Jesse Roberts Jr., MD, of the MGH departments of Anesthesia and Pediatrics and the Cardiovascular Research Center, the papers senior author. "Since bronchopulmonary dysplasia is the most significant lung disease of premature infants, these results are very exciting".

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) affects about 15 percent of premature infants, resulting in chronic lung disease in 10,000 to 20,000 infants in the U.S. each year, and is often caused by the mechanical ventilation and oxygen treatment mandatory for their survival. Since BPD is more common in the most premature infants affecting nearly 65 percent of those with a birth weight less than 1 pound, 10 ounces its incidence has increased as more of the tiniest infants are surviving. The lung damage produced by BPD is commonly chronic, requiring long-term therapy and frequently affecting growth and neurological development. BPD is second only to asthma as the most costly disease of children in the U.S., and infants with BPD who survive can have lung disease into adulthood......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

April 2, 2007, 10:17 PM CT

Flexible Electronics As Sensors

Flexible electronic structures with the potential to bend, expand and manipulate electronic devices are being developed by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. These flexible structures could find useful applications as sensors and as electronic devices that can be integrated into artificial muscles or biological tissues.

In addition to a biomedical impact, flexible electronics are important for energy technology as flexible and accurate sensors for hydrogen.

These structures were developed from a concept created by Argonne scientist Yugang Sun and a team of scientists at the University of Illinois led by John A. Rogers. The concept focuses on forming single-crystalline semiconductor nanoribbons in stretchable geometrical configurations with emphasis on the materials and surface chemistries used in their fabrication and the mechanics of their response to applied strains.

"Flexible electronics are typically characterized by conducting plastic-based liquids that can be printed onto thin, bendable surfaces," Sun said. "The objective of our work was to generate a concept along with subsequent technology that would allow for electronic wires and circuits to stretch like rubber bands and accordions leading to sensor-embedded covers for aircraft and robots, and even prosthetic skin for humans......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

April 1, 2007, 9:25 PM CT

Sleep Disturbance And Pain

Sleep continuity disturbance impairs endogenous pain-inhibitory function and increases spontaneous pain in women. This supports a possible pathophysiologic role of sleep disturbance in chronic pain, as per a research studyreported in the April 1st issue of the journal SLEEP.

The study, conducted by Michael T. Smith, PhD, and his colleagues at Johns Hopkins University, focused on 32 healthy females, who were studied polysomnographically for seven nights. On the first two nights, the subjects slept undisturbed for eight hours. Then, the women were assigned to one of three groups: "Control", "Forced Awakening" (FA) and "Restricted Sleep Opportunity" (RSO). From nights three-to-five, the "Control" group continued to sleep undisturbed, while the "Forced Awakening" group underwent eight forced awakenings, one per hour, and the "Restricted Sleep Opportunity" group received partial sleep deprivation by delayed bedtime. On night six, both the FA and RSO groups underwent 36 hours of total sleep deprivation, followed by 11-hour recovery sleep.

In an assessment of the subjects completion of twice-daily psychophysical assessments of mechanical pain thresholds and pain inhibition, it was discovered that the FA group demonstrated an increase in spontaneous pain, while neither the "Control" nor the RSO group showed changes in pain inhibition or spontaneous pain during partial sleep deprivation......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

April 1, 2007, 9:23 PM CT

Actigraphy to assess and manage sleep disorders

Actigraphy, the use of a portable device that records movement over extended periods of time, and has been used extensively in the study of sleep and circadian rhythms, provides an acceptably accurate estimate of sleep patterns in normal, healthy adult populations and in-patients suspected of certain sleep disorders, according to practice parameters published in the April 1st issue of the journal SLEEP.

The practice parameters, authored by the American Academy of Sleep Medicines (AASM) Standards of Practice Committee, were developed as a guide to the appropriate use of actigraphy, both as a diagnostic tool in the evaluation of sleep disorders and as an outcome measure of treatment efficacy in clinical settings with appropriate patient populations.

Actigraphy is indicated to assist in the evaluation of patients with advanced sleep phase syndrome, delayed sleep phase syndrome, and shift work disorder. Additionally, there is some evidence to support the use of actigraphy in the evaluation of patients suspected of jet lag disorder and non-24 hour sleep/wake syndrome. Further, when polysomnography is not available, actigraphy is indicated to estimate total sleep time in patients with obstructive sleep apnea.

In patients with insomnia and hypersomnia, there is evidence to support the use of actigraphy in the characterization of circadian rhythms and sleep patterns and disturbances. In assessing response to therapy, actigraphy has proven useful as an outcome measure in patients with circadian rhythms and insomnia......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

March 29, 2007, 10:16 PM CT

Mimicking Microbes' Life Cycles

Researchers at MIT have created an ocean model so realistic that the virtual forests of diverse microscopic plants they "sowed" have grown in population patterns that precisely mimic their real-world counterparts.

This model of the ocean is the first to reflect the vast diversity of the invisible forests living in our oceans-tiny, single-celled green plants that dominate the ocean and produce half the oxygen we breathe on Earth. And it does so in a way that is consistent with the way real-world ecosystems evolve as per the principles of natural selection.

Researchers use models such as this one to better understand the oceans' biological and chemical cycles and their role in regulating atmospheric carbon dioxide, an important greenhouse gas.

The output of the new model, the brainchild of oceanographer Mick Follows, has been tested against real-world patterns of a particular species of phytoplankton, called prochlorococcus, which dominates the plant life of some ocean regions.

Follows and co-authors report this work, part of the MIT Earth System Initiative's new Darwin Project, in the March 30 issue of Science. The Darwin Project is a new cross-disciplinary research project at MIT connecting systems biology, microbial ecology, global biogeochemical cycles and climate......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 03:45:14 GMT

Global Warming Causing Concerns for Asthma Sufferers

Are you suffering form asthma? Then be aware from global warming. According to experts, longer plant growing seasons and the weeds that are scattering vast amounts of causing concerns for these asthma patients.

Though, with the temperatures rising some sufferers will benefit from it as the house mites and viruses that thrive in winters — will not flourish, once people will not need to use their heating systems.

In the northern hemisphere, and even in countries where winter snows bring respite from coughing and wheezing for allergics and during the spring too, pollen has been in the air for months.

For example, it is since December, hazel trees have been flowering in south Sweden.

Paul Epstein, Associate Director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School said,

In the United States the incidence of asthma is up nearly four times since 1980. No one has really been looking at the aerobiology dimension (such as pollen). But I think it helps account for it.

There are other such instances of such triggers ranging from mites and dust to viruses and food. And any warming may make things worse, according to Epstein as told to Reuters.

The plant growing seasons have become longer because of the trend of warming, the human burning of fossil fuels are responsible for, a draft U.N. climate report due for release on April 6 says. Posted by: Irani      Read more     Source

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 04:53:26 GMT

The House of the Dead

If you get caught with your hands in the till, it is best to own up. If you are a politician, it is best to own up quietly. People might not notice. And there is no better place in which to own up than the House of the Dead

The Ferret Fancier (why does he call himself that?) has been delving around in the annals of the House of the Dead, and has caught Lord Hunt "in flagrante".

Delicious.

Patsy has been pretending that the selection of junior doctors suitable for higher professional training was going to be carried out by senior doctors. Seems reasonable.

A porky-pie. Rather a big one. And now she has been caught out.

In keeping with the New Labour policy to dumb down the NHS, the selection of these doctors has been delegated to the hospital porters and cleaners. Only the "senior" cleaners though. Patsy has, of course, disappeared into the bunker. Lord Hunt has been sent out to own up.
"It has since been brought to my attention that in some cases other staff, including senior non-medical clinicians or senior deanery human resources staff, are involved in the process."Whoops.

"It has been brought to my attention."

Pompous, pusillanimous git. What he means is that it is all over the newspapers and all over the sodding internet, and Patsy has pushed him out of the bunker to say something.

Full marks to the Ferret Fancier for digging this up, though I worry about a young man who has time to follow the debates in the House of Lords. He should get out more. Posted by: Dr John Crippen      Read more     Source

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 04:41:50 GMT

Beckman to Buy Test Maker Biosite for $1.55 Billion in Cash Tender Offer

Beckman Coulter Inc., a medical-test company, has announced that it has forged a deal to acquire Biosite Inc. for $1.55 billion. The decision was taken with a view that the combination will strengthen Beckman’s presence in a specialized segment of the diagnostic-test market. Fullerton, Calif. based Beckman Coulter has said it will acquire entire Biosite’s outstanding stock in a cash tender offer of $85-a-share or for approximately $1.55 billion. Beckman further said that it expects to launch the offer within about two weeks, pending regulatory filings.

The companies have stated that their respective boards have already approved the buyout. Beckman’s offer represents a 53 percent premium on the closing price on Friday. The deal is expected to be completed by the second quarter of 2007. Beckman hopes that the proposed transaction is expected to instantly quicken its revenue growth, improve operating margins and be accretive to GAAP earnings in 2008 and beyond.

Scott Garrett, President and Chief Executive Officer of Beckman Coulter commenting on the prospective deal said, This is an exciting transaction that grew out of our successful relationship with Biosite over the past four years in the area of B-type Natriuretic Peptide or “BNP”, a test that aids in the diagnosis, risk stratification and assessment of severity of heart failure and the risk stratification of patients with acute coronary syndromes. It will position Beckman Coulter as a leading provider of immunoassay tests, especially within cardiac diagnostics.

Biosite produces immunoassay tests to detect such conditions as cancer and congestive heart failure, among other medical conditions. On the other hand, Beckman sells chemical test kits, instruments and automated biomedical test systems used in hospitals and other clinical settings. The companies have been working together for the past four years developing tests that help diagnose and assess certain heart illnesses.

Read Posted by: Balendu      Read more     Source