Technology helps Stanford shed new light on coronary bypass surgery
...chanical scraping or the use of a stent to hold an obstructed artery open. The procedure involves grafting vessels from other parts of the body to create alternative conduits of blood flow to the heart. Traditionally the grafts are created from leg veins, but surgeons now frequently use arteries from the forear...Measures can help save frontal sinuses
... is a last-ditch effort to try and fix chronically obstructed frontal sinuses. "By doing the surgery over and over again, I've learned to look at the (computerized tomography) scan and check to see if I had room for my instruments to go through," says Dr. Kountakis, senior author of the recently released first...Robotic surgery-stenting combo opens coronary arteries, speeds recovery
...d. Doctors then sutured the mammary artery to the obstructed LAD, bypassing the obstruction, all done endoscopically. During the angioplasty procedure, doctors used stents (mesh tubes) to unblock other arteries and then prop them open. "Using the left internal mammary artery to bypass the LAD is the one thin...Researchers show how air pollution can cause heart disease
...posed to PM2.5 had arteries that were 41.5 percent obstructed by plaque, whereas the arteries of the pollution-free mice were 26.2 percent clogged. In both normal and high-fat diet mice, PM2.5 exposure increased cholesterol levels, which are thought to exacerbate plaque buildup. Though findings for increased p...Bronchial thermoplasty offers significant improvement for asthmatics in small study
... the distal airways might become more inflamed and obstructed than before." "Whether bronchial thermoplasty will earn a place in the treatment of asthma remains to be determined," Dr. Bel noted. "However, this study shows the potential for a completely new approach of treating asthma and stimulates the developm...New MRI technique shows emphysema in asymptomatic smokers
...s. The first image the researchers acquired showed obstructed areas of the lungs, where the air was unable to pass. The second image they obtained is called an apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) map, which shows the size of the airspaces in the lungs. Because emphysema increases airspace size, the ADC map sho...Mechanism for neurodenegerative diseases linked to transport proteins
... of Medicine showed how a chemical pathway that is obstructed in Kennedy disease interferes with a cellular distribution system called "fast axonal transport" that moves proteins from where they are synthesized to where they are needed in the cell. This transport system is critical in neurons because these cel...SWAN system to help blind and firefighters navigate environment
... in unknown territory, particularly when vision is obstructed or impaired. The SWAN system, consisting of a small laptop, a proprietary tracking chip, and bone-conduction headphones, provides audio cues to guide the person from place to place, with or without vision. "We are excited by the possibilities for p...'Dua Anti-reflux Valve' found to improve quality of life for bile duct/pancreatic cancer patients
...rom the liver to the intestines. When this duct is obstructed from cancers of the pancreas, gallbladder, or bile... 60 consecutive patients in whom the bile duct was obstructed from cancer of the pancreas or the bile duct. He placed a standard biliary stent in 30 patients and ...Low-tech operation could dramatically reduce maternal deaths
...e symphysis pubis could save the lives of women in obstructed labor and their babies, according to an Essay in t...auses of maternal death in low income countries is obstructed labor. The availability of relatively low-tech symphysiotomies, says the author, would help to addre...Dua anti-reflux stent relieves GI upper cancer distress
...rom the liver to the intestines. When this duct is obstructed from cancers of the pancreas, gallbladder, or bile... 60 consecutive patients in whom the bile duct was obstructed from cancer of the pancreas or the bile duct. He placed a standard biliary stent in 30 patients and ...Off-label and untested use of drug-coated stents appears widespread
...rtery after balloon angioplasty is used to open an obstructed coronary artery. The newer drug-eluting stents are normal metal stents coated with a drug that is known to interfere with the process of restenosis (re-obstruction). Data on the use of drug-eluting stents outside of approved indications in real-worl...