Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Celacade™ Immune Modulation Therapy

Filed under: Genetics

An article at Forbes describes Celacade technology by Mississauga, Ontario based Vasogen, Inc., an immune modulation therapy to treat chronic heart failure. This therapy is "using a modified sample of a patient's own blood to trick the immune system into fighting cardiac inflammation."

The company describes some details of this treatment:

Our Celacade™ technology, currently in phase III clinical development for the treatment of chronic heart failure and peripheral arterial disease, is being developed to target the chronic inflammation associated with cardiovascular disease. Our Celacade technology is designed to deliver oxidative stress to a sample of a patient's own cells during a brief outpatient procedure, which is administered monthly. During the procedure, a small sample of blood is collected into our Celacade single-use disposable cartridge, exposed to controlled oxidative stress using our Celacade medical device technology, and then re-administered to the patient intramuscularly.

Oxidative stress is a factor known to induce cell apoptosis, or programmed cell death. During apoptosis, signalling molecules, including phosphatidylserine (PS), normally present on the inner surface of the cell membrane, become exposed on the cell surface. The PS molecules interact with specific PS receptors on the surface of antigen presenting cells (APCs) of the immune system, including macrophages and dendritic cells. The interaction with macrophages leads to an up-regulation in the production of the anti-inflammatory cytokines IL-10 and TGF-β. Dendritic cells that interact with apoptotic cells remain immature and, in the presence of anti-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-10 and TGF-β, cause the differentiation of some naive T cells to regulatory T cells. These traffic through the tissues and inhibit inflammatory cells such as T1 cells by a process that includes cell-cell interaction and the production of anti-inflammatory cytokines by the regulatory T cells. The end result is a reduction in tissue levels of inflammatory cytokines such as TNF-α, IL-6, IFN-γ, and IL-1β, and a down-regulation of chronic inflammation.

More at Vasogen...

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Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Skin Alcohol Sensor Invented

Filed under: OTC

A patent has been granted for an alcohol sensor which can be installed in the steering wheel of a car or even one's "in gloves":

Inventor Dennis Bellehumeur, 54, says his device prevents a vehicle from starting or running if the driver is over the legal alcohol limit.

The device's skin sensor makes it different from the "breath alcohol ignition interlock" that has been on the market for three decades. That device requires that a driver blow into an instrument that measures alcohol in the breath.

Bellehumeur, a real estate agent and deli owner in Wilton Manors, spent 12 years developing his sensor after his then-teenage son crashed into a utility pole while driving drunk and suffered minor brain damage.

"Thank God no one was killed. It was a real wake-up call. I wanted to do something," Bellehumeur said. "I hope one day I'll get a call from some guy saying 'I was drunk and could've killed someone, but because of you, I couldn't start my car'."

He received a patent this month and the sensor should complete testing this year, he said.

The Associated Press has more...

Flashback: 'Alcokey' Breathalyser by SAAB

(hat tip: Engadget)

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Wireless Chip for In-Body Communication Systems by Zarlink

Filed under: etc.

Canadian manufacturer Zarlink Semiconductor Inc. describes its innovative wireless chip for implanted devices:

Physicians can use MICS technology to remotely monitor patient health without requiring regular hospital visits. For example, an ultra low-power RF transceiver in a pacemaker can wirelessly send patient health and device performance data to a bedside base station in the home. Data is then forwarded over the telephone or Internet to a physician's office, and if a problem is detected the patient goes to the hospital where the high-speed two-way RF link can be used to easily monitor and adjust device performance.

During surgery, a physician can use the higher data rates and longer communication range afforded by MICS technology to program the performance of an implanted device outside of the sterile surgical environment.

"Zarlink's MICS transceiver provides several orders of magnitude increase in data transmission rate and communication range compared with previous technologies, offering an ultra low-power consumption and highly integrated radio telemetry solution," said Steve Swift, senior vice president and general manager, Ultra Low-Power Communications, Zarlink Semiconductor.

"Our MICS radio platform ensures implanted medical device manufacturers can design systems that meet strict global standards. The higher data rate and extended communication range of our radio transceiver enables advanced in-body communication systems, such as implanted blood glucose sensors controlling insulin intake for diabetes patients, networked stimulators restoring lost limb function or pacemakers using the high-speed wireless link to signal emergency response during a cardiac event."

Since most implanted medical devices do not require constant communication, and instead transmit data on a scheduled or as-required basis, the average "sleep" current is a key design factor. The ZL70100 radio transceiver contains an innovative ultra low-power wake-up system with an average current demand of just 200 nA (nanoamps).

The ZL70100 supports industry-leading transmission rates of 800 kb/s for raw data and 500 kb/s for usable data, while consuming less than 5 mA (milliamps) of supply current while active. With the ability to aggressively duty-cycle the radio transceiver, the ZL70100 allows implanted devices to quickly transmit large amounts of patient health and device performance data with minimum impact on the battery life of the implanted device.

The press release

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Solid-State Lighting Sources Getting Smart

Filed under: etc.

Smart LEDs that are tailored to our physiology, from the researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute:

"Smart" solid-state light sources now being developed not only have the potential to provide significant energy savings, but also offer new opportunities for applications that go well beyond the lighting provided by conventional incandescent and fluorescent sources, according to E. Fred Schubert and Jong Kyu Kim of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

In an article published May 27, 2005 in the journal Science, the authors describe research currently under way to transform lighting into "smart" lighting, with benefits expected in such diverse fields as medicine, transportation, communications, imaging, and agriculture. The ability to control basic light properties-- including spectral power distribution, polarization, and color temperature--will allow "smart" light sources to adjust to specific environments and requirements and to undertake entirely new functions that are not possible with incandescent or fluorescent lighting.

For example, "smart" solid-state light sources have the potential to adjust human circadian rhythms to match changing work schedules, to allow an automobile to imperceptibly communicate with the car behind it, or to economically grow out-of-season strawberries in northern climates, according to Professors Schubert and Kim.

More in the press release...

(hat tip: Treehugger)

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Medical Podcasts Available

Filed under: Net News , Society

Sound Medicine is a show available in downloadable podcast format from Indiana University School of Medicine. Searchable archives of the hour-long show, going back to 2001, is a plus.

(hat tip: KidneyNotes)

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The Logic of Smell

Filed under: Genetics

Interesting research from a Nobel-winning Dr. Linda Buck and her team at Howard Hughes Medical Institute:

Whenever you inhale the aroma of vanilla, the neurons in your brain "light up" with a characteristic pattern of activity. It turns out that pattern is, perhaps unsurprisingly, unique from the pattern of brain activity associated with a whiff of skunk spray.

The process of smelling an odor begins with odorant receptors that are located on the surface of nerve cells inside the nose. When an odorant receptor detects an odor molecule, it triggers a nerve signal that travels to a way station in the brain called the olfactory bulb. Signals from the olfactory bulb, in turn, travel to the brain's olfactory cortex. Information from the olfactory cortex is then sent to many regions of the brain, ultimately leading to the perceptions of odors and their emotional and physiological effects.

Although there are about a thousand different types of odorant receptors in mice, Buck and her colleagues discovered in previous studies that each individual olfactory neuron in the nose only bears a single type of odorant receptor. Independent studies in the Buck and Axel laboratories further showed that signals from neurons with the same type of odorant receptor converge at two specific spots in the olfactory bulb, such that individual structures in the olfactory bulb, called glomeruli, each receive neuronal input from only one type of odorant receptor.

Earlier studies of the olfactory cortex by Buck's group indicated that in contrast to the straightforward mapping of inputs from odorant receptors onto the glomeruli, however, the mapping of odorant receptor inputs onto the olfactory cortex was quite complex.

"We had found that inputs from one type of odorant receptor are targeted to several loose clusters of neurons at specific locations in the cortex," said Buck. In sharp contrast to the olfactory bulb, where signals from different receptors are segregated, inputs from different odorant receptors overlap extensively in the cortex. Moreover, individual cortical neurons are likely to get inputs from many different odorant receptors."

Buck's group previously showed that each odorant is recognized by a combination of receptors, and that each receptor can recognize multiple odorants. "So, the odorant receptor family is being used combinatorially," she said. "Just like letters of the alphabet are used in different combinations to form different words, the odorant receptors are used in different combinations to detect different odorants and encode their unique identities."

In the new studies, Buck and her colleagues sought further information about how the brain translates these combinatorial receptor codes into distinctive odor perceptions. Because of the complex patterns of receptor inputs in the cortex, it was impossible to predict how odors might be represented in this structure. They therefore decided to investigate the patterns of activity that were triggered by a range of odorants in the olfactory cortex of mice.

"We wanted to find out whether inputs from receptors that recognized the same odorant are all targeted to the same places in the cortex, producing a distinctive spatial map for the odorant," she said. "Or, whether the inputs from these receptors are sent to different locations in the cortex, resulting in a more distributed representation of the odorant."

To explore this question, the researchers exposed mice to each of a wide range of odorants--including apple, skunk, floral, fishy, urine, vanilla, musk, woody, garlic, and chocolate. After each mouse was exposed to an odor, the scientists then proceeded to isolate the animal's olfactory cortex and map neural activity by measuring the activity of a marker gene called c-Fos in individual neurons across this entire structure.

"We found that a single odorant does not just stimulate one or two spots in the cortex," said Buck. "Instead it stimulates a very small subset of neurons that are sparsely distributed over a relatively large area. We found that different odorants stimulate different patterns, but the patterns for different odorants partially overlap."

Importantly, said Buck, the research team found that, despite this very complex patterning, the odor representations are very similar among individuals. "This may explain why odors elicit similar responses in different individuals. For example, most people don't like the smell of skunk odor, but they do like the smell of chocolate," she said.

The press release...

Would like to learn more? A fascinating lecture by Dr. Richard Axel (co-winner of the Nobel) titled "Scents and Sensibility: Towards a Molecular Logic of Perception" is available in video format from Columbia University.

(hat tip: BrainBlog)

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Friday, May 27, 2005

Haptics Systems For Stroke Patients

Filed under: Neurology , Rehab

Haptics is defined as "the science of applying touch (tactile) sensation and control to interaction with computer applications." Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California is developing technology that might benefit patients with poststroke neurodeficits:

Stroke patients who face months of tedious rehabilitation to regain the use of impaired limbs may benefit from new haptics systems -- interfaces that add the sense of touch to virtual computer environments -- in development at the University of Southern California's Integrated Media Systems Center (IMSC).

The new systems, being designed by an interdisciplinary team of researchers from the Viterbi School of Engineering and the Annenberg School for Communication, are challenging stroke patients to grasp, pinch, squeeze, throw and push their way to recovery.

With a $1.8-million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the team has come up with quite an assortment of new applications. Some are designed to make stroke survivors stack, push or pour liquid out of three-dimensional objects in immersive environments, while other tasks force them to pick up objects and move them through cyberspace corridors without bumping into walls or falling into booby traps.

"Haptics, which adds the sense of touch to 3-D computing, lets stroke patients interact with virtual worlds by feel," said Margaret McLaughlin, an IMSC investigator and professor of communication at the USC Annenberg School for Communication. "The big advantage is that we can control the environment and design cyber tasks that target each patient's impairment."

McLaughlin, who is a co-editor of Touch in Virtual Environments, works with researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of USC to design the new haptics technologies.

"The technology got its start in commercial gaming, with the debut of inexpensive, non-immersive versions using force-feedback joysticks and steering wheels that vibrated as the driver sped along a video racetrack," she said. "But in university laboratories, the availability of more sensitive, high-end devices that could render touch sensations in three dimensions quickly led to applications in more serious pursuits."

Haptics interfaces began to emerge in such fields as medical and surgical training programs, flight school, teleoperations and scientific visualization. In 2004, NIH saw a need for the technology among stroke survivors, said principal investigator Thomas McNeill, professor of cell and neurobiology, neurology and neurogerontology at the Keck School, and awarded USC and the University of Texas, Austin, a grant to pursue the work.

The press release...

Much more is here...

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Activation of Thermoreceptors Mediates Raw Garlic's Burning Pungency

Filed under: Genetics

A research team from The Scripps Research Institute and the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation discovered that pungency of garlic can largely be attributed to a particular compound, and its effects on thermoreceptor proteins located in the mouth:

Despite garlic's popularity, the compounds responsible for its pungency, as well as the receptors through which we perceive those compounds, have remained unknown. In their new work, the researchers found that raw, but not baked, garlic was capable of eliciting responses from two so-called TRP ("trip") channels, TRPV1 and TRPA1, which belong to a remarkable family of receptors that can be activated by temperature and chemicals. Some TRP channels, including TRPA1 and TRPV1, respond to both temperature and chemical compounds: TRPV1 is known to respond to noxious (painful) heat and to the pungent component of chili peppers, whereas TRPA1 is activated by noxious cold and by pungent compounds found in cinnamon oil, mustard oil, and wintergreen oil. These past findings, as well as the present work, indicate that thermosensitive TRP channels play a key role in the phenomenon of chemesthesis (the somatosensory contribution to the sense of taste), which is experienced, for example, in the heat of chili peppers or the coolness of peppermint. Both TRPV1 and TRPA1 are found in pain-sensing neurons that innervate the mouth and tongue.

The researchers went on to identify the sulfide compound allicin, an unstable chemical found in bruised, cut, or crushed garlic, as the chemical responsible for the activation of TRPV1 and TRPA1 and as the likely key chemical component responsible for garlic's pungency. Allicin is converted to a variety of more stable sulfide compounds over time or with heating, in correspondence with the significantly milder taste of roasted garlic. Garlic's pungency most likely evolved as a defense mechanism against browsing by animals, and indeed many animals--though clearly not all humans--are known to be repelled by it.

The press report...

The journal article...

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Mother Seacole

Filed under: the good old days...

An exhibition at the Florence Nightingale museum in London is commemorating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Mary Seacole. The nurse, of Jamaican and Scottish descent, became famous for helping British troops in the Crimean War.

From the BBC's Historic Figures page:

Mary learned her nursing skills from her mother, who kept a boarding house for invalid soldiers. Although technically 'free', being of mixed race, Mary and her family had few civil rights - they could not vote, hold public office or enter the professions.

In 1836, Mary married Edwin Seacole, but the marriage was shortlived, as Edwin died in 1844.

Mary Seacole was an inveterate traveller, and before her marriage visted other Caribbean islands, including Cuba, Haiti and the Bahamas, as well as Central America and Britain. On these trips she complemented her knowledge of traditional medicine with European medical ideas. She was later to recount the story of her travels in The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands, published in 1857.

In 1854 Seacole travelled to England again, and approached the war office to ask to be sent as an army nurse to the Crimea. Because of her ethnicity she was refused interviews with the war office and Elizabeth Herbert, the wife of the secretary of state for war who was recruiting nurses. Undaunted Seacole funded her own trip to the Crimea where she established the British Hotel near Balaclava to provide 'a mess-table and comfortable quarters for sick and convalescent officers'. On the battlefield she nursed the wounded and was known as 'Mother Seacole'.

After the war she returned to England destitute and in ill health. The press highlighted her plight and money was raised through a grand military festival held over four nights at the Royal Surrey Gardens. The festival attracted thousands of people and was supported by lords, military commanders and almost a thousand artistes. She was awarded the Crimean Medal, the French Legion of Honour and a Turkish medal.

You can learn more about Mary Seacole by going to the Mary Seacole Centre For Nursing Practice page at Thames Valley University.

BBC's picture gallery marking the bicentenary of the birth of Mary Seacole...

The week is done. Have a wonderful weekend! Please note that we will not be posting on Monday. See you next week, starting Tuesday!

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Thursday, May 26, 2005

BodyMedia: You Will Die Tomorrow

Filed under: etc.

BodyMedia, a Pittsburgh company, is developing armband monitors and proprietary software that, the company claims, will be able to predict your health tomorrow. That's right--not PowerBall but your health! From a Forbes article:

BodyMedia has sold 7,500 armband monitors, 2.9-ounce pods packed with six sensors absorbing physiological data 32 times a second. Wearers dump their data wirelessly to a PC, which sends them to BodyMedia's computer servers to be analyzed by 1,300 algorithms that figure out what that body is doing.

So far BodyMedia has tracked 132 years of human activity, including 44,533 minutes of jogging and 6,250 minutes of Ping-Pong. Thanks to all those who kept activity journals while wearing an armband, the system has learned to distinguish jogging from biking, watching TV from doing office work and driving a car from riding in one.

Up to now, BodyMedia's devices have been used mainly for out-of-the-lab health studies and to manage weight-loss programs. But, within a year, Teller expects them to have ten times their current store of data, enough, he says, to write programs that may predict when someone will suffer a cold, epileptic fit or heart attack. "If it's true for just one case," he says, "we're on the cusp of a whole new wave of medical technology."

At the very least, constant body feedback can prod the unhealthy into making better choices. Insurers could offer better rates to nonsmoking exercisers and use Teller's monitors to keep them honest. "Let's make health care a meritocracy," says Teller. "Access to the best care goes to people who did what they could to avoid becoming ill."

Truthfully, in case you did not notice, we are rather skeptical by all these sparkles. What kind of powerfully predictive data a single arm band can pick up is not at all clear to us. Can one really make a diagnosis--not even a prediction--based on the sweat amount and/or composition, galvanic skin response, temperature and 2-3 other parameters? But who knows? The future is developing rather quickly before our eyes.

More at BodyMedia...

Flashback: The HealthWear System for Weight Management.

(hat tip: FutureFeeder)

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TelaDoc Medical Services

Filed under: Society , Telemedicine

This new service offers telephone medical consultations with real US doctors. The USA Today reports:

A group of entrepreneurs is gambling that patients are willing to pay for fast, low-cost medical care--by telephone, with doctors they've never met.

The controversial new business, a twist on the decades-old practice of doctors responding to phone calls from their own patients, is aimed at two modern issues: demanding, time-crunched people; and those who lack health insurance.

The service's promoters say patients, both the insured and the uninsured, can save money by using TelaDoc instead of urgent care clinics or the emergency room. For individuals, the service costs $18 to join, and $4.25 a month. Each call to a doctor is $35.

TelaDoc might simply be the latest offering in what some see as a new health care niche: convenience.

On one end of the convenience spectrum are "concierge" practices for patients willing to pay sometimes steep stipends to their doctors to guarantee 24-hour access, quick return calls and other perks. On the other, "nurse-in-a-box" miniclinics in retail outlets offer a menu of low-cost tests with no-appointment-necessary speed.

"There is a whole move toward consumer-oriented health care: Your time, your place, your way," says Jonathan Weiner, a professor of health policy at Johns Hopkins.

"This is a poor man's concierge medicine," says Weiner of TelaDoc. "In that way, it's not entirely bad if they're getting advice."

The launch of Dallas-based TelaDoc last month has already raised debate about whether doctors should provide treatment to patients they've never met and comes amid nascent efforts by doctor groups to win payment from insurers for the time they spend on the phone or e-mail, answering questions from their established patients.

Read the USA Today article to understand why this service is controversial. And read the additional three questions by symtym before you sign up for the service...

More at TelaDoc Medical Services...

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Wednesday, May 25, 2005

CoreTherm for BPH Ablation

Filed under: Urology

From the AUA meeting in Houston comes an announcement about Swedish Prostalund's new CoreTherm probe for benign prostatic hypertrophy. The probe uses microwaves to heat the overgrown prostate:

Prostalund®, Inc., a Swedish developer and manufacturer of medical devices, today announced its unique CoreTherm® medical device that utilizes minimally invasive, temperature-controlled, microwave thermotherapy to treat an enlarged prostate (BPH - benign prostatic hyperplasia), which affects millions of men in the U.S. CoreTherm effectively treats patients in 10-15 minutes, produces results equivalent to surgery, and is safer than surgery with significantly fewer serious adverse events. Because CoreTherm only requires a local anesthetic and is administered on an outpatient basis, it is especially beneficial for patients at greater risk for a surgical procedure requiring general anesthesia.

The CoreTherm has many intriguing features, including cell-kill calculation software and something called a "semi-automatic stub tuner."

More at Prostalund...

Flashback: Freezing the prostate with CryoCare.

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Bluetooth Necklace Alarm

Filed under: Telemedicine

Via Engadget and the Wireless Weblog comes a report on a new bluetooth-enabled Wireless Personal Alarm, from SecureCom and Fen Technology:

The so-called Wireless Personal Alarm is a button-size Bluetooth pendant that enables the user to send an alarm, with embedded location information to preselected recipients, while the user's GSM or satellite mobile handset is beyond their immediate reach. For GSM, the latest network-based location technology is used; for satellite handsets, embedded Global Positioning System (GPS) technology is utilized.

This is perfect for legions of high-risk or elderly folks who've fallen and can't get up to reach their bluetooth enabled cell phone. Of course, if they don't have such a phone, they can always follow Mrs Fletcher's example and go with the fifteen year old technology behind Life Alert.

More from the EE Times...

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Capsule Endoscope by Olympus

Filed under: GI

It is official. The war for market domination between capsule endoscope manufacturers has started. At the recent Digestive Disease Week (DDW) 2005 conference in Chicago, Olympus displayed its product. It seems that Olympus is planning to start marketing the product in Europe by the end of this year. The details of the product are as follows (taken from press release by Olympus):

(1) Technology of capsule endoscope

The capsule is 26mm long with an external diameter of 11mm. It features compact, low power-consumption imaging technology and wireless transmission technology.

(2) Capsule guidance system

This technology uses magnetism to freely control the capsule's movements. Olympus is working on development in a joint effort with the Arai/Ishiyama Laboratory, Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University. The principle behind the technology calls for the creation of a uniform magnetic field in any direction (N/S Poles) by an external magnetic field generator using three pairs of opposing electromagnets arranged in three directions X, Y and Z (vertically, laterally and depths). The capsule endoscope can then be turned in any desired direction by means of its built-in magnet. The free directional magnetic field is then used to generate a rotating magnet field which rotates the capsule, generating thrust through the spiral structure on the capsule's exterior. Since this allows free control of forward and reverse motion and motional direction, the capsule can be made to approach the part of the body to be inspected. The direction of observation can also be adjusted.

(3) Wireless power supply system

This technology provides an extracorporeal supply of the energy required for the capsule's built-in compact image pickup device and image transmission from within the capsule. Coils located outside the body use electromagnetic induction to provide electric power to the receiving coils inside the capsule. This makes it possible to secure the electric energy needed for long-term observations and the instantaneous electric power needed for high frame-rate photography.

(4) Drug delivery system

Inside the capsule there is a deflatable balloon containing drugs fitted with a small valve that can be controlled by communications from outside the body. This allows drugs to be delivered freely at any given time or place.

(5) Body fluid sampling technology

There is also a negatively-pressurized space within the capsule for storing extracted body fluids using a small valve that can be controlled by communications from outside the body. This is useful for diagnosis and analysis because it allows free collection of body fluids.

(6) Self-propelled capsule

The body of the capsule can propel itself freely within the gastrointestinal tract because it is fitted with an a mechanism that serves as a propelling mechanism and requires no external driving apparatus. Olympus is currently working on the development of several types of propelling mechanisms, including a twin-spiral type and a caterpillar-type.

(7) Ultrasound capsule

The ultrasound capsule makes it possible to conduct ultrasound scanning from inside the body because it incorporates the necessary miniaturized functions within itself. Since it radiates ultrasound from inside the body cavities, it is expected to deliver higher-resolution ultrasound images with less attenuation than those obtainable from external ultrasonography.

The Olympus press release (Nov. 2004)...

The interview with Yoram Ashery, VP business development at Given Imaging (the manufacturer of PillCam) is located here. (Money quote: "I'm only prepared to say that we have a huge portfolio of patents: 300 international patent applications, of which 24 have been approved. You can assume that they're not only for decoration.")

Related: Olympus Medical Systems to Launch Advanced Ultrasonic Omnidirectional Endoscope.

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Radiation Force Based Imaging: Clinical Promise Shown

Filed under: Radiology

The American Roentgen Ray Society (ARRS) is reporting that a new study out of Duke Medical Center has demonstrated potential for a novel imaging modality to distinguish between solid breast masses and fluid-filled cysts. The technique called "streaming detection" ultrasound is based on a broader modality called the acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) imaging.

This is how the group at Duke describes the working principles of ARFI:

Acoustic radiation force is a phenomenon associated with the propagation of acoustic waves through a dissipative medium. It is caused by a transfer of momentum from the wave to the medium, arising either from absorption or reflection of the wave. This momentum transfer results in the application of a force in the direction of wave propagation. The magnitude of this force is dependent upon both the tissue properties and the acoustic beam parameters. The duration of the force application is determined by the temporal profile of the acoustic wave. We are studying the potential for imaging the response of tissue to acoustic radiation force for the purpose of characterizing the mechanical properties of the tissue. When the duration of the radiation force is short (less than 1 millisecond), the tissue mechanical impulse response can be observed. Thus, this imaging method is called Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse (ARFI) imaging. ARFI imaging has many potential clinical applications, including: detecting and characterizing a wide variety of soft tissue lesions, and identifying and characterizing atherosclerosis, plaque, and thromboses. When acoustic radiation force is applied to a fluid, the fluid begins to flow, a phenomenon called 'acoustic streaming'. We have demonstrated that this fluid motion can be generated in vivo in human cysts and it can be detected using Doppler processing. The detection of acoustic streaming is then used to differentiate fluid-filled (or cystic) from solid lesions. This imaging modality is termed 'Streaming Detection'...

We have shown that in breast cysts (i.e. fluid-filled breast lesions), acoustic radiation force 'stirs' the fluid, and this fluid motion can be detected using Doppler methods. If acoustic streaming is detected, the lesion can be diagnosed as a cyst, because streaming cannot be generated in a solid lesion.

Image Caption: Clip of Streaming Detection in a cyst phantom, where high intensity pulses are focused along the Pulsed Doppler cursor line (the vertical white line in the center of the lesion). The resulting fluid motion is being detected both with color Doppler (as shown in the blue and green motion away from the transducer, which is located at the top of thie image) and spectral Doppler (the horizontal white spectral display on the bottom half of the image, with motion away from the transducer apparent in that the spectrum is below the 0 baseline). (Duke U.)

More at Radiation Force Based Imaging Group at Duke University Medical Center (see also here)...

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Scientists Observe Infectious Prion Proteins Invade and Move Within Brain Cells

Filed under: Genetics

Fascinating research findings are reported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID):

Scientists for the first time have watched agents of brain-wasting diseases, called transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE), as they invade a nerve cell and then travel along wire-like circuits to points of contact with other cells. These findings will help scientists better understand TSE diseases and may lead to ways to prevent or minimize their effects. TSE, or prion, diseases include scrapie in sheep and goats; chronic wasting disease in deer and elk; mad cow disease in cattle; and Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease in humans.

Under the direction of Byron Caughey, Ph.D., at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories (RML), and Marco Prado, Ph.D., at the University of Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, the team performed the research in laboratory cultures using a rodent-adapted form of scrapie protein and cells taken from the central nervous system of mouse and hamster brains. The proteins were first "branded" with fluorescent dyes so they could be easily tracked.

The work also revealed that a similar trafficking process might occur with the key plaque-forming protein in Alzheimer's disease, which is not a TSE but a different type of degenerative brain disease, according to Gerald Baron, Ph.D., one of the lead RML researchers...

Dr. Baron says researchers have tracked infectious prion protein moving through other parts of animal bodies up to the brain, but no one had ever tracked the protein movement within animal brain cells. One of the most difficult aspects of the experiment, he says, was finding a way to fluorescently tag the TSE prion proteins without altering them--while still allowing researchers to identify the prions as they penetrated the cells and spread within the long projections that nerve cells develop to send signals to other nerve cells.

"This was difficult from a technical aspect because the scrapie pathogen is largely a corrupted form of a host cell protein," Dr. Baron said. "It can be hard to detect the corrupted prion protein in living infected cells and distinguish it from its normal counterpart."

He explains that once researchers learned how to mark the prion proteins, they added them to a culture of nerve cells and then began watching and taking photo images with a confocal microscope. Confocal microscopy uses laser light to scan many thin sections of a fluorescent sample, resulting in a clean three-dimensional image. The painstaking job of analyzing and deciphering about 1,000 different images primarily belonged to Dr. Magalhaes--who filled a file cabinet drawer with CDs containing microscopic images. The effort resulted in striking photos that, when put into a video format, show prion protein moving within cells, then along narrow cellular projections called neurites and ultimately into close proximity with adjacent cells.

The press release by NIAID...

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Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Canica Standard Scalpel

Filed under: Surgery

This "ergonomically-shaped for enhanced surgical dexterity" scalpel has one particularly great feature: push-button blade ejection to minimize disposal risk. No more using Kelly clamps to remove the blade!

See more surgical products at Canica Design, Inc...

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The Grand Rounds Jumps on AMA Controversy

Filed under: Net News , Society

The latest installment of the Grand Rounds, hosted by Michael Alexander Chaplin, M.D., covers the controversial topic of Amednews.com--"The Newspaper for America's Physicians"--abandoning America's physicians.

More here...

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LaPazz D-Note

Filed under: Informatics

Might be useful in your medical office:

UC-Logic Technology Corp., a leading designer and manufacturer of digitizers and pen input devices, will unveil its latest portable note taking device, dubbed the LaPazz D-Note digital note recorder, at Computex 2005 in Taipei.

The D-Note DNA500 consists of a lightweight, ultra-portable digital notepad that allows users to instantly capture notes or diagrams written in ink on normal paper and store them as digital pages in a built-in flash memory . Users can then transfer their digitized notes to a PC for viewing, editing, or sharing by e-mail...

The D-Note is a standalone device that can be deployed in any situation where both a paper hardcopy and a digitized soft copy are required, like while making meeting minutes and lecture notes, but also in the electronic capture of signatures, the processing of police and medical records, or to conduct polls and the completion of forms.

The press release...

More at UC-Logic Technology...

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» NYT: Guidant Failed to Disclose a Defibrillator Flaw (May 24, 2005)

» Magnetic Targeting Device for IM Bone Implants (May 24, 2005)

» BÂRRX Halo360 System (May 24, 2005)

» Hyperbaric Oxygen for Lymphedema (May 23, 2005)

» Vein Entry Indicator Device (VEID™) (May 23, 2005)

» The Sunshine Heart C-Pulse (May 23, 2005)

» Shock Waves for Bone Growth (May 23, 2005)

» Do-it-Yourself Medical Records (May 23, 2005)

» LifeStraw™ (May 23, 2005)

» Device Detects the Mass of a Single DNA Molecule (May 23, 2005)

» OR-Live.com: June Webcasts (May 23, 2005)

» Psychiatric VRx (virtual reality therapy) (May 20, 2005)

» Babysim (May 20, 2005)

» Splash Swim Goggles (May 20, 2005)

» Pew Internet & American Life Project: Health Information Online (May 20, 2005)

» May 21: Morphine's 200th Birthday (May 20, 2005)

» Sonic Flashlight™: Real Time Tomographic Reflection System (May 19, 2005)

» VNS Therapy System's FDA Clearance Under Investigation (May 19, 2005)

» The LONG Arm of Medicine (May 19, 2005)

» Square-eyes Shoe to Reinvigorate Couch Potatoes (May 19, 2005)

» New Brain Monitoring Method Would Pinpoint Babies at Risk for Seizures (May 19, 2005)

» MIRACARAT Photocatalyst Series Pantyhoses (May 19, 2005)

» Ready System allows Mini-Bypass (May 19, 2005)

» Epi-Max for Diabetic Skin Ulcers (May 19, 2005)

» AMNews Editor Responds (May 18, 2005)

» Androscope i-stethos Advanced Electronic Stethoscope (May 18, 2005)

» Smart Sensors by Emfit (May 18, 2005)

» Ultra Suction™ Does USA (May 18, 2005)

» UPMC: Charting the Progress of Evidence-Based Medicine (May 18, 2005)

» IntelliVue Telemetry System (May 17, 2005)

» Surgical-Assist Robots by Armstrong Healthcare (May 17, 2005)

» Northwestern: Innovative Coating Could Give Medical Implants A Longer Life (May 17, 2005)

» Urgent Action Needed! (May 17, 2005)

» HyperQ™ (May 16, 2005)

» Morning Jitters (May 16, 2005)

» SIMpill Does USA (May 16, 2005)

» Subvocal Speech System by NASA (May 16, 2005)

» New "Nuclear Battery" Runs 10 Years, 10 Times More Powerful (May 16, 2005)

» Good Housekeeping (May 16, 2005)

» Gold Nanoparticles May Simplify Cancer Detection (May 16, 2005)

» Video Games May Help Stroke Patients (May 16, 2005)

» The Cool-Cap (May 13, 2005)

» Under Construction: 4D Ultrasound System (May 13, 2005)

» From the Catwalks of Medical Shows (May 13, 2005)

» Stem Cell Trial in CHF Patients to Begin (May 13, 2005)

» 70 Years of AA ... (May 13, 2005)

» Microcyn for Wound Care (May 12, 2005)

» First 'Bionic' Electrode Implanted in UK (May 12, 2005)

» Nonallergenic Latex (May 12, 2005)

» Teledieting by MyFoodPhone (May 12, 2005)

» Breast CT: Now in Clinical Testing (May 12, 2005)

» TMS Studied for Difficult-to-Treat Cases of Depression (May 11, 2005)

» Contactless Palm Vein Authentication Technology by Fujitsu Deployed (May 11, 2005)

» Open-X® (May 11, 2005)

» VerifyNow™ Aspirin System (May 11, 2005)

» Stem cell treatment improves mobility after spinal cord injury (May 11, 2005)

» Urban Cosmetic Dentistry (part 2) (May 11, 2005)

» Garage-based DNA Labs (May 10, 2005)

» The AMBRI® Biosensor (May 10, 2005)

» MIT $50K Entrepreneurship Competition (May 10, 2005)

» Reith Lectures 2005 (part 5) (May 10, 2005)

» Radiology Outsourcing (May 9, 2005)

» Rapid Atomic Force Microscope Captures Nanomovies (May 9, 2005)

» In the Works: Baby Emotion Translator (May 9, 2005)

» Xsight™ Spine Tracking System by Accuray™ (May 9, 2005)

» Ten Overlooked Nano Firms (May 9, 2005)

» The Ambrosial Antioxidants (May 9, 2005)

» "RUPERT": Robotic Upper Extremity Repetitive Therapy (May 6, 2005)

» Mayo Clinic BC-10 MRI Coils (May 6, 2005)

» Pessimism For Drugs, Good Value Seen In Devices (May 6, 2005)

» The Telling Story of Napoleon's Trousers (May 6, 2005)

» Improving Gene Chips (May 5, 2005)

» Disintegrator Plus™: Harnessing the Power of Plasma (May 5, 2005)

» Medtronic CareLink® Programmer - Model 2090 (May 5, 2005)

» Powerseed: An Electronic Eating Coach (May 5, 2005)

» Photopneumatic (PPx)™ System (May 4, 2005)

» RADAR System for Detecting New Drug Interactions (May 4, 2005)

» DVX Catheter Clot Remover (May 4, 2005)

» High-resolution Ultrasonic Transmission Tomography (May 4, 2005)

» Making Bacteria 'Talk' (May 4, 2005)

» New Surgical Technique Described (May 4, 2005)

» MaxSight: Performance-Enhancing Contact Lenses (May 3, 2005)

» Second Sight Implant: Positive Results Reported in the Study (May 3, 2005)

» DETECT: New Way to Diagnose Concussions and mTBIs (May 3, 2005)

» Nucleus® Freedom™ with SmartSound (May 2, 2005)

» The 'Viagra' Condom (May 2, 2005)

» Reith Lectures 2005 (part 4) (May 2, 2005)

» Light Scattering Method Reveals Details under Skin (May 2, 2005)

» Medical InfoTech Threatened by Medicare Cuts (May 2, 2005)