Russia's continuing laser medicine advances
For the past 30 years, in the former USSR and Russia, laser medicine has been actively developed and regular annual conferences have opened new avenues for its use by the country's doctors.
Therapy
MINDACT
Researchers around the globe are studying whether a genomic test, developed with micro-array technology, is superior to traditional methods in assessing aggressive breast cancer, and therefore could spare a considerable percentage of women from the onslaught of chemotherapy The Breast International Group (BIG) in Brussels, Belgium, manages TRANSBIG, an international network created to avoid…
New Skin Cancer Patch: Possible Alternative to Surgery
A new study shows that a radioactive skin patch can safely and successfully treat basal cell carcinoma, one of the most common types of skin cancers, according to researchers from India. The skin patch, which delivers the radioactive phosphorus-32, is nontoxic and could be an excellent alternative to surgery or radiotherapy in cases where carrying out these treatments is difficult.
Multiple Sclerosis: Benefactors in the Brain
The inflammatory process in the brain of multiple sclerosis patients is triggered by their own immune system. However, there is one type of immune cells that seems to fight against the destructive progress - and might be used for therapeutic purposes in future.
Qualified wound treatment starts with the identification of risks
The content of training courses on wound care and risk assessment would have one believe that chronic wounds are merely a marginal problem of medical care. The opposite is the case. The number of chronic wounds, and therefore cost of care, are on the increase. Where might the problems and sources of these errors lie?
Positive action in the war against MRSA
The first strain of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) was isolated in the 1960s, and its presence was reported worldwide in the late 1990s. A higher incidence of MRSA was noted in communities, at the dawn of the new millennium, leading to two basic MRSA strains being differentiated - CA-MRSA (community acquired MRSA) and HA-MRSA (healthcare associated MRSA). In clinical practice…
Robotics and upper limb rehabilitation after strokes
In many ways the brain works like a hard disk. If the plug is pulled, important data is damaged and the system has to be rebooted.
Changing approaches to wound management
In recent years wound management has been primarily nurse-led, and not benefited from a multi-disciplinary approach. This must change, said Madeleine Flanagan, Principal Lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire's school of Post Graduate Medicine in the faculty of health and human science, where she runs the MSc in Dermatology and an MSc in Skin Integrity; she is also Principal of the European…
EFORT 2009
One of the key topics at the EFORT Congress, held recently in Vienna, was on opportunities offered by computer-aided surgery (CAS) to achieve better results for many orthopaedic interventions. Within the next decade CAS will lead to the routine use of minimally invasive surgery (MIS) for knee prosthetics, hip replacement and osteotomy.
New therapy found to prevent heart failure
A landmark study has successfully demonstrated a 29 percent reduction in heart failure or death in patients with heart disease who received an implanted cardiac resynchronization therapy device with defibrillator (CRT-D) versus patients who received only an implanted cardiac defibrillator (ICD-only).
Palliativmedizin: Bundestagsbeschluss blendet wichtige Inhalte aus
Mit dem Beschluss des Gesetzes zum Assistenzpflegebedarf, das es Menschen mit Behinderung erlaubt, Hilfen ihres ambulanten Pflegepersonals auch während eines stationären Krankenhausaufenthalts in Anspruch zu nehmen, wurde auch die Aufnahme eines neuen Querschnittbereichs in das Medizinstudium beschlossen: Künftig gehört die Palliativmedizin zur Ausbildung für angehende Ärzte dazu.
Radiology: a major player in cancer diagnostics and therapy
Today, radiology is much more than just “taking pictures”: due to the high resolution offered by modern equipment, imaging procedures are playing a key role in many medical disciplines. Per definitionem, so to speak, radiology is an interdisciplinary field and exchange with other specialists is part of the radiologist's daily routine. In particular with regard to tumor diagnostics and…
Pulmonary hypertension: New drugs improve quality of life
Today help is often available for those suffering from high blood pressure in the pulmonary circulation (pulmonary arterial hypertension/PAH). New drugs — so-called endothelin receptor antagonists — make it possible to alleviate the symptoms, improving patients' physical strength and quality of life.
Improved diagnostic accuracy for acute myocardial infarction
The role of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to assess the effect of therapy in patients with acute myocardial infarction was demonstrated in a series of papers presented at the 12th Annual Scientific Sessions of the Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (SCMR).
Ultrasound-MRI fusion imaging
Tissue removal is currently the only way to verify suspicious lesions in the prostate. It is also a key requirement before treating prostate carcinomas. The standard biopsy is performed with transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) to guide the needle in the right direction.
Comprehensive diabetic foot care
The Wound Care Unit at the Clinic Pasteur in Toulouse, France, was successfully set up to deliver a multidisciplinary approach to diabetic wound care.
World Congress of Nephrology
22-26 May Milan, Italy
Cultural-sensitive care and the European Qualification framework
Healthcare services often do not reach the target groups because socio-cultural preferences and values of patients and their relatives are not properly considered.
Treating obesity surgically
Professor Rudolf A Weiner, head of the surgical department at Sachsenhausen Hospital, Germany, reports that some developing procedures result not only result in weight loss but also in the systematic elimination of metabolic disorders, and that many new developments in the field promise hope for both the obese and their doctors
Intensity-modulated radiotherapy
IMRT is an evolving method of treatment for complex forms of cancer. Although patients benefit from treatment, a precise evaluation of that benefit and overall cost-effectiveness of the method is still an uncertain science. Mark Nicholls reports
The 90th German Radiology Congress
"Radiologists often see cancer patients over a period of years and continuously deliver important information for the treatment process," says Claus D. Claussen MD, Professor of Radiology and Director of the Clinic for Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology at the University Hospital in Tübingen and President of the 90th German Radiology Congress. For the first time in the history of this…
Hoffnung für Patienten mit Arteriosklerose
Jede Behandlung mit einem Ballonkatheter provoziert die Narbenbildung an der Gefäßinnenwand, weil durch das Dehnen des verstopften Gefäßrohres mikrofeine Verletzungen entstehen. Unangenehme Folge sind erneute Verengungen der Arterien, weitere Gefäßweitungen werden nötig...Radiologen der Berliner Charité entwickelten nun einen Gefäßkatheter, der die Narbenbildung in den Gefäßwänden…
Multimodality in breast diagnostics and therapy
Early detection currently remains the most promising way to optimise the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer, lower the mortality rate resulting from this disease, and improve patients' quality of life.
Prostate Cancer Screening
To date, there is insufficient knowledge as to the cause of this disease, or how to prevent it. We asked some of our EH correspondents to report on measures taken in their countries to ensure that men are made more aware of this disease and whether screening services are provided for early prostate cancer detection.
The EIBIR two years on
'There is no proof that some new procedures are better than the conventional ones or than clinical examination'
