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.

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Siemens, one of the leaders in hearing technology, introduced one of their most advanced hearing devices.

Meet Artis 2 – “helping people with hearing loss fully appreciate all that life has to offer”. Artis 2 is a smart little device that learns the wearer’s volume preference, so that it adjusts automatically while it is being worn. Artis 2 actually records and stores hearing aid use data so your hearing health professional can access the data for quick adjustments as needed. This tiny little device is so smart, it utilizes wireless technology. Yes, both ear pieces can communicate with each other wirelessly.

The Artis 2 can also differentiate between sound and just plain noise by upping the volume on speech while reducing background din. The screeching feedback problems have also been reduced digitally with feedback cancellation.

Whew. All this high technology packed in one tiny device!

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This technology has shown positive results with mice experiments. A mice that has spinal cord injury was able to use their hind legs in walking six weeks after being injected with the gel. Although not all treatments in mice works in humans, there is still a possibility that it could work.

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Patients with congenital heart disease will have a chance at a treatment without a major open heart surgery. Cardiologists at the Rush University Medical Center has developed a minimally-invasive transcatheter valve replacement. Patients involved in a clinical trial had this implant, and are presently recovering. This gives hope to patients that would otherwise undergo multiple open heart surgeries. The valve replacement procedure uses a bovine pericardial heart valve that is compressed into a balloon as small as a pencil, threaded from a major vein in the leg into the circulatory system, and is deployed across the pulmonary valve.

The US Food and Drug Administration conditionally approved the trial in 2007.

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Prosthetic legs have evolved to lightweight and more “user friendly”. The old prosthetics were designed just to allow patients to stand with “both legs”, but walking and climbing the stairs were difficult, and running was impossible. Then “bendable” prosthetics were developed. Now a prosthetic that looks like the real thing gives people who lost their legs a better chance to live normal lives, and wear clothes that they otherwise would not wear with the old cyborg-like prosthetics.

One particular design was called LISA, which stood for lightweight, inconspicuous, shapely and active. Running is now possible, and women can even wear shoes with heels, as the ankles can be adjusted with a button.

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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.

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.