Light-based device probes for early cancer signs
...cells that line body surfaces, including the skin, lungs and digestive and reproductive tracts, by simply inserting a fiber optic probe. The team has reported the first clinically practical version of their "angle-resolved low coherence interferometry" (a/LCI) technology designed to diagnose incipient can...Scientists use PET scans to monitor lung inflammation noninvasively
...o monitor artificially induced inflammation in the lungs of healthy volunteers. The new imaging process may... detectable by PET, and continuously monitored the lungs for 60 minutes to see how much FDG appeared there. Scientists already have completed a trial to test...Simple test could predict major complications in sickle cell patients
...ild-up of pressure in the arteries that supply the lungs and a common complication of sickle cell disease. The researchers found that LDH values rise with severity of pulmonary hypertension. In addition, mortality rates for the study participants were examined over a follow-up period of 49 months. Researc...Penn pairs chronically ill patients with medical students to create better doctors
...F) - a disease characterized by thick mucus in the lungs that affects breathing and digestion -- more than half of her life. The 50-year-old grandmother first noticed the symptoms of CF at 16 and was diagnosed with it at age 25. Becker eventually lost her oldest sister, who also suffered from the disease. ...Inflammatory biomarker helps identify progressive precancerous lesions in the lung
...pants had at least one abnormal cell site in their lungs (bronchial dysplasia) greater than 1.2 millimeters in size, which was biopsied at the start of the study and re-examined 6 months later. Of the study cohort, 49 individuals (75 percent) were men, with 48 classified as current smokers. On average, stu...Antibody therapy reduces asthma in mice
...llergy-inducing protein called C5a produced in the lungs can prevent or induce asthma, depending upon the timing of allergen exposure. The authors blocked the C5a receptor (C5aR) by either giving normal mice an antibody against C5aR, or by genetically deleting C5aR. The researchers then determined the anim...Low-tech garment holds promise in preventing maternal death related to childbirth
...cro closures. When in shock, the brain, heart and lungs are deprived of oxygen because blood accumulates i...bdominal area to the essential core organs: heart, lungs and brain. Within minutes of application, a hemorrhaging woman can regain consciousness and vital si...Most effective anthrax treatment: VA-Stanford study finds
... also found that drainage of fluid from around the lungs is a key procedure associated with anthrax patients' survival. The study findings, published in the Feb. 21 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, underscore the importance of detecting anthrax early, educating medical personnel about its symptoms...Tumor size related to lung cancer spread
Smaller tumors in the lungs appear to be less likely to have spread than larger tumors among patients with asymptomatic lung cancer, suggesting that early screening may be useful in detecting cancers that are still curable, according to a new article in the February 13 issue of...... airway from collapsing during sleep, allowing the lungs to function normally during sleep. Following treatment, the wife's quality of life measure jumped from a 1.2 to a 7, meaning the sleep apnea was no longer bothering her at all. Her sleepiness scale, which measures how tired she feels during the day,...Life-threatening lupus responds to stem cell transplant therapy
...s and skin rashes to severe damage of the kidneys, lungs or central nervous system. Lupus is three times more common -- and is frequently more severe -- in African Americans and Hispanics/Latinos. Studies show these groups also experience more complications of lupus, including kidney failure for both and n...Significant number of emphysema patients would find lasting benefit from lung surgery
..., those with emphysema in the upper lobes of their lungs showed improvement in survival, exercise and quali...e surgery had emphysema distributed throughout the lungs and/or in the lower portion of their lungs and had higher exercise capacities. "Based on these resul...JCI table of contents, January 26, 2006
...is (CF) patients. In addition, its presence in the lungs of CF patients correlates with markedly reduced lung function. Daniel Hassett and colleagues at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine in Cincinnati, Ohio found that these microorganisms were killed when exposed to 15 mM nitrite (NO2) at pH...Penn to test new thermal energy procedure to reduce asthmatic symptoms
...ical trial, physicians will treat one-third of the lungs in each treatment period for three treatment sessions total. Also, patients who are currently highly medicated will stay on their medication for the duration of the study. In this country, severe asthmatics are a major health problem. It's predicted ...Study reveals new player in sepsis-associated acute respiratory distress syndrome
...ir prognosis. In ARDS, small blood vessels in the lungs become leaky and release fluid. This impairs lung function, and patients experience trouble breathing and need to be put on respirators. If the condition lasts too long, the lung tissue gets damaged irreversibly. But what causes the leakage of fluid ...Researchers find effective, cheap treatment for cystic fibrosis lung disease
...ease soon develop chronic lung damage, since their lungs cannot clear excessively sticky mucus by sweeping ... to establish the concept that the surfaces of the lungs of CF patients are dehydrated, and restoring hydration with hypertonic saline treats the basic cause...Flu not the only germ threat this time of year
...handles all around you, and maybe in your nose and lungs too. Some of the viruses are also wafting through the air you breathe, looking to land in your eyes or nose and set up house inside your body. And those are just the respiratory germs never mind Strep in the throat and ears, or Norwalk viral agents ...Study shows inhaled medicine improves survival for lung transplant patients
... orally, do not get into the small air sacs of the lungs where chronic rejection takes place. It just makes a lot more sense to give a higher concentration of the drug right into the area you are trying to treat. Organ-specific immune suppression is almost a new paradigm for transplantation," according to ...Black baby girls more likely to live when born very premature
...nces of survival, Morse said. But female preemies' lungs tend to be more developed at birth, which could be part of the explanation, Morse said. For Morse, the next big question isn't why these babies survive but what happens to them when they do. He now plans to study what happens to extremely low-birth ......bodies are usually able to clear the germ from the lungs by recruiting large numbers of neutrophils, a type of white blood cells that kill germ cells, by surrounding and absorbing them. But while the technique is successful against B. bronchiseptica a closely related germ that causes kennel cough in dogs ...