MedTech News
.................... by Andrew Celentano
Flavonoid found in citrus slows lung cancer cell growth in lab tests
Quercetin is found in citrus fruits, onions and buckwheat and is known for its anti-inflammatory properties. Now researchers at Universitätsklinikum Erlangen at Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) have investigated how the plant compound could help treat lung cancer.
Novel blood test detects lung cancer traces long before scans
Despite advances in early-stage lung cancer treatment, a significant number of patients experience disease recurrence after surgery or initial therapy. A study has now demonstrated that a blood test (liquid biopsy) can reliably detect lingering lung cancer traces even in the earliest clinical stages, long before a tumor is large enough to show up on a scan.
Cell therapy using cardiac muscle cell aggregates improves heart function following a heart attack
In the event of a heart attack, the affected part of the heart muscle can no longer be supplied with oxygen and nutrients. As a result, the heart muscle cells (cardiomyocytes) die off. Scar tissue forms, and heart function is impaired. This often leads to chronic heart failure—also known in medical terms as cardiac insufficiency. It is one of the most common causes of death in the Western world.
AI is helping pathologists find harmful lesions the eye can’t see
As a pathologist, Dr. Christopher Owens has spent his career trying to improve his methods of catching precancerous colorectal polyps in patients. If he could catch cases earlier, fewer people would develop colorectal cancer, he said.
Harnessing the heart’s natural defense against heart attack damage
Researchers are investigating whether the body’s built-in response to low oxygen can be harnessed to reduce heart damage during heart attacks and surgery, using drugs that are already available.
Machine learning spots hidden risk of functional decline after heart failure
For older adults with heart failure (HF), leaving the hospital alive does not always mean returning to an independent life. Loss of independence can reduce quality of life, increase caregiver burden and raise care needs. Yet most prognostic approaches focus on death or rehospitalization, making it difficult to identify patients likely to survive while losing independence.
Faster, fairer COVID-19 vaccine rollout could have saved millions of lives, modeling reveals
Beginning the global COVID-19 vaccine rollout 100 days after the virus was sequenced could have saved more than 8 million lives by the end of 2021, most of them in lower-middle-income countries, according to modeling evidence brought together in a new policy brief from the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH).
Gentle brain ultrasound may help ease delusions in schizophrenia
Targeting a deep brain region with sound waves may safely reduce delusions in people with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, initial study results show. These conditions can cause people to hear or see things that are not there and develop beliefs that are firmly held but not true.