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Category: biotech/medical – Page 1,212

How to avoid sudden cardiac arrest in elderly

Veteran actor Tabassum Govil best known for hosting India’s first TV talk show Phool Khile Hain Gulshan Gulshan passed away at the age of 78 following a cardiac arrest on Friday (November 18). Elderly or people over 70 are more at risk of sudden cardiac arrest than the rest as one may have more chronic conditions like diabetes, high BP, smoking, previous heart attacks, weak heart. According to studies, elderly individuals have lower resuscitation and survival rates than younger individuals after in-hospital cardiac arrest. Staying active, eating healthy — food rich in fibre, devoid of saturated fats, added sugar and salt and high in whole grains can help keep your heart strong and healthy. Managing risk factors for heart attack is also advisable. (Also read: Tabassum of Phool Khile Hain Gulshan Gulshan fame dies at 78)

“In elderly, we have to identify the risk factors for sudden cardiac arrest, like, diabetes, high BP, smoking, previous heart attacks, weak heart. If any of these are present, a cardiologist’s consultation should be taken who would conduct simple tests like ECG, Echo and TMT to ascertain risk of sudden cardiac arrest. If the risk is high, they should be counselled to control their diabetes, blood pressure, and regular medical check-ups to detect any red flags,” says Dr. Nishith Chandra, Principal Director — Interventional Cardiology, Fortis Escorts Heart Institute, Okhla Road, New Delhi.

Bilateral anorchia in infancy: Occurence of micropenis and the effect of testosterone treatment

Circa 2006

To analyze the clinical and histological findings in boys with bilateral anorchia and the response to testosterone treatment on penis length.

Patients were divided into two groups according to the absence (group A, n = 29) or the presence (group B, n = 26) of palpable intrascrotal or inguinal mass at first clinical examination.

A micropenis was found in 46% of patients (n = 24) with a similar proportion in both groups. Testosterone treatment induced a mean penis length gain of 1.9 ± 1.3 SDS (standard deviation score). However, micropenis persisted in six patients. Histological examination (n = 18) confirmed the absence of any testicular structure with deferent ducts being present unilaterally or bilaterally in all but three patients. In these three patients, a hemorrhagic testis, probably as a result of a mechanical torsion, was found.

3D Printing in Breast Reconstruction: From Bench to Bed

Circa 2021:3

Surgical management of breast cancer often results in the absence of the breast. However, existing breast reconstruction methods may not meet the need for a replacement tissue. Tissue engineering with the use of emerging materials offers the promise of generating appropriate replacements. Three-dimensional (3D) printing technology has seen a significantly increased interest and application in medically-related fields in the recent years. This has been especially true in complex medical situations particularly when abnormal or complicated anatomical surgical considerations or precise reconstructive procedures are contemplated. In addition, 3D bio-printing which combines cells with bio-material scaffolds offers an exciting technology with significant applications in the field of tissue engineering. The purpose of this manuscript was to review a number of studies in which 3D printing technology has been used in breast reconstructive surgical procedures, and future directions and applications of 3D bio-printing.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed among US women and is second only to lung cancer as a cause of cancer death among women as of 2019. Because ~268,600 (almost six times than DCIS) new cases prove to be an invasive type of breast cancer (1), many women had to choose the removal of the breast, with immediate consideration for a replacement tissue. Although this was satisfactory in many patients, either saline or gel-filled breast implants (2) do carry real risks of complications such as infection, capsular contracture, implant dislocation, or deformities (3, 4). The option of autologous reconstruction can be more texturally natural aesthetically, but it requires a more complex procedure, significant time and expense, and possible muscle weakness or hernia formation at the tissue donor site (5). Tissue engineering intends to address these limitations by combining the 3D printing technology with synthetic or natural structural elements.

Three-dimensional (3D) printing, also known as computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), was based on digital model files using metal powder or plastic and other adhesive materials to construct objects with a computer guided precision, printing layer upon layer. Simplistically, it uses a computer aided design (CAD) program to convert the virtual model of an object into a printable object using an STL (Standard Tessellation Language or STereoLithography) file. The object then gradually and precisely takes shape as each thin layer is added according to the design file, and composed of the desired material for that object in the form of “ink” using the 3D printer. Not only in cases of intraoperative 3D printed models serving as templates, but this technology has extended to implanted scaffolds that have been used to correct defect-specific sites, clearly enhancing patient treatment (6, 7).

Shingles associated with increased risk for stroke, heart attack

A new study by investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham health care system, demonstrated that shingles, also known as herpes zoster, is associated with an almost 30% higher long-term risk of a major cardiovascular event such a stroke or heart attack. Their results are published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

“Our findings suggest there are long-term implications of shingles and highlight the importance of public health efforts for prevention,” said lead author Sharon Curhan, MD, ScM, a physician and epidemiologist in the Channing Division of Network Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

“Given the growing number of Americans at risk for this painful and often disabling disease and the availability of an effective vaccine, shingles vaccination could provide a valuable opportunity to reduce the burden of shingles and reduce the risk of subsequent cardiovascular complications.”

New study shows repeated stress accelerates aging of the eye

New research from the University of California, Irvine, suggests aging is an important component of retinal ganglion cell death in glaucoma, and that novel pathways can be targeted when designing new treatments for glaucoma patients.

The study was published today in Aging Cell. Along with her colleagues, Dorota Skowronska‐Krawczyk, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Departments of Physiology & Biophysics and Ophthalmology and the faculty of the Center for Translational Vision Research at the UCI School of Medicine, describes the transcriptional and happening in aging retina.

The team shows how stress, such as (IOP) elevation in the eye, causes to undergo epigenetic and transcriptional changes similar to natural aging. And, how in young retinal tissue, repetitive stress induces features of accelerated aging including the accelerated epigenetic age.

The Man Who’s Building a Computer Made of Brains

Circa 2016 😗

Last month, Google’s AI division, DeepMind, announced that its computer had defeated Europe’s Go champion in five straight games. Go, a strategy game played on a 19×19 grid, is exponentially more difficult for a computer to master than chess—there are 20 possible moves to choose from at the start of a chess game compared to 361 moves in Go—and the announcement was lauded as another landmark moment in the evolution of artificial intelligence.

Or, at least, living neurons. His startup, Koniku, which just completed a stint at the biotech accelerator IndieBio, touts itself as “the first and only company on the planet building chips with biological neurons.” Rather than simply mimic brain function with chips, Agabi hopes to flip the script and borrow the actual material of human brains to create the chips.