Cardiology 'must be evidence-based' says ACC
Ian Mason reports from Chicago
Therapy
Multiple-targeted therapies
The next big development in biological targeted therapies for advanced breast cancer will be drugs acting via multiple mechanisms, experts told delegates attending the 1st Asian Breast Cancer conference, held in New Delhi 9-10 February.
Image-guided radiation therapy
Artiste is a linear accelerator and CT scanner combined. At the German Cancer Research Centre, a team of scientists led by Professors Wolfgang Schlegel and Uwe Oelfke of the Medical Physics in Radiation Oncology division, contributed substantially to the technical development of the Artiste platform. They report that users will be able to observe and correct the actual position, extension and…
Radiation treatment decisions in patients with prostate cancer and suspected lymph node metastasis based on USPIO-MRI
Prostate cancer is the most frequent cancer in men with about 49,000 newly diagnosed cancers in Germany and 6,000 in the Netherlands, annually.
German Radiology Congress 2008
Along with paediatric radiology, interventional radiology will have a high profile at the 89th German Radiology Congress and 5th Joint Congress with the Austrian Radiology Society. Congress presidents Professor Dierk Vorwerk and Professor Richard Fotter outlined what's on the agenda for the expected 6,900 visitors. Training, they pointed out, will aim at those preparing to specialise in…
OPHTHALMOLOGY
Following 12 years of development, German surgeons and technicians have successfully implanted the world's first vision prosthesis in six blind patients.
The Berlin TB Symposium
The WHO-Euro region ranges from Portugal to the East Asian parts of Russia, including Central Asia and the Southern Caucasus. Because of the increasing numbers of tuberculosis and rates of multidrug resistance (MDR TB), tuberculosis was declared a regional emergency in 2004.
Alarming TB cases in Austria
A third of the worlds population is infected with the bacterium Myobacterium tuberculosis which infects around nine million people annually.
Myocardial infarction
In his lecture Focus on new therapy strategies for heart attacks, Prof. Hans Michael Piper, President of this year's Congress of the German Cardiac Society, gave some fascinating insights in to therapeutic measures after heart attacks.
Improvement to therapeutic effects for seasonal rhinitis
Patients suffering from moderate to severe seasonal allergic rhinitis experience significantly improved therapeutic effects when combining nasal Azelastine spray with Fluticason nasal spray as opposed to using Fluticason nasal spray by itself. Those are the surprising results of a study released by the Annals of Allergy & Asthma Immunology (1) in January 2008. Azelastine is a first-line,…
Fibroid Embolisation: So Promising for Women, So Unavailable in Europe
Uterine fibroids are the most common form of benign pelvic tumor, with about 30-50% of women between the ages of 35-45 years reporting them. Although many women are asymptomatic, those who experience the symptoms of bladder pressure, frequent and very heavy menstrual periods, and uterine pain, have a reduced quality of life.
MR contrast agents: A step up from compartmental to targeted imaging
Andrea Martini and Joerg Larsen, of the Institute for Roentgendiagnostics, Braunschweig Teaching Hospitals, Germany, discuss nanotechnology, hybrid imaging and the quest for a personalised medicine.
A novel PET tracer for early detection of Alzheimers
Amyloidb (Ab) plaque formation is a hallmark of Alzheimers disease (AD) and precedes the onset of dementia. Australian researchers reported the first data on the validity in humans of a new PET tracer binding to Ab. Their data suggest that 18F-BAY94-9172 of Bayer Schering Pharma AG can reliably detect Ab deposition and thereby aid early diagnosis, differential diagnosis, and therapeutic…
The 23rd annual EAU Congress
The Milano Convention Centre (MIC) is the largest of its kind in Italy. Certainly that space will prove valuable this March, when 9,500 urologists from 100 countries attend the 23rd EAU Congress, the second biggest of its kind in the world. Apart from attending the congress and related trade fair, they may also glimpse Milan's many attractions: the cathedral, La Scala, Sforza's Castle, or even…
How to achieve tight glucose control
By Professor Jean-Charles Preiser MD PhD, of the Department of General Intensive Care, University Hospital Centre, University of Liege, Belgium
Mental health and radiology
The Uliazpi Foundation in Spain, which studies and cares for severely mentally retarded patients, carried out an interesting study to identify bone mineral density values in a group of its patients, compare these with the general population and investigate the possible influence on these values on certain clinical variables and therapeutic regimens.
Open High-field MRI
As part of a research and development project, doctors at the University Hospital Magdeburg, Germany, are treating oncology patients with local minimally invasive surgery (MIS) which, for the first time, can be carried out under radiological image control using high-field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The system offers excellent image quality under extremely favourable, radiation-free…
Helical tomotherapy
By Rudolf Schwarz and Andreas Krüll, of the Section of Radiation Oncology Department, Ambulanzzentrum GmbH of the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf
MR probes for molecular imaging
Molecular imaging aims at the in vivo quantitative visualisation of molecules and molecular events that occur at cellular level. The potential towards clinical translation is huge, because the same modalities used in medical imaging are used in molecular imaging investigations.
New Optical Breast Imaging System
Advanced Research Technologies Inc. ("ART") announced the first sale of SoftScan® optical breast imaging system to the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre ('Sunnybrook") in Toronto, Canada. Sunnybrook is the first health centre to purchase a SoftScan imaging system since the Canadian company received regulatory approval for commercialization in Europe and Canada for its optical breast imaging…
New system speeds-up UGI cancer diagnosis and treatment
The upper gastrointestinal (UGI) team at Milton Keynes Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has developed a rapid access service for upper gastrointestinal cancers. The new system means that patients are referred directly from their GP to the hospital for an endoscopy.
Computerised model of the heart to develop new therapies
During a workshop organized by the European Science Foundation (ESF), researchers discussed further steps in developing computerised “in-silico” models of the heart that simulate the real heart and enable possible drugs and therapies to be tested without risk to people.
COPD: New therapy reduces mortality
Patients with severe COPD may benefit more from therapy that combines salmeterol and fluticasone [SFC] than treatment with tiotropium, according to results from a long-term, multi-center study, “Investigating New Standards for Prophylaxis in Reducing Exacerbations” (INSPIRE) that directly compared the two therapies.
Neuroendocrine Cancer
The collaboration between two companies may pave the way for the development of new therapy options for neuroendocrine tumors: Covidien LTd, a global provider of healthcare products and BioSynthema Inc., a company specialized in the discovery and development of molecular targeted biophamaceuticals recently signed an agreement that will gain BioSynthema access to specific Covidien proprietary…
CLINICIP
Presented during a symposium at Langenbeck-Virchow-Haus, in Berlin, the European CLINICIP research project aims to develop a method to improve glycaemic control during intensive care and provide a low-risk monitoring and control system that can control the metabolism of the critically ill
