Foot Blog News this Week- Issue 13
Lavery and Armstrong receive major NIH grant for podiatry
EurekAlert- Podiatry’s first R01 to address growing epidemic of diabetic complications. Lawrence A. Lavery, DPM, MPH, and David G. Armstrong, DPM, PhD, Professors of Surgery at Scott and White’s University Medical Center and Texas A&M College of Medicine, and Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, respectively, have received a $2.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. “This is, to our knowledge, the first multi-million dollar R01 series NIH grant awarded exclusively to podiatric researchers as principal investigators,” noted Dr. Lavery, the study’s principal investigator.
Robot with a foot prosthesis
eHealthnews EU-Running shoes, ski bindings and foot prostheses all have one thing in common: They must be tested thoroughly. This is now done by a robot-based 3-D test rig which simulates human movements, thus enabling any kind of load test to be carried out under realistic conditions. It is one of those single-arm, orange-colored robots normally used to punch and weld sheet metal components for cars in large manufacturing halls. One such industrial robot can also be found in the laboratories of the Fraunhofer Technology Development Group TEG. However, the researchers there have given it much more human qualities. This robot arm can almost perfectly imitate the natural walking movements of a human being, and so, mounted on a treadmill, it walks and walks and walks. The reason for this continuous exertion is a prosthetic foot which is attached to the machine and is being put through its paces
Diabetes complications swelling health costs
Education may help parents use antibiotics wisely
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Simple education measures can improve low-income parents’ knowledge of proper antibiotic use, a new study shows.Experts hope that a better-informed public will help stem the growing problem of antibiotic resistance, where bacteria gradually become immune to the medications that once controlled them. Misuse of antibiotics — taking them for colds, the flu or other viral illnesses, for example — has helped to fuel the rise in antibiotic resistance in recent years.
Restless legs can heighten blood pressure
MONTREAL, April 10 (UPI) — People with restless legs syndrome may be at an increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease, a small Canadian study indicates. RLS is a neurological disorder in which people have a strong urge to move their legs.Researchers at the University of Montreal’s Sacre-Coeur Hospital had 10 people with untreated RLS spend the night in a sleep laboratory, where researchers monitored periodic leg movements and change in blood pressure.RLS is typically most severe at night when the legs are resting, and can occur every 20 to 40 seconds.
Treatment may help foot deformity
ST. LOUIS, April 6 (UPI) – A U.S. pediatric orthopaedic surgeon has had early success in a treatment to correct a congenital foot deformity that causes a rigid flatfoot.
Dr. Matthew B. Dobbs, of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, developed a treatment for congenital vertical talus, or “rocker-bottom flat foot,” which occurs in about 1 in 10,000 live births. If left untreated, the patient walks on the inside of the ankle rather than the bottom of the foot.
Wright completes Darco segment acquisition
Memphis Business Journal- Wright Medical Corp. has completed the acquisition of Darco International Inc.’s reconstructive foot surgery line of business for $17 million in cash, the company said Thursday. The acquisition was first announced last month. Privately held Darco, based in Huntington, W.Va., will retain its other product lines for the foot and ankle, including soft goods for trauma and wound care.
Prescription For Exercise: A Physician’s Role In Getting Patients Active
Medical News Today – A new paper by two family physicians from the University of Michigan Health System provides a practical guide for primary care clinicians to help their sedentary patients become more active.The paper says that physicians play an important role in communicating the benefits of exercise and encouraging physical activity among their patients, even though limited data are available to support a specific approach or to quantify the effect of such counseling.”We know from experience that there are a number of useful strategies for talking to patients about physical activity in a clinical setting,” says Caroline R. Richardson, M.D., co-author of the paper, which appears in the current issue of the Journal of Clinical Outcomes Management.
Blood cells help treat diabetes patients: study
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Stem cells taken from the blood of a few diabetes patients have “re-set” their immune systems, helping 14 out of 15 live for months and even years without insulin, researchers reported on Tuesday.While they are not claiming to have cured the patients, they said their experiment shows it may be possible to at least interrupt the mistaken immune response that destroys insulin-producing cells in type-1 diabetes.
“It’ll generate controversy and interest and excitement,” Dr. Richard Burt of Northwestern University in Chicago, who helped lead the study, said in a telephone interview.
Counting Heads Or Measuring Space? A Close Look At Bacterial Communication Strategies
Medical News Today-Bacteria can “talk” to each other: by using signal substances they inform their neighbours as to whether or not it is worth switching certain genes on or off. This communication between bacterial cells is essential for the adaptation to changing environments and for the survival. What exactly do bacteria learn from the signal substances? There have been two theories: the release of signal substances is understood to be either a cooperative strategy to determine the cell density (quorum sensing) or – alternatively – a non-cooperative strategy in which the signal substance is only used to determine the dimensions of the space surrounding the cell (diffusion sensing). However, both theories have not been shown to work under natural conditions, which usually are much more complex than those in laboratory.
Innocoll Files CollaRx(R) GENTAMICIN SURGICAL IMPLANT In Australia
Medical News Today-Innocoll, Inc. announced its wholly-owned subsidiary, Innocoll Pharmaceuticals Ltd., has submitted a class III medical device application for its CollaRx(R) GENTAMICIN SURGICAL IMPLANT to the Australian Therapeutics Goods Administration (TGA).GENTAMICIN SURGICAL IMPLANT is a biodegradable leave-behind surgical implant impregnated with the broad spectrum aminoglycoside antibiotic, gentamicin. The product was developed using Innocoll’s proprietary collagen- based technology, CollaRx(R), and has been approved in 49 countries as either a medicinal product for the treatment and prevention of surgical site infections or as a medical device. There are more than 50 prospective clinical trials and published case reports which document the safety and efficacy of the product over a broad variety of orthopaedic, abdominal, colorectal, cardiothoracic, vascular and neurosurgical procedures totaling over 7,500 patients. It is currently marketed in Europe, Latin America, Middle East, Africa and Asia under the following trade names: COLLATAMP(R) G, COLLATAMP(R) EG, SULMYCIN(R) IMPLANT, GARAMYCIN(R) SCHWAMM, DURACOL(R), DURACOLL(R), GENTACOL(R), GENTACOLL(R), GARACOL(R), GARACOLL(R) and CRONOCOL(R).
4-limb amputee sees new life as another chance
USA Today-MESA, Ariz. — Two years ago, Jeff Lewis woke up in the hospital and learned he had no hands or feet.
Considering the alternative, he’s grateful to be alive. His limbs were amputated to save him from a deadly circulatory infection. “I thought it was some kind of evil joke,” he says. ” ‘All right,’ I wanted to say, ‘The joke’s over. Where are my hands and feet?’ “
Three weeks earlier, Lewis, 53, had awakened with a raging fever he thought was the flu. The high school math teacher rarely missed a day of school, but that morning he went to the hospital. Lewis had a common strep B infection that usually is fought off by the spleen. But his spleen had been removed after a shooting accident 20 years before, which left him vulnerable to the infection.
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Diabetic News This Week
- Clinical Trial For Diabetic Macular Edema
- How To Maintain Healthy Blood Sugar Levels
- Is There Such A Thing As Too Much Sugar For A Hypoglycemic Person?
- LCT Reports Major Step Forward For Islet Transplantation In Diabetes Patient
- Metabasis Therapeutics Initiates A Proof Of Concept Study For MB07803, Its Second Product Candidate For The Treatment Of Type 2 Diabetes
- Penn Study Points To New Direction For Pancreas Cell Regeneration – Implications For Diabetes, Other Pancreatic Disorders
- Researchers Spot Key Molecular Player In Insulin Resistance And Type 2 Diabetes
- Stem cell transplant promising for type 1 diabetes
- Diabetics found more prone to mild memory problems
