16, April 2014

Now, faster, cheaper blood test to accurately diagnose asthma

Washington: Researchers have developed a faster, cheaper and more accurate tool for diagnosing even mild cases of asthma using just a single drop of blood.

The researchers used neutrophil cell function in a clinical study to show accurate asthma diagnosis.

To directly diagnose asthma, David Beebe, a UW-Madison professor of biomedical engineering and co-author on the paper, and his team focused on the cell function of neutrophils. Neutrophils are the most abundant white blood cell in the body and generally are the first cells to migrate toward inflammation.

"Neutrophils are sort of like a dog tracking something. They sense a chemical gradient, like an odor, in the body," Beebe says.

In other words, the human body emits chemical signals in response to inflammation or wounds and the neutrophils detect those chemical signals and migrate to the site of the wound to aid in the healing process. Researchers can track the velocity at which the neutrophil cells migrate - the chemotaxis velocity - to differentiate nonasthmatic samples from the significantly reduced chemotaxis velocity of asthmatic patients.

UW-Madison students have developed the kit-on-a-lid-assay (KOALA) microfluidic technology, which allows them to detect neutrophils using just a single drop of blood.

The KOALA diagnostic procedure uses simple lids and bases (each being a small, cheap piece of plastic), diagnosticians place a KOALA lid containing a chemical mixture onto the base containing the blood sample. That chemical mixture triggers neutrophil migration - and researchers can automatically track and analyze the neutrophil chemotaxis velocity using custom software.

The team has published online in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.  

Source:www.zeenews.india.com/news/health

16.04.2014

Having a dog helps families of autistic kids

Washington: Researchers have said that dog ownership may help families of children suffering from autism.

According to the study, the parents reported the benefits of dog ownership included companionship, stress relief and opportunities for their children to learn responsibility.

Gretchen Carlisle, a research fellow at the Research Center for Human-Animal Interaction (ReCHAI) in the MU College of Veterinary Medicine, said kids with autism spectrum disorders often struggle with interacting with others, which can make it difficult for them to form friendships.

Carlisle said children with autism may especially benefit from interacting with dogs, which can provide unconditional, nonjudgmental love and companionship to the children.

Carlisle interviewed 70 parents of children with autism. Nearly two-thirds of the parents in the study owned dogs, and of those parents, 94 percent reported their children with autism were bonded to their dogs. Even in families without dogs, 70 percent of parents said their children with autism liked dogs.

Many dog-owning parents said they specifically chose to get dogs because of the perceived benefits to their children with autism, Carlisle said.

"Dogs can help children with autism by acting as a social lubricant," Carlisle said. "For example, children with autism may find it difficult to interact with other neighborhood children. If the children with autism invite their peers to play with their dogs, then the dogs can serve as bridges that help the children with autism communicate with their peers."

The study has been published in the Journal of Pediatric Nursing .

Source:www.zeenews.india.com/news/health

16.04.2014

If your eyes are positive, you will like all the people in the World. If your Tongue is positive, all the people in the world will like you