2 views are better than 1 in 3-D breast screening
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One view 3D breast screening (tomosynthesis) means less radiation dose and about five seconds less compression, but a study from Yale University, New Haven, CT, found that obtaining both views is necessary to help ensure that a cancer won’t be missed.
There are practices in Europe that have reported performing only a single view, specifically the mediolateral oblique (MLO) view, said Dr. Noa Beck, the lead author of the study. Two views are standard in the U.S. for 3D breast screening; “we wanted to see if one view would be sufficient,” she said. Seven breast imagers reviewed 164 cancers visualized with tomosynthesis and noted on what views the cancers could be seen. The study found that 56% of cancers were equally well seen on both the MLO view and the craniocaudal (CC) view; 34% of the cancers were either better or only seen on the CC view, said Dr. Beck. “The CC view achieves better compression, and this likely explains the reason the CC view showed lesions more clearly. In a few cases, lesions were only seen on the MLO view because of where the cancers were located in the breast,” she said.
The study results emphasize that “obtaining both views is necessary to ensure that a cancer will be optimally visualized,” said Dr. Beck.
CPAP improves work productivity for sleep apnea patients
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The study will be presented today (11 April 2013) at the Sleep and Breathing Conference in Berlin, organised by the European Respiratory Society and the European Sleep Research Society.
Previous research has demonstrated that people with sleep apnoea are less productive at work, usually due to excessive daytime sleepiness. This study aimed to assess whether continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) improved productivity at work.
The researchers used the Endicott Work Productivity Scale, a questionnaire designed to assess productivity at work, and the Epworth Sleepiness Scale, a globally accepted questionnaire which assesses daytime sleepiness. Included were 45 patients with sleep apnoea of working age (between 40 and 56 years), who completed the questionnaires at the outset and after 3 months of CPAP treatment.
The results showed that 35 of the patients who had good adherence to CPAP treatment showed significant improvement in their productivity at work and in their daytime sleepiness. The 10 patients who did not follow the treatment programme had no significant improvement in symptoms or work productivity.
Cardiopoietic ‘Smart’ Stem Cells Show Promise in Heart Failure Patients
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Translating a Mayo Clinic stem-cell discovery, an international team has demonstrated that therapy with cardiopoietic (cardiogenically-instructed) or “smart” stem cells can improve heart health for people suffering from heart failure. This is the first application in patients of lineage-guided stem cells for targeted regeneration of a failing organ, paving the way to development of next generation regenerative medicine solutions. Results of the clinical trial appear online of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
The multi-center, randomized Cardiopoietic stem cell therapy in heart failure (C-CURE) trial involved heart failure patients from Belgium, Switzerland and Serbia. Patients in the control group received standard care for heart failure in accordance with established guidelines. Patients in the cell therapy arm received, in addition to standard care, cardiopoietic stem cells—a first-in-class biotherapeutic. In this process, bone marrow was harvested from the top of the patient’s hip, and isolated stem cells were treated with a protein cocktail to replicate natural cues of heart development. Derived cardiopoietic stem cells were then injected into the patient’s heart.
“The cells underwent an innovative treatment to optimize their repair capacity,” says Andre Terzic, M.D., Ph.D., study senior author and director of the Mayo Clinic Center for Regenerative Medicine. “This study helps us move beyond the science fiction notion of stem cell research, providing clinical evidence for a new approach in cardiovascular regenerative medicine.”
New Mayo Software Identifies and Stratifies Risk Posed by Lung Nodules
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A multidisciplinary team of researchers at Mayo Clinic has developed a new software tool to noninvasively characterize pulmonary adenocarcinoma, a common type of cancerous nodule in the lungs. Results from a pilot study of the computer-aided nodule assessment and risk yield (CANARY) are published in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology.
“Pulmonary adenocarcinoma is the most common type of lung cancer and early detection using traditional computed tomography (CT) scans can lead to a better prognosis,” says Tobias Peikert, M.D., a Mayo Clinic pulmonologist and senior author of the study. “However, a subgroup of the detected adenocarcinomas identified by CT may grow very slowly and may be treatable with less extensive surgery.”
CANARY can noninvasively stratify the risk lung adenocarcinomas pose by characterizing the nodule as aggressive or indolent with high-sensitivity, specificity and predictive values.
First tests of old patent medicine remedies from a museum collection
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What was in Dr. F. G. Johnson’s French Female Pills and other scientifically untested elixirs, nostrums and other quack cures that were the only medicines available to sick people during the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries?
Scientists provided a glimpse today based on an analysis of a museum collection of patent medicines used in turn-of-the-century America. It was part of the 245th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society, which is being held here this week.
Mark Benvenuto, Ph.D, who headed the study, explained that hundreds of untested products were sold in stores, by mail order or in traveling medicine shows during the patent medicine era. The products were called “patent medicines” not because they had been granted a government patent, but from an unrelated term that originated in 17th century England.
“This was an era long before the controlled clinical trials and federal regulations that ensure the safety and effectiveness of the medicines we take today,” Benvenuto explained. “Many patent medicines had dangerous ingredients, not just potentially toxic substances like arsenic, mercury and lead, but cocaine, heroin and high concentrations of alcohol.”
Deadly new bird flu vindicates controversial research
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Scientists in the Dutch city of Rotterdam know precisely what it takes for a bird flu to mutate into a potential human pandemic strain - because they’ve created just such mutant viruses in the laboratory.
So as they watch with some trepidation the emergence in China of a strain of bird flu previously unknown in humans, they also argue it vindicates their controversial decision to conduct these risky experiments despite fierce opposition.
Above all else, what the world needs to know about this new strain of H7N9 bird flu is how likely it is to be able to spread efficiently among human populations.
