Thursday, 5 December 2013

5 December, 2013

Always check for blood in urine

A public health campaign has warned people that they should contact their doctor if they spot blood even once in their urine. 

According to Public Health England, the rise of Kidney
 cancer diagnoses by a third in the past 10 years in England is due to unhealthy lifestyles, such as smoking and obesity, the BBC reported. 

The death toll has increased by 7 percent, with about 3,500 people dying from kidney cancer in England in 2011.
 

Visible blood in the urine is a symptom in more than 80 percent of
 bladder cancer patients and in most of those with kidney cancer. 

Kevin Fenton, PHE director of health and wellbeing, said that their message is clear, "as soon as you spot blood in your pee, visit the GP".
 

Fenton said that though its probably nothing serious, but it could also be a sign of something else that needs treatment, so people shouldn't ignore the symptom.
 

The campaign has been backed by the Premier League football club West Bromwich Albion.

05.12.2013

Test predicts whether men can become dads

A non-invasive test has been developed that can predict whether men with zero sperm counts are capable of fathering children through IVF. 

Current methods rely on surgery to find out if a man has viable sperm that can be retrieved for fertility treatment. 
The research, in Science Translational Medicine, suggests two biomarkers can identify who will benefit from surgery, the BBC reported. 
A UK fertility expert said the test, which will take at least a year to bring to the clinic, was "encouraging". 

Male 
infertility is responsible for about half of cases of infertility. 
Men who produce no sperm can sometimes be helped to father a biological child through fertility treatment if they have normal sperm that can be extracted surgically. 
Others will never be able to father a child naturally and need to use donor sperm. 

With current technology, the only way to find out if a man has viable sperm is to carry out surgery to look for sperm in the testes. 
The new test, developed by scientists in Canada, has identified two biomarkers in sperm, which can be used to predict whether sperm retrieval will be successful. 
Dr Keith Jarvi of the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, Canada, said the holy grail of his research was to find a way to help men avoid unnecessary testicular biopsies.
05.12.2013

 

 

 

The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible

Arthur C. Clarke



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