Finally a cure ? New vaccine raises hope of reducing pneumonia deaths
An experimental vaccine that targets dozens of strains of the bacterium that causes pneumonia has the potential to significantly bring down the number of deaths due to the disease, a new study says.
The vaccine provoked an immune response to 72 forms of Streptococcus pneumoniae in laboratory tests on animals, according to the study published in the journal, ‘Science Advances’.
“We’ve made tremendous progress fighting the spread of pneumonia, especially among children. But if we’re ever going to rid ourselves of the disease, we need to create smarter and more cost-effective vaccines,” said the study’s co-lead author Blaine Pfeifer, Associate Professor at University at Buffalo in New York.
In 2004, pneumonia killed more than two million children worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). By 2015, the number was less than one million.
Better access to antibiotics and improved nutrition account for part of the decline. But scientists say it’s mostly due to vaccines introduced in the early 2000s that target up to 23 of the most deadly forms of the bacterium that causes pneumonia — Streptococcus pneumoniae.
As the new vaccine under development targets additional strains of S. pneumoniae — including the 23 mentioned above – it could, the researchers beleive, deal another blow to the disease.
Source: http://www.newindianexpress.com/lifestyle/health/2017/oct/21/new-vaccine-raises-hope-of-reducing-pneumonia-deaths-study-1679138.html
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MRI Predicts Potential Recovery from Cardiac Arrest Related Brain Damage
MRI, which measures functional connections in the brain may be used to predict long-term recovery in patients who suffer neurological disability after cardiac arrest, says study. The Findings are published in the journal Radiology.
Cardiac arrest, or abrupt loss of heart function, is a common and often deadly occurrence that affects hundreds of thousands of people every year in the United States alone, according to the American Heart Association. Many patients who survive end up with severe neurological disabilities, as the temporary loss of oxygenated blood flow to the brain can result in widespread neuronal cell death.
The researchers assessed the brain’s functional connectivity in 46 patients who were in a coma following cardiac arrest. The imaging, performed within two weeks of cardiac arrest, included studies of brain structure and function. Functional imaging focused on four well-characterized networks in the brain, including the default mode network, which is active when a person is not engaged in a specific task, and the salience network, a collection of brain regions that select which stimuli are deserving of our attention.
One year after the patients’ cardiac arrests, the researchers assessed the patients with the Cerebral Performance Category Scale, a commonly used measure of neurological function following cardiac arrest. Eleven patients had favorable outcomes. Functional connectivity was stronger in those who achieved higher levels of independence at one year compared with those who were heavily dependent. The changes in functional connectivity between networks predicted outcomes with greater accuracy than any of the MRI structural measures tested.
“This is game-changing information about what happens in the brains of people who suffer cardiac arrest,” Dr. Stevens said. “We realize that network architectures can be selectively disrupted in this setting.”
A key predictor of outcomes was the interaction between the brain’s default mode and salience networks. These two networks are normally anti-correlated, meaning that as the default mode network becomes more active, activity is reduced in the salience network, and vice versa. When researchers compared the brain imaging results of patients who had favorable outcomes with those who did not, they noticed a stark difference.
“Anti-correlation was preserved in patients who recovered and abolished in those who did not,” Dr. Stevens said. “Relative preservation of this anti-correlation was the most robust signal of a favorable outcome.”
The results indicate that connectivity measures could be early markers of long-term recovery potential in patients with cardiac arrest-related brain damage, the researchers said.
While researchers don’t expect connectome analysis with MRI to be the single “magic bullet” solution to predicting outcomes, it could increase the confidence that clinicians have in communicating with patients’ families in the wake of cardiac arrest. Additionally, fMRI could aid in the development of therapeutic interventions for neurologically disabled patients.
“Connectome studies have the potential to change not only outcome prediction, but to guide treatment as well,” Dr. Stevens said.
Source: http://www.medindia.net/news/mri-predicts-potential-recovery-from-cardiac-arrest-related-brain-damage-173880-1.htm
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Good News! Blood test can effectively rule out breast cancer, regardless of breast density
With over a 99 percent negative predictive value, a liquid biopsy test can help clinicians manage difficult-to-diagnose dense breast patients
A new study published in PLOS ONE demonstrates that Videssa® Breast, a multi-protein biomarker blood test for breast cancer, is unaffected by breast density and can reliably rule out breast cancer in women with both dense and non-dense breast tissue. Nearly half of all women in the U.S. have dense breast tissue.
“Women who have dense breasts are at a double disadvantage. Not only are they at higher risk of developing breast cancer, but dense breast tissue can decrease the reliability of imaging and increase the chances of a false finding.” said Judith K. Wolf, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Provista Diagnostics, Inc. “This study shows that, with an over 99 percent negative predictive value (NPV), clinicians can confidently use Videssa Breast to detect cancer in women with dense breasts and better determine when biopsy is truly warranted to assess suspicious findings.”
The study, “Breast Density Does Not Impact the Ability of Videssa Breast to Detect Breast Cancer in Women Under Age 50” evaluated the performance of Videssa Breast among 545 women, ages 25 to 50, with abnormal or difficult-to-interpret imaging (BI-RADS 3 and 4). The sensitivity and specificity in the dense breast group was 88.9 percent and 81.2 percent respectively, and 92.3 percent and 86.6 percent in the non-dense group. The differences were not statistically significant. The NPV was 99.1 percent in women who had dense breasts and 99.3 in women with non-dense tissue, providing confirmation that when a woman receives a negative test result, she does not have breast cancer.
The challenges of diagnosing breast cancer in women with dense breasts has drawn national attention in recent years. Driven by patient advocacy groups such as Are You Dense Inc. and Are You Dense Advocacy, Inc., 32 states have enacted legislation to ensure women are informed of their breast density status and the associated diagnostic challenges.
A study published earlier this year in Clinical Breast Cancer proved the utility of Videssa Breast as a diagnostic complement to imaging for women with abnormal findings and demonstrated it could potentially reduce use of biopsy by up to 67 percent. “Using biomarkers for cancer detection is an important advance in managing women with dense breasts and navigating many diagnostic challenges. As a clinician, the ability to identify who will benefit most from further imaging and follow-up, and rule out breast cancer in women, when they receive suspicious findings, is tremendous,” says Elayne Arterbery, MD, radiation oncologist at St. Mary’s of Saginaw, who was a principal investigator on the Provista studies. “This study also validates the scientific promise and the growing role biomarkers have in addressing diagnostic challenges for women with dense breasts, and the merits of further research to help expand how we put that science to work to benefit women.”
Videssa Breast has been studied in two prospective, randomized, multi-center and blinded clinical trials, in more than 1,350 patients ages 25 to 75. The data featured in the current PLOS ONE publication is taken from the first study and cohort one of the second study. Videssa Breast is currently available for use by ordering healthcare providers for patients with abnormal imaging findings.
Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/10/171025150623.htm
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Indian surgeons separate twins joined at the head
Surgeons in the New Delhi, have separated twin boys who were conjoined at the tops of their heads.
Two-year-old Jaga and Kalia underwent 16 hours of surgery, and are now in the intensive care unit, doctors said.
A team of 30 doctors carried out the surgery – the first of its kind in India – at a state-run hospital.
The boys were born with shared blood vessels and brain tissues, a very rare condition that occurs once in about three million births.
The director of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Randeep Guleria, told the Press Trust of India that the “next 18 days would be extremely critical to ascertain the success of the surgery”.
The twins, hailing from a village in eastern Orissa state, were joined at the head – a condition known as craniopagus.
Even before the operation they had defeated the odds; craniopagus occurs in one in three million births, and 50% of those affected die within 24 hours, doctors say.
“Both the children have other health issues as well. While Jaga has heart issues, Kalia has kidney problems,” neurosurgeon A K Mahapatra said.
“Though initially Jaga was healthier, now his condition has deteriorated. Kalia is better,” he added.
Doctors said the most challenging job after the separation was to “provide a skin cover on both sides of the brain for the children as the surgery had left large holes on their heads”.
“If the twins make it, the next step will be reconstructing their skulls,” plastic surgeon Maneesh Singhal said.
The first surgery was performed on 28 August when the doctors created a bypass to separate the shared veins that return blood to the heart from the brain.
Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-41772987
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Researchers have developed a noninvasive urine test for bladder cancer
A prospective blinded study involving 577 hematuria patients demonstrated that a new noninvasive test for bladder cancer has a sensitivity of 95 percent for higher-risk cancers and a negative predictive value greater than 97 percent.
The ADXBLADDER test, which has the potential to make noninvasive bladder testing a clinical reality, was launched at the 37th Société Internationale D’Urologie (SIU) meeting, held in Lisbon, Portugal.
“Our study demonstrates ADXBLADDER has one of the highest sensitivities and negative predictive values of any urine test for bladder cancer diagnosis,” said Stuart McCracken, who presented the results at an SIU symposium.
The new test, he added, offers innovative features, including being unaffected by urinary tract infections (UTIs), inflammation, and the presence of blood.
It is also easy to use and employs Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technology that is readily available in most hospitals. The test requires just 10 milliliters of urine and delivers definitive “yes/no” results within 3 hours.
Current diagnostic methods
In Europe, bladder cancer represents the fourth most common cancer in men and the 15th most common cancer in women, with 151,000 people diagnosed with the condition in 2012.
In order to make a bladder cancer diagnosis, the European Association of Urology currently recommend cystoscopy for all patients with hematuria, in conjunction with CT urography (in selected high-risk patients) or renal and bladder ultrasound.
At the moment, cystoscopy cannot be replaced by cytology or any other noninvasive tests. Most bladder cancer diagnostic approaches have disadvantages; cystoscopy is an undignified, invasive, and uncomfortable procedure exposing patients to the risk of developing UTIs, which are known to occur in around 5 percent undergoing cystoscopy.
On its own, cystoscopy can miss up to 30 percent of bladder tumors and has the additional disadvantages of being expensive and having lengthy waiting lists.
Cytology is known to have a low sensitivity and its interpretation is dependent on the user, while CT urogram exposes patients to ionizing radiation.
How does ADXBLADDER work?
In the study, 577 patients attending diagnostic hematuria clinics at six centers across the United Kingdom between August 2016 and February 2017 underwent ADXBLADDER testing, with results then compared with the current diagnostic benchmark of combined cystoscopy, ultrasound, and CT scanning.
ADXBLADDER uses standard ELISA methodology to measure levels of MCM5 – that is, a protein marker of replicating cells, or cells that have the capability to replicate.
The cells that line the bladder — and which are in contact with the urine — do not contain MCM5, so urine from a healthy bladder does not contain MCM5.
All cancer cells are capable of dividing and contain MCM5. So, when a tumor is present within the bladder, these cells are in contact with urine and shed into the urine stream, which then contains the MCM5 marker.
High sensitivity and specificity
The investigators found that 7.96 percent (46) of the patients had bladder cancer, while 92.1 percent (531) did not.
When compared with the benchmark, the results showed that:
The sensitivity — that is, the ability of the test to identify patients who have bladder cancer — of ADXBLADDER in correctly detecting these cancers in high-risk and muscle-invasive groups was 95 percent (with high-risk groups at 92 percent and muscle-invasive groups at 100 percent).
The overall sensitivity for the study was 76 percent (with high-risk groups at 92 percent, muscle-invasive groups at 100 percent, intermediate-risk groups at 75 percent, and low-risk groups at 50 percent).
The overall specificity for the study was 69 percent. Specificity, which is also called the true negative rate, measures the proportion of negatives that are correctly identified as such — that is, the percentage of hematuria patients without bladder cancer who are correctly identified by ADXBLADDER as not having bladder cancer.
The negative predictive value, or the proportion of patients who test negative but who are in fact positive, was 97 percent.
Source: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/319893.php
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New Discovery: iphone – based device can detect cancer at home
Developed by Connecticut-based start-up Butterfly Network, the pocket sized device works by shooting sound into the body and capturing the echoes
In a bid to make cancer detection easily available and timely, US researchers have developed an iPhone-based portable ultrasound machine.
The machine called Butterfly IQ can help detect cancer easily at home. It is a scanner the size of an electric razor that can display black-and-white imagery of the body, when paired with an iPhone.
Studies have previously shown that the low mortality rate due to cancer is mainly because of lack of timely detection.
Developed by Connecticut-based start-up Butterfly Network, the pocket sized device works by shooting sound into the body and capturing the echoes.
Usually, the sound waves are generated by a vibrating crystal. But Butterfly’s machine instead uses 9,000 tiny drums etched onto a semiconductor chip, reported the MIT Technology Review on Friday.
Earlier this year, John Martin, a US-based vascular surgeon and chief medical officer at Butterfly Network, discovered a cancerous mass in his own throat while testing the device.
Martin felt an uncomfortable feeling of thickness on his throat, thus he oozed out some gel and ran the probe along his neck.
On his smartphone, to which the device is connected, black-and gray images quickly appeared.
He found a 3 cm mass that was diagnosed as squamous-cell cancer – a form of skin cancer that develops in the cells of the outer layer of the skin.
Instead of vibrating crystals, Butterfly IQ uses “capacitive micro-machined ultrasound transducers”, or CMUTs, tiny ultrasonic emitters layered on a semiconductor chip a little larger than a postage stamp.
“The device gives you the ability to do everything at the bedside: you can pull it out of your pocket and scan the whole body,” Martin said.
The company now plans to combine the instrument with artificial-intelligence software that could help a novice position the probe, collect the right images, and interpret them.
By 2018, its software will let users automatically calculate how much blood a heart is pumping, or detect problems like aortic aneurisms, the report said.
The Butterfly IQ is the first solid-state ultrasound machine to reach the market in the US. The company plans to go on sale this year for $1,999-far less than any other model on the market.
Source: http://zeenews.india.com/health/now-cancer-detection-possible-at-home-iphone-based-device-developed-2052724
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