Archives: 1/2005

Reproductive Medicine

Intra Vas Device

by Gene Ostrovsky on Jan 31, 2005 • 4:26 am

ivd vas Intra Vas DeviceHere is something new in male contraception to watch for. Shepherd Medical Company reports that “… the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded the company a $1.4 million USD grant to conduct human clinical trials on its proprietary Intra Vas Device (IVD)”:

The IVD, is a flexible, hollow, silicone plug that is inserted into the vas deferens tubes (in men) to block sperm transport. Preliminary studies in primates and humans have shown that the device has the potential to be as effective as vasectomy. The preliminary studies on primates have also supported that the device could be easily removed and sperm flow reestablished. Currently, trying to reverse a vasectomy is precarious and very expensive with pregnancy rates at only 50-60%.
The IVD is implanted in a simple outpatient procedure under local anesthetic in a doctor’s office. IVD insertion will involve accessing the vas deferens tubes much like during a vasectomy, except rather than cutting and cauterizing the tubes, thereby permanently damaging them, only a small opening is made in each tube, to insert two silicone plugs. The tiny opening is expected to heal completely and rapidly. It is anticipated that the IVD can later be removed in a similar procedure to its insertion, reestablishing sperm flow. The IVD has the potential to become an attractive alternative to standard vasectomy…

Dr. Neil Pollock, co-founder and director of Shepherd Medical Company, has a personal website where additional information about IVD can be found…
UPDATE (01/31/05):
The Canadian Press interviews Neil Pollock and has additional info on IVD…

Ophthalmology

The Wavefront Analysis

by Gene Ostrovsky on Jan 31, 2005 • 1:47 am

COAS unit The Wavefront Analysis
In case you’ve missed it, it is Cataract Awareness Month. Cataracts are a common problem among elderly, diabetics, etc. One of the most common ways to treat cataracts involves surgery, during which a new intraocular lens is implanted. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports about new advances in ophthalmology being made, one of which involves the use of a technology called wavefront analyzer, that one day might allow the manufacture of intraocular lenses designed for each individual patient:

Testing is under way on a further refinement involving a device called a wavefront analyzer. The device measures the way light travels through a cataract patient’s entire optical pathway, then compares it to the way light travels through an optically perfect eye.
The information from this device can be used to create lenses crafted to address the specific irregularities of a person’s visual system.
“That’s still in the testing stages, but it could eliminate some of the distortion that patients complain of,” Steinemann said.

WaveFront Sciences, Inc. is one of the manufacturers of ophthalmic wavefront analysis systems. If you are curious about the science of wavefront analysis, the company provides an explanatory webpage. If you want to see WaveFront Sciences’ wavefront analysis system, check out this page…

Nanomedicine

The Bright Future of Nanomedicine

by Gene Ostrovsky on Jan 31, 2005 • 1:03 am

WaPo finds the future of nanomedicine to be very promising: “Nanomedicine’s Promise Is Anything but Tiny.”

Quantum dots, also known as “qdots,” are bits of material — silicon, for example — that are so tiny they are in some cases just a few atoms across. Illuminated by ultraviolet light, they glow very brightly with a specific hue that depends on their size: qdots with diameters of about 2 nanometers (billionths of a meter) glow bright green, for example; 5 nanometer dots glow brilliant red.
Scientists are already using quantum dots as research tools to help them understand how proteins, DNA and other biological molecules catch rides on the various transportation systems inside cells. First they coat some qdots with a material that makes the dots attach specifically to the molecule they want to track, then they inject those coated dots into cells growing in laboratory dishes. Once the dots grab their targets, researchers simply watch the trails of colored light to see where they go.
Qdots shine brighter and longer than conventional dyes used to illuminate the inner workings of cells. And by coating different size qdots so each attaches to a different kind of molecule, scientists can track the movements of many substances in a cell at once by following the various color trails.
Now scientists are developing qdots not just for basic research but to diagnose diseases.
There are scores of proteins and other substances in the body that are early indicators of disease but which are difficult to detect with current technologies. While qdots and other nanomaterials have not been proved safe for use in the body, they are clearly capable of spotting diseases in blood or tissue specimens. Qdots that bind to proteins unique to cancer cells, for example, can literally bring tumors to light.

Read the whole thing about quantum dots, nanogels, nanotubes, and the future of nanomedicine…

Diagnostics / GI

Biochip for inflammatory bowel disease

by Gene Ostrovsky on Jan 31, 2005 • 12:47 am

progenika Biochip for inflammatory bowel diseaseCrohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are two most common forms of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) — an inflammation of the digestive tract. BasqueResearch.com informs that a Spanish company Progenika has developed a biochip to diagnose genetic mutations related to inflammatory bowel disease:

At the III International Symposium on Advanced Therapy for Chronic Inflammatory Bowel Disease, held in Madrid, the biotechnological company, Progenika, presented a DNA-chip the purpose of which is the optimisation of the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn’s disease and Ulcerous Colitis).
The project developing the biochip, known as the IBDChip, was carried out with the collaboration of Dr. Miquel Sans of the Gastroenterology Service at the Barcelona Hospital Clinico and Dr. Carlos Cara of UCB Pharma. The biochip is currently analysing 46 mutations related to inflammatory bowel disease (EII) and will shortly begin clinical trials.
The polymorphisms analysed are diverse and enable the establishment of the risk of suffering from the disease, its prognosis and the response of the patient to the pharmacological treatment.
From a clinical practice viewpoint the implantation of the IBDchip has a twin usefulness: it enables the selection of the most suitable therapy for each patient and it also determines, in those family members of EII sufferers who wish to be tested, the degree of predisposition for developing the infirmity.

etc. / Genetics

New method of gene delivery using lasers

by Gene Ostrovsky on Jan 31, 2005 • 12:09 am

purplelaser New method of gene delivery using lasers

The purple laser developed by scientists at St Andrews and the ‘new’ cells.

The University of St Andrews reports about a new way to deliver genes intracellularly using a purple laser:

Leading laser scientists at the University of St Andrews have developed a new method of delivering genes to cells using laser light. The new technique, which is cheap and powerful, could have important implications for future studies in biomedicine and healthcare.
Optical technology has huge potential for novel developments in the bio-medical field and St Andrews has outstanding research groups in this area. The new method – which involves a miniature violet laser – is cheap, simple, powerful and versatile. Its adaptability means it could have potentially wide medical applications including gene therapy, the delivery of anti- cancer agents and advanced studies of neuro-degenerative diseases.
…
The new technique involves the violet laser being focused onto cell membranes for a fraction of a second – this causes the membrane to open up, allowing foreign genes to enter. The cell’s internal mechanism causes the membrane of the cell to heal itself thus appearing to suffer no long- lasting damage. After inserting the genes, the team grew the cells, which appeared to remain healthy and multiplied normally. The presence of the inserted gene in the multiplied cells was then confirmed by observing the red/green fluorescent proteins produced by the ‘new’ gene.

ENT

Palatal Implant System

by Gene Ostrovsky on Jan 28, 2005 • 4:22 am

inserts mouth Palatal Implant System
Reuters reports:

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Insertion of small plastic rods into the soft palate with a minimally invasive surgical procedure is a safe and effective treatment for snoring, a small study suggests.
The recently developed Anti-Snoring Device, now called the Pillar Palatal Implant System, uses a device that looks somewhat like soldering gun to insert a thin 3/4-inch-long plastic rod into the soft palate under local anesthesia. Typically, people have three implants inserted.
Dr. Joachim T. Maurer, from the University Hospital Mannheim in Germany, and colleagues assessed the outcomes of 15 people who were treated with the device.
After 90 days, there was a significant improvement in snoring-related symptoms, the authors note in the medical journal Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. Moreover, the average number of snoring sounds per hour fell following treatment.

Restore Medical, Inc. provides additional information about implants that it has developed:

The Pillar Procedure involves the placement of three tiny woven polyester inserts that stiffen the structure of the soft palate to help reduce both the vibration that causes snoring and the ability of the soft palate to obstruct the airway.
Rather than surgically removing tissue, the Pillar Procedure is designed to stiffen the soft palate. Once in place, the inserts add structural support in the muscular layer of the soft palate and induce a natural tissue response that secures them within the palate. Over the next 8-12 weeks, fibrosis creates additional stiffening and structural support of the soft palate.

More at Restore Medical…

Society

Another Fan of Medgadgets

by Gene Ostrovsky on Jan 28, 2005 • 3:39 am

r745173893 Another Fan of Medgadgets

Medgadget would like to note that our reporters have not received any funding from the White House to promote medical technology.

Diagnostics / Nanomedicine

In the works at Sandia N.L.

by Gene Ostrovsky on Jan 28, 2005 • 2:10 am

singh sandia In the works at Sandia N.L.
Here is an interesting nanotechnology being developed at the Sandia National Laboratories:

A five-pound, hand-held medical diagnostic device being developed at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Sandia National Laboratories promises to be this ticket to better health for millions of Americans.
“We have taken technology that we’ve worked on for several years — Sandia’s lab-on-a-chip devices — and are adapting them for use in medical diagnostics,” says Anup Singh, project lead. “We’ve tested saliva samples from healthy patients for gum disease, and within the next few months we will begin using the diagnostic tool to test diseased samples.”
…
As part of the immunoassay process, antibodies specific for biomarkers of interest, such as gum or heart disease, are tagged with a fluorescent dye and then mixed with a patient’s saliva or blood. Biomarkers present in the sample attach themselves to the fluorescent antibody. The mixture is injected into a microchip using a syringe. An applied electric field forces the sample to flow through a microchannel that is two to five centimeters long, tens of microns deep, and a few hundred microns wide.
As the sample moves through the channel, cast-in-place porous polymers in the microchannel sort molecules based on their sizes and electrical charges. If biomarkers for the disease are present in the patient’s sample, the lab-on-a-chip analysis will separate fluorescent antibodies bound to the biomarker from unbound antibodies.
A photomultiplier tube then detects the fluorescence emission with extreme sensitivity. After quantifying the relative fluorescence of the two species — bound and unbound antibodies — researchers can determine the amount of biomarker present in the patient’s sample. If the sample contains significant fluorescence emission from a bound antibody, indicating that biomarkers are present above a certain level, a doctor could conclude that the patient has or will eventually get the disease for which he or she is being tested. At the conclusion of the test, while the patient is still in the doctor’s office, preventive or therapeutic care could begin.

the good old days...

The Ether Monument

by Gene Ostrovsky on Jan 28, 2005 • 1:08 am

Ether monument The Ether Monument
The Ether Monument is a 40 foot tall sculpture that commemorates the first demonstration of general anesthesia at Massachusetts General Hospital on October 16, 1846. This sculpture is located at the Boston Common, and it is the only sculpture in the park that commemorates an event, rather than an individual. The inscription taken from the Book of Revelation reads: “Neither shall there be any more pain.”
Dr. Leroy D. Vandam, former chairman of anesthesia at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital (the department where I have served as a resident for 3+ years — exposed to Harvard’s superinflated egos) had written a superb, well-researched essay titled “A History of Anaesthesia at Harvard University”. A sample quote:

THE AMERICAN CONCEPTION
Within a span of four years in the US, anesthesia was born. Why did several people develop the same idea? Owsei Temkin had written: “Sociologists of science have cited in evidence for social causation the multiple appearance of the same discovery, “Multiples” in the language of Robert Merton. The independent use of anesthesia by Long, Wells and Morton is a classical example of this tenet. “Though discoveries are not necessarily ideas, both are spoken of as being “in the air”. Both regional and then intravenous anesthesia would ultimately pursue similar courses.

Intrigued? Read the whole thing.
And have a great weekend everyone!

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