Monday, January 23, 2006

Malaria parasites found in lymph nodes

Jan 23, 2006, 18:20 GMT


PARIS, France (UPI) -- French researchers say they`ve discovered the malaria parasite Plasmodium not only develops in the liver, it also has been found developing in lymph nodes.

In the first quantitative, real-time imaging study of Plasmodium through mammalian tissue, researchers at the Pasteur Institute in Paris found parasites developing in the lymph nodes of research mice.When a mosquito infected with Plasmodium bites a mammal, the immature parasites travel to the animal`s liver, which, until now, scientists thought was the only place they could develop, Menard said.
But the researchers found about 25 percent of the parasites injected by mosquito bites ended up in lymph nodes close to the site of the bite. No parasites appeared in more distant lymph nodes.

Within about four hours of the mosquito bite, many of the lymph-node parasites appeared degraded and were also seen interacting with key mammalian immune cells, suggesting the immune cells were destroying them.

Menard and colleagues report their findings in the February issue of the journal Nature Medicine, available online.

Sunday, January 15, 2006

Songs in my voice

Devtaa - Gulmohar Gar Tumhara


Pal ( K.K. ) - Pyar Ke Pal


Aur Pyar Ho Gaya - Mere Saanson Mein


Prem Pujari - Phoolon Ke Rang Se


Kachche Dhaage - Upar Khuda
>

Zakhm - Hum Yahan



....and this is the song why people in crazefm know me :)

Saturday, January 14, 2006

Pyar Ke pal







The song in my voice

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Me on Crazefm

I often listen to this radio site from Norway called crazefm. So one day I left my phone # on the shoutbox and to my surprise got a call within a minute from Wakas Mir, the host of the show. The next thing I knew I was singing -


What was even more surprising was that shortly after my stint as the singer one of the fellow members declared an official singing competition with T-shirts for prizes and the audience was asked to choose ... I was taken aback when I heard that I had won a prize when I didn't even know that there was going to be a competition.

Monday, January 09, 2006

Intracranial stenting for recurrent stroke patients

New Procedure Offers Hope To Patients At High Risk For Recurrent Stroke
09 Jan 2006

Surgeons at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center are the first in the New York City metropolitan area to successfully implant into the brain arteries a new stent specifically designed to treat high-risk stroke patients who have not previously responded to medical therapy. The Wingspan™ Stent System is used for those individuals diagnosed with intracranial atherosclerotic disease (ICAD) -- excess plaque buildup in the brain arteries.

The intracranial stenting procedure involves making a small incision in the patient's femoral artery. The device is threaded through the patient's vessels to the location of plaque in the cerebral vessel. A balloon is then expanded to crack the plaque and withdrawn, and the stent is inserted and deployed to open the vessel.

"Stents, which are thin, wire-mesh tubes, have long been used to successfully open the carotid arteries in the neck to prevent stroke. Now they are being used in a similar fashion inside the brain," says Dr. Pierre Gobin, professor of radiology and neurological surgery at Weill Medical College of Cornell University and director of the division of interventional neuroradiology at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell. "As opposed to carotid stents that are made of stainless steel, this brain stent is designed specifically for the fragile vessels of the brain."

"Recent research has shown that a very large percentage of patients with plaque buildup in their brains' vessels do not respond to medication," says Dr. Howard A. Riina, associate professor of neurological surgery at Weill Medical College of Cornell University and co-director of the division of interventional neuroradiology at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell. "Without any intervention, these patients have a significant chance of having another stroke within a year."

According to the American Stroke Association, there are about 700,000 strokes cases every year. About 10 percent of stokes are due to problems associated with ICAD.

The device, called the Wingspan™ Stent System with Gateway™ PTA Balloon Catheter, is manufactured by Boston Scientific of Natick, Mass. It is the only device of its kind available in the U.S. The FDA granted Humanitarian Device Exemption (HDE) status in August 2005 to Wingspan based on a multi-center study in Europe and Asia. The study enrolled patients who had a stroke caused by an intracranial lesion and for whom medical treatment failed to prevent another stroke. The device had a procedural success rate of 98 percent.

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Sunday, January 01, 2006

Mechanism Tying Obesity to Alzheimer’s Disease Uncovered

A team led by researchers at the Farber Institute for Neurosciences at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and Edith Cowan University in Joondalup, Western Australia has shown that being extremely overweight or obese increases the likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s. They found a strong correlation between body mass index and high levels of beta-amyloid, the sticky protein substance that builds up in the Alzheimer’s brain and is thought to play a major role in destroying nerve cells and in cognitive and behavioral problems associated with the disease.

“Heightened levels of amyloid in the blood vessels and the brain indicate the start of the Alzheimer’s process.” The scientists reported their findings this month in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

MDCT Angiography Guides Cardiac Vein Procedures

ReviewAACHEN, Germany, Dec. 30 - For imaging cardiac veins to guide procedures, angiography using multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT) may be a good alternative to conventional angiography, researchers here reported.

Although the newer three-dimensional technique sometimes suffered from motion artifacts, it proved equal to traditional two-dimensional angiography by all measures and provided better visualization of small cardiac veins, said Goerg Mühlenbruch, M.D., and colleagues at the Aachen University Hospital.

Although MDCT angiography has already proved valuable in guiding procedures involving coronary arteries, no previous studies have compared MDCT and conventional angiography in procedures involving coronary veins, the authors reported in the November issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology.

The study included seven patients undergoing interventional cardiac procedures involving the coronary venous system. Two patients underwent radiofrequency ablation procedures and five had left ventricular leads implanted for biventricular pacing. All patients underwent conventional angiography and MDCT angiography.

Both techniques were able to visualize the major coronary veins, such as the coronary sinus, great cardiac, and left ventricular veins equally well in all patients. When it came to the small cardiac veins, MDCT was able to adequately visualize these in three patients, compared with two for conventional angiography.

"Especially for visualization of the small cardiac veins draining directly into the right atrium, MDCT angiography was superior to conventional angiography," the authors said.
On a visibility grade ranging from 0 (worst) to 3 (best), both techniques rated a solid 2. MDCT angiography scored a mean of 2.38, while conventional angiography scored a mean of 2.33.
"Compared with conventional angiography, MDCT angiography is less invasive and has a lower rate of complications," the authors wrote. "Besides increased acceptance of the procedure by the patient population, reduced hospital stays and cost-reduction may be expected."

They concluded, "Cardiac MDCT angiography provides additional information on cardiac function and thoracic abnormalities and may replace other invasive procedures, in some cases even catheter-based coronary angiography."

Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report