Archive for the ‘Health’ Category

Medical Eponyms for Iphone by Andrew Yee

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008

This Application brings the eponym database from Andrew J. Yee to your iPhone or iPod touch. The database currently contains more than 1′600 medical eponyms and is updated from regularly. Due to Apples policy, the application is only downloadable from the iTunes Store. There are two versions, one will be available for 2 US Dollars and the other one - the Student Edition - for free.

Medical eponymsMedical eponyms 2

More medical software applications on iPhone 3g

Maxim® Complete Knee System

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008

I collected Links to information regarding Maxim® Complete Knee System in this page for my education and research.

This system is product of Biomet.

Maxim Compelte Knee system

Quote from Company Booklet

Building on over a decade of successful clinical results, Biomet continues its tradition of innovation by introducing the Maxim® Complete Knee System. This system is the result of combining the implant experience of Adolph V. Lombardi, M.D., and Bradley K. Vaughn, M.D., with the extensive engineering resources at Biomet. The union of these powerful forces has produced the most complete and user-friendly knee system available today.

Pinnacle acetabular cup system

Thursday, September 18th, 2008

One of the uncemented cup systems used at our hospital is Pinnacle acetabular cup system. I thought I will collect more information about this system. Post below contains some of the links and useful information about this system

This system is developed and marketed by Depuy Orthopaedics, Allegedly useds Variable Interface Prosthesis (VIP) taper technology (cant find this patent application yet in either google patents or us patents database). Though some patents mention name “Pinnacle acetabular cup

Quote from company website

DEPUY introduces the PINNACLE Acetabular Cup System with patented Variable Interface Prosthesis (VIP) taper technology. The PINNACLE Acetabular Cup is designed to accommodate multiple advanced bearing materials and provide surgical options without compromise. Surgeons now have a choice between standard polyethylene, MARATHON Cross-linked Polyethylene and ULTAMET metal inserts, which all work within one acetabular shell.

More info - pubmed abstracts

Pinnacle acetabular cup

JRI - Furlong Hydroxy-apatite ceramic coated femoral stems

Monday, September 15th, 2008

JRI - Furlong Hydroxy-apatite ceramic coated femoral stems

The Furlong H-A.C. Supravit® Coated Femoral Stem is based on the biomechanical teaching of Pauwels and has three distinct sections providing separate functions to satisfy the stressing requirements at different locations in the femur. The distal portion prevents toggle and because it is cylindrical will not allow axial distal loading.

 Latest abstract results form pubmed about JRI furlong replacement systems aggregated by IBJS

Journal of Medical Internet Research

Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008

JMIR - the leading OPEN ACCESS* peer-reviewed transdisciplinary journal on health and health care in the Internet age. The new JMIR Impact Factor released in June 2008 is now 3.0! JMIR is top ranked as the #6 journal in the health sciences category (out of 57 leading journals) and #2 in the health informatics category (out of 20 journals).

Journal of Medical Internet Research

Mathys RM Classic Cup

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008

Mathys RM Classic cupToday I have seen  total hip replacement useing Mathys RM Classic cup with exeter stem. This cup is quite interesting because it is polyethelene cup which is inserted using uncemented technique. It has surface coating of pure titanium (one which we used). Reading company website they also have cup with hydroxy appetite coating. Outcome is quite good (96.7% at 15 yrs according to company)

Types of cups available

  • Full profile cup
  • Bevelled cup
  • Bevelled metal-metal (metamys) cup
  • Revision cup

Latest abstracts about Mathys cup from Pubmed rss feed aggregated at IBJS

 

Brk enzyme a new drug target for aggressive breast cancer treatment

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008

A team of scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has just published research identifying an enzyme called Brk that may serve as a target for future drugs developed to fight ErbB2-positive tumors. ErbB2 is a member of a family of enzymes called receptor tyrosine kinases — cell-surface molecules that goad cells into proliferating when they sense growth cues in the environs of cells that express them. It turns out that the over-production of ErbB2 in breast cancers is due to a gene mutation that results in the accumulation of multiple copies of the erbB2 gene.

Other genes that undergo such “amplification” due the duplication of DNA segments include brk, which is the gene that instructs cells to manufacture the enzyme Brk. This enzyme is absent in healthy cells but is found at high levels in a majority of breast cancers. As some of these cancers also over-express ErbB2, the CSHL team wondered whether the offending genes, erbB2 and brk, are mutated in tandem, or “co-amplified.” This idea in turn raised the possibility that the proteins encoded by these genes are also co-activated and feed into the same proliferation-promoting pathway.

Aside from hurrying along tumor progression, Brk was also found to diminish the effectiveness of ErbB2-inhibiting drugs on tumor growth. Brk-inhibitors might also be useful on their own or as combined with ErbB2 inhibiting drugs. The CSHL scientists speculate that these drugs might fight tumors that never react to or become resistant to ErbB2-inhibitors.

What is Lautenbach Procedure

Wednesday, August 20th, 2008

Today I learnt about Lautenbach procedure for treatment of Chronic Osteomyelitis. This procedure was developed and used by Charles Lautenbach surgeon form South Africa. This procedure involves sequestrectomy, saucerisation until you see bleeding bone (paprika sign), thorough wash out with pulse lavage and leaving a special drain through which we can deliver antibiotics like Teicoplanin, Gentamycin and anticoagulant streptokinase. This drain is retained for almost 4 weeks for local delivery of antibiotics to reduce recurrence of infection.

Information Links

Useful Abstracts

 

Hyaluronic hydrogels - new alternatives to demineralized bone matrix

Tuesday, August 19th, 2008

Hyaluronic hydrogels developed by Carnegie Mellon University researchers may provide a suitable scaffolding to enable bone regeneration. The hydrogels, created by Newell Washburn, Krzysztof Matyjaszewski and Jeffrey Hollinger, have proven to encourage the growth of preosteoblast cells, cells that aid the growth and development of bone.

Currently, physicians are able to treat patients with damaged bone tissue, like those who have bone fractures that fail to heal, using demineralized bone matrix, a biological material obtained from cadavers. Demineralized bone matrix is rich in growth factor proteins which signal bone cells in the area to multiply and form complex bone tissue, while other proteins in the matrix regulate the activity of the growth factors. Demineralized bone matrix is in limited supply, and because it comes from a human donor, there is a risk of transmitting viruses to the recipient.

Members of the Washburn lab have been developing synthetic alternatives to demineralized bone matrix. In the work being presented today, they created a flexible hydrogel using biologically active and degradable hyaluronic acid. Hydrogels, which are considered to be the state-of-the-art in tissue design, are made from polymers that swell in water to form a gel-like material. They interact with growth factors much like demineralized bone matrix does, providing scaffolding for bone cells to proliferate and form new tissue. The researchers found that, in vitro, the hydrogels promoted cell proliferation, differentiation and mineralization of pre-osteoblast cells.

Further research by the group has created a hybrid hydrogel that incorporates a nanogel structure. This new hydrogel promotes the differentiation of cells, much like the hyaluronic acid gel while also releasing nanogels in a controlled and targeted manner. The researchers hope that this structure could be used to partner tissue engineering with gene therapy.

Promise in development of AIDS vaccine - Phase I clinical trial shows encouraging outcome

Saturday, August 16th, 2008

The results of the trial of an MVA-based AIDS vaccine candidate (TBC-M4), which was conducted in Chennai, indicated that the vaccine candidate had acceptable levels of safety and was well tolerated.

The proportion of volunteers whose immune systems responded to the vaccine candidate suggests the candidate holds promise. The trial was done using two doses of the candidate vaccine. After three injections, 82 percent of the volunteers who received a low dose and 100 percent of those who received a high dose registered immune responses to the vaccine. The 100 percent response rate is greater than that seen with the majority of AIDS vaccine candidates tested in humans to date. However the strength and diversity of these immune responses were modest. It may be possible to boost the immune response, if this vaccine is used in combination with other candidate AIDS vaccines.

The Phase I clinical trial was initiated in January 2006 at the Tuberculosis Research Center (TRC), an Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) institute in Chennai, and was completed in February 2008. This trial was conducted under the aegis of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Government of India—through the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO)—and the not-for-profit International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI). YRG CARE, based in Chennai, collaborated with TRC to mobilize the community around the Phase I trial.

About the Phase I MVA-based (TBC-M4) AIDS vaccine trial

The trial was a double blind, dose-escalation, randomized, placebo-controlled trial, which was initiated after receiving all necessary regulatory and ethical clearances. The objectives of such a Phase I trial are to evaluate the safety of the vaccine candidate and to gather preliminary results of immune responses induced by the candidate. The total duration of the trial was approximately 24 months. The volunteers recruited for this trial were 32 healthy, HIV-uninfected men and women between 18 and 50 years of age, from all socio-economic strata. Three intra-muscular injections of TBC-M4 or placebo were administered to the volunteers.


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