Archive for April, 2008

Asia’s first artificial heart transplant in Bangalore

Friday, April 11th, 2008
Get yourself an artificial heart and doctors of Bangalore’s Narayana Hrudayalaya will plug it in for you. The life-saving device costs only Rs 34 lakh. 54-year-old Venkatakrishnaiah became the first Asian to have an artificial heart implantation. This KPTC employee had a severe heart attack in 2003. Despite a bypass surgery, he was unable to work and took voluntary retirement. “My children were still studying. After the bypass surgery, my condition worsened and I was unable to walk six steps. But after the artificial heart implant, I can walk, climb stairs and am even planning to work again,” said a relieved Venkatakrishnaiah. In India, about 20 million patients suffer from heart failure, a number that is increasing by two million annually. About 20% of these patients die each year without aid. Patients with end-stage heart failure have limited options — heart transplant or use of ventricular assist devices (VADs). Heart transplantation is limited by availability of donor organs. At present, donor supply limits heart transplantation to about 3,500 hearts globally every year. A viable alternative is implantation of VAD. A team of doctors from Narayana Hrudayalaya lead by Dr Bagirath R and Dr T R Rajesh, along with a team lead by Dr Lyle Joyce, Surgical Director of the Ventricular Assist Device Program of Minnesota, US, successfully implanted a VAD in Venkatakrishnaiah, in a surgery that took over four hours. Though there have been 220 such implants worldwide, this is Asia’s first. The surgery was sponsored by Narayana Hrudayalaya. The total cost, surgery included, is around Rs 40 lakh. source: google news http://blogs.mindbodynsoul.com http://www.currentnewsaffairs.com Tags:

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Markets turn sluggish after overnight recovery

Tuesday, April 8th, 2008
After a brief rally Monday, the stock markets turned sluggish today with the benchmark Sensex losing 206 points in morning trade in line with weakness in other Asian stock markets. The 30-share index, Sensex, came under pressure after a better start and was quoted at 15,551.46 at 1030 hrs, down 205.62 points from its previous close of 15,757.08. The broader 50-share S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange also fell by 40.65 points to 4,720.55 at 1030 hrs from its last close of 4,761.20. Investors awaited announcements of fourth quarter results for a possible direction for the market. source: google news http://www.currentnewsaffairs.com http://blogs.mindbodynsoul.com Tags:

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Regenerate tooth

Friday, April 4th, 2008
Dentist do not fill or drill the teeths but now a days they regenerates them. Earlier the same solution was there for cavities with the dentist. The material that make up the teeth will be remineralized in decayed tooth to restore the damage, without making it look like repair job. Teeth are made from minerals and are susceptible to erosion. Acids, like those produced by bacteria or synthetic soft drinks demineralize the enamel of the teeth. The body is constantly repairing small amounts of damage but when the defenses are overwhelmed, bacteria break through into the dentin below, the tooth decays. The trials are still on and it will be a few years before your dentist can regrow teeth. Till than there’s no escaping the drill on your damaged teeth, or just avoid those cavity causing foods and soft drinks. http://www.currentnewsaffairs.com http://blogs.mindbodynsoul.com Tags:

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Race gaps seen in breast cancer awareness

Thursday, April 3rd, 2008
Even after undergoing breast cancer surgery, about half of women don’t know that survival rates with removal of the cancerous portion of the breast only, along with radiation treatment, are equal to those seen with removal of the entire breast. African-American and Hispanic women were less likely than whites to have this information, Dr. Sarah T. Hawley of the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor and her colleagues found. Furthermore, this racial disparity in knowledge was the same even among women who received treatment at the highest-quality cancer centers, from the most experienced surgeons. “We feel like it probably has a lot more to do with the way the providers are communicating information to patients” than with the overall quality of care itself, Hawley noted in an interview with Reuters Health. Five-year survival rates after breast-conserving surgery (BCS), or lumpectomy, along with radiation for early-stage breast cancer are now known to be the same as those for mastectomy, in which the entire breast is removed, Hawley and her team note in their report in the latest online issue of Health Services Research. However, the percentage of women who undergo mastectomy for early-stage disease remains high in certain parts of the country, they add. This has “raised concerns that many women may not be fully informed about surgical treatment options.” To investigate, the researchers surveyed 1,132 patients in Detroit and Los Angeles who had already undergone treatment for early-stage breast cancer, along with 277 surgeons. Overall, 51 percent of the women were aware that five-year survival after BCS with radiation was the same as it was after mastectomy, the investigators report. Nearly three-quarters of the women surveyed said that their surgeon had discussed both treatment options with them, and these women were more likely to understand that survival rates were the same for both options. In 20 states, including Michigan and California, the researchers note, surgeons are required by law to discuss both treatment options with eligible patients. Nonetheless, while 57 percent of the white women in the study had survival knowledge, just 34 percent of African-American women and 37 percent of Latinas and women from other ethnic groups did. “Perhaps the most concerning finding from this analysis was the persistence of racial/ethnic differences in breast cancer treatment knowledge despite controlling for surgeon characteristics, treatment location, and patient-surgeon communication,” the researchers write. Deciding what type of treatment to have can be “overwhelming” for women with breast cancer, Hawley noted, especially when they are under pressure to make that decision quickly. She and her colleagues are now developing tools to help surgeons communicate with breast cancer patients more effectively about their treatment options, and also investigating when in the course of treatment women would prefer to have this discussion. source: google news http://blogs.mindbodynsoul.com http://www.currentnewsaffairs.com Tags:

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Maniratnam’s son, 16, a star at CPM meet

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008
The 16-year-old son of filmmaker Maniratnam has created a buzz by joining as a red volunteer at CPM’s ongoing all India congress in Coimbatore. Nandan Maniratnam, son of Maniratnam and actress Suhasini, is also the author oaf a 27-page pamphlet on Leninism. He said he was drawn to Marxism as it was the “most cogent, comprehensive and highly developed complex of theory and practice”. “India does not exist only in the cities, and even in the cities it does not exist only for the elite. India exists predominantly for the working classes and the peasants and in that section I am sure that Marxism, if conveyed correctly, will have enormous influence,” the Class XI student said. Nandan said he came on his own to serve as a volunteer and assist the foreign delegates at the CPM meeting. source: google news http://blogs.mindbodynsoul.com http://www.currentnewsaffairs.com Tags:

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Diabetes genes more in number.

Tuesday, April 1st, 2008
Six more diabetes genes have been found who make humans susceptible to increase of type II diabetes, theses genes may also help to prevent and treat the chronic conditions. Number of genes are 16 by the research. It also gives us clues, to control blood sugar levels with the help of biological mechanisms   Tags:

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