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Venous leg ulcers are common and distressing, affecting around 1 in 300 adults in the UK. They are open, often painful, sores on the leg that take months to heal and can develop after a minor injury. People with enlarged veins known as varicose veins are at high risk of developing venous leg ulcers, as they have persistently high pressure in the veins leading to skin damage.
How a second wave of COVID-19 infections may evolve across Europe over the next few months, using data on infection rates and travel within and between European countries, is modelled in a Scientific Reports paper. The findings suggest that a second wave in Europe will occur between July 2020 and January 2021 and that the precise timing of peaks in infection rates for each country could be controlled via social distancing, control of local hotspots and border control measures.
CLEVELAND: A Cleveland Clinic study shows that 5 to 10 percent of surgically induced weight loss is associated with improved life expectancy and cardiovascular health. In comparison, about 20 percent weight loss is necessary to observe similar benefits with a non-surgical treatment. The findings also show that metabolic surgery may contribute health benefits that are independent of weight loss. The study is published in the October issue of Annals of Surgery.
A group of drugs used to treat HIV and hepatitis B could be repurposed to prevent type 2 diabetes, a new study suggests.
Researchers found that patients taking the drugs had a 33% lower risk of developing diabetes. The scientists say that the risk reduction makes sense based on how the drugs are known to work, and noted that one of the drugs, lamivudine, improved insulin sensitivity significantly in human cell samples and in a mouse model of diabetes. (In type 2 diabetes, the body loses the ability to use insulin, a hormone, to control blood sugar effectively.)
Emerging use of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) makes it possible to continuously measure shallow changes in elevation of Earth surface. A study by the University of Bonn now shows that the quality of these measurements may have improved significantly during the pandemic, at least at some stations. The results show which factors should be considered in the future when installing GPS antennas. More precise geodetic data are important for assessing flood risks and for improving earthquake early warning systems.
Amsterdam, NL, September 23, 2020 - Well over six million people globally have been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, which has an enormous impact on the lives of patients and their families and incurring mounting costs for society.
Accurate detection and characterization of SLNs are crucial in cancer staging and making therapeutic decisions. At present, the clinical gold standard used to detect SLNs is to label them with blue dye or a radioactive nanocolloid and then perform SLN biopsy. But these methods have drawbacks, radioscintigraphy has relatively poor spatial resolution, and blue dye will quickly label downstream LNs, leading to difficulties recognized SLN from other nodes. In addition, the removal of the SLN may cause some side effects, such as lymphedema, shoulder dysfunction, and arm numbness.
A research team from Kumamoto University, Japan has developed an animal model that reproduces motor dysfunction and cerebellar neurodegeneration similar to that in spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA) by inhibiting chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA) in cerebellar neurons. Since CMA activity is reduced in cells expressing SCA causing proteins, CMA is expected to become a new therapeutic target for SCA—a disease that currently has no basic treatment.
Cancer cells are killed in lab experiments and tumour growth reduced in mice, using a new approach that turns a nanoparticle into a 'Trojan horse' that causes cancer cells to self-destruct, a research team at the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has found.
Patients with BRCA1/2 mutations are at higher risk for breast, ovarian and prostate cancers that can be aggressive when they develop - and, in many cases, resistant to lifesaving drugs. Now scientists at The University of Texas at Austin and Ajou University in South Korea have identified a driver of the drug resistance that can make a life or death difference for patients with these cancers.
In the COVID-19 special session taking place at the online Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), Prof. Juliana Chan, (The Chinese University of Hong Kong and Prince of Wales Hospital, Shatin, Hong Kong, China) will present a new review of the evidence on the devastating impact COVID-19 is having on people with diabetes.
A survey of more than 7,000 patients with type 1 diabetes from 89 countries, presented at this year's online Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) shows that three quarters of patients who have adapted to telemedicine appointments would consider continung the use of online or telephone appointments with their doctors, as has been happening during the COVID-19 pandemic, after the pandemic ends.
New research presented at this year's annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) shows that among people with type 1 diabetes who stopped working in the COVID-19 lockdown, blood sugar levels improved during the first week of lockdown despite having reduced opportunities for exercise and heightened psychological stress. The study was undertaken by Dr Federico Boscari and colleagues at the Department of Medicine, University of Padova, Italy.
A team of researchers from Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the Deutsches Rheuma-Forschungszentrum (DRFZ) Berlin, a Leibniz Institute, have successfully treated two patients with the autoimmune disease systemic lupus erythematosus. Using daratumumab, a monoclonal antibody which targets specific immune cells known as plasma cells, the researchers were able to modulate the abnormal immunological memory processes found in these patients. Treatment induced sustainable clinical responses and resulted in a reduction in systemic inflammation.
New research presented at this week's ESCMID Conference on Coronavirus Disease (ECCVID, held online from 23-25 September) shows that having a lower level of zinc in the blood is associated with a poorer outcome in patients with COVID-19. The study is by Dr Roberto Güerri-Fernández, Hospital Del Mar, Barcelona, Spain, and colleagues.