Third Eye Retroscope – a rear-view
mirror that helps spot bowel cancer
A new device known as the Third Eye
Retroscope acts as a ‘rear-view mirror’ that can help the surgeon detect bowel
cancer during examinations and its abnormalities. Bowel cancer is the third
most common cancer afflicting the UK, with 40,000 new diagnoses a year, of
which 16,000 end in fatalities. Although the disease is treatable if
detected early, 90 percent of patients are diagnosed once the cancer is
advanced, often because they are too embarrassed to seek medical help.
Symptoms include abdominal pain,
diarrhoea, blood in the stools and unexpected weight loss. The device is used
along with a standard colonoscope to improve detection. Thousands of patients a
year undergo a colonoscopy, the New England Journal of Medicine reported.
This 30-minute out-patient
procedure, often carried out under sedation, involves a colonoscope – a thin,
bendy tube with a video camera and light on the end of it – being inserted into
the anal orifice, according to the Daily Mail. As the device is withdrawn from
the body, the camera relays video images of the inside of the bowel back to the
doctor to check for abnormal growths, called adenomatous polyps or adenomas.
These can then be removed before they become cancerous.
Research has revealed that removing
adenomas reduces deaths from bowel cancer by 53 percent. However, a number of
studies published over the past 15 years have shown that traditional
colonoscopies miss between 21 and 24 percent of adenomas, and 12 percent of
large adenomas one cm or more in size which are at greatest risk of becoming
cancerous. In two-thirds of cases, this is because they are hidden behind folds
in the wall of the bowel. In other cases, adenomas may be missed because the
bowel has not been emptied properly before the procedure.
US scientists have developed the
Third Eye Retroscope, which provides an additional video camera which gives a
rear-facing view to reveal the areas behind folds that are hidden from the
front-facing view of the colonoscope.
Source: http://health.india.com
12.12.2012
Around 50% of newborns suffer from zinc
deficiency: Study
A study, coordinated by the AIIMS
paediatrics department, conducted on newborns and infants in three city
hospitals in Delhi has found that one in two children suffers from zinc
deficiency which can lead to stunted growth and poor immunity.
The study was funded by ICMR and babies
born at AIIMS, Kasturba and Swami Dayanand hospitals between 2009 and 2010 were
part of it. The findings were published in international journal Neonatology.
The study found that both low birth
weight infants and babies born with a normal birth weight suffer from
deficiency of the crucial micronutrient, and the level drops with age. 51 per
cent of 182 low birth weight babies suffered from zinc deficiency, the blood
samples taken within 48 hours of birth revealed. 42.4 per cent of 103 normal
weight newborns did not have the standard zinc level. 90.8 per cent of
mothers carrying low birth weight children and 91.2 per cent of those who gave
birth to normal weight babies were suffering from zinc deficiency, the study
also revealed.
When these babies turned two to 10
months old their blood samples were studied again. The tests revealed that 79
per cent of 100 low birth weight and 66.7 per cent of 66 normal infants had
inadequate amounts of zinc. ‘Zinc levels could have fallen after birth
because their mothers’ milk, the primary source of zinc for infants, didn’t
have sufficient amount of the micronutrient,’ Dr Ramesh Agarwal, associate
professor of paediatrics at AIIMS and corresponding author of the study, noted.
36 per cent of low birth weight and
18.2 per cent of normal infants in the study group were given multi-vitamin
supplements for zinc after birth. ‘We analysed the serum zinc levels in
newborns and infants. We don’t think a newborn’s birth weight played a
significant role because the deficiency levels were similar in both groups. As
low birth weight babies grew older, the deficiency levels dropped significantly
despite being given supplements,’ Dr Agarwal said.
‘Most of the zinc is accumulated
during the final trimester of pregnancy. Pre-term babies have limited capacity
to absorb and retain micronutrients,’ a doctor said.
Source: http://health.india.com
12.12.2012
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