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AbbeyMoor Medical Receives FDA Approval For Design Improvements To The Spanner(TM) Prostatic Stent
AbbeyMoor Medical Inc., a developer and manufacturer of medical devices for the management and treatment of prostatic obstruction, announced that it has received PMA approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for design changes to their flagship product, The Spanner(TM) Prostatic Stent.
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Sleep Apnea Occurring During REM Sleep Is Significantly Associated With Type 2 Diabetes
A multi-ethnic study in the June 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine reports that there is a statistically significant relationship between obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) episodes occurring during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and type 2 diabetes.
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Needle Exchange Programs Could Save Texas 'Millions Of Dollars,' Opinion Piece Says
Needle exchange programs (NEPs) "are an inexpensive public health intervention, especially when compared with the social costs of treating individuals with HIV or hepatitis-related chronic liver disease," Maureen Trotter, a pathologist and president of the Taylor-Jones-Haskell County Medical Society, writes in the Abilene Reporter News. She adds that legislation introduced this year in the Texas Legislature "to allow public health departments and organizations to establish disease control programs that provide for the anonymous exchange of used hypodermic needles and syringes for sterile ones, offer education and substance abuse treatment and blood-borne disease testing" failed to come to a floor vote. Trotter further discusses NEPs, citing data on outcomes of NEPs, and writes, "The costs of preventing one case of HIV is estimated between $4,000 and $12,000 via NEPs. The medical cost of treating a person infected with HIV is about $200,000," adding, "These programs, if implemented, could save Texas millions of dollars" (7/12).
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Fifty One Genes Predict Breast Cancer Survival

It may be possible in the future to use a specimen from the tumour to determine which patients with breast cancer have a good chance of overcoming the disease, and which patients should be given more intensive treatments. Fifty-one genes may together provide information about the prognosis for an individual patient. These are the conclusions of a thesis presented at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. The research group has analysed specimens from a number of breast tumours, both from patients that died from the disease and from patients surviving at least 10 years from diagnosis. The levels of expression of 51 genes differed between the two groups. It should be possible to use the differences in order to classify the patients into one of two groups: a favourable prognosis group and a poor prognosis group. "Many breast cancer patients are currently overtreated, while some are undertreated. If it was possible to identify patients with poor prognosis, it would be possible to use greater treatment res on these patients. At the same time, patients with a favourable prognosis could avoid unnecessary treatment", says Elin Karlsson who successfully defended her thesis on June 5. Comparing the amounts of the gene products of these 51 genes with data from a previous study has allowed the research team to show that the genes have the ability to predict survival also for the new material. The research group has also studied the protein BTG2, and shown that it is involved at several levels in the tumours that were examined. The protein was present more often in specimens from patients who had survived at least 5 years after diagnosis than in patients who had died within 5 years from diagnosis. It has been previously determined that this protein is a tumour suppressor, but the study at the Sahlgrenska Academy is the first to indicate it as a prognostic marker. "We consider it to be a promising marker: it will maybe be possible to use it to determine which patients with breast cancer require particularly close surveillance. More research, however, will be required in order to confirm our results before analysis of the protein can be used in the clinic", says Elin Karlsson. University of Gothenburg


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