Category Archives: Medical

Britain, Health, Medical, Research, Science

A simple surgical operation to cure high blood pressure…

CLINICAL TRIALS START FOR TREATING HYPERTENSION

British scientists believe they could cure millions of patients with hard-to-treat high blood pressure and hypertension.

A simple operation would involve removing a small cluster of nerves in the throat linked to blood pressure regulation.

Researchers from Bristol University are extremely hopeful the measures could help some 2.5 million individuals with hypertension that cannot be controlled by medication.

While scientists have already started a clinical trial on 20 people with high blood pressure – following successful laboratory tests on rats – if the trials prove to be successful and is given the go-ahead, the surgical procedure could be available within three years as a ‘relatively simple’ day treatment for adults. The novel approach successfully ‘cured’ the condition in laboratory rats.

The carotid body is one of the body’s smallest organs but acts as a sensor that detects changes in gas levels in the blood. Sometimes, however, it can become overactive.

The carotid body is one of the body’s smallest organs but acts as a sensor that detects changes in gas levels in the blood. Sometimes, however, it can become overactive.

Known as the silent killer, high blood pressure or hypertension affects a third of adults and significantly raises the odds of heart attacks, strokes and other potentially fatal conditions if left untreated.

At the moment, there is no effective remedy for individuals who do not respond to conventional drug therapies.

But scientists at Bristol’s School of Physiology and Pharmacology identified a key organ in the development of high blood pressure – the carotid body.

It consists of a tiny cluster of nerve cells that sit on the side of the two branches of the carotid artery in the neck, each the size of a grain of rice.

Despite being one of the body’s smallest organs, it has the highest blood flow of them all – reflecting its importance as an early warning device for the brain if there is any change to oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in the blood.

In some cases, it is thought the carotid body becomes overactive and sends a message to the brain to keep blood pressure high. Scientists involved in removing the organs in rats with hypertension found that blood pressure fell and remained low.

The study, which was funded by the British Heart Foundation, and first published in the journal Nature Communications, said the animals suffered no adverse side-effects either.

In human trials, only one carotid body would be removed in order to reduce blood pressure while maintaining the organ’s vital regulatory function.

Professor Julian Paton who is the lead researcher on the study, said:

… We know that these tiny organs behaved differently in conditions of hypertension, but had absolutely no idea that they contributed so massively to the generation of high blood pressure; this is really most exciting.

… It certainly has the potential to be a very novel interventional approach to drug-resistant hypertension (high blood pressure).

An estimated 16 million British adults have high blood pressure; a third of whom may be unaware they have the condition.

Patients are often at first advised to alter their lifestyle by taking more exercise, stopping smoking, cutting down on drinking and limiting the salt and fat in their diet.

GPs can also prescribe medication – often a combination of pills – but many patients skip doses because of the side-effects caused by most treatments. Up to 15 per cent of patients – 2.5 million people – also struggle to control their condition using drugs.

Professor Jeremy Pearson, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said:

… This potential new treatment has real promise to help this hard-to-treat group of patients … Many patients can control their blood pressure adequately by lifestyle change and medication so they would not be offered this kind of treatment.

… It is therefore unlikely this treatment will ever be tested as an alternative to standard medication – only as an extra procedure when current drug treatment fails.

A consultant cardiologist at Sheffield Teaching Hospital referred to the breakthrough as an ‘exciting and innovative approach’ and added that current treatments for high blood pressure have serious drawbacks, such as no-one likes taking multiple tablets and that medics are often guilty of not explaining properly why treatment is needed and what benefits might be expected.

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Government, Health, Medical, Scotland

NHS drug bungles. Care home patients often receive ‘wrong’ medication…

ERRORS IN MEDICATION

Thousands of elderly care home patients are subjected to errors in their medication.

On any given day, seven out of ten residents are given wrongly administered drugs.

The errors, by care home staff, doctors and pharmacists, include giving the incorrect dosage, not giving drugs at the correct time or ensuring patients take their drugs.

Such mistakes can lead to adverse reactions, emergency hospital admissions and even death.

The Scottish Government’s Review of NHS Pharmaceutical care of Patients in the Community in Scotland noted that care homes residents have multiple ailments and complex drug regimes, but said:

… Seven out of ten residents receive some form of medication error each day.

Experts have agreed that action must be taken to address a ‘ticking time bomb’ as thousands of older patients face admission to care homes.

They said ‘poor medicines management’ is the reason for many errors and they called for regular input by pharmacists into patient care.

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society in Scotland has set up a working group to examine how pharmaceutical care in care homes could be improved.

Critics described the findings as ‘deeply worrying’ and called for urgent action to ensure the safety of patients.

A spokesperson for the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, said:

… Patients are extremely vulnerable when they transfer from one care setting to another and records do not always follow the patient or go to the community pharmacist.

… There is a need for sharing of information to one single electronic patient record.

According to the review, as the country’s population ages, and patients live longer with medical complications, there are likely to be ‘major challenges for pharmaceutical care in the future’.

After looking at the needs of residents in care homes, experts also found that most medication errors are caused by doctors or pharmacists.

The report found:

… The increasing dependency and multi-morbidity of residents, many with dementia, requires high quality pharmaceutical care, to meet the medication needs of individual residents.

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society added that the ‘time bomb’ is one of demography, saying that we have increasing numbers of elderly people with several long-term conditions and, to accommodate this, there is a need to develop more integrated care solutions.

In response to criticism that errors are occurring so shockingly frequently, and that everyone must get round the table to work out how this may be sorted, a Scottish Government official said:

… We are looking at ways to improve pharmaceutical services by working with GPs, the NHS and professional bodies.

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Health, Medical, Research, Science, United States

Eye tests may detect early onset of Alzheimer’s…

AMYLOID PLAQUES

Two new eye tests in America are being trialled that one day may help doctors to detect the very early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

Newly released research has revealed that non-invasive retinal testing is now being trialled by scientists in the U.S. that could help flag up the condition by alerting clinicians to the presence of amyloid plaque deposits, a known biological marker of the disease.

Early stage testing could mean that patients are diagnosed or registered as high-risk up to twenty years before noticeable symptoms begin, helping patients get treatment before memory loss develops.

Scientists generally accept that amyloid plaques (a type of residual protein deposit) in the brain are a key marker of the disease.

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This site incorporates a science and biology page. Click the image icon to view it.

Neurologists have believed for a long time that there is a correlation between the amounts of amyloid in the eye and residual protein deposits in the brain. The argument for this correlating factor is a strong one because the retina is formed from the same tissue as the brain when a foetus is developing in the womb.

To confirm this theory, two tests have been developed and trials are currently underway. The tests are known as the Retinal Amyloid Index (by NeuroVision) and the Sapphire II (by Cognoptix).

Ocular based examinations through the years have been used to detect and diagnose Alzheimer’s at any early stage through methods such as optic nerve cupping, pupillary response to tropicamide dilation and ocular muscle movement. However, all have failed to withstand the test of time in terms of sensitivity and specificity.

Professor Keith Black is chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles, and co-founder of NeuroVision. He says that if people are going to get Alzheimer’s they begin to develop the hallmarks, such as amyloid deposits, in their 50s.

Professor Black said:

… The key for having an effective treatment for AD is early detection. You want to prevent those brain cells from being killed or dying in the first place.

The Sapphire II test works by measuring the amount of photons (i.e. light particles) captured when scanning the eyes. The amount of photons captured directly correlates with the amount of amyloid in the eye.

Experts state that the Sapphire II is currently in phase one of two in clinical feasibility trials, and that phase three is expected to begin in 2014.

Approximately 800,000 people in Britain suffer from Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. The number of cases is predicted to double within a generation.

There is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease and existing drugs can only alleviate symptoms. The condition is diagnosed by memory tests and, in some cases, through brain scans.

Presently, the disease can only be confirmed by a post-mortem examination, which reveals the presence of harmful amyloid plaques in the brain.

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