Portable Diagnostic Ultrasound System Deployed on Soccer Field

A new hand-held point-of-care diagnostic ultrasound system has been deployed by a top soccer club.

The ultrasound system was used to speed up injury diagnosis on the football field, and to reassure the players in case of injury. The Edge system provides diagnostic-quality ultrasound images for near field imaging of knee joints, and muscles.

The system enables a doctor to assess the joints, and ligaments of an injured player on the field, and can be used to guide interventions such as injections into joint spaces in the hip, and shoulder.

The FujiFilm SonoSite (Bothell, WA, USA) Edge system was deployed by Dr. Paul Klein, physician of the German Bundesliga Soccer club 1.FC Köln (Cologne, Germany).

The Edge system is lightweight, robust and mobile, and features image enhancement algorithms to reduce speckle noise and image artifacts, tissue optimization, multibeam imaging, advanced needle visualization, and Sonosite ColorHD technology.

Dr. Klein, said, “When we’re training or playing at home, the players come to my clinic, in Cologne where I have a cart-based ultrasound system. However, it’s not so easy when we’re overseas, and players would almost certainly have to go to a hospital for scans without having a point-of-care ultrasound system available. The Edge was ideal for this trip, allowing me to get good, clear diagnoses very quickly. The players always really appreciated this, as every day counts in professional football [soccer], so when I can see clearly that there is nothing broken, torn or damaged, there is no need to slow down.”
By Medimaging International staff writers

A New High-Speed MRI Technique Is Fast Enough To Record Someone Singing

It’s a remarkable technology capable of looking inside a human being, but magnetic resonance imaging—or MRI—machines are finicky and require a patient to remain absolutely still while it does its thing. But researchers at the University of Illinois have found a way to capture up to 100 frames per second on an MRI machine allowing them to record patients in motion.

The need for a faster MRI technique arose when a faculty member at the University of Illinois’ Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology wanted to study how the muscles of the larynx worked in elderly patients while singing, in an attempt to help give them more powerful and pronounced voices. The problem with using MRI machines was that they could only capture images at around ten frames per second which was far too slow to study what was going on with the 100 or so muscles required to sing.

So Zhi-Pei Liang, an electrical and computer engineering professor at the institute, worked with his team to develop a new methodology to extract more frames from an MRI machine—which is a far cheaper solution than trying to rebuild and redesign one of the incredibly expensive devices from the ground up. Here’s how the new technique they came up with is described in an issue of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine:

An imaging method is developed to enable high-speed dynamic speech imaging exploiting low-rank and sparsity of the dynamic images of articulatory motion during speech. The proposed method includes: (a) a novel data acquisition strategy that collects spiral navigators with high temporal frame rate and (b) an image reconstruction method that derives temporal subspaces from navigators and reconstructs high-resolution images from sparsely sampled data with joint low-rank and sparsity constraints.

To read the full story and for more information please follow this link to Gizmodo.

A Diet Might Cut the Risk of Developing Alzheimer’s

The MIND diet was developed by researchers at Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center, whose recent study found that certain foods could help prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

Researchers successfully tested a special diet they designed that appears to reduce the risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease.

The study compared the so-called MIND diet with the popular, heart-healthy Mediterranean diet and the DASH diet, which is intended to help control high blood pressure. The MIND diet borrows significantly from the other two, and all are largely plant-based and low in high-fat foods. But the MIND diet places particular emphasis on eating “brain-healthy” foods such as green leafy vegetables and berries, among other recommendations.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/a-diet-might-cut-the-risk-of-developing-alzheimers-1429569168

Is Sitting For Long Hours At Work The New Smoking?

The average worker spends over five hours and 40 minutes sitting at their job every day and a new study says it’s bad for your health, with some claiming the long-term effects of sitting can be as bad as smoking.

Dr. Michael Jensen, from the Mayo Clinic, joined KDKA Radio’s Larry Richert and John Shumway to talk about a study he and his colleagues conducted.

To find out whether the test subjects in the study were sitting or not, Dr. Jensen says one of his colleagues, Dr. James Levine, invented underwear that can “tell whether you’re sitting, standing, or lying down essentially every half second of the day.”

With the data they gathered and studied, they came to the conclusion that people need to move around more. Dr. Jensen says they found, “that people who are overweight tend to spend a lot more time sitting then people who have not gained weight.”

Dr. Jensen says that a trip to the gym for 30 minutes or an hour may not be enough to combat all the time spent sitting.

“It’s not going to prevent risk for disease and weight gain if that’s all you do is go to the gym for 30 minutes or an hour and spend all of the rest of your day sitting.”

According to Dr. Jensen, “sitting is independently associated with greater risk of dying of heart disease [and] diabetes, even when you try to account for exercise.”

What is the solution to this? Dr. Jensen and his colleagues say that standing at work at least part of the time has positive health benefits.

The doctor admits, “that there certainly are people that have trouble with their legs, and it’s not going to be practical for them to be standing up a lot.” But he adds, “thankfully, most people can spend more time standing and not suffer from it.”

There are studies that claim prolonged sitting is responsible for 49,000 cases of breast cancer and 43,000 cases of colon cancer in the United States. Those are startling numbers, but Dr. Jensen says you should take some of those studies, “with a grain of salt.”

He says, “unlike the [study we] did where we objectively measured sitting, standing and walking, many of [the other studies] are self-report.”

A self-report relies a lot of the test subjects own reports.

He adds that the information gathered in a self-report, “tends to be bias and [the subject] may overlook a number of things that go into [the cause]. For example, people who sit a lot may have a number of other unhealthy lifestyles that [makes] it impossible to take account for.”

The bottom line is that less time spent sitting at work may help you reduce the risk of certain diseases.
http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2014/04/22/is-sitting-for-long-hours-at-work-the-new-smoking/

Dr. Oz defends medical advice amid calls for firing at Columbia U.

Mehmet Oz (“Dr. Oz”) defended himself Friday against criticism from other medical professionals, who say that some of the TV host’s advice and product endorsements lack scientific backing.

A group of doctors has sent a letter to Columbia University, asking for Oz’s dismissal from the medical school’s faculty.

“I bring the public information that will help them on their path to be their best selves,” Oz said in a statement released through a representative of The Dr. Oz Show. “We provide multiple points of view, including mine, which is offered without conflict of interest. That doesn’t sit well with certain agendas which distort the facts.”

In the letter to Columbia, one doctor calls Oz “a fake and a charlatan,” the New York Daily News reported. Henry Miller of Stanford University went on to say that Columbia University must be “starstruck and like having on their faculty the best-known doctor in the country.”

Among the doctors’ issues with Oz is his apparent opposition to genetically modified foods (GMOs).

“I do not claim that GMO foods are dangerous, but believe that they should be labeled like they are in most countries around the world,” Oz said in his statement. “I will address this on the show next week.”

In addition to hosting a nationally syndicated TV show, Oz serves as vice chairman of Columbia’s department of surgery. Before his fame as host of a nationally syndicated show, he was known in the medical community as a respected cardiothoracic surgeon.

Doug Levy, chief communications officer for Columbia University Medical Center, sent USA TODAY a copy of his response to the letter’s authors:

“As I am sure you understand and appreciate, Columbia is committed to the principle of academic freedom and to upholding faculty members’ freedom of expression for statements they make in public discussion.”

In a phone call, Levy clarified that the university planned no action against Oz.

“The university does not regulate faculty engagement in public discourse,” Levy said.

USA TODAY

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/04/17/doctors-want-oz-fired-from-columbia/25929941/

Are You Really Living – or Just Existing?

In 2011, Kimanzi Constable was $180K in debt, his marriage was falling apart and his children barely knew him. Oh,and the icing on the cake? He was 170lbs overweight.Skip ahead less than four years later, and he’s an entrepreneur and author, having recently pulled up stakes in Milwaukee, WI and moved to Maui, Hawaii! He now writes for Entrepreneur Magazine, The Huffington Post and the Good Men Project, among others, and his latest book is called Are You Living or Existing? 9 Steps to Change You Life.Did I mention he recently revealed on his blog that he dropped out of high school before returning to get his GED? And your excuse again is what?

http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/read-to-lead-podcast

Cow’s Milk Found in Breast Milk Sold Online

Significant amounts of bovine DNA present in about 10% of 102 samples tested, according to Pediatrics study

 About 10% of breast-milk samples purchased via Internet-sharing sites contained significant amounts of cow’s milk or formula based on it, according to a study in the journal Pediatrics.

Most experts recommend waiting until a baby is at least 12 months old to introduce cow’s milk because it is too low in iron and too high in protein and minerals that are difficult for infants to digest. It also can cause allergic reactions ranging from mild distress to anaphylactic shock, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Cow’s-milk-based formula is treated so the protein is less likely to cause allergic reactions, but experts say breast milk provides a better nutritional balance and natural immunities for babies.

Websites where women with breast milk to spare and those seeking extra supplies can connect with each other continue to proliferate—despite warnings from the Food and Drug Administration that giving infants human milk from unscreened donors could be harmful.

The Pediatrics study researchers—from the Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio—counted more than 55,000 ad postings to buy or sell breast milk in 2014, up from 11,000 in 2011.

The study examined 102 breast-milk samples, checking for bovine DNA. Ten of the samples contained at least 10% cow’s milk or formula based on milk—enough to rule out that it had come from accidental exposure or the nursing mother’s diet.

“We had trouble thinking of ways this could happen without the seller realizing it,” said Sarah Keim, the lead researcher. “Some samples were close to half-human, half-cow’s milk.”

ENLARGE

Refrigerated breast milk in bottles. Websites where breast-milk buyers and sellers can connect continue to proliferate, despite FDA warnings that giving infants human milk from unscreened donors could be harmful. Photo: Getty Images

The authors noted the study is small and might not be representative of breast milk obtained through personal connections.

In an earlier study on the frozen samples of breast milk, the same researchers found that 72% contained infection-causing bacteria and 21% had potentially harmful viruses.

Dr. Keim said women selling breast milk based on volume might have a greater temptation to top up with cow’s milk or formula than those who donate it. Organizations that accept donated breast milk, such as the Human Milk Banking Association of North America, screen donors and pasteurize the milk for use by sick and preterm infants in hospitals.

The American Academy of Pediatrics strongly favors breast-feeding, but Joan Y. Meek, who heads its section on breast-feeding, said: “Just because the milk ordered via the Internet looks like milk does not mean that it is human milk or only human milk.”

“Spoiled milk, adulterated milk, contaminated milk, or even a substance that looks like human milk but is not milk are too risky to feed to a young infant with an underdeveloped immune system and a high risk for adverse reaction,” she said.

Beck reports. Photo: Getty

By

Melinda Beck

April 6, 2015 12:03 a.m. ET

Write to Melinda Beck at HealthJournal@wsj.com