Researchers in Hong Kong report that testing patient blood for DNA from Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) during treatment for nasopharyngeal carcinoma effectively predicts clinical outcome. A biomarker test like this, when perfected, could identify patients whose treatment could be intensified after a month or so of standard therapy as well as those who might benefit from lighter treatment.
The study, presented at the American Association for Cancer Research Molecular Diagnostics in Cancer Therapeutic Development meeting held here September 22-25, highlights the strong link between the virus and this cancer, which is common in Southern China and also develops in Chinese immigrants It further suggests that genetic levels of EBV should be assessed before and during treatment, not just after therapy, as it is now.
"We found that patients with undetectable EBV DNA mid-course through treatment had a greatly reduced risk of developing cancer recurrence two years after treatment, compared with patients with detectable EBV DNA," said the study's senior investigator, Anthony Chan, M.D., director of the Cancer Center at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Although EBV is associated with nasopharynx cancer, which develops in the upper area of the throat, a causal relationship hasn't been established, Chan says. Still, cancer cells contain EBV genetic material, which leaks into the bloodstream and can be detected using DNA tests. "That means a larger number of nasopharynx cancer cells in the body would give rise to a larger amount of EBV genetic material in the blood circulation, and so the EBV DNA level is a marker of the extent of cancer."
Researchers know that the amount of EBV DNA found after treatment is a recognized prognostic marker of survival because residual detectable EBV DNA "implies incomplete killing of cancer and thus a poor prognosis," Chan said. The question the researchers investigated is whether there is a way to identify patients with such a viral load before treatment is finished so that more aggressive therapy might be instituted.
"We need to know what to do for those patients with residual EBV. These patients usually do not have clinical evidence of cancer at that point and the residual cancer burden is at a microscopic level. Any extra treatment would be for undetectable cancer, and we need to prove that such treatment has an impact on improving survival," Chan said.
In this study, researchers tested 108 patients with advanced stage cancer for EBV DNA before the start of treatment, after a month of therapy, and then within three months after completion of treatment, and matched these levels to outcomes two-years later. They found that 94 percent of patients had detectable EBV DNA before therapy, but that it became undetectable in 54 percent of patients midway through treatment. The 42 percent of patients who had both low pretreatment and undetectable four-week viral levels constituted a "good risk group" because their recurrence rate was only nine percent.
Conversely, they found that levels detected after four weeks of treatment correlated with detectable post-treatment amounts, with an almost threefold greater risk of cancer recurrence and threefold higher risk of distant metastasis at two years.
"It is possible to test for EBV DNA levels at any time point, so based on further validation studies, we may be able to use biomarker levels at several time points to guide clinical therapy," Chan said.
The mission of the American Association for Cancer Research is to prevent and cure cancer. Founded in 1907, AACR is the world's oldest and largest professional organization dedicated to advancing cancer research. The membership includes nearly 27,000 basic, translational, and clinical researchers; health care professionals; and cancer survivors and advocates in the United States and more than 70 other countries. AACR marshals the full spectrum of expertise from the cancer community to accelerate progress in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer through high-quality scientific and educational programs. It funds innovative, meritorious research grants. The AACR Annual Meeting attracts more than 17,000 participants who share the latest discoveries and developments in the field. Special Conferences throughout the year present novel data across a wide variety of topics in cancer research, treatment, and patient care. AACR publishes five major peer-reviewed journals: Cancer Research; Clinical Cancer Research; Molecular Cancer Therapeutics; Molecular Cancer Research; and Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. Its most recent publication and its sixth major journal, Cancer Prevention Research, is the only journal worldwide dedicated exclusively to cancer prevention, from preclinical research to clinical trials. The AACR also publishes CR, a magazine for cancer survivors, patient advocates, their families, physicians, and scientists. CR provides a forum for sharing essential, evidence-based information and perspectives on progress in cancer research, survivorship, and advocacy.
Source: Jeremy Moore
American Association for Cancer Research
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четверг, 8 сентября 2011 г.
Novel Study Proves That Good Fences Make Good Neighbors
In the last century, more than 100 million people have perished in violent conflict, very often because of local clashes between ethnically or culturally distinct groups. In a novel study this week in Science, researchers report on a mathematical model that can predict where ethnic conflict will erupt.
The study, conducted by scientists at the New England Complex Systems Institute (NECSI) and Brandeis University, can be applied to many areas and its predictions were tested on distinct ethnic groups in India and the former Yugoslavia. The researchers applied a model of global pattern formation that differentiates regions by culture. They discovered that heterogeneous areas with poorly-defined boundaries were prone to ethnic conflict.
The research asserts that in highly mixed regions, groups of the same type are not large enough to sway collective behavior toward claiming any particular public space; likewise, well-segregated groups are protected by clear boundaries identifying their space. However, the study concludes that "partial separation with poorly defined boundaries fosters conflict."
In essence, as poet Robert Frost wrote in a well-known poem, "good fences make good neighbors." Well-defined borders help prevent ethnic tension.
"Our research shows that violence takes place when an ethnic group is large enough to impose cultural norms on public spaces, but not large enough to prevent those norms from being broken," said Brandeis researcher Dr. May Lim. "Usually this occurs in places where boundaries between groups are unclear."
Reflecting an emerging direction in science applied to social policy, the study applies the scientific principles of pattern formation -- which are used to describe, for example, how chemicals separate by type or phase -- to the huge social problem of ethnic conflict. The researchers discovered that ethnic violence occurs in certain predictable patterns, just as do other collective behaviors in physical, biological, and social complex systems.
"The concept of pattern formation, while it may have been originally developed to understand chemical systems, is really a scientific model of collective behaviors, in which you look at those aspects that control overall behavior," said co-author and NECSI president Yaneer Bar-Yam.
"This study provides an indication of where regions may run into trouble, and how to avoid conflict, said Bar-Yam, adding, "this research reflects a tremendous opportunity for us to address a wide range of social concerns with new scientific tools."
Source: Laura Gardner
Brandeis University
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The study, conducted by scientists at the New England Complex Systems Institute (NECSI) and Brandeis University, can be applied to many areas and its predictions were tested on distinct ethnic groups in India and the former Yugoslavia. The researchers applied a model of global pattern formation that differentiates regions by culture. They discovered that heterogeneous areas with poorly-defined boundaries were prone to ethnic conflict.
The research asserts that in highly mixed regions, groups of the same type are not large enough to sway collective behavior toward claiming any particular public space; likewise, well-segregated groups are protected by clear boundaries identifying their space. However, the study concludes that "partial separation with poorly defined boundaries fosters conflict."
In essence, as poet Robert Frost wrote in a well-known poem, "good fences make good neighbors." Well-defined borders help prevent ethnic tension.
"Our research shows that violence takes place when an ethnic group is large enough to impose cultural norms on public spaces, but not large enough to prevent those norms from being broken," said Brandeis researcher Dr. May Lim. "Usually this occurs in places where boundaries between groups are unclear."
Reflecting an emerging direction in science applied to social policy, the study applies the scientific principles of pattern formation -- which are used to describe, for example, how chemicals separate by type or phase -- to the huge social problem of ethnic conflict. The researchers discovered that ethnic violence occurs in certain predictable patterns, just as do other collective behaviors in physical, biological, and social complex systems.
"The concept of pattern formation, while it may have been originally developed to understand chemical systems, is really a scientific model of collective behaviors, in which you look at those aspects that control overall behavior," said co-author and NECSI president Yaneer Bar-Yam.
"This study provides an indication of where regions may run into trouble, and how to avoid conflict, said Bar-Yam, adding, "this research reflects a tremendous opportunity for us to address a wide range of social concerns with new scientific tools."
Source: Laura Gardner
Brandeis University
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Nationwide Vaccine and Treatment Units Strengthened and Expanded, US
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded eight contracts to strengthen and expand its nationwide group of institutions conducting clinical trials of promising candidate vaccines and therapies for infectious diseases. In addition to increasing the number of sites from seven to eight, NIAID expects the Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Units (VTEUs) to carry out more clinical trials in larger populations and to safely test vaccines in specific vulnerable populations, such as infants and the elderly. Moreover, all the VTEUs will have inpatient beds for isolating volunteers who participate in the testing of vaccines containing weakened versions of live microbes, making it easier to conduct such trials quickly.
Each VTEU will receive approximately $23.7 million over seven years. The combined capabilities of these research facilities -- located in Atlanta, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Houston, Iowa City, Nashville, Seattle and St. Louis -- will enhance NIAID's ability to direct clinical research to quickly respond to emerging public health needs.
"In more than four decades of research, the VTEUs have conducted hundreds of clinical trials of investigational vaccines and therapeutics for a variety of infectious diseases of public health concern, and many of these trials have contributed to the licensure of products," says NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. "We expect this success to continue, as each VTEU has exceptional expertise and experience in vaccinology and an impressive capacity to recruit volunteers from diverse populations in its community."
Established in 1962, the VTEUs are a national resource for vaccine development. VTEU investigators have tested and advanced vaccines for many diseases, including influenza, pneumonia, whooping cough, Haemophilus influenzae infection, cytomegalovirus infection, malaria, smallpox, anthrax and tularemia. Childhood vaccines and combination vaccines -- the delivery of several vaccines through one inoculation -- have been and remain an important part of the VTEUs' research goals. The first trial of an edible vaccine was conducted by VTEU researchers, and other novel vaccine delivery systems have been extensively tested by this select group of medical research facilities. For example, one VTEU demonstrated that consuming genetically engineered potatoes could stimulate an immune response against Escherichia coli in humans, and six VTEUs enrolled young children in a successful Phase III trial of FluMist, an influenza vaccine delivered through a nasal spray.
An important strength of the VTEUs is their ability to enroll large numbers of volunteers into trials rapidly and vaccinate them in a manner that is safe, effective and quick to yield results. This rapid-response capability is especially important for testing vaccines designed to counteract emerging public health concerns. For example, the VTEUs conducted multiple studies in 2005 and 2006 of a vaccine for a strain of H5N1 avian influenza virus to determine the most effective dose. Those studies led to the licensure of the first vaccine approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) against an H5N1 influenza virus. The units also swiftly initiated a large-scale trial to evaluate the seasonal influenza vaccine Fluarix for use in healthy adults in the United States. The trial demonstrated the vaccine's safety and ability to generate an immune response and ultimately led to its expedited approval by FDA in August 2005 -- less than a year after the trial began. This approval helped reduce the impact of future delays or shortages of seasonal influenza vaccines in the United States.
The selected VTEU sites and principal investigators (PIs) are as follows.
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, Texas
PI: Wendy A. Keitel, M.D.
Children's Hospital Medical Center
Cincinnati, Ohio
PI: David I. Bernstein, M.D., M.A.
Emory University
Atlanta, Georgia
PI: Mark J. Mulligan, M.D.
Group Health Cooperative
Seattle, Washington
PI: Lisa A. Jackson, M.D., M.P.H.
Saint Louis University
St. Louis, Missouri
PI: Robert B. Belshe, M.D.
University of Iowa
Iowa City, Iowa
PI: Patricia L. Winokur, M.D.
University of Maryland
Baltimore, Maryland
PI: Karen L. Kotloff, M.D.
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, Tennessee
PI: Kathryn M. Edwards, M.D.
NIAID is a component of the National Institutes of Health. NIAID supports basic and applied research to prevent, diagnose and treat infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections, influenza, tuberculosis, malaria and illness from potential agents of bioterrorism. NIAID also supports research on basic immunology, transplantation and immune-related disorders, including autoimmune diseases, asthma and allergies.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) -- The Nation's Medical Research Agency -- includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit nih/.
News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID Web site at niaid.nih/.
Source: Laura Sivitz
NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
View drug information on FluMist.
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Each VTEU will receive approximately $23.7 million over seven years. The combined capabilities of these research facilities -- located in Atlanta, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Houston, Iowa City, Nashville, Seattle and St. Louis -- will enhance NIAID's ability to direct clinical research to quickly respond to emerging public health needs.
"In more than four decades of research, the VTEUs have conducted hundreds of clinical trials of investigational vaccines and therapeutics for a variety of infectious diseases of public health concern, and many of these trials have contributed to the licensure of products," says NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. "We expect this success to continue, as each VTEU has exceptional expertise and experience in vaccinology and an impressive capacity to recruit volunteers from diverse populations in its community."
Established in 1962, the VTEUs are a national resource for vaccine development. VTEU investigators have tested and advanced vaccines for many diseases, including influenza, pneumonia, whooping cough, Haemophilus influenzae infection, cytomegalovirus infection, malaria, smallpox, anthrax and tularemia. Childhood vaccines and combination vaccines -- the delivery of several vaccines through one inoculation -- have been and remain an important part of the VTEUs' research goals. The first trial of an edible vaccine was conducted by VTEU researchers, and other novel vaccine delivery systems have been extensively tested by this select group of medical research facilities. For example, one VTEU demonstrated that consuming genetically engineered potatoes could stimulate an immune response against Escherichia coli in humans, and six VTEUs enrolled young children in a successful Phase III trial of FluMist, an influenza vaccine delivered through a nasal spray.
An important strength of the VTEUs is their ability to enroll large numbers of volunteers into trials rapidly and vaccinate them in a manner that is safe, effective and quick to yield results. This rapid-response capability is especially important for testing vaccines designed to counteract emerging public health concerns. For example, the VTEUs conducted multiple studies in 2005 and 2006 of a vaccine for a strain of H5N1 avian influenza virus to determine the most effective dose. Those studies led to the licensure of the first vaccine approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) against an H5N1 influenza virus. The units also swiftly initiated a large-scale trial to evaluate the seasonal influenza vaccine Fluarix for use in healthy adults in the United States. The trial demonstrated the vaccine's safety and ability to generate an immune response and ultimately led to its expedited approval by FDA in August 2005 -- less than a year after the trial began. This approval helped reduce the impact of future delays or shortages of seasonal influenza vaccines in the United States.
The selected VTEU sites and principal investigators (PIs) are as follows.
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, Texas
PI: Wendy A. Keitel, M.D.
Children's Hospital Medical Center
Cincinnati, Ohio
PI: David I. Bernstein, M.D., M.A.
Emory University
Atlanta, Georgia
PI: Mark J. Mulligan, M.D.
Group Health Cooperative
Seattle, Washington
PI: Lisa A. Jackson, M.D., M.P.H.
Saint Louis University
St. Louis, Missouri
PI: Robert B. Belshe, M.D.
University of Iowa
Iowa City, Iowa
PI: Patricia L. Winokur, M.D.
University of Maryland
Baltimore, Maryland
PI: Karen L. Kotloff, M.D.
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, Tennessee
PI: Kathryn M. Edwards, M.D.
NIAID is a component of the National Institutes of Health. NIAID supports basic and applied research to prevent, diagnose and treat infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections, influenza, tuberculosis, malaria and illness from potential agents of bioterrorism. NIAID also supports research on basic immunology, transplantation and immune-related disorders, including autoimmune diseases, asthma and allergies.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) -- The Nation's Medical Research Agency -- includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit nih/.
News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID Web site at niaid.nih/.
Source: Laura Sivitz
NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
View drug information on FluMist.
Buy Diamox Without Prescription
Turmeric Might Be "The Right Spice" To Fight Colon Cancer And Inflamation
Turmeric, a bright yellow spice from south Asia belonging to the ginger family, is the main ingredient in curries - and ancient wisdom suggests that it's also good for your health. Taking this wisdom to the laboratory, Tel Aviv University researchers have discovered that turmeric's active ingredient called curcumin amplifies the therapeutic activity of highly toxic anti-inflammatory drugs used to fight colon cancer when used at high doses.
Dr. Shahar Lev-Ari of Tel Aviv University's School of Public Health at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine and his colleagues have found that curcumin can fight cancer when used in combination with a popular anti-inflammatory drug, alleviating the inflammatory response caused when cancer takes root in the body. A treatment based on this finding has already had promising results in human clinical trials.
"Although more testing will be needed before a possible new drug treatment is developed," says Dr. Lev-Ari, "one could combine curcumin with a lower dose of a cancer anti-inflammatory drug, to better fight colon cancer." The results of the new study have been published in the journal Therapeutic Advances in Gastroenterology.
Alleviating unwanted side effects
Research in the last few decades has shown that cancer is linked to inflammation. Several lines of evidence demonstrate that chronic inflammation in the stomach can cause gastric cancer and that inflammation in the liver from hepatitis can lead to liver cancer.
Dr. Lev-Ari and his colleagues found that Celecoxib, a popular anti-inflammatory drug commonly used to treat arthritis, also inhibits proliferation of colon cancer in laboratory settings. Curcumin increases the anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory effects of Celecoxib while reducing its dose, thus reducing its toxic side-effects, including the rate of heart attack and stroke.
The effect of using a curcumin concentrate to improve the effects of cancer drugs was first proposed by Dr. Lev-Ari when he was a graduate student at Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine under the supervision of Prof. Nadir Arber and Prof. Dov Lichtenberg.
Both co-supervisors were eager to test the possible health benefits described in folk medicine but were looking for hard evidence. "We would like to use this treatment for patients with all types of cancers," says Prof. Arber. "It has the promise of being an important life-extending therapy, particularly for non-curable pancreatic cancer, suggested by the very promising results we achieved for 20 pancreatic cancer patients."
Putting shelved cancer drugs back into circulation
Previous in vitro and in vivo experiments conducted by the Tel Aviv University team show that curcumin inhibits an enzyme known as COX-2 (cyclooxygenase-2), believed to cause inflammation. The team's research demonstrates that curcumin neutralizes oxygen free radicals, which are believed to play an important role in carcinogenesis.
These effects may be the basis for drug treatment of both inflammation and cancer through the combination of curcumin and Celecoxib. And it may also help return previously shelved potent anticancer drugs - taken out of use due to high toxicity - back to the market under lower dosage indications.
Source:
George Hunka
American Friends of Tel Aviv University
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Dr. Shahar Lev-Ari of Tel Aviv University's School of Public Health at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine and his colleagues have found that curcumin can fight cancer when used in combination with a popular anti-inflammatory drug, alleviating the inflammatory response caused when cancer takes root in the body. A treatment based on this finding has already had promising results in human clinical trials.
"Although more testing will be needed before a possible new drug treatment is developed," says Dr. Lev-Ari, "one could combine curcumin with a lower dose of a cancer anti-inflammatory drug, to better fight colon cancer." The results of the new study have been published in the journal Therapeutic Advances in Gastroenterology.
Alleviating unwanted side effects
Research in the last few decades has shown that cancer is linked to inflammation. Several lines of evidence demonstrate that chronic inflammation in the stomach can cause gastric cancer and that inflammation in the liver from hepatitis can lead to liver cancer.
Dr. Lev-Ari and his colleagues found that Celecoxib, a popular anti-inflammatory drug commonly used to treat arthritis, also inhibits proliferation of colon cancer in laboratory settings. Curcumin increases the anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory effects of Celecoxib while reducing its dose, thus reducing its toxic side-effects, including the rate of heart attack and stroke.
The effect of using a curcumin concentrate to improve the effects of cancer drugs was first proposed by Dr. Lev-Ari when he was a graduate student at Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine under the supervision of Prof. Nadir Arber and Prof. Dov Lichtenberg.
Both co-supervisors were eager to test the possible health benefits described in folk medicine but were looking for hard evidence. "We would like to use this treatment for patients with all types of cancers," says Prof. Arber. "It has the promise of being an important life-extending therapy, particularly for non-curable pancreatic cancer, suggested by the very promising results we achieved for 20 pancreatic cancer patients."
Putting shelved cancer drugs back into circulation
Previous in vitro and in vivo experiments conducted by the Tel Aviv University team show that curcumin inhibits an enzyme known as COX-2 (cyclooxygenase-2), believed to cause inflammation. The team's research demonstrates that curcumin neutralizes oxygen free radicals, which are believed to play an important role in carcinogenesis.
These effects may be the basis for drug treatment of both inflammation and cancer through the combination of curcumin and Celecoxib. And it may also help return previously shelved potent anticancer drugs - taken out of use due to high toxicity - back to the market under lower dosage indications.
Source:
George Hunka
American Friends of Tel Aviv University
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Massachusetts Group Launches Campaign To Regulate Drug Maker Marketing
The newly formed Massachusetts Prescription Reform Coalition on Thursday announced an effort to curb pharmaceutical industry marketing in an attempt to bring down drug costs and health spending, the Boston Globe reports. The group contends that rapid drug spending growth is putting Massachusetts' health care law in jeopardy and hindering other initiatives to expand health insurance in the state.
The coalition has three objectives:
Prohibit gifts from drug makers to health care professionals who prescribe drugs;
Ban data-mining; and
Create a drug education program to provide unbiased information to physicians.The coalition was created by Health Care for All, and its members include AARP, the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group, the American Heart Association, the American Stroke Association, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts and Neighborhood Health Plan.
Stephen Mulloney, director of policy and public affairs for the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, said, "This campaign seems to be less about good public policy and more about animosity toward the biopharmaceutical industry." He added that the coalition's efforts could hurt some Massachusetts biotech companies (Krasner, Boston Globe, 1/17).
Reprinted with kind permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
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The coalition has three objectives:
Prohibit gifts from drug makers to health care professionals who prescribe drugs;
Ban data-mining; and
Create a drug education program to provide unbiased information to physicians.The coalition was created by Health Care for All, and its members include AARP, the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group, the American Heart Association, the American Stroke Association, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts and Neighborhood Health Plan.
Stephen Mulloney, director of policy and public affairs for the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, said, "This campaign seems to be less about good public policy and more about animosity toward the biopharmaceutical industry." He added that the coalition's efforts could hurt some Massachusetts biotech companies (Krasner, Boston Globe, 1/17).
Reprinted with kind permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
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VA Medical Imaging Reaches Record Level
VistA Imaging, the medical and health care imaging system used in Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers, attained over one billion stored images in January this year, according to the department.
"Using this technology, VA has established an unprecedented number of medical images in its database, allowing VA physicians immediate access to patient records regardless of their location," said Dr. Gerald Cross, VA's acting under secretary for health, said. "Our Veterans don't have to wait for hospital staff to find x-rays or make comparisons between a patient's past and current records."
The imaging system captures clinical images, scanned documents, motion video and other non-text data, and makes them part of the patient's electronic record.
In the course of serving 1.2 million patients a month, VA stores 20-25 million images in the VistA Imaging system. In 2009, a total of 290 million are expected to be stored. Storage space used today is approximately one pedabyte -- one million gigabytes.
Using digital images makes remote diagnosis and treatment possible and permits in-home monitoring of some patients' conditions. It eliminates travel for patients needing follow-up care and makes services available in medically underserved areas.
Storing images on magnetic and optical disks provides both long-term access and recovery in disasters. Following Hurricane Katrina in 2006, 5.4 million VA images -- nearly 100 percent -- were recovered from VistA Imaging at the New Orleans VA Medical Center, even though the optical servers had been underwater. These images could be viewed remotely from any VA site and that capability enabled VA to continue providing treatment to Veterans displaced by Katrina when they visited another VA facility.
VistA Imaging first became operational in 1990 at the Washington, D.C., VA Medical Center to handle radiology, and in 1999, VA spread its use to all VA medical centers. The system and its leadership have been recognized with awards and published articles since 1993.
More than 7.8 million Veterans are enrolled in the VA health care system.
Source: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
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"Using this technology, VA has established an unprecedented number of medical images in its database, allowing VA physicians immediate access to patient records regardless of their location," said Dr. Gerald Cross, VA's acting under secretary for health, said. "Our Veterans don't have to wait for hospital staff to find x-rays or make comparisons between a patient's past and current records."
The imaging system captures clinical images, scanned documents, motion video and other non-text data, and makes them part of the patient's electronic record.
In the course of serving 1.2 million patients a month, VA stores 20-25 million images in the VistA Imaging system. In 2009, a total of 290 million are expected to be stored. Storage space used today is approximately one pedabyte -- one million gigabytes.
Using digital images makes remote diagnosis and treatment possible and permits in-home monitoring of some patients' conditions. It eliminates travel for patients needing follow-up care and makes services available in medically underserved areas.
Storing images on magnetic and optical disks provides both long-term access and recovery in disasters. Following Hurricane Katrina in 2006, 5.4 million VA images -- nearly 100 percent -- were recovered from VistA Imaging at the New Orleans VA Medical Center, even though the optical servers had been underwater. These images could be viewed remotely from any VA site and that capability enabled VA to continue providing treatment to Veterans displaced by Katrina when they visited another VA facility.
VistA Imaging first became operational in 1990 at the Washington, D.C., VA Medical Center to handle radiology, and in 1999, VA spread its use to all VA medical centers. The system and its leadership have been recognized with awards and published articles since 1993.
More than 7.8 million Veterans are enrolled in the VA health care system.
Source: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
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Cholera Outbreaks Predicted by Mathematical Model
A mathematical model of disease cycles developed at the University of Michigan shows promise for predicting cholera outbreaks.
Speaking in a symposium titled "New Vistas in the Mathematics of Ecology and Evolution" at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco, theoretical ecologist Mercedes Pascual discussed how models that she and coworkers have developed can aid short-term forecasting of infectious diseases, such as cholera, and inform decisions about vaccination and other disease-prevention strategies.
In research done over the past seven years, Pascual and colleagues have found evidence that a phenomenon known as the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), a major source of climate variability from year to year, influences cycles of cholera in Bangladesh. They also showed that the coupling between climate variability and cholera cycles has become stronger in recent decades.
Now, Pascual is examining the feasibility of using a model developed during that work as an early warning system.
"The question we asked was whether, using data from 1966 to 2000, we could have predicted cholera outbreaks over the past five years," said Pascual, an associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology. "We also wanted to know whether incorporating ENSO into the model would improve the accuracy of our predictions." The challenge for the model was particularly interesting because the past five years were atypical, with fewer cholera cases than usual and no strong climate anomalies. However, the model performed well, Pascual said.
"Our results showed that for the past five years, we would have done fairly well predicting cholera cases one year ahead, and that the model that uses ENSO makes prediction even more accurate."
Cholera, a serious health problem in many parts of the world, results from a bacterial infection. The bacterium takes up residence in the intestines, causing vomiting and diarrhea, which can lead to severe dehydration and death if patients are not promptly treated.
For more information:
Mercedes Pascua
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Contact: Nancy Ross-Flanigan
University of Michigan
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Speaking in a symposium titled "New Vistas in the Mathematics of Ecology and Evolution" at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco, theoretical ecologist Mercedes Pascual discussed how models that she and coworkers have developed can aid short-term forecasting of infectious diseases, such as cholera, and inform decisions about vaccination and other disease-prevention strategies.
In research done over the past seven years, Pascual and colleagues have found evidence that a phenomenon known as the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), a major source of climate variability from year to year, influences cycles of cholera in Bangladesh. They also showed that the coupling between climate variability and cholera cycles has become stronger in recent decades.
Now, Pascual is examining the feasibility of using a model developed during that work as an early warning system.
"The question we asked was whether, using data from 1966 to 2000, we could have predicted cholera outbreaks over the past five years," said Pascual, an associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology. "We also wanted to know whether incorporating ENSO into the model would improve the accuracy of our predictions." The challenge for the model was particularly interesting because the past five years were atypical, with fewer cholera cases than usual and no strong climate anomalies. However, the model performed well, Pascual said.
"Our results showed that for the past five years, we would have done fairly well predicting cholera cases one year ahead, and that the model that uses ENSO makes prediction even more accurate."
Cholera, a serious health problem in many parts of the world, results from a bacterial infection. The bacterium takes up residence in the intestines, causing vomiting and diarrhea, which can lead to severe dehydration and death if patients are not promptly treated.
For more information:
Mercedes Pascua
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Contact: Nancy Ross-Flanigan
University of Michigan
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