วันอังคารที่ 30 มีนาคม พ.ศ. 2553

Torax Medical Receives CE Mark For Its LINX(R) Anti-Reflux Treatment

Torax Medical Inc., a medical device company focused on the minimally invasive treatment of gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD), has received CE Mark for its LINX® Anti-Reflux treatment.. The company has started commercial launch of the LINX device at select centers in Europe.

Patients with GERD typically experience burning pain and tissue damage, the result of stomach juices refluxing into the esophagus. This is due to a defective esophageal sphincter muscle between the esophagus and the stomach. These juices, which include acid and bile, are harmful to the lining of the esophagus and are prevented from entering the esophagus when the sphincter muscle is normal. The LINX device is designed to augment an abnormal sphincter and restore its barrier function.

"The LINX device has been implanted in over 150 patients in Europe and the U.S. as part of clinical trials. With CE Mark, our focus is commercial release in Europe with centers which are known thought leaders in the treatment of the disease. We will continue our collaboration with these select centers as they start providing this new treatment option for their patients," said Todd Berg, CEO of Torax Medical.

Luigi Bonavina, Professor of Surgery at University of Milano and Chief of Surgery at Policlinico San Donato University Hospital, who has completed nearly 50 LINX procedures, said, "we are pleased that Torax has received CE Mark and are eager to continue our experience with LINX through a newly formed clinical Registry. The Registry data will be critical as we expand this needed treatment option for GERD patients."

วันอาทิตย์ที่ 21 มีนาคม พ.ศ. 2553

Detection Of Precancerous Condition Improved By New Form Of Endoscopic Scanning

Cancer of the lower esophagus develops almost exclusively in patients with Barrett's esophagus, an otherwise benign complication of esophageal reflux that affects approximately 3 million Americans. Although the prognosis of patients diagnosed with esophageal cancer is poor, the chances of successful treatment increase significantly if the disease is detected at an early dysplastic stage.

Now, a new endoscopic scanning technique developed by scientists in the Biomedical Imaging and Spectroscopy Laboratory (BISL) at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) has proven successful in the early detection of dysplasia in Barrett's esophagus. The results of the study, which appear in the April 11 on-line issue of the journal Nature Medicine, could help clinicians to diagnose esophageal cancer at an earlier stage, when the condition is still treatable.

"We have established that this multispectral scanning technique, which we have named endoscopic polarized scanning spectroscopy [EPSS] offers great promise for the early detection of dysplasia in patients with Barrett's esophagus," explains inventor and senior author Lev Perelman, PhD, Director of the BISL at BIDMC and Associate Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology at Harvard Medical School. "When used to guide the endoscopist, EPSS appears to not only help to avoid unnecessary biopsies, but also to help the endoscopist to locate suspicious dysplastic areas that might otherwise be missed."

The esophagus is the muscular tube that connects the throat to the stomach, allowing food to enter the stomach for digestion. Although cancer of the esophagus remains relatively rare, it is currently the fastest increasing cancer in the U.S., possibly due to an increased incidence of obesity. Furthermore, the symptoms of esophageal cancer - including difficulty swallowing, chest pain, or choking - generally do not appear until advanced stages of the disease.

"Barrett's esophagus often develops in individuals who suffer from heartburn and gastrointestinal reflux disease [GERD] which occurs when stomach acid flows backward into the esophagus," explains Ram Chuttani, MD, Director of Interventional Gastroenterology and Endoscopy at BIDMC and a coauthor of the study. "Over time, repeated exposure to stomach contents can result in further progression of the precancerous nature of Barrett's. Known as dysplasia, these precancerous changes occur on a cellular scale, and can currently only be diagnosed by staining numerous cell samples taken from multiple biopsies of different parts of the esophagus," he adds, noting that in spite of multiple biopsies, dysplasia and even cancer may be missed due to inherent sampling errors that can occur when tiny samples are obtained from large surface areas.

The new EPSS instrument, developed by Perelman, enables the endoscopist to more thoroughly search for these dysplastic changes on a subcellular scale. EPSS works by using light-scattering spectroscopy, an optical method that relates color of reflected light to the size, shape and refractive index of the illuminated particle.

"The idea behind light scattering spectroscopy is rooted in the same principles as the formation of a rainbow," explains Perelman. "In a rainbow, white light from the sun is refracted and reflected by tiny water droplets in the atmosphere, which form a colorful spectrum which you see with your eyes. Light scattering spectroscopy employs a bright arc lamp in place of the sun, targets epithelial cells and cell nuclei instead of water droplets, and is viewed through a spectrometer rather than just the human eye. In the case of EPSS, instead of viewing a beautiful arc, the information obtained from these spectra tells us whether or not the esophageal cells we are viewing are dysplastic.

A clinically useful technique in the detection of dysplasia in Barrett's esophagus must rapidly survey a comparatively large area while simultaneously detecting changes on a cellular scale, explains Perelman, and by combining polarized light scattering spectroscopy with an endoscopically compatible scanning approach, he and his scientific team were able to achieve both goals.

In its first pilot clinical test, conducted at the BIDMC Interventional Endoscopy Center, the EPSS instrument successfully guided the endoscopist in performing biopsies of the esophagus, detecting and mapping sites of numerous invisible dysplasia - which would have been missed by the currently used biopsy standards.

"The detection of the signal related to precancerous epithelial cellular changes is made possible through the use of polarized light," explains Perelman. "Since light reflected from sub-epithelial tissue will become 'depolarized,' while light that is backscattered from epithelial cells will preserve its polarization, the technique of polarization subtraction -or polarized light scattering spectroscopy - retains and conveys only the diagnostically important information."

This study was supported by the National Institutes of Health. BIDMC has filed a patent application covering this technology.

วันพุธที่ 3 มีนาคม พ.ศ. 2553

Examines Potential Impact Of Utah Bill To Prosecute Women For Illegal Abortions

A bill (HB 12) recently approved by the Utah Legislature that would permit criminal charges against women who seek an illegal abortion "may have opened a loophole" allowing women to be charged with murder if they experience a miscarriage because of "reckless behavior," ABC News reports. The bill was drafted in response to a case of a pregnant teenager who paid a man to beat her, hoping to induce a miscarriage. Charges against the teen were dropped after a judge ruled that her actions were not considered criminal under Utah law.

Critics of the bill argue that it could give prosecutors the ability to file charges against women who miscarry after not wearing seatbelts or not fleeing a domestic violence situation, ABC News reports. Jordan Goldberg, state advocacy counsel for the Center for Reproductive Rights, said, "One of the biggest problems of the law is that it's criminalizing women's behavior during pregnancy." He added, "When you start down that path, it's very difficult to draw the line." State Sen. Ross Romero (D), one of only four state senators who voted against the bill, said it "could be misconstrued or construed too aggressively," adding, "We all make bad choices in our lives, and most of them don't come with criminal burdens. This one does, or may, I should say."

The bill also would change the definition of abortion to apply "only to a medical procedure carried out by a physician, or through a substance used under the direction of a physician." Romero said, "This type of attention on the woman, I think, may be part of this whole general assault on a woman's right to choose."

http://spokanepublishing.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/pregnant-woman1.jpg

Gov. Undecided on Signing Bill

The bill is awaiting action by Gov. Gary Herbert (R), who has not publicly indicated his position. Herbert has until March 8 to either sign or veto the bill before it automatically becomes law. Angie Welling, Herbert's spokesperson, said in an e-mail that the governor "understands that the intent of the bill is not to criminalize miscarriage, nor to restrict a woman's ability to seek a legal abortion." Herbert "is also aware that concerns exist about possible unintended consequences of the legislation," Welling wrote, adding, "That will be key to his analysis of this legislation, as it is with all other bills with which he is presented" (Netter, ABC News, 3/1).

CNN Discussion

CNN's "Campbell Brown" on Monday included a discussion with state Rep. Carl Wimmer (R), the bill's sponsor, and CNN legal analyst Lisa Bloom about the bill. Bloom said she believes the bill is unconstitutional because it would criminalize abortion at all stages of pregnancy. In addition, she said it would give prosecutors broad leeway to charge women who experience miscarriages, a notion Wimmer denied (Brown, "Campbell Bill,"

From : medicalnewstoday.com

Loyola Study Finds The Hormone Estrogen Inhibits A Protein That Causes Normal Cell Death In Breast Tumors

A new study is providing insight into how estrogen fuels many breast cancers, and researchers say the findings could lead to new cancer-fighting drugs.

Researchers found that estrogen inhibits a protein called MLK3 that causes normal cell death. Blocking MLK3 leads to uncontrolled growth of cancer cells and resistance to chemotherapy.

Researchers from Loyola University Health System and three other centers reported the findings in the journal Cancer Research.

"This could give us a new angle to treating breast cancer," said senior author Ajay Rana, PhD, a professor in the Department of Pharmacology at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.

About 60 percent of all breast cancers are estrogen-positive or progesterone-positive. This means the cancer cells have receptors for the female hormones estrogen and progesterone. Consequently, the hormones fuel the tumor's growth.

In laboratory experiments, researchers found that in estrogen-positive and progesterone-positive cancer cells, there is a reduction in the activity of MLK3. Consequently, cells can continue growing, changing and developing resistance to chemotherapy. "Cancer cells are very smart," Dr. Rana said.

By contrast, Dr. Rana's team found that MLK3 activity was much higher in estrogen-negative and progesterone-negative cancer cells.

The next step, Dr. Rana said, is to look for a drug that would overcome the inhibitory effect of estrogen on MLK3. Such a drug would be taken in combination with chemotherapy drugs.

Loyola co-authors are Velusamy Rangasamy, PhD (first author); Rajakishore Mishra, PhD; Suneet Mehrotra, PhD; Gautam Sondarva, PhD, Rajarshi S.Ray, PhD and Basabi Rana, PhD. Other co-authors are Arundhati Rao, MD, of Scott and White Hospital in Temple, Tx and Malay Chatterjee, PhD of Jadavpur University in Kolkata, India. Basabi Rana and Ajay Rana also are affiliated with Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital.

TAG : estrogen fuels , breast cancers , breast tumors

From : medicalnewstoday.com