Health services research
The German Medical Association aims to evaluate the use of guidelines, the influence of drug companies on studies, the impact of economisation on staff and patients, and ultimately to assess the realities of medical care.
Cutting cancer deaths in Europe
New research on deaths from cancer in Europe concludes that the key priority for continuing to reduce mortality is cutting tobacco smoking. The study shows that, while deaths for men from lung cancer in the EU have declined overall, by 17 % from 1995 to 2004, they rose by 27% for women over the same period. It also reveals other significant differences in the mortality between different EU…
Link between mortality rates and mammography
More women die of breast cancer in areas where mammography centers are few and far between, according to research by a Medical College of Georgia radiology resident. Breast cancer mortality rates ranged from 34.1 per 100,000 women in counties with no mammography facilities to 27.5 in those with at least one, said Dr. Kandace Klein, a fourth-year radiology resident.
Hot News on Lymphoma
The so-called lymphoma, which are cancers of the immune system, originate in white blood cells. Pathological B cells, for instance, are responsible for the "diffuse large B cell lymphoma", which progress very aggressively if left untreated. Now a new approach for future therapy of this cancer has been found by an international research consortium. They present their research in the scientific…
GE develops novel imaging technology
A novel molecular imaging technology aimed at rapid diagnosis of cell death in organs such as the brain and heart has been licensed by The Medical College of Wisconsin, USA, to GE Healthcare. The method uses imaging probes with a radiopharmaceutical compound. Under the license GE will further evaluate and develop the technology and will have an option to commercialize it.
The future of MRI in Europe - Safetey yes, exposure limits no
The Alliance for MRI aims to ensure that the threat posed by the EU Physical Agents 2004/40/EC (EMF) to the future of MR is averted and that patients in Europe will not be precluded from state-of-the-art healthcare services. In early 2010 the European Parliament and Council will be sent a proposal from the European Commission to amend Directive 2004/40/EC on electromagnetic fields. This revision…
How do you improve mammogram accuracy? Add noise
Members of a Syracuse University research team in the USA have shown that an obscure phenomenon called stochastic resonance (SR) can improve the clarity of signals in systems such as radar, sonar and even radiography, used in medical clinics to detect signs of breast cancer. It does this by adding carefully selected noise to the system.
Childhood metabolic measurements may predict diabetes development years later
A child's blood pressure, body mass index, blood glucose level and other laboratory tests and simple office measures may predict the risk of developing type 2 diabetes nine and 26 years later, according to a report in the January issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Tumors under fire
Oncologists have a dream: they want to use highly energetic ion beams in good quality and accurately defined dose for a pin-sharp and cost-effective radiation treatment of tumors. Modern techniques based on intense laser pulses may in the future replace expensive conventional particle accelerators. A team of physicists of the Cluster of Excellence "Munich-Centre for Advanced Photonics" (MAP) lead…
Breast cancer research funding to establish
Scientists are closer to discovering why some people respond to breast cancer radiotherapy better than others, according to Breast Cancer Campaign. Dr Laura Smith, at the Leeds Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Leeds, has been awarded a pilot grant by Breast Cancer Campaign, to study why some types of breast cancers are difficult to destroy with radiotherapy.
IWI: An integrative weaning index of discontinuation from mechanical ventilation
"Indexes predicting weaning outcome are frequently inaccurate," said Sérgio N Nemer RRT PhD of the Intensive Care Unit, Hospital de Clínicas de Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, explaining why he and a team of colleagues have developed a new integrative weaning index that aims to improve the accuracy of the traditional indexes. Their online provisional abstract published by Critical Care has…
A compact and clever anaesthesia unit
ARCUS -- It’s a portable, fully electronic, stand-alone inhalation anaesthesia unit that offers the electronic gas mixer EGAMIX. The wall version is used for induction. Compared to a conventional mechanical rotameter, this machine simplifies work considerably due to the fully automatic electronic control and supervision of the adjusted parameters, the manufacturer EKU Elektronik GmbH. reports.
Inequalitites: The public health puzzle
Bettina Döbereiner continues her reports on theories, policy strategies and current projects aired in the Berlin conference Reducing Health Inequalities. What do we really know about successful strategies?
The 2009 Bernhard Dräger Award
Dr Vasilios Papaioannou, of the Democritus University of Thrace in Alexandroupoli, Greece, received the €15,000 Bernhard Dräger Award for Advanced Treatment of Acute Respiratory Failure during the opening of The European Society for Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM) annual conference in Vienna.
Experts fear for Europe’s medical engineering
When over 3,000 international experts gathered at the World Congress on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering in Munich, Germany to evaluate future trends, they heard that Asia is showing major gains in medical engineering — a field in which computer sciences are a key innovation driver – but that Europe is on the way to innovation leadership in telemedicine and e-health.
Parkinson's Disease: genetic risk factors identified
Two genes containing mutations known to cause rare familial forms of parkinsonism are also associated with the more common, sporadic form of the disease where there is no family history, researchers have found. An International study reveals common gene variants in people of European descent.
A promising new breast cancer test
The Innovation Prize for outstanding, application-oriented ideas in life sciences has been awarded by the Working Group of BioRegions at the Biotechnica in Hanover to research groups from Heidelberg, Munich and Ulm. Professor Lisa Wiesmüller, of the Women’s Hospital, University of Ulm, received the €2,000 prize for developing a test system for the identification and early detection of breast…
The biology of cancers
Cancer research is progressing rapidly. For a large part, biology contributes to its most significant advances, which aim to renew the whole model of cancer care.
The first whole-body MRI-PET system
The technological integration of positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been the dream of molecular imaging experts and engineers for some time. Now, the German Science Council has agreed to provide 6.56 million funding to install a whole-body MRI-PET prototype in the centre of excellence for imaging procedures at the radiology clinic in Eberhard-Karls…
A 7-Tesla in clinical diagnostics?
Most of the 30 institutes around the world that work with a 7-Tesla MRI scanner do not focus on answering questions about the clinical benefit of this field strength; their efforts revolve around the brain and neurosciences. One exception is the Erwin L Hahn, at the Institute for Magnetic Resonance Imaging, which is based at the Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex, a World Heritage Site in…
11.7-T scanner a magnet to draw international researchers to France
A massive scanner for in vivo molecular imaging of the human brain will reveal the metabolic processes of neurological disorders, John Brosky reports
Eröffnung des Heidelberger Ionenstrahl-Therapiezentrums (HIT)
Am 2. November wurde das Heidelberger Ionenstrahl-Therapiezentrum (HIT) feierlich eröffnet. Die am GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt entwickelte Krebstherapie steht nun erstmals im Routinebetrieb einer großen Patientenzahl zur Verfügung. Bislang wurden Patienten ausschließlich am Therapieplatz bei GSI behandelt. Die Therapie mit Ionenstrahlen…
Taking part in clinical trials is good for health
Patients with chronic heart failure who agree to take part in clinical trials have a better prognosis than those who do not, according to a study reported in the November European Journal of Heart Failure. The finding, say the authors, may even call into question the commonplace ethical requirement of most clinical trials that by choosing not to take part in the study a patient will not be…
Biochips to aid in cancer diagnosis
It is very difficult to predict whether a cancer drug will help an individual patient: only around one third of drugs will work directly in a given patient. Researchers at the Heinz Nixdorf Chair for Medical Electronics at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) have developed a new test process for cancer drugs. With the help of microchips, they can establish in the laboratory whether a…
HPV vaccines indicate further benefits for cervical cancer protection
New human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine studies presented at the 16th International Meeting of the European Society of Gynaecological Oncology (ESGO) in Belgrade, Serbia, this week have confirmed sustained protection against precancerous cervical lesions in healthy young women, as well as beneficial effects for women previously treated for cervical, vulvar or vaginal precancers or genital warts.
