News by Subject Medicine & Health

A new study indicates that both high-grade abnormal cellular changes (dysplasia) and esophageal adenocarcinoma (a form of cancer) have increased in the last 25 years among people with a digestive condition known as Barrett's esophagus. The study report, Increasing prevalence of high-grade dysplasia and adenocarcinoma on index endoscopy in Barrett's esophagus over the past 2 decades, is published in the February issue of GIE: Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, the peer-reviewed journal of the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE).

According to a new statement from a panel of national and international experts in gastroenterology, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and other areas, interventional (or therapeutic) IBD endoscopy has an expanding role in the treatment of disease and of adverse events from surgery.

A pilot program using several clinical decision support tools in the outpatient setting to treat and educate stable ischemic heart disease patients has shown success in improving angina in these patients. Findings from the Florida Cardiovascular Quality Network study were presented at the American College of Cardiology's Cardiovascular Summit in Orlando. The conference brings together top experts to discuss and review innovative, relevant cardiovascular management and leadership strategies.

A report in The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics describes a novel and rapid approach for quantifying PD-L1 expression levels in tumors that requires only small amounts of tissue that can be collected using minimally invasive bronchoscopy techniques. This approach can also be used to discriminate malignant from benign tumors and identify mutational status, all of which can guide and refine therapeutic decisions.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Down syndrome is the most common birth defect, occurring once in every 700 births. However, traditional noninvasive prenatal tests for the condition are unreliable or carry risks for the mother and fetus. Now, researchers have developed a sensitive new biosensor that could someday be used to detect fetal Down syndrome DNA in pregnant women's blood. They report their results in the ACS journal Nano Letters.

Droplets emanating from a molecular 'nano-tap' would behave very differently from those from a household tap 1 million times larger -- researchers at the University of Warwick have found. This is potentially crucial step for a number of emerging nano technologies, e.g., manufacture of nano-sized drug particles, lab-on-chip devices for in situ diagnostics, and 3D printers capable of nanoscale resolution.