What is a free PSA test and what is it for?

Free PSA Test

"The free prostate-specific antigen test, known as the free PSA test, is used to help detect signs of prostate cancer. The test measures the level of unbound prostate-specific antigen in the blood, which can help doctors to diagnose issues like inflammation of the prostate or cancer."

Free PSA tests are often used alongside other PSA tests to confirm a diagnosis or test results. Free PSA tests can also be used instead of a biopsy if the doctor suspects prostate cancer, but a biopsy may still be needed.

This article examines when a free PSA test is used, how it differs from a total PSA test, and what the results mean.

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Current Approaches For The Detection Of Acute Kidney Injury

Acute kidney injury is a recognized complication in hospitalized patients and is associated with a high morbidity and high mortality. This brief article aims to summarize the need for early detection of acute kidney injury and the current approach within NHS England to identify such patients.

Background

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a recognized complication in hospitalized patients. A report in 2009 from National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death (NCEPOD) suggested that AKI was frequently undetected in hospital patients thus contributing to patient morbidity and mortality.

Clinical guidelines for recognition and treatment for acute kidney injury were published by NICE (the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) in 2013 and reported an associated mortality with AKI of more than 25–30%. This guideline also recognized the prevalence of AKI in the primary care population in patients with or without acute illness.

NICE also recognized the impact of AKI on healthcare resources, with costs (excluding those in the community) of £434–620 million per year, more than that associated with breast, lung and skin cancer combined.

Read more: Current Approaches For The Detection Of Acute Kidney Injury

Table 1. Common causes of acute kidney injury.

Source: cli-online

If You Are In Danger Of BREAST CANCER, Your Body Will Give You These 5 Signs!

Invasive breast cancer affects 1 in 8 women in the US only. It’s the type of cancer with the highest incidence among women. According to the American Cancer Society, by the end of 2016, 246,660 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in America, 40,450 of which will be terminal.

Detecting the cancer early significantly increases the chances of successful treatment. Knowing the early signs and symptoms of invasive breast cancer can help you detect it in its early stages.

1. FATIGUE

Fatigue is a common symptom in many types of cancer, including breast cancer. The thing is this type of fatigue cannot be alleviated by sleep or rest. Cancer-related fatigue is not caused by physical strain and is often accompanied by other symptoms such as pain, sleep disturbance and depression. This fatigue is caused by an imbalance of chemicals in the body the cancer creates, according to scientists.

Read more: If You Are In Danger Of BREAST CANCER, Your Body Will Give You These 5 Signs!

Source: healthylivingstyle

Watch: Female Breast Exam 

New Method Developed for Detecting Mycobacteria in the Lungs

A research team from the Institute of Medical Microbiology at the University of Zurich and the National Center for Mycobacteria has carried out a large-scale study with more than 6800 patient samples to examine molecular-based methods for the detection of mycobacterial pathogens. Because many mycobacteria only grow at a slow pace, routine detection using bacteria cultures in highly specialized and expensive high-safety labs takes several weeks to complete. The subsequent susceptibility test to determine the appropriate medicine also takes 1 to 2 weeks.

"For patients and doctors, this long waiting period is an unnecessary test of their patience", says Peter Keller, M.D., from the Institute of Medical Microbiology at the UZH. "By comparison, with molecular detection methods, most patients know after 1 or 2 days whether they have an infection with tuberculosis pathogens or with nontuberculous mycobacteria."

Mycobacteria cause various illnesses. Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the main representative of this genus, is the causative agent of tuberculosis, which killed around 1.5 million people worldwide in 2014.

Read more: New Method Developed for Detecting Mycobacteria in the Lungs

Mycobacterium tuberculosis in patient samples.

Source: genengnews

Rapid Detection of Urinary Biomarkers with Novel Optical Device

A compact optical device has been developed that can rapidly and sensitively detect biomarkers in urine and has promise for developing simple point-of-care diagnostics of cancer and other diseases.

Micro ribonucleic acids (miRNAs) are a newly discovered class of short, about 19 to 24 nucleotides in length, fragments of noncoding RNAs that are useful biomarkers for diagnosing various diseases, including cardiac disease and some cancers. Since they are surprisingly well preserved in fluids such as urine and blood, their detection is well suited to a rapid, point-of-care method.

Bioengineers at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (Singapore) have devised a silicon photonic biosensor that can detect tiny changes in the phase of a light beam caused by hybridization between an immobilized DNA probe and target miRNAs in a sample. A laser beam travels through a waveguide, which splits into two arms: a sensing arm in which the light interacts with the sample and a reference arm.

Read more: Rapid Detection of Urinary Biomarkers with Novel Optical Device

Image: Schematic diagram of the MZI biosensor system for miRNA detection.

(a) TEM image of the cross section of a silicon nitride slot wave guide; SEM images of

(b) a strip-slot wave guide mode converter and (c) a silicon nitride grating coupler.

(d) Image of MZI biosensor platform

Source: Agency for Science, Technology and Research