How To Prevent Radiation faults In Cancer Patients

Recent media stories have storied remote cases of cancer patients who were injured by mistaken doses from intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT).

In spite of such reports, IMRT leftovers one the most influential cancer treatments, and widespread of safety measures can make sure patients receive the proper doses, said radiation oncologist of Loyola University Health System.

IMRT uses computer-controlled linear accelerators to bring exact radiation doses to a tumor or regions within a tumor. It centers high doses within the tumor whereas minimizing the dose to surrounding normal tissue.

Oncologist said these are surrounded by the measures a hospital can take to prevent the type of radiation wounds that were the subject of a current New York Times series on radiation injuries:

• A group of physicians, therapists and physicists does numerous levels of checking before treating a patient. For example, the team does a experiment run on a "phantom patient" with radiation detectors. This guarantees the machine is delivering the proper dose of radiation.

• Authorization by the American College of Radiology reviews the qualifications of personnel, policies and actions, equipment specifications, quality assurance activities, patient safety and superiority of patient care.

• State assessments make sure the hospital meets state regulations on radiation use.

• A complete quality assurance program includes tests on equipment and software on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis.

• Treatment plans are formed by board-certified dosimetrists and evaluated by physicians, physicists and therapists before and during the course of treatment. (A dosimetrist is a chief member of the radiation oncology team who dedicate to the use of computers for radiation treatment planning.) Weekly physics checks are executed to ensure the treatment plan is being implemented as planned, and all patient charts are reviewed.

Radiation therapy can make well certain head and neck cancers, cervical cancer, lymphomas, anal cancer and cancer of the vocal cords, therefore avoiding surgery.

New technique uses micro bubbles to detect cancer

British researchers have found out a new technique that uses tiny bubbles to detect cancer.

Experts at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, Kent, found the microbubble technique, the results of which recommended that breast cancer patients could avoid repeat surgery.

Lead researcher Dr Ali Sever, a consultant radiologist, supposed the tests provided a whole new dimension to the way they treat patients.

“This is a world first new technique. The test takes only a few minutes to perform and has unclear the way we care for patients,” the BBC quoted him as saying.

Dr Sever added: “The use of ultrasound with tiny bubbles to observe the sentinel lymph node is entirely unique and something that will benefit breast cancer care all over the world.”

Sue Jones, a consultant breast and oncoplastic surgeon who assisted developed the procedure, supposed: “Telling women who have undergone breast cancer surgery that they require another surgery since the cancer has extend to the sentinel lymph node is the most horrible news they can hear.

“It is an actual emotional set back in their cancer journey.

“While immovable traumatic, patients appear to deal with this news much better if they find out before surgery that the lymph glands have cancer in them.”

Advisor breast surgeon Mr Peter Jones also said: “It is probable for breast teams to use this test and thousands of women can avoid needless surgery.”

Headphones May Threatens Heart-Device Performance

A U.S. study proffers more evidence that portable headphones can create magnetic intrusion that might make implanted defibrillators and pacemakers malfunction.

Using the headphones over the ears doesn't emerge to be a problem, but storing them in a shirt or jacket pocket near the chest or allowing them to suspend near the heart could spell trouble.

The findings should give confidence doctors to spend more time talking to their patients about the probable risks of headphones, which could disturb signaling and intimidate lives, the study authors said in a report published in the October issue of the Heart Rhythm Journal.

The researchers inspected several kinds of portable headphones in 100 patients. They found the level of magnetic intrusion they produce may be enough to disturb the devices' ability to detect problems in the heart's rhythm. In other words, the devices could miss an irregular heart rhythm and fail to rearrange it to a proper speed.

"As digital music devices continue their current popularity, the hazard of device communication from portable headphones should be accounted for in patients with implantable cardioverter-defibrillators and pacemakers," lead author Dr. William H. Maisel of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at Harvard University, said in a news release from the Heart Rhythm Society. "This study supports the need for a doctor-patient dialogue that includes warnings against certain scenarios, such as hanging headphones around the neck or storing them inside a front shirt pocket or jacket pocket."

The headphones caused interference whether or not they were linked to a music player. But the devices worked properly when the patients took off the headphones.

Of the 100 patients studied, 55 had implantable cardioverter-defibrillators and 45 had pacemakers.

Exercise significant in teens' blood pressure control

Regular exercise may help teenagers' blood pressure in check, regardless of their body weight, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that among nearly 1,300 teenagers they followed for five years, declining exercise levels over time were linked to small increases in blood pressure.

Gains in body fat were also linked to blood pressure increases, but excess weight did not fully account for the relationship between exercise and blood pressure changes - especially in girls.

The implication, the researchers report in the American Journal of Epidemiology, is that both weight and exercise habits independently affect teenagers' blood pressure.

The findings are based on 1,293 boys and girls who were 12 to 13 years old at the start of the study. The teens reported on their typical physical activity levels and had their body fat and blood pressure measured at the outset, and then periodically over years.

For each exercise assessment, the teenagers reported the number of times in the past week they had engaged in moderate to vigorous activities - like biking, walking or jogging - for at least 5 minutes.

Overall, the researchers found, the teens' blood pressure inched upward for each session of exercise they lost over time. The increase amount to less than one point in systolic blood pressure - the top number in a blood pressure reading - but the findings do suggest that sedentary lifestyles directly affect teenagers' blood pressure.

And that, they write, could have "important public health implications."

High blood pressure and other heart disease risk factors like type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol were once uncommon, or unheard of, in children and teenagers. But rates of these conditions in teenagers have risen since the 1990s, in tandem with escalating obesity rates.

A study of teenagers published last month found that between 2002 and 2008, the percentage with at least one heart disease risk factor - such as high blood pressure or high cholesterol - rose from 17 percent to 21 percent.

Those researchers also noted that more than half of American children between the ages of 5 and 17 are not getting enough exercise.

And while young people may not see immediate health effects, studies show that teens who are overweight, inactive and carrying heart disease risk factors tend to become adults with those same problems.

The American Heart Association recommends that all children ages 3 and older have their blood pressure checked yearly. Diet changes and exercise are usually the first-line treatment for high blood pressure in teenagers, though some may also need medication.

When it comes to exercise, experts generally recommend that kids strive for 30 minutes of moderate activity, like brisk walking, on most days of the week, as well as 20 minutes of vigorous exercise, like running or bicycling, at least three days per week.

Don’t get depressed, it leads to death risk that of Smoking

Being depressed might take as many years off your life as that of smoking .

However, a combination of depression and anxiety appears to be better for longevity than just depression.

Researchers came to their conclusions after analyzing death records and a survey of more than 60,000 people. During the four years after the survey, the death rate was higher among those who'd appeared to be depressed, based on the survey findings, than among the others. The increase was about as high as that among smokers.

"Unlike smoking, we don't know how causal the association with depression is, but it does suggest that more attention should be paid to this link because the association persisted after adjusting for many other factors," lead researcher Dr. Robert Stewart, of Kings College London, said in a news release from the college.

The researchers also found that people who were depressed were more likely to die during the study period than those who were both depressed and anxious.

"It appears that we're talking about two risk groups here," initially "People with very high levels of anxiety symptoms may be naturally more vulnerable due to stress, for example through the effects stress has on cardiovascular outcomes. On the other hand, people who score very low on anxiety measures, i.e. those who deny any symptoms at all, may be people who also tend not to seek help for physical conditions or they may be people who tend to take risks. This would explain the higher mortality."

"The physical health of people with current or previous mental disorder needs a lot more attention than it gets at the moment," Stewart said.

More Foot Power, Lesser Car Pollution Best for Health

Encouraging city dwellers to walk and bicycle instead of using cars would offer much greater public health benefits than increased use of low-emission vehicles, U.K. researchers have found.

The study compared the projected health effects in 2030 of alternative urban land transport scenarios for London, England, and Delhi, India: business-as-usual (no greenhouse gas reduction policies); motor vehicles with lower carbon emissions; increased walking and cycling (active travel) plus less motor vehicle traffic; and a combination of increased walking/cycling and low-emission vehicles.

In both cities, reductions in carbon dioxide emissions achieved through increased active travel and less use of motor vehicles offered much greater health benefits than increased use of low-emission vehicles. The benefit was over 40 times greater in London and over seven times greater in Delhi. The greatest health benefits would be achieved by combining active travel and increased use of low-emission vehicles.

The most significant health gains in London would include reductions in: ischemic heart disease (10 percent to 19 percent reduction resulting in 1,950 to 4,240 fewer deaths per year); cerebrovascular disease (10 percent to 18 percent reduction resulting in 1,190 to 2,580 fewer deaths per year); dementia (7 percent to 8 percent reduction resulting in 200 to 240 fewer deaths per year); and breast cancer (12 percent to 13 percent reduction resulting in 200 to 210 fewer deaths per year). There would also be reductions in cases of depression and colon cancer, the study authors noted.

In Delhi, the largest health benefits would include reductions in: ischemic heart disease (11 percent to 25 percent reduction resulting in 2,490 to 7,140 fewer deaths per year); cerebrovascular disease (11 percent to 25 percent reduction resulting in 1,270 to 3,650 fewer deaths per year); and diabetes (6 percent to 17 percent reduction resulting in 150 to 460 fewer deaths per year). There would also be reductions in acute respiratory infections in children, lung cancer and depression, the researchers found.

"Important health gains and reductions in CO2 emissions can be achieved through replacement of urban trips in private motor vehicles with active travel," wrote James Woodcock, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and colleagues. "Technological measures to reduce vehicle pollutants might reduce emissions, but the health effect would be smaller."

The researchers added that an "increase in the safety, convenience and comfort of walking and cycling, and a reduction in the attractiveness of private motor vehicle use (speed, convenience and cost) are essential to achieve" a major switch to active travel in cities.

Overweight mothers related to infant heart defects

Women who are overweight or obese when they get pregnant are more likely to give birth to children with congenital heart defects, according to a U.S. government study released on Thursday.

The study, conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, concluded that women who were overweight or obese at the time they became pregnant were 18 percent more likely to give birth to babies with heart defects, while severely obese women had a 30 percent increased risk.

The babies had problems including obstructive defects on the right side of the heart and defects in the tissue separating the heart's two upper chambers, the researchers reported in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

"Congenital heart defects are the most common types of birth defect, and among all birth defects, they are a leading cause of illness, death and medical expenditures," said Dr. Edwin Trevathan, a CDC expert on birth defects and developmental disabilities.

The U.S. government's disease watchdog, recommends that overweight women work with their doctors to achieve a healthy weight before pregnancy.

Researchers examined the health of 6,440 infants with congenital heart defects and 5,673 infants without problems, all of whose mothers were interviewed as part of the CDC's National Birth Defects Prevention Study.

They assessed obesity according to each woman's body mass index, or BMI, which relates weight to height. A woman 5 feet, 5 inches tall and weighing 190 pounds (86 kg) would have a BMI of 31.6, while a woman of the same height who weighs 160 pounds (72 kg) would have a BMI of 26.6.

The researchers defined overweight as a BMI of 25 to 29.9, moderate obesity as a BMI of 30 to 34.9 and severe obesity as a BMI of 35 or above.

The results showed links between obesity and 10 out of 25 kinds of heart defects. Five of the 10 were associated with women who were overweight before pregnancy.

Mothers who had diabetes before pregnancy, a strong risk factor for heart defects, were excluded from the research.