REMOTELY REPORTS THEIR CONDITION TO HOSPITALS

This idea aims to provide medical attention to old incapacitated people who cannot intimate the hospitals about their health in case of a serious heart attack.

All such old peoples would be provided with an E-Band which would consist of  pulse rate detecting equipment.

This equipment would consist of a pulse rate detecting sensor and a microprocessor. The sensor would constantly monitor the pulse rate of the patient and at regular intervals send the pulse rate as input to the microprocessor.

The microprocessor would be so programmed so that it generates a high output if appreciable fall or rise in the pulse rate is observed.

This output would be in turn connected to the transmitter attached to the walking stick used by the patient. As soon as the transmitter receives a high signal, it would transmit data signals consisting of a certain bit combination which would be unique for each patient, to the nearest hospital.

The hospital would be provided with the receiver in order to receive the signals and depending bit pattern in the signal, the location of the victim can be easily identified and in this way immediate medical attention can be given to the patient.

For power supply, Batteries and a switch connection is provided in the walking stick. Whenever the switch is switched on the entire circuitry would perform the above mentioned functionality. The market acquiring capacity of this product would be immense as this only requires a normal pulse detecting sensor and a microprocessor which are quite easily available and a small interface circuit between them.

Again the transmitter also is an easily available component and connection also does not require a lot of hardware. Apart from this the idea involves the usage of some minor hardware such as wiring to provide dc power and to send the microprocessor output to the transmitter and a battery and switch connection.

In the hospital a receiver is required in order to receive the transmitted signals and determine the location of the patient depending on bit pattern. And the cost involved surely is worth saving a life.

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 8th Sept 2009

HOUSTON (UPI) — U.S.-led scientists say they have, for the first time, identified a single gene defect that can cause aneurysms, coronary artery disease and ischemic stroke.

The international group of researchers, led by Dr. Dianna Milewicz at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, said the discovery of the causal relationship between the mutated gene ACTA2 and artery disease opens the door to a new way of thinking about the vascular system.

“If someone is found to have an alteration or mutation in this gene, we can do screening for vascular diseases, and if diagnosed with disease, they can take medications and undergo surgical approaches to prevent premature death or disability,” said Milewicz. “We need to look at the artery system as a continuous system or organ. We’ve been looking at it the wrong way. If you have this particular genetic mutation, it can present in several different diseases affecting different arteries.”

The study is detailed in the American Journal of Human Genetics.

Copyright 2009 by United Press International

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 9th May 2009

Isis Pharmaceuticals, developer of a promising anti-cholesterol injection that produces unprecedented drops in heart-attack causing gunk in the blood, has said it needs to sign up a marketing partner before beginning a big trial next year.

The obvious choice would be any of the drug giants who dominate the $28 billion market for cholesterol-lowering drugs. Pfizer (nyse: PFE – news – people ), for one. Merck (nyse: MRK – news – people ). Maybe AstraZeneca (nyse: AZN – news – people ). But a surprising entrant is taking a long, hard look at Isis’ drug, previously known only as 301012 and now called mipomersen. It’s Genzyme, the biotech giant best known for selling very expensive treatments for rare and deadly genetic diseases.

Cambridge, Mass.-based Genzyme (nasdaq: GENZ – news – people ) has approached cardiologists with questions about the drug’s prospects, and that the biotech giant, which has sales of $3.2 billion and a market capitalization of $20 billion, seems to be taking a keen interest in mipomersen. These doctors say Genzyme has discussed mipomersen’s prospects with them at length.

Isis (nasdaq: ISIS – news – people ) says it is talking to lots of potential partners, but can’t comment on whether it is talking to any particular company. Genzyme said it would not comment on speculation about marketing deals.

But a Genzyme-Isis tie up to distribute mipomersen makes a great deal of sense. For one thing, mipomersen will at first be aimed squarely at the kind of market Genzyme understands best: an inherited genetic disease. And both companies are on the prowl for a partner. Isis needs one in order to start a large and expensive clinical trial testing its drug in patients who have high cholesterol that is not caused by a genetic defect.

Genzyme, for its part, has made acquisitions a key part of its growth strategy, with sales from products bought in from the outside generating 38% of total revenue in 2006, not to mention 50% of revenue growth, according to a research note by biotech analyst Geoffrey Porges at Sanford C. Bernstein. He counts 15 major deals going back to 1997, and he expects acquisition to remain a “core strategy.” But Porges doesn’t think Genzyme will want to spend on another major acquisition before the second half of 2008.

Thursday, Isis announced trials that could get mipomersen approved in the rare genetic disease familial hypercholesterolemia (FH). The worst form, caused by having two bad copies of a particular cholesterol gene, afflicts only a few hundred people. Their cholesterol levels can soar to six times the normal level and cause heart attacks in patients who are in their 20s.

BLOOD VESSEL

Some 600,000 Americans have the more common form of FH, which is caused by a single bad copy of the cholesterol gene and causes levels of cholesterol that are just above the upper limit of normal. A study of both kinds of FH could be completed and filed with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration sometime next year.

Genzyme is used to selling drugs to small groups of patients for quite a lot of money. It has become one of the biggest biotech firms thanks to a series of rare diseases. Cerezyme, Genzyme’s first drug, treats a disease that afflicts fewer than 10,000 patients globally. Yet it generated $1 billion in total sales last year. Three other medicines sold by the company treat diseases that occur in just a few thousand people.

This model is so successful it is often imitated. Biomarin (nasdaq: BMRN – news – people ) and Alexion (nasdaq: ALXN – news – people ) have launched drugs for orphan diseases. Amicus (nasdaq: FOLD – news – people ) and Shire (nasdaq: SHPGY – news – people ) teamed today to address some of the same markets that Genzyme targets. But Genzyme has also been moving into broader markets. The drug Renagel, for kidney dialysis, brings in $500 million a year. It already sells a drug to treat FH, Cholestagel, in Europe.

But Isis would offer Genzyme a bigger opportunity: a chance to launch a drug into a far broader market. One reason Isis needs money is the company plans to launch a study next year in patients with garden-variety high cholesterol. This study will need to be far bigger and more expensive than one in patients who suffer from FH. And while existing medicines like Lipitor, Vytorin and Crestor aren’t enough for some FH patients, they work well for most patients with run-of-the-mill high cholesterol.

There’s no guarantee that just because Genzyme is looking at Isis that it will come through with a deal. Another partner could swoop in and sign up marketing rights to mipomersen. But the companies fit nicely. Food for thought as Isis prepares to hold an analyst meeting in New York on Nov. 13.

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 2nd May 2009

ST. LOUIS (UPI) — U.S. medical scientists say they have developed a method of estimating the bleeding risk in heart attack victims.

Using clinical variables, researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Duke University and collaborating institutions say their method can help lessen the chances that heart attack patients will experience the common complication.

“Until now, there hasn’t been a simple tool applicable to the general population that can predict the risk of bleeding before patients are treated for heart attack,” said Dr. Richard Bach, a Washington University cardiologist and medical director of the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. “Older methods for estimating risk either were derived from a low-bleeding-risk population or used variables that aren’t available until after treatment is begun.”

Study co-author Dr. Brian Gage, also from Washington University, said the risk of bleeding is substantial in people with heart attacks. “We found that this population could be risk-stratified, so that people at high risk of bleeding could receive less aggressive anti-coagulant and anti-platelet therapy while those at low risk could receive full-dose therapy.”

Led by Dr. Sumeet Subherwal, a cardiology fellow at Duke University, the study appears in the journal Circulation.

Copyright 2009 by United Press International

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 20th April 2009

BLOOD VESSEL

LONDON, Ontario ,  — A Canadian researcher has grown new blood vessels using bone marrow stem cells.

David Hess of The University of Western Ontario in London drew human bone marrow and simultaneously isolated three different types of stem cells that co-ordinate together to form new blood vessels.

These cells — pro-angiogenic stem cells — were purified to remove inflammatory or contaminated cells and injected into the circulation of mice with one of their leg arteries. The stem cells honed into the area of ischemia — inadequate blood supply — and induced blood vessel repair.

“We can select the right stem cells from the patient’s own bone marrow and put them back in the area of ischemia to allow these cells to coordinate the formation of new blood vessels.” Hess said in a statement. “These principles could be applied not only to ischemic limbs but to aid in the formation of new blood vessels in ischemic tissue anywhere in the body, as an  example after a stroke or heart attack.”

A clinical trial involving 21 patients with end-stage peripheral artery disease is currently underway in Houston USA. The study was published in the journal Blood.

Copyright 2009 by United Press International

Sourced and publ;ished 15th April 2009 by Henry Sapiecha

heart kidney surgery

NEW YORK (UPI) — U.S. scientists say they’ve identified criteria that, when combined with kidney function measures, could create a risk score system for heart-kidney transplant patients.

Dr. Mark Russo of Columbia University Medical Centre/New York-Presbyterian Hospital, who led the study, said such a risk score could help identify patients who are likely to receive a survival benefit from a combined heart and kidney transplant.

“In the past, patients with end-stage heart failure having concurrent renal disease were not considered candidates for heart transplantation,” the researchers said. “With advances in operative techniques and post operative management, combined heart and kidney transplantation is offered to select patients in this population.”

The researchers analyzed data from the United Network for Organ Sharing involving 19,373 patients who underwent heart transplantation between 1995 and 2005. That included 274 patients who received combined heart and kidney transplants and 19,109 who received heart transplants alone.

heart schematic

They said they found patients appeared less likely to survive following a combined heart and kidney transplant if, before surgery, they had peripheral vascular disease, were over 65, had heart failure that wasn’t caused by blocked or narrowed arteries, were dependent on dialysis or were placed on a ventricular assistance device as a bridge to transplantation.

The study appears in the journal Archives of Surgery.
Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 24th March 2009

Bypass or Angioplasty

PALO ALTO, Calif. (UPI) – The results of several clinical trials around the world has suggested heart bypass surgery is better for some patients than angioplasty, a U.S. study said.

Stanford University School of Medicine said data from about 8,000 research subjects show coronary angioplasty may be the better choice for patients with multi-vessel coronary artery disease who have diabetes or who’s ages are over 65.

Angioplasty, however, may be the best choice for patients under age 55.

“Whether you have diabetes really makes a big difference,” lead author Dr. Mark Hlatky of Stanford said in a statement. “Over several years there’s a much lower rate of death with bypass surgery. The patient’s age and fitness were other major factors that affected outcomes, and this was an interesting surprise.”

For patients with diabetes, the five-year mortality rate was 12 percent for those who had bypass surgery compared with 20 percent for those who underwent an angioplasty. For patients older than 65, the mortality rate was 11 percent for those who had bypass compared with 15 percent for those who had angioplasty.

The findings are published online in The Lancet.

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 24th March 2009

How about 4,000 lethal chemicals?

New poster puts smoking hazards gives you a realty check.

So you think smoking is OK. Think again. Facts now revealed.

A global information design consultancy, has created “Put It Out,” an illustrated poster showing in no uncertain terms the lethal chemicals — including arsenic, methane and formaldehyde — ingested from each cigarette and what some of the harsh health facts are surrounding smoking. The 11×17? poster can be viewed and downloaded at www.xplane.com/4000.

DO NOT SMOKE POSTER

Created by a team of world-class graphic designers, the poster is intended to educate, inform and create a dialogue amongst the general public relating to the ongoing issues associated with smoking. Released under the Creative Commons 3.0 Unported License, the poster can be downloaded and used by health organizations and other individuals wishing to spread the word about what harmfull substances go into each cigarette.

Sourced and Published by Henry Sapiecha 24th March 2009

What's cooking good looking?

Birds Eye had planned to launch frozen herring to capitalize on the plentiful supplies of cheap British herring. This new product went on sale in South Wales.As very much a second choice they simultaeously launched another product in Southampton called cod sticks.These proved to be immensely popular such that the herring concept was discarded as the focal product and cod fish fingers was launched as a major product in 1955 at the expense of the herring

2…..Ice-Cream Cone.

Everybody's Favourite

In 1904 at the St.Louis World’s fair a young ice cream salesman presented his girlfriend with an ice cream sandwich and a bunch of flowers. Since she had no vase for the flowers, the resourceful lady had rolled the layers of wrapping into the shape of a cone to use as a vase. The idea promoted the use of an edible cone for the containment of ice-cream

3…..Liquorice Allsorts.

Selling liquorice sweets individually, one colour and or taste at a time, travelling salesman Charlie Thompson met with little enthusiasm from wholesalers until, one day at Leicester England in 1899 he accidently dropped the different individual sweets and got them all mixed up. When confronted with this assortment the wholesaler began to show interest in the products . The’ Liquorice Allsorts’ was born.

4…..Microwave Oven.

Cooking with waves

Percy Spencer a physicist and engineer on American radar equipoment manufacturers Raytheon, was employed during the second world war to make the magnetrons used in radar systems. He noticed that the magnetrons gave off as much heat as a large lightbulb and used them to warm his hands on cold days. But it wasn’t until he discovered a melted sweet in his pocket that the possibility  occurred of cooking with microwaves. How big was this micrtowave??

5…..Non-Stick Saucepan.

Assorted pots-n-pans

In 1938 Roy Plunkett of the American Company Du-Pont was working on refrigerants when he stumbled upon a polymer called polytetrafluoroethylene.or Teflon for short. Du-Pont began producing Teflon ten years later but it needed another folly encounter for it to be considered for kitchenware. In 1954 a french manufacturer Marc Gregoire chanced upon a process which would enable teflon coatings to be applied to metals. It occurred to him that the non-stick properties would be ideal for the kitchen environment and uitensils. He consequently founded the Tefal Company to make frying pans and saucepans

6…..Nylon.

Lucky legs

Three years into his studies in polymerisation Dr. Wallace Carothers, a research chemist with Du-Pont, discovered that a fibre of extreme tensile strength could be drawn form a mass of polymers. His task wasn’t even to create a specific product but the fibre, known as nylon was launched in 1938 by which time Carothers had committed suicide as he was a depressive during his life and did not see his crowning glory being acknowledged worldwide.

Industry will always be grateful to him.

We all can visualize many of the products made from this substance, one of which is the stocking.

7…..Paper Tissue.

Kleenex,a fragrant soft treatment

In 1924 Kimberly Clark brought out celluwipes, upmarket makeup removers made from paper pulp. Sales however were slow and special notice was given to letters from consumers about the celluwipe products. To managements’ surprise these letters highlighted the alternate perfect use of these products for blowing noses.

These products were then relaunched as the ‘Kleenex’ that we all know today

Yes, and they can be like a fragrant soft towell treatment with plain or textured and printed versions

8…..Post-it Note.

Tagged notepad

Spencer Silver, a research chemist with the American 3M Corporationwas told to create the strongest glue in the world. Instaed he cam up with the opposite, a temporary glue that would not hold anything for long.It’s only virtue was that it would leave no residue on the material to which it was applied when removed and could be reused over again. Silver’s glue remained idle for another 10 years until in 1980 a collegue, Arthur Fry, who sang in a church choir, noted that a litle of the glue on a strip of paper used as a bookmark in the hymnbook did not fall from the pages nor soiled the paper to which it was attached.

3M launched and marketed the product the following year.

We are all now very familiar with the product and the various colours in which it comes

9…..Superglue.

superglue experiments

While studying uses and properties of ethyl cyanoacrylate in the 1950’s scientists with the Eastman Kodak Company accidently stuck together the glass prisims of a refractometer. This alerted them to the extreme bonding properties of this substance and superglue was born and is now well known to us all

Yes and now there is a superglue remover as well.

10…TCP.

Can this cure venerial disease?

Count Callaimachi, a Romanian biochemist working in London, invented what he hoped was a cure for veneral disease. He named the liquid TCP because he thought it contained trichlorophenol, but it proved to be ineffective against veneral disease but was soon to be heralded for its strong antibacterial properties and was consequently marketed for use against infections of the throat and cuts and bruises

Researched from various sources by Henry Sapiecha

MAJOR MOVE TOWARDS CHILDREN’S BETTER HEART CARE HEALTH

Kids with heart conditions will benefit from enhanced Paediatric Cardiac Services at the $39.3 m Queensland Paediatric Cardiac Services relocated from the Prince Charles Hospital to the Mater Children’s Hospital in Brisbane. Queensland . AUSTRALIA

Health minister Stephen Robertson said in officially opening the new centre in June 2008 that the relocation was a milestone in the development of the new Queensland Children’s Hospital which will open in stages from 2011 to 2014.

“It will be the first time in Queensland a centre of excellence for paediatric cardiac services has been located in a dedicated children’s hospital.” he said.

Facilities at the cardiac service include:-

1…Cardiac specialists clinics and clinical measurements services

2…New state of the art catheter laboratory

3..Expanded paediatric intensive care unit with an extra 9 beds

4…Dedicated cardiac operating and perfusion areas in the theatre complex

5…A dedicated 19 bed cardiac inpatient ward area

6…Expanded allied health facilities

7…Administration areas for cardiac clinicians

Paediatric cardiac surgical procedures are already being undertaken and the service is expected to perform about 150 procedures a year.

Exerpt from  QLD HEALTH MATTERS jULY 2008 VOL 13

Posted by Henry Sapiecha