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Latest Medical Technology

• Engineers Have Big Ideas for the Latest in Medical Scanners

  14Aug
  Categories: Developmental stage, Diagnostics, Hearing Technology, Imaging, Information, Management and Treatment, News and Updates, Pharmaceuticals, Vaccines Comments: 0

  
  Image Source:www.ex-astris-scientia.org

  Rutherford-Appleton Laboratories have developed one of the World´s largest imagers that could form the heart of future medical scanners. The new technology will allow doctors to produce more sensitive and faster images of the human body at a lower-cost to the healthcare profession.

  The innovative technology, which has been developed as part of the £4.5m Basic Technology MI-3 Consortium, will help in providing instant analysis of medical screening tests and the early detection of cancer.

  Easier to use and faster than the imagers used in current body scanners, and with very large active pixel sensors with an imaging area of approximately 6cm square, the technology has been specifically developed to meet demanding clinical applications such as x-ray imaging and mammography. This silicon imager is about 15 times larger in area than the latest Intel processors.

  The next step of the project is to produce wafer-scale imagers which can produce images that approach the width of the human torso. This will eliminate the need for expensive and inefficient lenses and so enable lower-cost, more sensitive and faster medical imaging systems. Very large active pixel sensors could soon be making a major impact on medical imaging by further reducing the need for the old technology of film. The UK is a World-lead in such sensors for scientific and medical applications and this is a lead that UK intends to maintain.

• Gene therapy normalizes brain function in Parkinson’s patients

  04Jun
  Categories: Diagnostics, Imaging, News and Updates Comments: 0

  
  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.

  (Source)

• ViScope: Sensing Approaching Heart Attack

  27May
  Categories: Diagnostics, News and Updates Comments: 0

  

  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.

• New Method for Diabetes Detection

  25Feb
  Categories: Diagnostics Comments: 0

  

  A new method to detect diabetes, even before symptoms occur, is being developed by a team of endocrinologists, engineers and microbiologists. A device projects light to the skin which measures levels of blood sugar, or the presence of advanced glycation endproducts. This device is called The Scout. Different wavelengths is flashed to the skin to determine diabetes risk. This will help patients go on a preventive health maintenance program. With this method, diabetes can actually be prevented. It is already being tested in several US hospitals. The new method is expected to cost about the same as existing diabetes testing methods.

  (source)

• Predicting the Recurrence of Prostate Cancer

  05Feb
  Categories: Diagnostics Comments: 0

  Prior to treatment, prostate cancer patients undergo endorectal MR imaging of the prostate to predict whether the cancer will recur after going through treatment. MR images of the prostate that show extracapsular extension before the patient undergoes therapy is an indication that metastases is more likely to occur in the future. This means regular treatment might not totally eradicate the cancer, therefore other treatment options and preventive measures should be discussed with the health care professional.

  This study was presented in May 2007 at the American Roentgen Ray Society Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida. The lead author was Antonio Wetphalen, MD.

  (source)

• Stereo mammography a big leap in breast imaging

  15Jan
  Categories: Diagnostics, Imaging, News and Updates Comments: 0

  
  Stereoscopic digital mammography, a new diagnostic technique capable of producing three-dimensional, in-depth views of breast tissue, could significantly reduce the number of women who are recalled for additional tests following routine screening mammography. Results of a clinical trial being conducted at Emory University Breast Clinic in Atlanta were presented Thursday at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

  Stereoscopic digital mammography consists of two digital x-ray images of the breast acquired from two different points of view separated by about eight degrees. When the images are viewed on a stereo display workstation, the radiologist is able to see the internal structure of the breast in three dimensions. In the ongoing clinical trial, researchers use a full-field digital mammography unit modified to take stereo pairs of images. The workstation enables the mammographer to fuse the stereo image pair and to view the breast in depth.

  In the study, stereo mammography reduced false positives by 49%. This huge drop in percentage has strong implications with regard to needless cost in time and money. BBN Technologies and Planar Systems developed the stereo display workstation used in the trial.

  (Source)

• New blood biomarker to predict cancer spread

  13Jan
  Categories: Developmental stage, Diagnostics Comments: 0

  Recent research came up with a new blood biomarker that has a high accuracy of predicting the spread of prostate cancer to other parts of the body through the lymph nodes. Such spreading of cancer cells are usually not detected by conventional imaging methods like CT scans. This new blood test measures the level of endoglin, a plasma biomarker which was also studied to predict the spread of colon and breast cancer.

  The levels of endoglin in the blood were associated with increased risk of cancer cells spreading to the lymph nodes. Each 1ng/mL increase of plasma endoglin increases the risk of cancer spread by 17 percent.

  (source)

• New test to detect breast cancer

  08Jan
  Categories: Diagnostics Comments: 0

  The Medical College of Georgia uses a new tool to examine half of the tissue in the sentinel lymph node where breast cancer usually starts to spread. This tool is called the GeneSearch Breast Lymph Node Assay, manufactured by Veridex, L.L.C.

  Traditional sentinel node biopsy examines a node that has been cut to wafer thin slices, have it frozen and stained before looking for cancer cells under a microscope. With GeneSearch, the tissue is examined with molecular diagnostic methods, which is more sensitive. The test looks for excessive amounts of mamoglobin and cytikeratin 19, genes that are more expressed in breast cancer tissues. This reduces the incident of false negative test results.

  (source)