Blood Test Advances Diagnosis Of HELLP Syndrome

A laboratory blood test for the diagnosis of a rare genetic red blood cell disorder also shows promise in identifying HELLP syndrome, a life-threatening high blood pressure condition affecting 1% of all pregnant women.

HELLP is an acronym for hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes and low platelets and is a severe variant of pre-eclampsia whose pathogenesis remains unclear. Recent evidence and clinical similarities suggest a link to atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome, a disease of excessive activation of the alternative complement.

Read more: Blood Test Advances Diagnosis Of HELLP Syndrome

A model of the principle underlying the modified Ham test

Source: labmedica

Is Okra Good for Diabetes?

According to a handful of recent studies, okra may reduce symptoms of diabetes - a group of diseases that includes type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, and gestational diabetes.

Diabetes claimed the lives of 75,578 Americans in 2013, according to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In 2014,8.5 percent of adults worldwide had the condition, the World Health Organization (WHO) report. By 2030, diabetes may be the seventh leading cause of death.

A number of factors increase a person's risk of developing diabetes, including a family history of the disease. Lifestyle factors also play a role, so doctors routinely recommend diet changes and increased exercise to reduce blood sugar levels.

Read more: Is Okra Good for Diabetes?

Okra belongs to the same family of plants as cocoa and cotton.

Source: medicalnewstoday

Blood Test Uncovers Undiagnosed Diabetes In Hospital Patients

Hyperglycemia is a frequent finding that can be related to physiologic stress, illness and medications, including steroids and vasopressors and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) correlates with the average blood glucose level over the previous eight to 12 weeks.

Screening of HbA1c levels plays an important role in the diagnosis and management of diabetes mellitus in the outpatient setting but remains underused in the evaluation of hyperglycemia with undiagnosed diabetes in the inpatient setting.

Read more:   Blood Test Uncovers Undiagnosed Diabetes In Hospital Patients

A point-of-care glycated hemoglobin (HbA1C) analyzer.

Source: labmedica

Breast Cancer: Existing Drug Shows Promise for Prevention in High-Risk Women

Researchers have identified an existing drug that they say has the potential to prevent or delay breast cancer for women at high risk of developing the disease.

In a study published the journal Nature Medicine, researchers reveal how the drug denosumab halted the growth of pre-cancerous cells in breast tissue of women with a faulty BRCA1 gene.

Women with a BRCA1 gene mutation are at significantly greater risk for breast and ovarian cancers; around 55-65 percent of women with such a mutation will develop the disease by the age of 70, according to the National Cancer Institute, compared with 12 percent of those in the general population.

Read more:  Breast Cancer: Existing Drug Shows Promise for Prevention in High-Risk Women

Researchers found the drug denosumab stopped the growth of cells that are a precursor to breast cancer
in women with a BRCA1 gene mutation.

Source: medicalnewstoday

Color Atlas of Hematology: Practical Microscopic and Clinical Diagnosis (English)

Publisher Description: A Flexibook for both the specialist and non-specialist, the new book offers accessible information on hematology in a succinct format. In addition to providing basic methodology, the book utilizes more than 260 color illustrations to detail the most up-to-date clinical procedures. Numerous tables and flow charts are included to assist in differential diagnosis, making this a valuable didactic reference for nurses, practicing physicians and residents preparing for board examinations.

Notes: Thieme international - clinical sciences

Author Biography: H. Theml, H. Diem, T. Haferlach

Review: The Color Atlas of Hematology is a pocket book edition that follows the best tradition of pocket handbooks in the field of hematology. Microphotographs are highly useful for faithfully presenting the real appearance of hematopoietic cells in blood and bone marrow smears. This handbook provides characteristic clinical pictures of particular hematologic diseases, a key to rapid recognition of blood cells, typical cell changes, complete diagnostic methods, and easy visual orientation. [The authors] have offered us a valuable and precious help in the diagnosis of hematologic diseases for both specialists and nonspecialists as well as for all those interested in learning more about blood cell morphology.--Acta Clinica Croatica

Details: ISBN 3136731026; AUTHOR Harald Klaus Theml; PUBLISHER Thieme Publishing Group; YEAR 2003; EDITION 2nd; ISBN-103136731026; ISBN-139783136731024; FORMAT Paperback; PUBLICATION DATE 2003-12-10; IMPRINT Thieme Publishing Group; ; PLACE OF PUBLICATION Stuttgart; COUNTRY OF PUBLICATION Germany; DEWEY 616.15; PAGES 208; LANGUAGE English; SUBTITLE Practical Microscopic and Clinical Diagnosis; REPLACES 9781588901934; ILLUSTRATIONS 262; DIMENSIONS 4862mm x 3080mm x 184mm

Read more: Color Atlas of Hematology: Practical Microscopic and Clinical Diagnosis (English)

Source: 1. http://www.grsmu.by

             2. https://books.google.com

What's the Connection Between Multiple Sclerosis and the JC Virus?

The John Cunningham Virus, also known as the JC virus, is a typically harmless virus.

It is found in the blood samples of 70 to 90 percent of people worldwide.

Children with JC virus often show no symptoms. The JC virus can also be found in the body much later in life without complications. It is commonly found in the kidneys, bone marrow, and some body tissues.

Read more:  What's the Connection Between Multiple Sclerosis and the JC Virus?

The risk of PML is higher in people who take certain medications to treat multiple sclerosis.

Source: medicalnewstoday

The Father of All Men is 340,000 Years Old

Albert Perry carried a secret in his DNA: a Y chromosome so distinctive that it reveals new information about the origin of our species. It shows that the last common male ancestor down the paternal line of our species is over twice as old as we thought.

One possible explanation is that hundreds of thousands of years ago, modern and archaic humans in central Africa interbred, adding to known examples of interbreeding – with Neanderthals in the Middle East, and with the enigmatic Denisovans somewhere in southeast Asia.

Perry, recently deceased, was an African-American who lived in South Carolina. A few years ago, one of his female relatives submitted a sample of his DNA to a company called Family Tree DNA for genealogical analysis.

Read more:  The Father of All Men is 340,000 Years Old

Dwarfed by the X chromosome, the Y seems more ancient than we thought

Source: newscientist

Sickle Cell Disease: Nurses Need Better Training, says Health Union

The NHS needs nurses to be better trained in dealing with sickle cell disease, a union has warned.

The Royal College of Nursing described a poor level of awareness and knowledge in accident and emergency units about the potentially fatal disease.

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is the name for a group of inherited conditions that affect the red blood cells - the worst of which is sickle cell anaemia.

Read more:  Sickle Cell Disease: Nurses Need Better Training, says Health Union

Source: bbc.com/news/health

Ovarian Cancer: New Imaging Technique Helps Surgeons Remove More of Tumor.

The amount of tumor tissue that is left after surgery is an important factor in ovarian cancer patient survival. Currently, surgeons have to rely on their eyes and hands to find malignant tissue. Now, new research shows how an imaging technique using a new type of fluorescent compound helped surgeons detect and remove nearly 30 percent more ovarian tumor tissue than usual.

The new technique was tested in a small exploratory study led by Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) in the Netherlands and published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research.

One of the study leaders, Dr. Alexander L. Vahrmeijer, who heads an image-guided surgery group at LUMC, says:

"Surgery is the most important treatment for ovarian cancer, and surgeons mainly have to rely on their naked eyes to identify tumor tissue, which is not optimal."

Read more: Ovarian Cancer: New Imaging Technique Helps Surgeons Remove More of Tumor.

The experimental study shows that the new imaging system helped surgeons remove more tumor
issue in patients with ovarian cancer.

Source: medicalnewstoday

Food Pathogen Detection via Handheld 'Nanoflower' Biosensor

At present, harmful pathogens in food are mostly only discovered when people get sick. Earlier detection - preferably before food reaches consumers - could prevent many cases of foodborne illness and save the cost and effort involved in food recalls. Now, a team working toward solving this problem has developed a portable biosensor based on "nanoflowers" that detects harmful bacteria.

The new technology is the work of researchers at Washington State University (WSU) in Pullman, who describe how they developed and tested it in a paper published in the journal Small.

Even tiny amounts of harmful bacteria and other microbes can give rise to serious health risks, but the available sensor technology is unable to detect them easily and quickly in small quantities.

The key challenge in solving this problem is finding a way to detect the faint chemical signals that the harmful microbes emit at the molecular level.

Read more:  Food Pathogen Detection via Handheld 'Nanoflower' Biosensor

The nanoflower biosensor detects tiny chemical signals emitted by bacteria and amplifies them so they
can be picked up easily with a simple handheld pH meter.

Source: medicalnewstoday