Search Tag: Biomarkers
2019 25 Jul
Existing biomarkers provide limited use for rapid detection of sepsis since they cannot accurately distinguish sepsis from other common conditions encountered in the emergency department (ED). Now a U.S. clinical trial suggests that the monocyte distribution width (MDW) can be a useful indicator of Sepsis-2 and Sepsis-3 in high-risk ED patients. "Changes...Read more
2019 22 May
How and where can precision medicine and public health join forces to improve patient care and outcomes and, ultimately, lead to more efficient healthcare. HealthManagement.org spoke to four precision medicine experts for their views. You might also like: Precision Medicine: the future of health Tienush Rassaf Department Head...Read more
2019 22 May
How can healthcare accelerate the implementation of the science? Where is Personalised Medicine (PM) already improving the lives of patients and what is needed to make it the standard of care across multiple conditions? What’s your brief at the PMC? I have a science and genetics background and bring scientific...Read more
2019 01 May
Antibiotics are often prescribed in the emergency department (ED) to patients with suspected infection before any definitive diagnosis can be made. However, amidst increasing antibiotic resistance, their use should be limited to those at high risk of infection or further clinical deterioration. Current tools to aid clinical decision-making include...Read more
2019 12 Mar
Since sepsis was first identified almost three decades ago, the existing definitions remain imprecise and the clinical diagnosis of sepsis corresponds poorly with post hoc presence of infection. Furthermore, the outcome of sepsis depends on factors beyond patient signs and symptoms, including age, the infection source, and the timing and appropriateness...Read more
2019 28 Feb
Noninvasive MRI digital physical exam provides a Whole Body approach for personalised health. The scarcity of radiologic expertise and resources (hardware, personnel, quality, and other radiology services) impacts up to 4.7 billion people worldwide. Unfortunately, two-thirds of the world's population has no access to basic radiologic...Read more
2018 16 Mar
An overview of the recent advances in the diagnosis and treatment of immune system dysfunction in sepsis. Sepsis is defined as life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated host response to infection (Singer et al. 2016). Sepsis-induced immune system dysfunction is an important sequelae of sepsis. The persistence of immune system dysfunction...Read more
2016 18 Oct
A paper published in Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology recommends a global standard for scanning biomarkers in cancer, in a move designed to bring research closer to clinical practice. “New imaging bioamrkers need to be established either as useful tools for testing research hypotheses in clinical trials and research studies, or as clinical decision-making...Read more
2016 23 Aug
Next Generation Dx Summit convenes more than 1,000 international diagnostic professionals for valuable networking and comprehensive programming spanning from clinical diagnostics to business strategy. Now in its eighth year, the event has grown to include novel immunotherapy biomarkers, cell-free DNA, companion diagnostics, infectious disease, point-of-care,...Read more
2016 03 Aug
The intensive care infection score (ICIS) has potential as a biomarker for infection, according to a study published in critical care. is derived from 5 blood-cell derived parameters that characterise the innate immune response in routine blood samples. Patrick J van der Geest, Erasmus Medical Center, the Netherlands, and colleagues report on the...Read more
2016 12 Jul
A test that uses three biomarkers of neutrophil function on the day of a major burns injury to determine which patients are likely to become septic showed a 98.6 percent certainty. The data highlight burn-induced neutrophil dysfunction and immature granulocyte (IG) release as a potential therapeutic target to reduce susceptibility to bacterial infections...Read more
2016 30 May
Where Are We Now? Acute kidney injury (AKI) has been recognised as a major public health problem. It affects >50% of patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and is associated with serious short- and long-term complications, premature death and high financial healthcare costs (Mehta et al. 2015; Hoste et al. 2015; Lewington et al. 2013). The consensus...Read more
2016 30 May
penKid – A Dynamic Inflammation-Independent Biomarker Of Kidney (Dys)function Early recognition and close monitoring of acute kidney injury (AKI) is vital in the ICU, given AKI’s high prevalence and effect on length of stay and risk of re-hospitalisation and death (McCullough et al. 2013). As more becomes known about biomarkers, intensivists need...Read more
2016 04 Apr
Researchers from Aarhus University Hospital and Aarhus University in Denmark have found that the biomarker CD163 can predict mortality in patients with acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF). The study is published in the Journal of Hepatology . Acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) is a syndrome found in liver cirrhosis patients, when liver...Read more
2016 11 Mar
The aim of the present review is to summarise the current evidence for the use of biomarkers in facilitating therapeutic decision-making by guiding and tailoring the prescription and the duration of antibiotic therapy. The main benefits of this strategy are a potential reduction of antibiotics overuse in critically ill patients. Overuse of antibiotics...Read more
2016 08 Jan
Discontinuity of topographic maps in the brain — not signal reduction — reflects sensory impairment, according to new research from Hebrew University. The findings, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) , shed light on a longstanding mystery of a fundamental property of the brain. It has long been known...Read more
2015 12 Jul
Researchers at the UNC School of Medicine have created a first-of-its-kind animal model that pinpoints two biomarkers that are elevated in the most severe form of coronary disease. The study is published in PLoS One . The study suggests two targets - oxidised LDL cholesterol and glycated proteins and believe that researchers should further investigate...Read more
2015 27 May
A new study published in Radiology reveals that degeneration of the brain's white matter may be an early marker of specific types of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), including early-onset AD. Researchers used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to assess the white matter tracts in 53 patients with three types of AD: early-onset AD and two atypical types of AD...Read more
2015 21 May
A simple blood test to measure brain-specific proteins released after a person suffers a traumatic brain injury (TBI) has been shown to predict both evidence of TBI on radiographic imaging and injury severity. A multicentre study, published in Journal of Neurotrauma , describes the potential benefit of adding detection of glial fibrillary acidic protein...Read more
2015 21 Apr
Sepsis is a common condition whereby an infection triggers an extreme immune response, resulting in widespread inflammation, blood clotting, and swelling. Although sepsis is believed to contribute to between a third and a half of all hospital deaths, the condition remains poorly understood. Now leading doctors warn that medical and public recognition...Read more
2015 09 Apr
A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based screening programme for individuals at high risk of pancreatic cancer detected pancreatic lesions in 16 of 40 (40 percent) of patients, of whom five underwent surgery, according to a study published online in JAMA Surgery . “An MRI-based protocol for the surveillance of individuals at risk for developing pancreatic...Read more
2015 08 Apr
A quick and cost-effective means of diagnosing diseases and monitoring treatment at the point-of-care has been developed by researchers using paper and flexible substrates as biosensing materials. The new platforms have been shown to isolate and selectively detect multiple biotargets in whole blood, serum and peritoneal fluid using antibodies. The...Read more