URINE TEST COULD HELP SPOT BLOOD CLOTS

A new study by researchers from California and Canada indicates a simple urine test can indicate the presence of venous thromboembolism, a blood clot that has broken free from its point of origin and which travels through the bloodstream, eventually lodging in a vein. The test evaluates the levels of fibrinopeptide B (FPB), a small peptide that's released when a thrombosis forms and which is removed from the body through urine

The results of the study will be presented at the American Thoracic Society's 2014 International Conference here.

Study lead author Timothy Fernandes, M.D., M.P.H., said the study was developed based on the results of a pilot trial that suggested that urine FPB levels could be used as a screening tool for venous thromboembolism in patients at risks for clots. "The urine FPB test offers advantages over other screening methods because it doesn't require blood to be drawn and it can provide more accurate results than the D-dimer test," Fernandes said.

The D-dimer test looks for blood evidence of a protein fragment called D-dimer that is present in the blood after a clot begins to break down. The FPB test has the potential for greater specificity because it can reflect ongoing clot activity, while D-dimer can only be measured once a clot has already become degraded.

"During our study, we validated the sensitivity, specificity and likelihood ratios for several diagnostic thresholds of urine FPB using stored urine samples from the Fernandes said.

The researchers used stored urine samples taken from 344 patients who participated in the Pulmonary Embolism Diagnosis Study (PEDS), a multicenter study of 1,417 patients considered likely to have an acute pulmonary embolism. For all urine samples, the researchers measured the FPB concentration and evaluated the sensitivity and specificity of the test at various cut-off points in relation to its ability to predict the presence of venous thromboembolism.

What they found was at concentrations of 2.5 ng/ml, urine FPB demonstrated sensitivity comparable to previously published values for plasma latex and whole blood D-dimer levels, but with greater specificity.

"The results of our study indicate that urine FPB tests may be a useful complement to current biomarkers such as D-dimer to measure for the presence and activity of venous thromboembolism," Dr. Fernandes said. "As an addition to other types of testing, FPB urine provides greater specificity and doesn't require a blood draw, which can be a major boon to patients."

The patent for the urine fibrinopeptide B test is held by the University of California Board of Regents. Dr. Fernandes and his co-authors plan on developing a urine dipstick test for FBP that could be quickly and widely applied.

Future studies are planned to assess urine fibrinopeptide B in other settings where D-dimer is used including use of urine fibrinopeptide after anticoagulation to determine the risk of recurrent venous thromboembolism.

EXISTING HEART DRUG COULD CURE EBOLA

Researchers at the University of Liverpool have made a breakthrough that can lead to a cure for the deadly Ebola virus currently sweeping through West Africa, media reports said.

The university has said the experts stumbled across an existing drug used in the treatment of severe heart disease, which could be adapted to fight the contagious Ebola virus, Xinhua reported Saturday.

A team from the Health Protection Research Unit in Emerging Infections, based at the University of Liverpool’s Institute of Infection and Global Health, have been investigating new ways to treat Ebola.

In collaboration with Public Health England, the team has been looking at how Ebola virus hijacks proteins inside cells, and then seeking ways to stop this from happening.

They looked at what proteins inside a cell are critical for the functions of Ebola virus and are hijacked by the virus to help with infection.

One of the proteins they have targeted is known as VP24. This protein disrupts signalling in infected human cells and disrupts the body’s immune system and the fight against the virus.

From there, the Liverpool team looked at whether any existing drugs already block the function of this particular protein. They found the heart drug ouabain, when administered, can reduce the virus’ replication.

The team said further tests need to be done, but as the heart drug is already in use, much of the work to test whether it is safe for humans has already been completed.

This, they said, would potentially speed up the time it could take get the treatment to Ebola patients in need.

The study was led by Julian Hiscox from the university’s Institute of Infection and Global Health and Roger Hewson at Public Health England.

“This study shows how existing therapeutics can be identified and potentially repurposed for anti-viral therapy. The technique of using existing and tested drugs for a different purpose can save considerable time and ultimately, lives,” Xinhua quoted Hiscox as saying.

The Ebola outbreak, by far the largest in the nearly 40-year history of the disease, has infected 4,269 people and killed 2,400 this year in three West African countries, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to the WHO.

Hands Or Feet Always Cold It Could Be Neuropathy

You may think that today's post from healthnewslibrary.com (see link below) is a seasonal one (if you live in the Northern hemisphere's current Winter that is) but the point of the article is to highlight the fact that if you have cold feet or hands, you may also have neuropathy (or other conditions) and many patients wonder why their hands and feet are so cold (or warm!) when the external temperature is normal. The article gives a very good overview of what the reasons for this could be and why and suggests a few things to improve the condition. Strange symptoms in the feet or hands are very familiar to almost all neuropathy patients but they don't always understand why this is happening. A vague diagnosis of nerve damage explains very little - this post fills in a few gaps.
 

Why Your Hands and Feet are Always Cold 
Randy B. January 18, 2015 

You wear socks to keep your feet warm, as well as mittens to keep your hands warm. You may even make some coffee, hot tea or hot chocolate just hold in your hands to keep them warm.

Have you ever wondered why your hands and feet are always cold?

Your skin is the largest organ of your body, and it is kept at a satisfying temperature, controlled by the blood vessels. They circulate oxygen-rich blood throughout the whole body. When the external temperature falls, the sensory receptors in the skin worn the brain to constrict the blood vessels, as this allows smaller amounts of blood to the surface of the skin to conserve warmth in the torso of the body.

When the temperature drops, the body will always take into consideration what has priority for staying warm and conserving life, and in this case your organs are more important than your hands and feet. You may not think so at the time when your hands and feet are cold.
Hormones Could Be Why Your Hands and Feet Are Always Cold

Low progesterone or too much Estrogen Dominance influencing thyroid function (low thyroid) can cause cold hands and feet.
Low Adrenal function or Adrenal Insufficiency can also be the cause of cold hands and feet.

Cold hands and feet could be due to an under active thyroid, also known as hypothyroidism. This condition is more common in women, though men can suffer also from it.

Hypothyroidism not only cause cold hands and feet, also including fatigue, hair loss and weight gain, just to mention a few symptoms.
Poor Circulation and Nerve Damage

If you are taking medication for an under active thyroid but still are experiencing cold hands and feet, then you may have Raynaud’s syndrome.
Raynaud’s syndrome is indicated by a loss of blood flow to the hands and feet caused by spasms in the blood vessels (consult with your medical provider to see if you have this condition).

Cold feet could be due to peripheral neuropathy. Neuropathy symptoms may include one or more of the following, numbness in the feet, tingling or a burning sensation in the extremities (legs and feet).

Peripheral neuropathy is a sign of underlying nerve damage, caused by diseases like exposure to toxins (Mercury Toxicity or Amalgam Illness), infections, vitamin deficiencies, and even diabetes. If you suspect this may be the issue, see your medical care provider as soon as possible doctor.

Having these symptoms and ignoring them only allows for more nerve damage to occur. Your doctor may perform several tests, including nerve conduction studies (NCS) to evaluate how messages are being transmitted from the brain to the peripheral nerves.

In the event of peripheral vascular disease, the arteries narrow with a marked reduction of blood flow, notably to the fingers and toes.
Over Growth of Bacteria

Candida is a good bacteria when under control. But if candida is negatively affected in the body, and allowing to overgrow, one can experienced a vast of problems, and including cold hands and feet.
Faulty Immune System

Varying conditions and diseases can cause cold hands and feet. They include multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, autoimmune disorders in general, primary chronic polyarthritis, chronic candidiasis, cancer, neurodermatitis, ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

There are a number of other cause for why your hands and feet are always cold, such as:
Poor circulation due to coronary heart disease
Working with vibrating equipment (like a jack hammer)
A side-effect of certain medications
Smokers and other diseases that affecting blood flow in the tiny blood vessels of the skin (Women smokers may be prone to this)
Stress
Food and other allergies
Chemical sensitivities
Parasites (they can cause a mal-absorption syndrome which very commonly mimics anemia and conditions where the body feels cold all over including hands and feet) 

Recommendations to Help Warm Your Cold Hands and Feet

Cayenne Pepper in powder form can be used externally as well as internally. One-eighth of a teaspoon sprinkled into each shoe or glove can help the body generate heat.

Water-soluble components in cayenne dilate capillaries in the skin surface, producing an immediate sensation of heat. Oil-soluble compounds of cayenne applied topically reach deeper tissues within 15 minutes, and generate warmth for hours.

Ginkgo Biloba is documented for improving circulation, and may help for cold hands and feet.

Ginger Root is a warming herb helpful in improving circulation.

Korean Ginseng is also used for circulation and the nerves system.

Aerobic exercises or just any regular exercise program increases circulation of blood and nutrients, and also helping to flush the body of toxins.

Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables that contain high amounts the B-complex vitamins, which can help with the nerve system and circulation.

http://www.healthnewslibrary.com/why-your-hands-and-feet-are-always-cold/

COULD FREE MOBILE APPS SCREENS FOR LIVER DISEASE

In a small study, researchers from the Johns Hopkins Children's Center report they have verified the ability of a free smartphone app to accurately read, interpret and record the color of a newborn's poop as a possible early symptom of biliary atresia (BA) -- a rare disorder that accounts for nearly half of pediatric end-stage liver disease in the United States.

For the vast majority of parents using the program, aptly named PoopMD, the results should provide reassurance that their newborn's stool color is normal, the investigators say. But for the one in 14,000 newborns with BA -- about 400 babies each year in the United States -- parents using the app can rely on it to help detect the symptomatic pale yellow to chalky grey stools that mean urgent medical assessment is needed. PoopMD is free and available for Apple and Android smartphone users.

"Days matter in diagnosing BA," says Douglas Mogul, M.D., M.P.H., a pediatric gastroenterologist at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center and lead author of the study published July 29 in PLOS ONE.

That's because babies with BA treated within the first two months of life have the best outcomes and are far less likely to need a liver transplant later. The first line of treatment involves surgery to repair bile ducts and restore bile flow to prevent irreversible liver damage.

Sadly, the 60-day window is all too often missed, with the average time to diagnosis in the United States standing at 70 days.

"PoopMD does what it says it will do," says Mogul, who worked with HCB Health to create the app, first released in 2014. Among more than 100,000 medical health apps currently available, he says, only a few have been rigorously tested to see if they deliver the benefits they promise.

For the study of the app, which builds on an earlier "color card" that is distributed to new parents, the team first gathered the medical opinions of seven expert pediatricians who looked at 34 photographs of pale-colored stool. Twenty-seven of the pictures were determined to be of normal stool, and seven were deemed acholic, or bile deficient, signaling high risk for BA.

Next, one expert and three laypeople were asked to use the app on Apple and Android devices to look at and analyze the same pictures under a variety of lighting conditions and using a variety of smartphone models. "These individuals were essentially asked to take a picture of the stool photograph and determine if the app identifies the photo as normal or pale," Mogul says, "but in normal use, a parent just takes pictures of the contents of a diaper."

Even with the picture of the picture, the researchers say, the app correctly identified all of the acholic stool samples and correctly identified 24 of the 27 normal stools, while three normal stools were mislabeled "indeterminate."

"That means the app never identified a normal stool as pale, a type of false positive that could cause unnecessary anxiety for a parent or other app user," says Mogul.

Once downloaded on a smartphone, parents or caregivers use the app by taking a picture of the baby's stool and identifying the part of the picture that has a stool color of concern. The app then immediately identifies whether the stool color matches those associated with gastrointestinal illnesses or problems with the liver, including BA.

The app can store results for future and comparative reference, and parents can email a photo to a pediatrician directly from the app. The app also reminds parents to check their newborn's stool color every two weeks.

"Four out of five adults in the U.S. ages 18-35 -- the age of young parents -- have a smartphone, and that's independent of income level," says Mogul, "so the app gives us a great opportunity to distribute interactive content that helps young parents pay attention to educational advice."

Beyond the health and lifesaving benefits of early diagnosis and treatment of BA, Mogul says, the potential cost savings from diagnosing BA early enough are enormous, Mogul says, including avoiding a liver transplant (approximately $150,000) and ongoing immunosuppression (approximately $25,000/year) to keep the child's body from rejecting the new organ.

Mogul, who also conducted a cost-effectiveness study of the stool color cards, says widespread use of PoopMD is likely to improve medical outcomes and lower costs.

ENGINEERED INSULIN COULD OFFER BETTER DIABETES CONTROL

For patients with diabetes, insulin is critical to maintaining good health and normal blood-sugar levels. However, it's not an ideal solution because it can be difficult for patients to determine exactly how much insulin they need to prevent their blood sugar from swinging too high or too low.

MIT engineers hope to improve treatment for diabetes patients with a new type of engineered insulin. In tests in mice, the researchers showed that their modified insulin can circulate in the bloodstream for at least 10 hours, and that it responds rapidly to changes in blood-sugar levels. This could eliminate the need for patients to repeatedly monitor their blood sugar levels and inject insulin throughout the day.

"The real challenge is getting the right amount of insulin available when you need it, because if you have too little insulin your blood sugar goes up, and if you have too much, it can go dangerously low," says Daniel Anderson, the Samuel A. Goldblith Associate Professor in MIT's Department of Chemical Engineering, and a member of MIT's Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and Institute for Medical Engineering and Science. "Currently available insulins act independent of the sugar levels in the patient."

Anderson and Robert Langer, the David H. Koch Institute Professor at MIT, are the senior authors of a paper describing the engineered insulin in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The paper's lead authors are Hung-Chieh (Danny) Chou, former postdoc Matthew Webber, and postdoc Benjamin Tang. Other authors are technical assistants Amy Lin and Lavanya Thapa, David Deng, Jonathan Truong, and Abel Cortinas.

Glucose-responsive insulin

Patients with Type I diabetes lack insulin, which is normally produced by the pancreas and regulates metabolism by stimulating muscle and fat tissue to absorb glucose from the bloodstream. Insulin injections, which form the backbone of treatment for diabetes patients, can be deployed in different ways. Some people take a modified form called long-acting insulin, which stays in the bloodstream for up to 24 hours, to ensure there is always some present when needed. Other patients calculate how much they should inject based on how many calories they consume or how much sugar is present in their blood.

The MIT team set out to create a new form of insulin that would not only circulate for a long time, but would be activated only when needed -- that is, when blood-sugar levels are too high. This would prevent patients' blood-sugar levels from becoming dangerously low, a condition known as hypoglycemia that can lead to shock and even death.

To create this glucose-responsive insulin, the researchers first added a hydrophobic molecule called an aliphatic domain, which is a long chain of fatty molecules dangling from the insulin molecule. This helps the insulin circulate in the bloodstream longer, although the researchers do not yet know exactly why that is. One theory is that the fatty tail may bind to albumin, a protein found in the bloodstream, sequestering the insulin and preventing it from latching onto sugar molecules.

The researchers also attached a chemical group called PBA, which can reversibly bind to glucose. When blood-glucose levels are high, the sugar binds to insulin and activates it, allowing the insulin to stimulate cells to absorb the excess sugar.

The research team created four variants of the engineered molecule, each of which contained a PBA molecule with a different chemical modification, such as an atom of fluorine and nitrogen. They then tested these variants, along with regular insulin and long-acting insulin, in mice engineered to have an insulin deficiency.

To compare each type of insulin, the researchers measured how the mice's blood-sugar levels responded to surges of glucose every few hours for 10 hours. They found that the engineered insulin containing PBA with fluorine worked the best: Mice that received that form of insulin showed the fastest response to blood-glucose spikes.

"The modified insulin was able to give more appropriate control of blood sugar than the unmodified insulin or the long-acting insulin," Anderson says.

The new molecule represents a significant conceptual advance that could help scientists realize the decades-old goal of better controlling diabetes with a glucose-responsive insulin, says Michael Weiss, a professor of biochemistry and medicine at Case Western Reserve University.

"It would be a breathtaking advance in diabetes treatment if the Anderson/Langer technology could accomplish the translation of this idea into a routine treatment of diabetes," says Weiss, who was not part of the research team.

New alternative

Giving this type of insulin once a day instead of long-acting insulin could offer patients a better alternative that reduces their blood-sugar swings, which can cause health problems when they continue for years and decades, Anderson says. The researchers now plan to test this type of insulin in other animal models and are also working on tweaking the chemical composition of the insulin to make it even more responsive to blood-glucose levels.

"We're continuing to think about how we might further tune this to give improved performance so it's even safer and more efficacious," Anderson says.

The research was funded by the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, the Tayebati Family Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

BACTERIAL COMMUNICATION SYSTEM COULD BE USED TO STOP CANCER CELLS

Cancer, while always dangerous, truly becomes life-threatening when cancer cells begin to spread to different areas throughout the body. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have discovered that a molecule used as a communication system by bacteria can be manipulated to prevent cancer cells from spreading. Senthil Kumar, an assistant research professor and assistant director of the Comparative Oncology and Epigenetics Laboratory at the MU College of Veterinary Medicine, says this communication system can be used to "tell" cancer cells how to act, or even to die on command.

"During an infection, bacteria release molecules which allow them to 'talk' to each other," said Kumar, the lead author of the study. "Depending on the type of molecule released, the signal will tell other bacteria to multiply, escape the immune system or even stop spreading. We found that if we introduce the 'stop spreading' bacteria molecule to cancer cells, those cells will not only stop spreading; they will begin to die as well."

In the study published in PLOS ONE, Kumar, and co-author Jeffrey Bryan, an associate professor in the MU College of Veterinary Medicine, treated human pancreatic cancer cells grown in culture with bacterial communication molecules, known as ODDHSL. After the treatment, the pancreatic cancer cells stopped multiplying, failed to migrate and began to die.

"We used pancreatic cancer cells, because those are the most robust, aggressive and hard-to-kill cancer cells that can occur in the human body," Kumar said. "To show that this molecule can not only stop the cancer cells from spreading, but actually cause them to die, is very exciting. Because this treatment shows promise in such an aggressive cancer like pancreatic cancer, we believe it could be used on other types of cancer cells and our lab is in the process of testing this treatment in other types of cancer."

Kumar says the next step in his research is to find a more efficient way to introduce the molecules to the cancer cells before animal and human testing can take place.

"Our biggest challenge right now is to find a way to introduce these molecules in an effective way," Kumar said. "At this time, we only are able to treat cancer cells with this molecule in a laboratory setting. We are now working on a better method which will allow us to treat animals with cancer to see if this therapy is truly effective. The early-stage results of this research are promising. If additional studies, including animal studies, are successful then the next step would be translating this application into clinics."

EBOLA OUTBREAK COULD INFECT 20 000 PEOPLE

The deadly Ebola  outbreak hitting four West African nations could eventually infect more than 20,000 people, the World Health Organization announced Thursday.

Already the largest Ebola outbreak ever, the viral infection has produced 3,069 cases so far and killed 1,552 people in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.

Nearly 40 percent of the total number of reported cases have occurred in the past three weeks, the health agency said.

This far outstrips any historic Ebola outbreak in numbers. The largest outbreak in the past was about 400 cases," Dr. Bruce Aylward, WHO's assistant director-general for emergency operations, said at a news conference, the Associated Press reported.

Part of the problem, he said, is that the outbreak is occurring in large cities and broad sections of the affected countries.

What we are seeing today, in contrast to previous Ebola outbreaks: multiple hotspots within these countries -- not a single, remote forested area, the kind of environments that have been tackled in the past. And then not multiple hotspots within one country, but international disease," Aylward said.

In response to the crisis, the U.N. health agency unveiled a battle plan Thursday that calls for stopping Ebola transmissions within six to nine months, while "rapidly managing the consequences of any further international spread," the WHO said in a news release.

The plan calls for spending $489 million over the next nine months and enlisting 750 international workers and 12,000 national workers, the APreported.

Also Thursday, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) said it would begin testing an experimental Ebola vaccine in humans next week. It will be tested in 20 healthy adults in Maryland to see if it's safe and able to produce an appropriate immune system response.

The vaccine was developed by the U.S. National Institute of Allergy  and Infectious Diseases and drug maker GlaxoSmithKline. It will also be tested on healthy volunteers in Great Britain and the West African nations of Gambia and Mali, the NIH said.

Earlier this week, Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and  Prevention  visited Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, where he acknowledged that the virus currently has the "upper hand" in the outbreak.

"Lots of hard work is happening, lots of good things are happening," Frieden said during a meeting in Liberia, the AP reported. "But the virus still has the upper hand."

"Ebola doesn't spread by mysterious means, we know how it spreads," he said. "So we have the means to stop it from spreading, but it requires tremendous attention to every detail."

Unlike diseases such as tuberculosis or flu , Ebola isn't spread by breathing air from an infected person. Transmission requires direct contact with blood, secretions, organs or other body fluids of infected living or dead persons or animals, according to the WHO.

Symtoms

Ebola, one of the world's most virulent diseases, kills up to 90 percent of people it infects. Symptoms include a sudden fever intense weakness muscle pain,headache  and  sore throat  This is followed by vomiting and diarrhea ,  rash.  poor kidney and liver  function and, in some cases, both internal and external bleeding.

Many of those killed during the current Ebola outbreak have been health care workers.

Prevention

According to the CDC, health care workers must be able to recognize a case of Ebola and be ready to use "isolation precautions or barrier nursing techniques." Barrier nursing techniques include:

Wearing protective clothing, such as masks, gloves, gowns, and goggles;

Using infection-control measures, including complete equipment sterilization and routine use of disinfectant;

Isolating patients with Ebola from contact with unprotected persons.

The aim of these techniques is to avoid contact with the blood or secretions of an infected patient, the CDC said.

HERBAL MEDICINES COULD CONTAIN DANGEROUS LEVELS OF TOXIC MOLDS

Herbal medicines such as licorice, Indian rennet and opium poppy, are at risk of contamination with toxic mold, according to a new study published in Fungal Biology. The authors of the study, from the University of Peshawar, Pakistan say it's time for regulators to control mold contamination.

An estimated 64% of people use medicinal plants to treat illnesses and relieve pain. The herbal medicine market is worth $60 billion globally, and growing fast. Despite the increasing popularity of herbal medicine, the sale of medicinal plants is mostly unregulated.

The new study analyzes toxic mold found on common medicinal plants in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, where the majority of people use herbal medicine. They found that around 43% of the plants were naturally contaminated with toxins, produced by molds that could be harmful to human health. 30% of the samples contained aflatoxins, which are carcinogenic and linked to liver cancer, and around 26% were contaminated with ochratoxin A, which is toxic to the liver and kidneys, and can suppress the immune system..

"It's common to use medicinal plants in our country and to buy from local markets and shops," said Ms. Samina Ashiq, one of the authors of the study from the University of Peshawar. "There's a common misconception that just because they're natural, the plants are safe. We knew from experience that this wasn't the case, but we wanted to really test it and quantify the contamination."

Ms. Ashiq and the team analyzed 30 samples of plants known for their medicinal properties, including licorice, Indian rennet and opium poppy. They found that 90% of the samples were contaminated with mold, and the levels exceeded permissible limits in 70% of the samples.

They then grew the molds to find out if they produced toxins that could be harmful to human health. 19% of the molds produced aflatoxins, and 12% produced ochratoxin A. Overall, 31% of the molds growing on the plants they tested produced harmful toxins.

"These results are a clear indicator that we need more stringent regulation in place," continued Ashiq. "There is a real public health concern due to the lack of effective surveillance of the quality, safety and efficacy of these medicinal plants. It's time for regulators to step in and set limits to protect people who want to use herbal medicines like these."

The plants can become contaminated at each stage of production: during growth, handling, collection, transportation and storage. Those that are exported for sale may be contaminated before they reach their destination. In Pakistan and many other countries, these plants are primarily sold on markets where hygiene is not top priority.

"By setting limits to fungal contamination of these plants, Pakistan and other countries would be better able to export to places that do have controls in place. Hygienic processing and sale of medicinal plants is essential to protect people, and also if the economy is to benefit from the booming herbal medicine industry," added Ms. Ashiq.