Search for: "alveoli" - 26 articles found

News • mRNA-based strategy

Cystic fibrosis: new study identifies gene therapy

Now, a new study identified a gene therapy for individuals with cystic fibrosis (CF) caused by a specific mutation and for whom there was no treatment available until now.

News • Quantitative analysis of the mammary ductal tree

Calculating breast health with branching math

Researchers have developed a tool to quickly quantify changes in the branches of mouse mammary glands. This could one day be used to detect early warning signs of breast cancer.

News • Staging and monitoring tool

Diagnosing lung disease with quantitative ultrasound parameters

Using conventional ultrasound, researchers have developed a model that determines whether conditions such as fibrosis or edema are present in the lungs, and gives information about the severity.

News • Novel treatment strategy

Antibacterial nanoparticles to shorten tuberculosis therapy duration

A low-cost technology involving nano-sized antimicrobial compounds against tuberculosis has been developed by researchers at São Paulo State University (UNESP).

News • Advancs in chest imaging

Evaluating lung function with photon-counting CT

Photon-counting CT allows for a comprehensive, simultaneous evaluation of lung structure and function, something not possible with standard CT, according to a new study.

News • Targeted treatment

Lung-imaging shows cause of long COVID symptoms

Using functional MRI with inhaled xenon gas, researchers have identified that long COVID symptoms are related to microscopic abnormalities that affect how oxygen is exchanged from the lungs to the red blood cells.

News • Organoid research

Structure formation in mini-organs

Many of the organ systems found in animals exhibit highly complex structures, which are essential for their various functions. How such structures develop during embryonic development is a central question in biology. Physicists led by Erwin Frey (Professor of Statistical and Biological Physics at LMU Munich) and Andreas Bausch (Professor of Cellular Biophysics at the Technical University of…

News • Infection research

Understanding lung damage in Covid-19 patients

Covid-19 disease severity is determined by the individual patient’s immune response. The precise mechanisms taking place inside the lungs and blood during the early phase of the disease, however, remain unclear. Researchers from Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) and Freie Universität Berlin have now studied the cellular mechanisms…

News • Seeing the whole picture

Covid-19 mapping reveals organ distribution and tissue damage

The first known study to measure SARS-CoV-2 viral load in a variety of organs and tissues may aid our understanding of how Covid-19 develops following infection.

Article • Experimental therapy

CRP apheresis: First successful treatment of Covid-19 patient

Apheresis, a procedure that separates and removes particular blood constituents, shows promise for Covid-19 cases: the first patient successfully underwent so-called CRP apheresis, which can prevent potentially fatal consequences of the infection.

Video • Computer model vs. Covid-19

Discovering new weaknesses of SARS-CoV-2 through bioinformatics

The search for antiviral agents against the new coronavirus is in full swing. Using a novel approach, Bioinformaticians have now discovered a weakness in the virus that could be exploited for drug development. In a computer model, the scientists discovered a human enzyme that is crucial for the virus. When it was switched off in the model, the virus could no longer multiply.

News • Immune reponse to COVID-19

‘Mini-lungs’ reveal early stages of SARS-CoV-2 infection

‘Mini-lungs’ grown from tissue donated to Cambridge hospitals has provided a team of scientists from South Korea and the UK with important insights into how COVID-19 damages the lungs. Writing in the journal Cell Stem Cell, the researchers detail the mechanisms underlying SARS-CoV-2 infection and the early innate immune response in the lungs.

Article • POCT as initial coronavirus screening tool

Ultrasound confirms frontline value in COVID-19 setting

Ultrasound could become the prime modality in emergency settings for tracking disease progression in COVID-19 patients. While chest CT has held a key diagnostic role thus far, many experts now advocate the benefits of ultrasound within the context of the coronavirus epidemic. Dr Rachel Liu, who recently led a high-profile panel discussion with experts from the USA and areas of Europe with high…

Video • Coronavirus imaging

AI enhanced lung ultrasound for COVID-19 testing

Establishing whether a patient is suffering from severe lung disease, possibly COVID-19, within a few minutes: this is possible using fairly simple ultrasound machines that are enhanced with artificial intelligence. A research team at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) and the University of Trento in Italy has been able to translate the expertise of top lung specialists into a software…

News • COVID-19 and ARDS

Computer model of the lung enables protective ventilation

A computational lung model can be used to reduce damage caused by mechanical ventilation – and could increase survival rates for patients significantly.

News • Tiny biomaterials

On the way to safer nanomedicine

Tiny particles that can fight cancer or that can easily pass through any interface within our body are a great promise for medicine. But there is little knowledge thus far about what exactly will happen to nanoparticles within our tissues and whether or not they can cause disease by themselves. Within an international research consortium, Empa scientists have now developed guidelines that should…

Easing ARDS and AECOPD

Innovative ‘artificial lungs’, which help the patients to breathe, offer less traumatic treatment for severe diseases such as acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD/AECOPD). Respiratory failure is one of the most frequent causes of ICU admission. It may occur inter alia in patients with ARDS, a dangerous condition when the respiratory system…

Article • Xenon MRT

A revolution in lung function diagnostics

Since lung diseases tend to be complex, imaging is a crucial diagnostic tool. While computed tomography has become the standard modality, which is frequently used outside hospital settings, specialised MRI diagnostics remains the preserve of large university medical centres.

Extracorporeal technology eases stress

Conventional therapy for ARDS patients and for patients with exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has relied on invasive mechanical ventilation. Mechanical ventilation, however, has several major drawbacks: sedation has to be induced and the air being pressed into the lungs with positive pressure can damage the pulmonary alveoli or the diaphragm. Moreover, even maximum…

News • MERS

First reported autopsy of patient with MERS provides critical insights

Since 2012, at least 1,500 individuals have developed Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), resulting in more than 500 fatalities. Only now are results being reported of the first autopsy of a MERS patient, which was performed in 2014. Not only do these findings, published in The American Journal of Pathology, provide unprecedented, clinically-relevant insights about how MERS progresses, they…

Critical care ventilation

The new Carescape R860 is an intuitive critical care ventilator that uses advanced lung protection tools and an innovative user interface to help improve patient care.

Against all odds: MRI does well in lung imaging

At first sight magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) does not seem to be particularly well suited for lung diagnostics: too much air, too much movement and too little water make image acquisition a real challenge. Nevertheless, MRI is useful and in certain cases even superior to CT say the members of HTIP (Heidelberg Thorax Imaging Plattform), an association of the radiology departments of the…

Breathing space

If the hopes of inventors are to be believed, in around 20 years’ time there will be ‘real artificial lungs -- for now the endpoint of a history that began 84 years ago with the invention of the iron lung. Until then, non-invasive and invasive mechanical respiration will continue to dominate the hospital, complemented by extracorporeal procedures for blood oxygenation and decarbonisation,…

Treatment beyond anti-infectives

Professor Norbert Suttorp and his team at the Clinic for Infectology and Pneumonology, Charité University Hospital Berlin, have been working on the understanding of the basic mechanisms of inflammation and infection -- and utilising them. Professor Suttorp has been working for many years on questions relating to the subject Therapy in addition to antibiotics.

Hyperpolarised Helium MRI of the lungs

Only few imaging modalities lend themselves to imaging of the lungs. Conventional chest radiography is the most commonly used tool in the investigation of pulmonary pathology but yields the perhaps most difficult, plain radiographs to interpret.

Morbidly obese patients

By Professor Anis Baraka MD FRCA (Hon), Chairman of the Anaesthesiology Department at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon