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Here's a scientific discovery fit to give Mr. Potato Head static cling and flyaway hair (if that vintage plastic toy had hair). Scientists have reported discovery of two simple, inexpensive ways of boosting the amounts of healthful antioxidant substances in potatoes. One involves giving spuds an electric shock. The other involves zapping them with ultrasound, high frequency sound waveshttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/198579.php
"TE-DSE using an accelerated infusion protocol is a safe and well tolerated imaging technique for the evaluation of suspected myocardial ischemia and cardiac operative risk in severely obese patients awaiting bariatric surgery. Moreover, the absence of myocardial ischemia on TE-DSE correlates well with a low operative risk of cardiac event."
Although it's widely known that cancers use glucose, a simple sugar, to fuel their growth, this is the first time a link has been shown between fructose and cancer proliferation, said Dr. Anthony Heaney, an associate professor of medicine and neurosurgery, a Jonsson Cancer Center researcher and senior author of the study.
A new study has found that endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) is associated with improved outcomes in patients with localized pancreatic cancer, possibly due to the detection of earlier cancers and improved stage-appropriate management, including more selective performance of curative intent surgery. This is the first study to analyze a large population-based cancer registry and demonstrate that EUS evaluation is associated with improved pancreatic cancer survival. The study appears in the July issue of GIE: Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, the monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal of the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE).http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/194287.php
Paramedics can obtain and interpret ultrasonograms in the back of moving ambulances, new research confirms.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100609122832.htmScienceDaily (June 9, 2010) — The ability to diagnose and treat brain dysfunction without surgery, may rely on a new method of noninvasive brain stimulation using pulsed ultrasound developed by a team of scientists led by William "Jamie" Tyler, a neuroscientist at Arizona State University. Further reading:
With all that is going on in health care, now we have something new to worry about.
As many of you know, I am a big fan of contrast enhanced ultrasound (CEUS). The United States FDA has limited its use to echocardiography. CEUS has been used safely for many other procedures in other countries for several years. There are several issues at play as to why the USA is lagging behind other countries in this area of diagnostic ultrasound. I won't go into them all except to say that a few years ago CEUS got a bad rap here for being falsely implicated in some patient deaths. A new endeavor is currently in the works to establish some trials in America with the goal of identifying safe, and effective means of providing useful information in other goal-directed studies including identification of some liver and kidney masses to name but a couple. Europe has been using CEUS for some time now to differentiate liver masses in terms of cancerous versus benign hyper-plastic lesions, and with great results. I think it is time we set politics aside, and do some good research that may allow us Americans access to affordable, and safe alternatives to other expensive diagnostic solutions such as CT and MRI. Here is a link to an article I saw on Aunt Minnie this morning.ATLANTIC CITY, NJ - The lack of approval of radiology ultrasound contrast in the U.S. has long stuck in the craw of the technology's advocates. But clinical trials are now moving forward with hopes of rectifying the situation, according to a presentation at the annual Leading Edge in Diagnostic Ultrasound conference. http://www.auntminnie.com/index.asp?Sec=sup&Sub=ult&Pag=dis&ItemId=90583&wf=3735
CHAPEL HILL — The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has received a $100,000 Grand Challenges Explorations grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant will support an innovative global health research project conducted by James Tsuruta, PhD, and Paul Dayton, PhD, titled “Ultrasound as a long-term, reversible contraceptive.”
“Our long-term goal is to use ultrasound from therapeutic instruments that are commonly found in sports medicine or physical therapy clinics as an inexpensive, long-term, reversible male contraceptive suitable for use in developing to first world countries,” said Tsuruta." What about the long term risk of cancer or other diseases? And what about the effects on the remaining germ cells? Is the DNA affected? Are they talking about therapeutic ultrasound machines used to treat muscle pain? Is the procedure painful? I will keep my eye on this hot topic.http://www.med.unc.edu/www/news/unc-researchers-receive-100-000-grand-challenges-exploration-grant-to-develop-male-contraceptive
"The College of Physicians and Surgeons is against fetal gender determination for non-medical purposes on the grounds that they may violate the principle of equity between males and females and may set a precedent for "eugenic decisions that are socially repugnant."
Requests for ultrasound-guided biopsies for the diagnosis of thyroid nodules have increased rapidly in recent years, putting a strain on radiology departments everywhere," said Wui K. Chong, MD, lead author of the study. Unfortunately, there are a number of inadequate biopsies (where the pathologist deems there is an insufficient amount of information to make a diagnosis) that ultimately must be repeated.http://www.physorg.com/news192269487.html
Gelesis engineered a super-absorbent polymer – is it ironic that it’s derived from an unspecified food source? – that can be reduced to small beads about the size of a grain of sugar. These tiny polymer beads swell up more than 100 times over when introduced to water, kind of like those little sponges you used to play with in the bath. So when you down a pill with a glass of water, the capsule dissolves in your stomach and the hydro-gel beads begin to grow. In a few minutes you’re feeling pretty full, and that second Double Down from KFC is decidedly less attractive.
"Today, up to 70 percent of people who have heart attacks are in a low or intermediate risk category for a heart attack when their risk is estimated using traditional risk prediction models. That’s not very predictive, and we need to do better," said Dr. Christie Ballantyne, director of the Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at the Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and last author on the study. "Our research shows that a noninvasive ultrasound can give us a more complete snapshot of our patients’ risk, so we can do a better job determining if they’ll have a heart attack."
Folk's we made it to Egypt. We are at MEDICON 2010 preparing to deliver a lecture with hands-on teaching on critical care ultrasound. We are amazed at the sights and sounds of one of the most ancient places of humanity on earth. The cab rides are better than an amusement park ride, and perhaps more dangerous. The wonderful people of Egypt have welcomed us with open arms and we have established friendships in the course of conducting business. Our goal is to bring modern ultrasound to the middle east nations, and this is certainly a logical place to begin. Our hosts have been gracious, the food a splash of color on the western palate. I am certain we will be back. We intend to wrap things up this weekend with a trip to the most magnificent structures on the planet. I am certain I will be humbled when I journey to the great pyramids of Giza. My companions have expressed an interest in riding a camel. I will pass, though I may ride a horse from west to east at dawn in a tourist encounter many of you have experienced. Hey. I am always the seeker of enlightenment. We will then discover the art of purchasing goods from a "Souk". I must not return home without a few gifts. I will be back soon with more news regarding this thread. Shalom!
I have been watching with interest the development of new technologies in the field of ultrasound for over thirty years. Mile stones I have witnessed include real-time ultrasound (as opposed to B-scanning), color Doppler, 3-D ultrasound and portable high resolution ultrasound machines. A few years ago, one of our part time instructors told me of work her husband was doing in a relatively narrow field of ultrasound called elastography. She said that her husband's research indicated that ultrasound can be used to judge the elastic properties of abnormal superficial tissues, and that the relative stiffness of these lesions can be a predictor to whether the tissue is benign or malignant. Many skin and breast cancers become very hard, fixed and stiff compared to the surrounding normal tissue. Year later, research has proven her words to be true. Many papers have been published regarding the use of elastography in the evaluation of skin lesions, and breast masses. This science has now gained a foothold in clinical use to the point where many ultrasound manufacturers are adding the hardware and software needed to allow their equipment to be used in this manner. The benefits? One obvious benefit is we now have an accurate means of evaluating suspicious breast and skin lesions to allow us to reduce the number of biopsies performed. In the past, we routinely biopsied many masses based on fuzzy parameters in the hopes of avoiding litigation for missing a malignancy. We now have more accurate means to categorize lesions based upon stiffness, which raises our confidence level in establishing benign versus malignant without resorting to invasive biopsies. I will post links to a couple of articles written last year which discusses some specific uses of elastography.
Many Americans are aware of the debate raging over the safety of CT scans performed. Issues regarding high radiation doses and appropriateness in the clinical setting have surfaced in recent months through out the media and in the blogosphere. The science behind radiation is clear: there is no such thing as a safe X-Ray. Medical professionals are taught in school that diagnostic X-Rays are to be used in the clinical setting when other, less hazardous forms of medical imaging will not give us the information we seek. Then why is it that when we go to the ED with an stomach pain we are sent to the CAT scanner instead of given an ultrasound? The answers are complex and troubling. In many cases the Physician trusts the result of the CT scan over the result of an ultrasound because they think the CT scan "Cannot miss anything". Many Physicians are under the impression that an ultrasound test is very operator dependent (True) and are loathe to trust the results for fear of being held liable if the test misses something. As a Sonographer, I agree that the results of the sonogram can be influenced by many factors including operator training and the skill of the interpretation, patient body habitus, and type of equipment used, but is CT really the gold standard? Should we really be subjecting our children and women of childbearing age to the risk of X-Rays without giving the matter much consideration? I would like to post part of an article I found on the web that discusses one of these issues. I welcome your feed back.
An exciting application of ultrasound contrast technology has been recently presented which uses molecular interactions between gas filled contrast agents tagged with substances that bind to tumors. This is exciting because we may be able to spot cancers while they are very small, and treat them before they spread.
The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) http://www.acep.org/ has published an on-line self test for emergency physicians to take when they are ready to document that they are proficient in the use of ultrasound in the practice of emergency medicine. This is the first test that I know of to address the issue of self credentialing. I took a few modules of the test myself (I passed) and found the test to be challenging, though I have been practicing ultrasound for many years as a Sonographer. The modules are of the multiple choice form with embedded videos that one may click on for clarification. One should read the question carefully before answering as the question itself can be confusing. I found at least two wrong answers listed as the correct response. For example: a patient is NOT routinely placed in the PRONE position to image the gall bladder. I am sure these issues will be ironed out. I do believe this is a great first step in beginning a standardized pathway for ED physicians to obtain self credentialing at the institutions where they are employed. Currently, there is no charge for taking the test, and results can be printed out. Here is the link: http://emsono.com/acep
A sonographic search for pneumothoraces was performed as part of a standard FAST examination by the on-call resident. Each lung field was scanned at the second to fourth anterior intercostal spaces and the sixth to eighth midaxillary line intercostal spaces. A normal pleural interface was identified by the presence of parietal-over-visceral pleural sliding –“lung sliding sign”. Absence of lung sliding and comet tail was presumed to be indicative of a pneumothorax. The sonographic diagnosis was correlated with supine chest radiography and chest CT. A total of 169 patients were included in the study. Chest CT was considered the reference standard examination. CT chest identified 43 pneumothoraces (13%): 34 small and 9 moderate. On chest radiography, 7 pneumothoraces (16%) were identified. Extended FAST identified 23 pneumothoraces (53%). Compared with CT, eFAST had sensitivity of 47%, specificity of 99%, a positive predictive value of 87%, and a negative predictive value of 93%. All of the moderate pneumothoraces were identified by eFAST. Twenty small pneumothoraces missed by eFAST did not require chest tube placement during the hospitalization period. The authors concluded that the eFAST exam for detection of pneumothoces is an accurate and efficient tool for detection of clinically significant pneumothoraces. However, small to moderate pneumothaces may be missed.To read full abstract go to: http://www.jultrasoundmed.org/cgi/content/abstract/28/6/749
Thank You Sonoworld for the link
