1, July 2014

Pinprick of blood can help in medical diagnosis

ESA is building a prototype tester for crews on the International Space Station to provide diagnosis within a few minutes from a pinprick of blood.

The ultimate device will offer rapid health checks and results for scientific research.

The droplet is placed on a portable device built around a disc like a mini-DVD. The disc is set spinning to separate the sample into plasma and serum for a whole range of simultaneous tests.

On the ground, there are already numerous applications - the automated laboratory unit covers illnesses such as heart disease, prostate cancer, diabetes and liver disease.

The space device is being developed by Irish company Radisens Diagnostic, which began working with ESA in 2011.

The first phase of the partnership with ESA assessed its suitability for space, with this new phase intending to design practical prototypes for use on the Station and other future manned space missions.

Weightless living aboard the confined quarters of the orbital outpost can lead to various negative consequences, but the day-by-day oversight by medical experts on the ground is limited.

"What Radisens will develop is of the utmost interest," comments ESA's Francois Gaubert. "Being able to perform rapid analysis of astronauts' blood samples and monitor their physiological parameters aboard the Station, without having to transport the samples down to labs on the ground, would prove extremely useful."

Source: www.timesofindia.com

01.07.2014

Complex heart tests up cancer risk

Radiation from standard X-rays do not significantly raise cancer risks for young children, in general, but children undergoing more complex procedures with higher radiation have higher risks, says a study.

"Cancer risk overall is relatively low, but we hope that this awareness will encourage providers to limit radiation exposure in children, when alternative procedures can offer the same benefit with less radiation," said Jason Johnson, an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in the US.

Researchers reviewed medical records to find the most common imaging procedures, calculated how much radiation organs absorb during each procedure and then used a report from National Academy of Sciences in the US to analyse lifetime cancer risks based on the amounts of each procedure's exposure.

Lifetime cancer risk increases ranged from 0.002 per cent for chest X-rays to 0.4 per cent for complex CT scans and cardiac catheterisations.

The study appeared in the journal Circulation.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

01.07.2014

Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own unguarded thoughts

Buddha