Latest Medical Technology |

Nutrigenomics is the study of molecular relationships between nutrition and the response of genes. (wikipedia) It focuses on the effects of nutrients to gene development and the overall effect to human health. The aim is to develop a personalized nutrition program based on an individual’s genotype, as certain diseases are caused by changes in the DNA.

Nutrients are seen by the cells as signals, and the cell’s sensor system interprets this signal. This process then changes gene, protein expression and metabolite production depending on the level of nutrient it senses. Nutrigenomics aims to identify these patterns and effects called dietary signatures.

This research is still in its early stages, but is a promising field that gives hope for the future.

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Useful Links:
http://nutrigenomics.ucdavis.edu/
http://www.nutrigenomics.nl/
http://www.nugo.org/everyone

Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scans of the brains of Parkinson’s patients given an experimental gene therapy to improve muscular control showed that the treatment worked and had lasting results.

The study was conducted by researchers from The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research and the Weill Cornell Medical Center in the US. In the study, genes for glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) were delivered into the subthalamic nucleus of the brain in a dozen Parkinson’s patients using a viral carrier. The genes were delivered to only one side of the brain to reduce risk and to better assess the treatment.

The results from the brain scan study on the gene therapy patients show that only the motor networks were altered by the therapy. This study demonstrates that PET scanning can be a valuable marker in testing novel therapies for Parkinson’s disease.

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Heart Attack is considered a treacherous disease because one can never know when it will happen to him… But thanks to Australia’s HD Medical Group, ViScope is born to foretell an impending heart attack through the utilization of mechanical audio data. This device can sense the noise that comes from the heart which signal an approaching attack. The low-voltage radio waves from the heart are received by this life-saving device — pretty much like attracting fish using sonar waves if you’re a fisherman! Heart attacks can happen anytime, but a device like ViScope helps in getting the symptoms earlier so the patient, his nurse or loved one can take action on it before it’s too late.

If you are suffering from sleep deprivation, produces a cow-like snoring and maintains a compulsion to be sleepy all throughout the day, it’s not normal. Science calls this disorder Sleep Apnea (apnea means “without breath”) wherein the breathing patterns of a person repeatedly halts and starts when one is sleeping. The latest treatment against Sleep Apnea is called TAP or Thornton Adjustable Positioner, a customized oral appliance that the patient wears during sleep. By holding and keeping the lower jaw forward and not allowing the tongue and the throat tissues to collapse to the airway, it prevents snoring and sleep apnea.

A mobile phone sensor system for the senior citizens have been developed by Korea’s Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute. With this new system, family members, doctors and nurses can be quickly informed about the situation of the elderly. Through GPS technology that links the hospital’s computer to the sensor carried on the patient’s belt. The computer automatically calls the phone of the patient to check if the person is hurt. The sensor detects sudden movements like a fall or bumping into something. Studies are being undergone so that the product will be put under the operation of mobile phone companies so that any signal from the sensor can then be sent to any mobile phone.

If you know anyone who has experienced Angiography, you know that he will never recount the story of the experience without cringing or deep facial expression expressing pain — both the physical and the financial pain, mind you. And now comes Super X-ray that saves one from the angiogram fatality caused by bacterial invasion and exposure to radiation that may eventually lead to cancer. According to studies, this new product will eliminate the use of some 1.3M cardiac catheterizations per annum. Although there have been debates on the radiation level this new technique can emit, more scientists have favored it for its accuracy.

The latest in high tech prosthetics has just come out: PROPIO Foot which is deemed to restore the zest of life and functionality to amputees. With Propio, artificial legs and hands are fitted using microprocessors so that they will be imbued with “artificial intelligence” — which enables it to think for itself! This marvelous products boast of adjusting itself to diverse terrains and contains “advanced censors” that makes wonders for the foot like memorizing the habits of its user. It is also anatomically correct and friendly to its users albeit its seemingly complicated and sophisticated design. This product was developed by a company named Ossur.

Take anyone who has undergone Endroscopy and he would tell you the difficulties he experienced as he swallowed the flexible or rigid cable — which, of course, can be a source of infection, over-sedation, and, worst, the harming of various body organs. The answer? The wireless capsule camera (which also has other names such as “PillCam,” “video pill,” “Sayaka,” or “Endocapsule” that enables one to view and see areas that the old-fashioned endoscopes have failed to display. This capsule traverses the path of the intestines after a patient takes it in through the mouth. Although it indeed takes a longer time to provide images, the ones it produces are clearer and of better quality.

In the ever-improving world of neuromedicine, psychology and psychiatry, the newest materializing exploratory pursuit is the Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) technique that uses implants that hinders tremors experienced by people with Parkinson’s Disease. Forty thousand patients around the world have benefited from these implants. Nowadays, researchers are exploring the possibility of using the same technique in an attempt to cure mental illnesses like obsessive-compulsive disorder and chronic depression as well. They are seeing the possibility of these implants to act like an antidepressant for diseases which have severe untreatable manifestations. These brain pace-makers will surely help a lot of people in setting foot once again to normalcy but authorities emphasize that Deep Brain Stimulation using implants is still on its initial experimental state.

Great news for hospitals and other clinical facilities with an enormous need of improvements with medical scanners - The University of Sheffield and STFC Rutherford-Appleton Laboratories have provided the world a medical scanner that is easier to use and produces faster and more sensitive images.

This recent development offers immediate analysis of medical screening tests and early detection of cancer. It can also be of service in x-ray imaging and mammography.

The developers are looking at wafer-scale imagers, which can generate images with width of the human torso as the next big thing for this project. If this pushes through, it will allow more efficient and productive medical imaging systems.

Source: www.sciencedaily.com