NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) announces today an investment round worth £500,000 to commercialise an innovative new monitoring device which samples blood while it is still within the patient’s body.
Blood analysis is costly and labour-intensive. It relies almost exclusively on blood withdrawal and off-line analysis, requiring extensive input from professional health staff – which inevitably leads to delays and can result in errors.
Magnetic resonance imaging is a better diagnostic tool for cochlear ear implants than the more commonly used high-resolution computed tomography, a UT Southwestern study shows.
A cochlear implant, sometimes called a “bionic ear,” allows patients with congenital hearing loss to bypass the problem and again perceive sound. Surgeons conduct radiologic studies using either an MRI or CT scan prior to implantation to determine abnormalities in the inner ear, conditions of related nerve
By borrowing mathematical tools from theoretical physics, scientists have recently developed a theory that explains why the brain tissue of humans and other vertebrates is segregated into the familiar “gray matter” and “white matter.”
The theory is based on the idea that maximum brain function requires a high level of interconnectivity among brain neurons but a low level of delays in the time it takes for signals to move through the brain (“conduction delays”).
Based on no fewer than
Lein Applied Diagnostics Ltd, a Berkshire-based company that is developing a revolutionary new product to measure blood glucose levels in people with diabetes, has successfully completed clinical tests of its advanced prototypes and secured further investment from Seven Spires Investments, a member of Thames Valley Investment Network (TVIN). The funding will enable Lein to accelerate the development programme for its non-invasive optical instrument.
Diabetes is a major problem, with 1
It is commonly believed that carbohydrates, particularly sugar, are a cause of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. However, such thinking has been challenged following the publication of a thorough appraisal of the evidence, in the latest edition of Nutrition Research Reviews.
Dr Neville McClenaghan, from the University of Ulster , conducted a large review of scientific studies investigating the effect of high and low carbohydrate diets on blood glucose control in people with and wi
Astronomy buffs who jumped at the chance to use their home computers in the SETI@home search for intelligent life in the universe will soon be able to join an Internet-based search for dust grains originating from stars millions of light years away.
In a new project called Stardust@home, University of California, Berkeley, researchers will invite Internet users to help them search for a few dozen submicroscopic grains of interstellar dust captured by NASA’s Stardust spacecr
Some HIV medications lead to the development of drug-resistant HIV when patients take as few as two percent of their medications. For other medications, resistance occurs only when patients take most of their pills. These differences appear to be explained by the different levels of viral “fitness” of the drug-resistant HIV, say AIDS researchers in a new study.
The research, led by David Bangsberg, MD, MPH, an AIDS specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, is reported in
Contrary to popular thinking in athletics, traditional neck muscle resistance training may not protect athletes from head injuries.
For eight weeks, kinesiologists at Temple University worked with male and female Division I intercollegiate soccer players to see if a resistance training program would reduce the player’s head acceleration during impact. According to Ryan Tierney PhD, director of Temple’s Graduate Athletic Training Program, head impacts experienced during
A spoon full of sugar may help the medicine go down, but most dentists would likely encourage parents to skip that step when treating a child’s illness. However, most parents might not realize that even without the sugar, some children’s medicines may cause cavities while they’re fighting other health issues, according to a report in the January/February issue of General Dentistry, the Academy of General Dentistry’s (AGD) clinical, peer-reviewed journal.
Antihistamine syrups are frequen
Dental implants, an artificial tooth root surgically anchored into a jaw to hold a replacement tooth or several teeth in place, offer a permanent solution to replace lost or extracted teeth. Implants have become a treatment of choice for some patients to eliminate the need for removable partial or complete dentures. Other patients choose implants for esthetic purposes or to conserve tooth structure in an otherwise cavity-free mouth.
However, according to a recent report in the Novembe
Mayo Clinic Cancer Center researchers report aggressive surgical removal of as much cancer as possible throughout the abdomen in ovarian cancer patients is the best option for most women. Results of the study are published in the January issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology.
“This study provides further evidence that surgery to remove as much tumor as possible at the initial operation is the best option for most patients,” says William Cliby, M.D., Mayo Clinic gynecologic oncologist a
Men and women may share more similarities than previously thought when it comes to the risk factors for major depression, according to a new study by Virginia Commonwealth University researchers.
In the January issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry, researchers reported that although there is a wide range of risk factors for depression that can act at different stages of development, the patterns of causes of depression for men and women are fairly similar. Some of these
A team of researchers, led by investigators at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has found that a gene variant for a bitter-taste receptor on the tongue is associated with an increased risk for alcohol dependence. The research team studied DNA samples from 262 families, all of which have at least three alcoholic individuals. The families are participating in a national study called the Collaborative Study of the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA). COGA investigators report in the J
A new study in Japan examining the effects of combination therapy on older patients with hepatitis C found more adverse effects necessitating discontinuation of treatment, lowering of dosages, and lower long-term benefits in this age group.
The results of this study appear in the January 2006 issue of Hepatology, the official journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD). Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hepatology is available online via Wiley
While few Americans remain abstinent until marriage and most initiate sexual intercourse as adolescents, abstinence from sexual intercourse is an important behavioral strategy for preventing human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and unintended pregnancy among adolescents, according to the report, Abstinence and Abstinence-Only Education: A Review of U.S. Policies and Programs. The paper also notes that while there is broad support for abstinence as a n
A study examines new pathways linking liver disease to changes in the central nervous system
Liver disease is often associated with “sickness behaviors,” such as malaise, listlessness, anorexia, difficulty concentrating, and fatigue. In cholestatic liver diseases (where bile production is impaired) such as primary biliary cirrhosis, fatigue occurs in up to 86 percent of patients. Previous studies have suggested that these symptoms originate from changes to the central nervous sys
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