|
|
|
SCIENCE UPDATE
New surgery technique may not help chronic gut pain
Surgery to remove bands of scar-like tissue inside the abdomen is no better at relieving chronic abdominal pain than surgery to see if these bands of tissue, known as adhesions, are present, according to Dutch physicians.
A group of patients with chronic pain underwent surgery to see if they had such adhesions, which are a common side effect of surgery. Half of the group had a second procedure to remove them while the other half had no further treatment. However, one year later, both groups were equally likely to say they were free from pain.
The findings suggest that the tissue removal technique, known as laparoscopic adhesiolysis, may offer no additional benefit to simply diagnosing the lesions in the first place.
“In view of our findings, we recommend that clinicians consider abandoning laparoscopic adhesiolysis as a treatment for adhesions in patients with chronic abdominal pain,” conclude researcher Dr. Dingeman Swank, of Groene Hart Hospital, in Gouda, and colleagues.
Laparoscopic adhesiolysis is a controversial treatment for chronic pain because not all doctors agree that such adhesions — found in many patients after abdominal surgery — are the actual cause of lingering pain.
While many patients say that the procedure helps relieve their pain, it’s not clear if this is due to a placebo effect, according to the report in Saturday’s issue of the British medical journal The Lancet.
SARS: questions answered
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) is a respiratory illness that has recently been reported in Asia, North America, and Europe. For more info, check the World Health Organization (WHO) SARS web site.
The illness usually begins with a fever (measured temperature greater than 100.4°F [38.0°C]). The fever is sometimes associated with chills or other symptoms, including headache, general feeling of discomfort, and body aches. Some people also experience mild respiratory symptoms at the outset. After 2 to 7 days, SARS patients may develop a dry, nonproductive cough that might be accompanied by or progress to the point where insufficient oxygen is getting to the blood. In 10% to 20% of cases, patients will require mechanical ventilation.
The incubation period for SARS is typically 2-7 days; however, isolated reports have suggested an incubation period as long as 10 days. The illness usually begins with a fever (100.4°F [38.0°C]).
Doctors currently recommend that patients with SARS receive the same treatment that would be used for any patient with serious community-acquired atypical pneumonia of unknown cause. Several treatment regimens have been used for patients with SARS, but there is insufficient information at this time to determine if they have had a beneficial effect. Reported therapeutic regimens have included antibiotics to presumptively treat known bacterial agents of atypical pneumonia. Therapy also has included antiviral agents such as oseltamivir or ribavirin. Steroids also have been administered orally or intravenously to patients in combination with ribavirin and other antimicrobials.
Most ancient DNA ever?
The oldest ever DNA has been found preserved in ice in Siberia.
The record-breaking samples are from plants which lived there 400,000 years ago.
The genetic material is probably three or four times older than any other ancient DNA found on the planet.
Soil frozen into the ice has also yielded fragments of DNA of large prehistoric animals, including the woolly mammoth, reindeer and musk ox.
The ice cores from which the DNA was extracted have been dated to between 300,000 and 400,000 years old.
Thomas Gilbert of the Ancient Biomolecules Centre at the University of Oxford helped check the samples.
He said: “We believe it is the oldest DNA to date. Other people have made similar claims but nobody else has been able to replicate the findings.”
Various claims have been made for the oldest ever DNA including that extracted from ancient bacteria and even dinosaur bones. The reports have proved controversial, however, because of the possibility samples could have been contaminated by traces of modern DNA.
The researchers, led by Eske Willerslev of the University of Copenhagen, have tried to avoid any dispute in this case by getting researchers in other laboratories to verify their work.
Their analysis, published in the online edition of the journal Science, shows the DNA comes from at least 19 different plant families.
Mr Gilbert said: “(The DNA) is incredibly old, which shows that DNA can be preserved that far back.
The DNA has been broken into tiny pieces, so there is little chance of bringing any of the species back from the dead.
“Cloning is in our view impossible at this stage. You’d need the whole DNA and you would have to constuct a primitive cell to put the DNA in,” added Mr Gilbert.
Another link to ALS found
Genetic abnormalities have been discovered in the chromosomes of several people with sporadic, or non-hereditary, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). So says a study in the April 22 issue of Neurology.
The German study examined the chromosomes of 85 people with sporadic ALS and found five of them (5.9 percent) had chromosomal abnormalities. The normal rate for such abnormalities in healthy people is about .05 per cent. The researchers don’t know how these abnormalities contribute to ALS, but suggest they may cause a disruption or alteration of certain genes.
ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a progressive, degenerative disease of the nervous system. About 5 percent to 10 percent of ALS cases are hereditary. Scientists have identified several genes linked to hereditary ALS. — Dawn ScienceDotcom Report
|
|
|
|
