StemCell Therapy

Science Daily

Unproven stem cell 'therapy' blinds three patients at Florida clinic Science Daily Three people with macular degeneration were blinded after undergoing an unproven stem cell treatment that was touted as a clinical trial in 2015 at a clinic in Florida. Within a week following the treatment, the patients experienced a variety of ... Unethical Stem Cell Therapy for Autism In India?Discover Magazine (blog) Cancer Stem Cell Therapy Market Report by Manufacturing Cost Structure, Objective Policies, Emerging Trends and ...Medgadget (blog) Doctors say unproven stem cell treatment blinded 3 womenCNSNews.com Digital Journal -PharmiWeb.com (press release) -ClickLancashire all 23 news articles »

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Unproven stem cell 'therapy' blinds three patients at Florida clinic - Science Daily

The macula is the spot in the center of your eye's retina. When that tissue begins to thin and break down, this is referred to as macular degeneration, a blurring of the sharp central vision necessary for driving, reading and other close-up work. Most people develop this disease as they age.

For the latest study, researchers led by Dr. Michiko Mandai of the laboratory for retinal regeneration at RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology in Japan tested an experimental stem cell treatment on a 77-year-old woman diagnosed with "wet," or neovascular age-related, macular degeneration.

The "wet" form of the disease involves blood vessels positioned underneath the pigment epithelium (a layer of retinal cells) growing through the epithelium and harming the eye's photoreceptor cells. In Japan, wet age-related macular degeneration is the most common form, but in Caucasian populations, only about 10% of people with age-related macular degeneration gets that form.

The "dry" form involves the macula breaking down without growth of blood vessels where they're not supposed to be.

To stop the progress of wet macular degeneration, the researchers performed surgery to transplant a sheet of retinal pigment epithelial cells under the retina in one of the patient's eye.

The transplanted cells had been derived from autologous induced pluripotent stem cells, which are reprogrammed cells. They were created using cells from the connective tissue of the woman's skin.

One year after surgery, the transplanted sheet remained intact, and there was no evidence of lasting adverse effects. Although the patient showed no evidence of improved eyesight, her vision had stabilized.

"This research serves multiple purposes," wrote Peter Karagiannis, a science writer, in an email on behalf of Dr. Shinya Yamanaka, the Nobel Prize-winning co-author of the study and director of the Center for iPS Cell Research and Application at Kyoto University. From the patient's perspective, the study shows that induced pluripotent stem cells can alleviate the problems associated with age-related macular degeneration.

"From a greater medical perspective, however, the bigger impact is that it shows iPS cells can be used as cell therapies," the email said, adding that newly initiated stem cell research applications at the center include Parkinson's disease and thrombocytopenia, a lack of platelets in the blood.

The American story, like the Japanese story, begins with patients slowly losing their sight as a result of macular degeneration -- in this case, three women ages 72 to 88, two of whom had the "dry" form.

Each patient paid $5,000 for the procedure at an unnamed clinic in Florida, the authors noted. Some of the patients, including two of the three women described in the paper, learned of the so-called clinical trial on ClinicalTrials.gov, a registry database run by the US National Library of Medicine. However, the consent form and other written materials did not mention a trial.

The procedure took less than an hour and began with a standard blood draw and the removal of fat cells from each patient's abdomen. To obtain stem cells, the fat tissue was processed with enzymes, while platelet-dense plasma was isolated from the blood. The stem cells were mixed with the plasma and injected into both eyes.

Complications may have been caused by contamination during stem cell preparation, or the stem cells might have changed into myofibroblasts, a type of cell associated with scarring, after injection, the authors wrote.

Before the surgery, the women's vision ranged from 20/30 to 20/200. After treatment and complications, the patients were referred in June 2015 to two university-based ophthalmology practices, including the University of Miami, where lead author Dr. Ajay E. Kuriyan was practicing.

"Many stem-cell clinics are treating patients with little oversight and with no proof of efficacy," Kuriyan and his co-authors wrote in the paper, acknowledging that it is difficult for patients to know whether a stem cell therapy -- or a clinical trial -- is legitimate.

One red flag is that the patients were required to pay for their procedure; another is that both eyes were treated at once, the authors said. Legitimate clinical trials do not require payment, and for any experimental treatment of the eyes, a good doctor would observe how one eye responds before attempting the second eye.

Another problem for unsavvy patients: Listings on ClinicalTrials.gov are not fully scrutinized for scientific soundness, noted the authors.

Today, the clinic is no longer performing these eye injections, the authors said, but it is still seeing patients. In October 2015, months after the procedures had been performed, the Food and Drug Administration released more specific guidelines for stem cell treatments.

Writing on behalf of the FDA in an editorial alongside the paper, Drs. Peter W. Marks, Celia M. Witten and Robert M. Califf say there's an absence of compelling evidence, yet some practitioners argue that stem cells have a unique capacity to restore health because of their ability to differentiate into whatever cell is necessary for repairing a defect. Another argument is that clinical trials are too complex for all except large industrial sponsors.

Despite the shadow cast by some stem cell experiments, the Japanese study earned praise from the scientific community.

Michael P. Yaffe, vice president of scientific programs at the New York Stem Cell Foundation Research Institute, said the RIKEN study was "incredibly thorough, careful and well-documented."

"Many experts in the field of regenerative medicine believe that the treatment of macular degeneration and other retinal diseases will be among the first areas of success in the use of stem cell-derived tissues," said Yaffe, whose foundation was not involved in the RIKEN study.

Yaffe said this optimism stems from preliminary studies using retinal cells derived from stem cells in animals. Scientists are also hopeful because the procedures to generate pure cells of the correct type and surgical techniques necessary for transplantation have already been developed.

"A number of research groups are moving toward developing stem cell-based treatments for age-related macular degeneration and other retinal diseases," Yaffe said.

The National Eye Institute at the National Institutes of Health is planning a similar study using patient-specific pluripotent stem cells, according to Kapil Bharti, a Stadtman Investigator in the Unit on Ocular Stem Cell & Translational Research at the institute. After getting approval to conduct a phase I safety trial, the institute will treat 10 to 12 patients to check safety and tolerability of stem cell-based eye tissue transplants.

"Data from 10 to 12 patients is needed to show that the implanted cells are indeed safe," he said, adding that the trial is likely to begin in 2018.

"While researchers have used embryonic stem cell derived cells to treat age-related macular degeneration, (the RIKEN study) is the first study that used induced pluripotent stem cells," said Bharti, who was not involved in the research.

Both induced pluripotent stem cells and embryonic stem cells can be used to make other kinds of cells of the body, explained Bharti. However, induced pluripotent stem cells can be derived from adult skin or blood cells, rather than from embryos.

"Another big scientific advantage with induced pluripotent stem cells is that they can be made patient-specific (because it's the patient's own cells), reducing the chances of tissue rejection," he said.

P. Michael Iuvone, a professor of ophthalmology and director of vision research at Emory University School of Medicine, also noted the importance of using the patient's own stem cells.

Past studies have used embryonic stem cells to treat age-related macular degeneration, but there were problems related to rejection, when the body refuses to accept a transplant or graft, explained Iuvone, who was not involved in the latest study. In the new RIKEN study, the researchers took the patient's own cells and converted them into retinal cells to avoid these complications.

"The results from the standpoint of the graft taking and surviving without any signs of any kind of toxicity or tumorigenicity are very positive," Iuvone said. "But the weakness is, they only had one patient, and it's very difficult to make any conclusions from one patient."

He noted that the RIKEN researchers planned to work with more patients, but in 2014, the Japanese government passed a law that said regenerative medicine clinical trials could be performed only at medical institutions, not at research institutions such as RIKEN.

Though the experiment was performed on a woman with wet age-related macular degeneration, it also might be useful for "dry" age-related macular degeneration, which is more common in the United States, according to Iuvone.

Currently, there are some effective treatments for age-related macular degeneration.

"The standard of care in most cases is to give injections of drugs that inhibit the growth hormones that is called vascular epithelial growth factor, or VEGF," Iuvone said. "For most people, it at least slows the progression and in some cases actually improves visual acuity."

Laser treatments have also been used but are on the decrease because of side effects. "Given the fact that the VEGF treatments seem to be effective, I think that most clinicians have turned to that," Iuvone said.

Bharti believes the RIKEN study is a major milestone in the field. "We and others are learning from the Japan study," he said.

Susan L. Solomon, CEO of the New York Stem Cell Foundation Research Institute, agrees.

"This study represents a fundamental advance in regenerative medicine, in the use of stem cell-derived tissues and in the treatment of eye disease," she said. However, additional work and many more studies are needed, she said, before a safe and efficacious stem cell-based treatment will be available "to the broad and growing population with retinal disease" -- all of us, growing older.

Continue reading here:
One stem cell treatment stabilizes macular degeneration, another blinds 3 patients - CNN

Type 2 diabetes is generally considered to be a chronic health condition that can't be cured once it develops, and can only be managed with a combination of medication and healthy living assisted by gastric band (bariatric) surgery in some cases.

But new research suggests that people may actually be able to beat the disease for set periods, by undertaking an intensive short-term course of medical treatment that's been shown to reverse type 2 diabetes in a significant proportion of patients.

"By using a combination of oral medications, insulin, and lifestyle therapies to treat patients intensively for two to four months, we found that up to 40 percent of participants were able to stay in remission three months after stopping diabetes medications," says one of the researchers, Natalia McInnes from McMaster University in Canada.

"The findings support the notion that type 2 diabetes can be reversed, at least in the short term not only with bariatric surgery, but with medical approaches."

Type 2 diabetes is caused by the body not producing enough insulin the hormone that enables cells to absorb glucose - or becominginsulin resistant. As a consequence, blood sugars build up in the body, and can lead to serious health problems like organ damage and heart disease.

Over 29 million Americans have type 2 diabetes, and estimates indicate that it could cost the US health care system as much as US$512 billion annually by 2021 so any interventions that can effectively treat the condition are desperately needed.

To investigate whether intensive health treatments could trigger remission in type 2 diabetes patients, the researchers recruited 83 participants with the condition and randomly divided them into three groups.

Two of these groups received the short-term interventions lasting for eight weeks or 16 weeks respectively where they were given personalised exercise plans, meal plans that lowered their calorie intake by 500 to 750 calories a day, and regular meetings with a nurse and dietitian.

During the treatment period, they also took insulin and a set course of oral medications to help them manage the condition.

The third group of participants acted as controls, and received standard blood sugar management and health advice during the same period.

Three months after the experiment, 11 out of 27 patients in the 16-week intervention group showed complete or partial diabetes remission, as did six out of 28 individuals in the eight-week group.

Comparatively, only four of the participants in the control group showed signs of remission as a result of receiving standard, non-intensive health advice and the team thinks this gap is evidence that there's a lot more we can do to try and fight off, rather than just manage, the disease.

"The research might shift the paradigm of treating diabetes from simply controlling glucose to an approach where we induce remission and then monitor patients for any signs of relapse," says McInnes.

"The idea of reversing the disease is very appealing to individuals with diabetes. It motivates them to make significant lifestyle changes and to achieve normal glucose levels with the help of medications."

To be clear, that motivation and sense of purpose has to be kept up in the long term for the health gains and subsequent diabetes reversal to actually persist for longer than three months.

A year after the trial, the difference between participants who received the treatment and those that did not had become negligible, indicating that more work is needed to figure out how to make type 2 diabetes remission a permanent proposition.

"If you don't sustain the lifestyle intervention, then the disease is going to come back," endocrinologist Philip Kern from University of Kentucky, who wasn't involved with the study, told HealthDay News.

While the remission did not persist and the results reported here are based on only a small sample of participants in the trial the findings are the latest to give scientists hope that type 2 diabetes can be beaten if patients commit to dietary and lifestyle changes.

Last month, a study by researchers from the University of Southern California found that a fasting diet in mice could reverse diabetes and repair the pancreas.

And in Britain, researchers being funded by charity Diabetes UK are currently running a large clinical trial to investigate whether diabetes can be reversed in the long term if people stick to a low calorie diet.

"We're looking forward to seeing the results in 2018. In the meantime, we encourage people with type 2 diabetes to follow a healthy diet that is low in sugar, saturated fats, and salt," Diabetes UK spokesperson Emily Burns told Sarah Knapton at the The Telegraph.

"We know that diet, exercise, and medications can help people with Type 2 diabetes to manage their condition. We're starting to see mounting evidence that putting type 2 diabetes into remission is feasible as well."

The findings are reported in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

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Type 2 Diabetes Has Been "Reversed" in 40% of Patients for 3 Months - ScienceAlert

New York Times

Patient Voices: Type 2 Diabetes - The New York Times New York Times Nearly 400 million people around the world have Type 2 diabetes, including about 28 million in the United States. Of those, as many as eight million don't know ... and more »

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Patient Voices: Type 2 Diabetes - The New York Times - New York Times

An intriguing study, published this week in the journal Endocrinology, compares the benefits of whole-body vibration with regular exercise. Could this innovative intervention help to stave off obesity and diabetes? Preliminary findings suggest that it could.

It is difficult to ignore the obesity crisis currently sweeping across the United States and the rest of the West. As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) write: "Obesity is common, serious, and costly."

More than a third of U.S. adults are obese and, in some states, over 35 percent of adults fall into the obese category.

It is now well documented that obesity brings with it a range of negative health consequences, not least of which is diabetes.

One of the best ways to combat obesity is physical activity, but many people struggle to exercise regularly for a number of reasons. Anything that can either replace or add to the benefits of exercise could be hugely beneficial for a large proportion of the population.

A team of researchers from Augusta University in Georgia, led by Meghan E. McGee-Lawrence, set out to investigate a potential alternative to exercise - whole-body vibration (WBV).

WBV involves standing, sitting, or lying on a machine with a vibrating platform. As the machine vibrates, it transmits energy through the body, resulting in muscles contracting and relaxing many times per second.

First tested for its therapeutic benefits in the late 19th century, WBV has been studied for use in a range of situations. For instance, the European Space Agency is investigating it as a potential way to maintain muscle mass on long space flights.

Over recent years, WBV has also been assessed for use in a number of medical conditions. For example, a study in 2009 concluded that WBV might be beneficial for increasing muscle strength in the knees of females with osteoarthritis. Another study from the same year showed that WBV improved cardiorespiratory fitness and muscle strength in older adults. Similarly, an investigation in older adults found that WBV could help to improve balance.

The current project set out to understand whether WBV could mimic the benefits of regular exercise on muscle and bone. McGee-Lawrence and her team studied the effect in a mouse model.

Five-week-old male mice were used in the study: half were normal mice, and the rest were genetically unresponsive to leptin. Leptin is a hormone that helps to generate a sense of fullness; animals without a leptin response are predisposed to overeating and are therefore more likely to develop obesity and diabetes.

Both types of mice were split into three experimental groups:

For the first week, the mice were allowed to get used to their equipment. Then, a 12-week exercise regimen began. They were weighed each week.

At the end of the trial, the genetically obese, diabetic mice showed similar benefits from both treadmill exercise and WBV. The obese mice gained less weight following WBV and exercise than the obese mice in the sedentary group, although they were still heavier than the normal mice.

Both exercise and WBV increased muscle mass and improved insulin sensitivity in the obese mice.

"Our study is the first to show that whole-body vibration may be just as effective as exercise at combatting some of the negative consequences of obesity and diabetes. While WBV did not fully address the defects in bone mass of the obese mice in our study, it did increase global bone formation, suggesting longer-term treatments could hold promise for preventing bone loss as well."

Meghan E. McGee-Lawrence, Ph.D.

Although WBV is not intended to entirely replace exercise, it could play an important role for individuals who either cannot exercise or cannot exercise enough. However, although the results are encouraging, they should be reinterpreted with caution; as McGee-Lawrence says, "because our study was conducted in mice, this idea needs to be rigorously tested in humans to see if the results would be applicable to people."

Learn how obesity and diabetes might be prevented by a novel protein.

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Can whole-body vibration stave off obesity and diabetes? - Medical News Today

DALLAS, March 17, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --Tracy Herbert was diagnosed September 1978 at the age of 17 with Juvenile Diabetes. She learned how to give herself shots by practicing on an orange during a one-week stay in the hospital during complications. The diagnosis was that she would die within 20 years and that she would never have children. Upon researching her disease in the library for months she decided to make drastic diet changes and set off on a life plan to beat the disease. In May of 2016, she wrote a book called "Diabetes Tragedy to Triumph" which chronicles the life plan and success over her 40-year journey of defeating the disease of Type 1 Diabetes.

Tracy is married and has two children and has made a decision on what to accomplish on her 40th birthday celebration from conquering diabetes. She will be riding her bike from the Golden Gate Bridge in California to the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. Her 20th celebration was completing the "Hotter than Hell" 100-mile bike race while her 30th anniversary she completed a triathlon even though she is scared of water. "The Lord has blessed me and people need to understand that diabetes does not have to rule your life," says Tracy.

Many people question the term "celebrate" but her life changed that moment in 1978. Because of what she learned about how important the mindset is along with smart eating and moving all the time, she has been spreading the word about living healthy with or without diabetes for her entire adult life. Her 40th celebration isn't until 2018 but we don't know what tomorrow holds. This is why at the age of 55 she will be celebrating her 56th birthday riding her bike to celebrate life and living successfully with Type 1 diabetes. Of course, she will be riding with all her diabetes supplies, which includes insulin because without insulin she can die.

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By Karen Pallarito

HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, March 15, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Instead of managing type 2 diabetes as a chronic condition, what if people could beat the disease?

That was the thinking behind a small pilot study, which suggested that intensive treatment with oral medicine, insulin, diet and exercise might knock out the disease, at least for several months, in certain patients.

Up to 40 percent of patients who were treated experienced complete or partial remission for three months, the study found.

"We are now able to possibly reverse diabetes, and that really motivates patients to do their best in terms of losing weight and making sure their sugars are normalized," said lead author Dr. Natalia McInnes.

She's an assistant professor of endocrinology and metabolism at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada.

However, relatively few participants remained in remission a year later, diabetes experts noted.

"Rates of diabetes remission did not appear to differ significantly at 52 weeks between 'control' and 'intervention' groups, so the effects do not appear to be sustained," said Dr. Christine Lee of the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK).

And, Dr. Philip Kern, professor of endocrinology at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, added, "If you don't sustain the lifestyle intervention, then the disease is going to come back."

The bodies of people with type 2 diabetes don't use insulin properly. Insulin is a hormone that helps move sugar into cells to be used as fuel. At first, the body responds by making more insulin, but eventually, your body cannot make enough insulin to keep up with the demand. This leads to increasing blood sugar levels. Over time, uncontrolled blood sugar levels can damage the nerves, eyes, kidneys or heart, according to the American Diabetes Association.

Adults newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes were invited to participate in the trial. Each was randomly assigned to receive either two months or four months of treatment, or "usual diabetes care" (the control group).

The trial included 83 people, aged 30 to 80 years. The participants had had type 2 diabetes for up to three years, and managed their diabetes with diet alone or with one or two drugs. People already taking insulin were excluded from the study.

Senior investigator Dr. Hertzel Gerstein of McMaster University devised the drug combo used in the trial, McInnes said.

Patients received two oral diabetes medicines -- metformin (Glucophage, Glumetza, Fortamet) and acarbose (Precose) -- plus a long-acting type of injectable insulin called insulin glargine (Lantus), based on evidence that these drugs can slow or prevent diabetes, Gerstein explained in a news release from the Endocrine Society.

Once the experiment began, the two intervention groups stopped other diabetes medicines and started the new regimen, according to the report.

A dietician provided a suggested meal plan, encouraging patients to cut 500 to 750 calories a day.

A kinesiologist (body movement expert) prescribed individual fitness programs with a goal of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week, by week 16 of the trial. Patients were also given pedometers and instructed to work toward 10,000 steps per day.

Control group members received standard blood-sugar management advice, the study authors noted.

Hemoglobin A1c tests, which measure average blood sugar levels over the past two to three months, were administered at four points during the study. An A1c level below 5.7 percent is considered normal, according to the American Diabetes Association.

In the study, complete remission was defined as an A1c under 6.0 percent and no need for diabetes medication. Partial remission was an A1c of less than 6.5 percent and no need for diabetes medication.

Three months after the intervention, 11 out of 27 people in the 16-week study group experienced complete or partial diabetes remission, versus six out of 28 in the eight-week study group, and four out of 28 in the control group, the researchers found.

It isn't clear whether the diabetes remission was due to medical therapy with drugs or weight loss with intensive lifestyle therapy, said NIDDK's Lee, who is program director in the diabetes, endocrinology and metabolic diseases division.

The study authors didn't evaluate the cost of the intervention versus potential cost savings. McInnes suspects it would save money in the long term if it reversed the disease and prevented expenses related to ongoing diabetes care and complications.

She said additional studies are needed to assess whether it's possible to achieve higher, and prolonged, rates of remission with similar combinations of therapies.

Kern said the study serves as a reminder that lifestyle interventions in diabetes "really do work."

The study was published online March 15 in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

WebMD News from HealthDay

SOURCES: Natalia McInnes, M.D., assistant professor, endocrinology and metabolism, department of medicine, McMaster University, Ontario, Canada; Christine Lee, M.D., program director, division of diabetes, endocrinology and metabolic diseases, U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md.; Philip Kern, professor of endocrinology, University of Kentucky, Lexington; March 15, 2017, Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, online

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Intensive Type 2 Diabetes Treatment Promising - WebMD

Retinal cells derived from epithelial stem cells.

Silvia Riccardi/Getty Images

The report in this weeks issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) of three people in South Florida who lost their sight after participating in what they thought was a stem cell clinical trial highlights the need for greater scrutiny by regulators to protect patients.

This is urgently needed, not just in US, but also here in Australia. While great progress has been made over the past decade, the reality is we are only just beginning to evaluate if laboratory results equate to safe and effective treatments.

Clinical trials are expected to be overseen by research ethics committees and other experts to ensure that the approach is justified. It is expected that the interests and welfare of the participants are protected, and that they are fully informed of all possible risks. It is not usually expected that patients pay to participate.

However, due to regulatory ambiguity a growing number of clinics around the world are marketing so-called stem cell treatments without first showing that they work or are safe. They are effectively bypassing the clinical trials framework or, as in this Florida case, imply that they are performing clinical research while in fact operating a business selling hope.

A quick search online finds dozens of clinics in Australia that, for a hefty fee, will treat patients suffering osteoarthritis, infertility, multiple sclerosis and hair loss with stem cells. All of these treatments are offered outside clinical trials and regulatory oversight. Evidence of benefit is weak. As they use the patients own cells, usually obtained from liposuction, the therapies are presented as safe.

For many years we and others have been concerned that patients may suffer infections or other complications, and have called on regulators to curb these exploitative practices. Even after the Coroners report into the death of an Australian woman who had an unproven stem cell treatment for dementia and died following complications associated with the procedure, little has changed.

It remains business as usual for many of these clinics.

In the absence of effective regulation, all that can be done is to continue to encourage anyone exploring stem cell therapies to do their research.

Ask lots of questions and take information back to your treating GP or specialist to discuss the implications for your condition. Raise red flags if you are asked to pay for treatment, if the same treatment is being offered for many different conditions, or where the clinic uses anecdotal stories or patient testimonies as evidence of success.

Only participate in clinical trials that have had ethics committee approval and are listed in a respected repository such as the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trial Registry. Finally, dont given up hope and maintain an active interest in the progress of stem cell research for your condition.

Despite the tragic story of the three women who are now blind, stem cell treatments to restore vision loss do hold promise. After 20 years of research, Italian scientists recently received European regulatory approval for a stem cell-based treatment for a type of blindness that results from damage to the cornea, the surface of the eye.

Other groups in the US and Japan are advancing clinical trials for macular degeneration. They first cultivate stem cells to form the retinal pigmented epithelial cells that are needed to restore a damaged retina.

Animal studies show that injecting such cells below the surface of the retina can slow the disease. We now need to responsibly assess whether this can be replicated in humans. Doing so is technically challenging, will require expert surgeons, long-term support and follow-up for the patients.

There are no guarantees that such an approach will work, although another NEJM report is promising.

Until then, regulators must step in to safeguard patient welfare and the work of those trying to support legitimate clinical translation.

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Regulators need to protect stem cell promise - Cosmos

New Delhi, Mar 15 (IANS): Stem cell treatment, which is effective in several health conditions, including spinal problems, can also help cure extreme blood platelet problems such as thrombocytopenia, say doctors.

The medical procedure has advantage over available treatments for blood platelet problems such as corticosteroids, blood or platelet transfusions and immunoglobulins medicines.

In a case study published in International Archives of Medicne, a 25-year-old man was treated for thrombocytopenia through stem cell therapy at a city based hospital. His laboratory examinations showed that his platelet count was 0.70 m3.

The patient underwent stem cell therapy wherein he was injected with 1 mL stem cells daily through an intravenous route.

"The patient was monitored regularly for the occurrence of any reactions during the whole therapy. Platelet count increased to 1.01m3 following the treatment and there were remarkable improvements in other symptoms," said Geeta Shroff, Stem Cell Specialist, Director, Nutech Mediworld.

Shroff has also conducted successful research on patients with spinal problems, anterior cruciate ligament tear and curing them through stem cell treatment.

According to Shroff, thrombocytopenia is defined as the reduction in blood platelet count below the normal platelet count distribution (1.5m3). It is the second most common hematological disorder after anaemia and equally affects both men and women.

The decrease in the platelet number increases the bleeding and blood loss; and when coupled with other clotting disorders can lead to serious morbidity or death.

"The proliferation and differentiating ability of stem cells has made this therapy an attractive therapeutic option. Stem cell therapy are being explored as regenerative medicine for treating various diseases due to their potential to multiply, proliferate and differentiate into any cell type.

At the injured site, stem cell produce different trophic factors and reduce the cell loss, promote host regeneration, hence, restore the function," said Shroff.

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'Stem cell treatment can cure blood platelet problems' - Daijiworld.com

This plane brings a whole new perspective to what a hospital can look like.

I'm aboard the Flying Eye Hospital, a one-of-a-kind traveling medical and teaching facility funded by Orbis, a nonprofit organization dedicated to treating vision impairments around the world.

The Orbis Flying Eye Hospital is a heavily customized, three-engine McDonnell Douglass DC-10 aircraft, kitted out with cutting-edge eye surgery equipment. It trots around the globe, serving as teaching hospital as the doctors aboard treat cataracts and glaucoma, the top two causes of blindness and visual impairment.

Given that 90 percent of people suffering visual impairment live in developing nations, the Flying Eye Hospital has a busy schedule flying among 81 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. But the plane was briefly in residence at the Stansted Airport near London this week, giving me a rare opportunity to tour the Orbis.

Here's what I saw.

Captain Gary Dyson, a FedEx pilot who has volunteered for Orbis for 16 years, welcomed me on board as I slipped into protective blue overshoes. The first compartment of the plane looked much like the economy section of any normal plane, with 46 seats. This is used to transport the Orbis crew, but doubles as a classroom for local doctors and nurses.

Captain Gary Dyson always flies with his guitar, which he uses to entertain patients on screening day.

At the front is a 50-inch widescreen television on which students can watch operations taking place in the plane's operating theater. To do so they must don 3D glasses. Seeing an operation in 3D is essential to understanding the surgery, Jonathan Lord, global medical director for Orbis, said in an interview on Tuesday.

A 3D camera donated by TrueVision attaches to the microscope so students can observe the surgery in minute detail. They can also ask the surgeon questions through two-way microphones.

Behind the classroom/passenger compartment is where the real fun begins. Everything past this point counts as cargo, meaning that the Orbis doesn't need to seek permission from the Federal Aviation Administration to customize the rest of the plane.

But it's far from simply storage space. The "cargo" area comprises a series of rooms for AV, patient care, an operating theater, a sterilization area, space for both pre- and postoperative care, and room for its laser.

The plane employs a modular system, with each room and the section of corridor that runs beside it slotting in as separate components. Walking the length of the plane, it's easy to see the breaks in the floor and the walls that divide up the modules. These can be taken in and out, and can be updated and customized, essentially future-proofing the aircraft for years to come.

"We could reconfigure areas so if something dramatic changes in technology, we can incorporate it relatively easily," Lord said.

You don't have to be aboard the plane to watch the procedures. Orbis streams operations to registered medics all over the world through webinars. As long as they have a smartphone and a 3G cellular connection, doctors can watch and even interact live with the surgeon.

The operating theater sits over the wing, which is the most stable part of the plane and which has reinforced floors to keep it steady. This isn't to say surgery is ever performed in the air, but the operating theater must be rock-solid for the surgeons to perform their delicate operations.

I also got a chance to view the plane's hold, which sits directly underneath the hospital sections. This is where all of the biomedical equipment is stored when the plane is in transit, and it also contains the hospital's air conditioning and filtration systems, its modified power generators and its water purification system. When the plane lands, these are pulled out onto the ground and hooked up to the plane to let it run by itself.

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This flying hospital travels the world curing blindness

Orbis is powered by jet fuel, keeping the entire hospital fully self sufficient. The air filtration system keeps the hospital sterile and appropriately zoned. As such, it's the first non-ground-based hospital to meet US hospital standards and receive full certification, Lord said.

Lord is as passionate about the reach of Orbis and its online training platform as he is about the training equipment on board. This includes virtual reality headsets worn by students so that teachers can see what they see on a second screen as they conduct examinations and can judge whether the procedures are being done correctly.

"Our plane celebrates a marriage between aviation and medicine," said Lord. What aviation has taught medicine is the power of simulation. He pointed to the hours of flight training pilots must complete in simulators before they're allowed to fly a plane. In a simulation, he said, "it doesn't matter if they crash -- no one will be harmed."

Also on board is a state-of-the-art ophthalmic simulator that allows doctors to conduct surgery using real instruments. I watched as a volunteer made an incision into a dummy eyeball, which on the screen by the side looked like a real-life cataract.

"That's what it looks like in real life you look down a microscope, even to the little reflection of the light sources from the microscope," said Lord as he narrated the surgery to me. Training people to have these skills is a crucial part of Orbis' mission to head off blindness with treatment. The organization says of the 39 million blind people worldwide, 32 million cases are avoidable.

"You teach people skills using simulation, and when they're shown to be competent, they then move on to live surgery," said Lord. "It's no longer good enough from a quality and safety side to let people loose on patients when they've never tried and never had demonstrated any skills."

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Inside Orbis, the flying hospital that battles blindness - CNET - CNET

The latest Orbis flying hospital was unveiled in June 2016. The third plane kitted out by Orbis, a nonprofit organization, in its 35-year history, it brings treatment and training to visually impaired people and those who operate on them around the world.

Published March 16, 2017.

Photo by: Katie Collins/CNET

The McDonnell Douglass DC-10 aircraft used by Orbis is an old plane, but has been refitted with all the latest Boeing equipment, ensuring it's well up-to-date.

Photo by: Katie Collins/CNET

Captain Gary Dyson has volunteered for Orbis for over 16 years. He takes breaks a couple of times a year from his day job as a FedEx pilot to fly the plane. He likes to stick around for screening day at every destination and always brings his guitar with him to play for patients as they wait to be seen.

Photo by: Katie Collins/CNET

The passenger compartment doubles as a classroom for doctors and nurses.

Photo by: Katie Collins/CNET

In the audiovisual room, technicians remotely control all of the cameras around the plane using touchscreen tech and ensure they're streaming correctly to onlookers.

Photo by: Katie Collins/CNET

The laser room is used for simpler treatments.

Photo by: Katie Collins/CNET

It's essential for training that the doctors are able to see what their trainees see, so cameras are used everywhere.

Photo by: Katie Collins/CNET

Here, a doctor is using a simulator designed to teach how to perform eye exams.

Photo by: Katie Collins/CNET

The operating theater always has twice the number of doctors and nurses as a normal theater due to trainees observing surgery.

Photo by: Katie Collins/CNET

The plane is on camera from every angle. This makes it easier to stream what happens in the hospital to the outside world.

Photo by: Katie Collins/CNET

Two people can look down these microscopes at any one time.

Photo by: Katie Collins/CNET

Crucial to understanding eye surgery is seeing what happens in 3D, so trainees are equipped with polaroid glasses while they watch the action unfold on 3D screens.

Photo by: Katie Collins/CNET

Every child who has eye surgery on Orbis wakes up with a teddy bear. The teddies are donated by Omega and always wear an eye patch on the same eye as the child.

Photo by: Katie Collins/CNET

These generators travel in the hold of the plane, but are unloaded when it lands to create more room for biomedical staff to work.

Photo by: Katie Collins/CNET

All biomedical equipment is also strapped into the hold when the plane is in transit so that it doesn't get damaged.

Photo by: Katie Collins/CNET

iPhone 8: Everything we know so far

This is all the iPhone 8 reports and rumors in one place. From a 5.8-inch OLED display, reports of wireless charging and even a 3D scanner for facial recognition, it's all here.

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This flying hospital travels the world curing blindness - CNET

Stem cells have been shown to do everything from regrowing skull bones to healing damaged lung tissue to repairing burned skin to fighting brain tumors and much more. They've even been used to restore vision in rabbits. But when three adult women tried an unproven stem-cell treatment at a clinic in Florida to combat vision loss from macular degeneration, they all went blind. A paper detailing the procedure and its tragic results was published today in The New England Journal of Medicine.

The paper was written by Jeffrey Goldberg, a professor of ophthalmology at Stanford University School of Medicine and Thomas Albini, an associate professor of clinical ophthalmology at the University of Miami where two of the three women were treated after complications from the surgery emerged. Goldberg says that the paper is a "call to awareness for patients, physicians and regulatory agencies of the risks of this kind of minimally regulated, patient-funded research."

The women who underwent the procedures aged 72-88 found the opportunity on the website ClinicalTrials.gov, a site where listings are not screened for scientific rigor according to Goldberg. Signing up through such a site gave the women the logical impression that they were going to be participating in a trial, however, Albini says it was anything but.

One warning sign should have been that the women each were made to pay $5000 for the procedures, when in legitimate clinical trials there are rarely fees. Another issue was that there was no mention of a clinical trial in the paperwork the women were asked to complete. The webpage for the study now reflects that it has been withdrawn and, according to the New York Times, the clinic is no longer performing the procedure.

"There's a lot of hope for stem cells, and these types of clinics appeal to patients desperate for care who hope that stem cells are going to be the answer, but in this case these women participated in a clinical enterprise that was off-the-charts dangerous," Albini said.

During the procedures, the women had fat removed from their abdomens. They also had blood taken. The fat was then processed with enzymes meant to isolate stem cells and the resulting material was mixed with plasma from the blood. That mixture was then injected into both eyes of all three patients which is another issue, according to Albini, who says that a cautious researcher would have just used one eye each to see how the procedure went before proceeding.

Because the treatment used biological material that came from the participants themselves, they did not require FDA approval.

Jeffrey Goldberg,MD, PhD, professor and chair of ophthalmology at the Stanford University School of Medicineand co-author of the paper(Credit: Norbert von der Groeben)

Now, one of the women has gone completely blind while two others are considered effectively blind, says a report from NPR. Two of the women have sued the clinic and settled, according to the Times.

Prior to the procedure, all of them were suffering from macular degeneration, a condition that leads to blurry vision and eventual vision loss. While their vision would have no doubt continued to degrade without the procedure, two were still able to see well enough to drive before the procedure. Albini says the complications could have come from injecting a contaminant into the eye, or from the fact that the stem cells may have turned into myofibroblasts after the injections, which are cells associated with scarring.

Proving that stem cell treatments can also be perfectly sound, The New England Journal of Medicine also published a paper today that details a Japanese study that used a type of stem cells known as induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) to treat a subject suffering from macular degeneration. A year later, the patient suffered none of the additional vision loss that would be common with the condition. iPS stem cells have a body of research behind their potential healing abilities, while the fat-based cells used in the procedures do not.

Adding to the flurry of activity regarding stem cells in today's New England Journal of Medicine, was an editorial by leading stem-cell research and dean of Harvard Medical School, George Q. Daley, as well as a piece by a team of researchers entitled "Clarifying Stem-Cell Therapy's Benefits and Risks." Both call for stricter regulation of the stem-cell industry and holding those who operate in that arena accountable to the same rigorous research standards applicable to all scientific advances.

Until then, Albini advises that individuals thinking about stem-cell treatments check out a website called A Closer Look at Stem Cells, while also investigating whether the person proposing to do the treatment is associated with an academic medical center.

"We expect health care providers to take every precaution to ensure patient safety, but this definitely shows that the lack of oversight can lead to bad players and bad outcomes. It's alarming," Albini said.

Link:
Blindness strikes three women after iffy stem-cell treatments - New Atlas

A child is screened for trachoma. The gap in rates of blindness between non-Indigenous and Indigenous Australians has halved since 2008. Photograph: University of Melbourne/AAP

The gap in rates of blindness between non-Indigenous and Indigenous people has halved since 2008, a world-leading ophthalmologist, Prof Hugh Taylor, told a Closing the Gap conference in Melbourne on Thursday.

In 2006 rates of blindness were six times higher for Indigenous people. By 2016 this had dropped across Australia to being three times higher. Taylor said it was an example of how cheap and basic public health measures, such as providing clean water and hygiene, can have a dramatic effect on health.

Thats still a terribly high gap but we have made a lot of progress, said Taylor, from the University of Melbournes Indigenous eye health group.

We think that there has been a significant increase in commonwealth recognition of this problem but we think there is $10m more a year more needed to completely close the vision gap by our target of 2020.

Australia is the only developed country where trachoma is still prevalent and this burden of disease is suffered exclusively in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. The disease was eliminated from mainstream Australia through improved sanitation about 150 years ago. Ten low- or middle-income countries have managed to completely eradicate trachoma before Australia.

The painful disease is caused by the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis and, left untreated, it causes blindness. An infectious disease, it spreads easily, especially between children. Other key causes of blindness and eye disease in Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people are cataracts, diabetes and eye conditions that have not been corrected with glasses.

Simply spreading the message of face and hand washing, and ensuring that Indigenous people had access to clean bathrooms, had gone a long way towards preventing the disease, Taylor said.

He is now pushing the commonwealth government to provide funding so his team can collect more data and identify where rates of eye disease are high and interventions such as antibiotics, improved living conditions and sanitation are needed. This data would be essential to closing the gap in eye health by 2020, he said.

On Thursday, the Closing the Gap steering committee released a report that found that the federal government had failed to listen or act adequately or appropriately to improve health and social outcomes for Aboriginal people. The report found across nearly every government-funded program, interventions were imposed and often rushed.

Darryl Wright, the chief executive of Tharawal (Campbelltown) Aboriginal Medical Service, said interventions to close the gap in health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people had to be led by Aboriginal community-controlled health organisations.

His is one of seven such organisations in New South Wales to have partnered with the Sax Institute in Sydneys Search program, a long-term study of the health and wellbeing of urban Aboriginal Children.

One of Searchs flagship programs is the Hearing, Ear Health and Language Services (Heals) project, which treats Indigenous children who experience middle-ear disease. They suffer from ear diseases earlier, more often and with more complications than non-Indigenous children.

Left untreated it can lead to hearing loss, speech and language delays, and can significantly impact on schooling, ultimately causing difficulties in accessing higher education and employment. Most Aboriginal children in the youth justice system have untreated ear disease.

Wright said since partnering with Heals, more than 100 children in the region had received free surgery. Hundreds more had received treatment for associated conditions such as speech impediments.

We go into schools and give kids hearing tests, and if problems are found we encourage them to come to the medical service for treatment, he said.

The results are amazing. You can see the result from the kids eyes and their faces. They can hear properly, they can pronounce words properly, and the doctors and speech therapists just love their work because they can see the difference they are making.

We have heard so many stories of teachers and parents thinking these kids are lazy at school but in fact they had untreated hearing problems that were affecting their behaviour and education.

Since 2013 more than 7,000 speech and language sessions and ear, nose and throat surgeries have been delivered in NSW as part of Heals.

This type of program should be available to everyone with an Aboriginal background in Australia

Dr Hasantha Gunasekera, the Heals program manager and a doctor at The Childrens Hospital at Westmead, said despite the programs proven success, funding from the NSW government needed to be secured every year.

He said the interventions were relatively cheap but saved significant costs in the long run. Its great that NSW has provided funding so far, but one-off funding is not the best way to do this, Gunasekera said.

What we need is recurrent funding so we can plan services across the year and expand so that screening and treatment is not just available to those areas where we have research partnerships.

I would argue that this type of program should be available to everyone with an Aboriginal background in Australia.

The key to the programs success had been the leadership shown by Aboriginal community-controlled health organisations, he said.

They organise appointments, arrange access to schools and appointments with therapists, they talk to families, he said. Its another example of where this can work can be a good news story for Aboriginal people if everyone works together.

Original post:
Gap in Indigenous blindness rates halved in nine years, expert says - The Guardian

In the United States, roughly 10% of all infants are born prematurely. And while premature infants face a number of health problems in their first few weeks, one of the most devastating and preventable illness is a condition called Retinopathy of Prematurity. This is a condition that can cause permanent blindness in infants, and it is also one that an attentive medical staff can prevent.

Mike Papantonio is joined by attorney Virginia Buchanan to explain why this is happening and what you need to know to keep your newborn safe.

For more information on Retinopathy of Prematurity Medical Errors, visit Infant Blindness Malpractice

Transcript of the above video:

Papantonio: The Centers for Disease Control tell us that one out of every ten babies born in the United States is born prematurely. And while premature births steadily decreased between 2007 and 2014, 2015 saw a slight increase in the number of babies born early. Thats the most recent year of full data.

Doctors currently dont have an answer as to why the number of pre-term births are rising, but they are well aware of the difficulties and health problems that pre-term infants go through.

In order to help pre-term infants survive, they are often placed on breathing machines, supplied with feeding tubes, given medications, and kept in incubation until they are able to survive without the help of doctors and nurses. But even with all of these precautions, problems still persist, and some of those problems can actually be made worse by these measures.

One of those problems is Retinopathy of Prematurity, a condition that has become common in pre-term infants with low birth weights. This condition is an eye disease that typically is corrected and results in no long term health effects for the child. But each year, more than 1,200 severe cases of Retinopathy occur. These severe cases can result in the complete detachment of the retina or blindness, and as many as 500 newborn infants go blind as a result.

Retinopathy of Prematurity is responsible for 15% of all childhood blindness cases in developed countries, and it is responsible for as much as 60% of cases of blindness in children in middle income countries. Whats worse is that this disease can be prevented and treated if caught early enough, but that requires attentive care from doctors, nurses, and pediatricians. And a caregiver that doesnt pay attention to the warning signs can cause a child to go their entire life without the ability to see.

What happens with this disease is that the blood vessels in the eyes dont develop properly, a condition that can be easily detected with standard medical equipment. Once the pre-term child has been born, these under-developed blood vessels can begin leaking blood into the eye, resulting in scarring that leads to partial or complete detachment of the retina.

Again, caregivers are well aware of the signs and symptoms of this disease, and simple tests can be performed to determine if a pre-term child is at risk. But a negligent caregiver that ignores the warning signs or simply fails to perform the necessary tests or refer the family to a specialist can doom a child to a life of hardship, surgeries, and possible blindness.

Papantonio: Joining me now to explain the risk of this disease and how negligent caregivers play a role in childhood blindness is attorney Virginia Buchanan whos represented the families of infants whove suffered from retinopathy of prematurity. Virginia, first explain exactly what this disease does and how it can cause blindness in preterm infants. How does it work?

Virginia: Yes, Michael, as you were saying, this is a worldwide problem and its one that affects about 15,000 infants in this country each year. There are a large number of premature infants and out of those, the 15,000 who have it, most recover fully, as you say, but about 1,200 of them have very severe retinopathy of prematurity. What that means is that thin liner behind the eye that serves to reflect light and that plays a key role in vision, becomes scarred and causing the retina to detach. The retina has the thickness of, like a saran wrap, a clear plastic wrap, and it has the strength of wet tissue. Therefore, it is very vulnerable any its very susceptible to injury. When these blood vessels scar by rupturing and pulling, the retina detaches resulting in visual loss.

What we encourage the American Academy of Pediatrics, all of the professional ophthalmology organizations encourage serial examinations of preterm babies. Particularly those infants who are under 31 weeks and under three pounds, theyre encouraged to have serial exams because all you can tell initially is that the baby has abnormal blood vessels. Typically, you dont see detachment immediately.

Papantonio: Virginia, let me ask you this, how does negligence or substandard care factor into the prevalence of this problem? When we analyze everything, this condition, what are the caregivers doing or what are the not doing that cause this to be a bigger problem than it should be? How does it progress in some infants?

Virginia: Yeah, thats an excellent question. Because, when you look at those 1,200 that we are saying who have very severe untreated retinopathy of prematurity, and you compare them to the other premature, very low birth weight babies, some being blind, some not, what we see is those who are able to recover from the condition have these serial assessments by ophthalmologist who are trained to look for these abnormal blood vessels and to administer treatment. There are a series of things that can be done and those babies who go on to have, maybe some visual impairment, they might need glasses, but they have good vision, theyre able to be fully functional, they have those serial assessments. They go, and really beginning just a few weeks after birth, they start having these assessments.

The frequency of them depends upon the amount of abnormalities seen at each successive exam, but for example, a stage 1 and early retinopathy of prematurity still has to be followed because it can progress. Even as a child goes on and matures over time, and the eye grows, and the body grows, the retina can detach even beyond that immediate timeframe where the infant is truly still premature.

Papantonio: I know you get calls on this. Youre a specialist in medical malpractice, and youre seeing more of these calls, and Im wondering what do medical professionals, if you had the chance to give a speech to medical professionals who are very well trained in this kind of care, what is it that you would tell them that they can maybe improve to detect this disease that maybe United States hospitals need to be doing? What tools are needed to detect this problem? How do we improve the system?

Virginia: We do it by what weve recognized for 75 years since the first study was done, these babies can be put under just an ophthalmoscope. The blood vessels can be appreciated as being abnormal and they have to have serial examinations. Its very simple. This is not undergo a great surgery, bringing in all the worlds specialists, this is something that any pediatric ophthalmologist can do, and every pediatrician, every primary care doctor who sees a baby with a history of being premature or low birth weight should be immediately sent for screening. Thats what the American Academy of Pediatrics has long recommended. Weve had treatment for at least 30 years and those treatments continue to be honed and improved. Its something that should be done.

This is one of those very sad, preventable outcomes, which as you said, is devastating. For an infant to exist with very low visual acuity or no visual acuity at all is a tragedy. It ends up really costing society, more than just for that child, it affects everyone when we have these children needlessly blinded because of not getting the examinations and the treatment that they should be getting. Its well within our reach.

Papantonio: Virginia, theres checklists. In other words, every doctor or caregiver is confronted with: These are the things we do when we have a preemie. This is the thing we need to do when this occurs. This is one of those things on that checklist that are there, but it has to be followed. Where would you put it in that checklist, just in your experience having to handle so many cases, where would you put it in that checklist? In the top five? In the top three? Where would it go?

Virginia: Oh, it would be right after those first well-care items where we check the babys height, and length, and head circumference, where were looking for very severe anomalies that need to be treated. This is one of those. It falls right under it. It really has to be a priority to every physician who takes care of a pediatric patient to get that prior history, whether the baby moves away, or grows, or the doctor changes, whatever happens, that they have a complete and accurate history of the prematurity or the low birth weight, so they know, their sense should be heightened to that risk existing in that child, and that they send the baby out for assessments. My own child has a coloboma and has to see a pediatric ophthalmologist. They also should.

Papantonio: One thing I read though is that mothers arent, theres all types of things that mothers learn when theyre getting ready to give birth to a child. This isnt something thats really built well into that, that mothers should know more about to where they can take self-help measures to say, Doc, I know youre doing your job, but gee wiz, did you check this out? Isnt that the kind of thing, dont you find sometimes that the patients are too slow to ask the doctor and say to the doctor, What about this? In this situation, dont you think the mother has to know and this has to be talked about prior to the time of the birth? Whats your take on that?

Virginia: Absolutely. I agree. You can be the very best advocate for your child and yourself. We all encourage, certainly in the work that I do, that we as consumers have to be proactive. We should ask those questions. Things get missed, we get shuffled about, we deal with other people taking a history, and the doctor doesnt appreciate the problem, and we certainly should ask, and we should keep asking because this is not a one time assessment. Once youre born prematurely, you have to have serial evaluations done.

Papantonio: Yeah, let me close with this. I know youve given speeches on this. Patients have to ask questions of their doctor. Sometimes theyre afraid to do that. Theres this notion in our culture that the doctor knows everything. Well, a patient has to take some self-help measures, this is one of them. Virginia, thank you for joining me. I appreciate it.

Virginia: Thank you.

See original here:
Medical Negligence Leads To Blindness In Infants - America's ... - The Ring of Fire Network

The Virginia Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired celebrates the graduation of Angelica Rios from the American Massage & Bodywork Institute on Friday, March 17.Angelica has had an incredible journey from her birth in Peru to graduation day. At the age of 27, Rios was a victim of a terrorist attack that claimed the life of her son and caused major physical injury to herself, including the loss of vision.

Through the years that followed, Angelica continued to live and raise a family. It wasnt until 2016 that she chose to chase her dream of independence and a career of her own. She reached out to the American Massage & Bodywork Institute and spoke with Scott Deidun, Co-owner, President, and CEO about the type of support she could receive. Upon meeting Angelica, she told me about her history, and it made me want to help her more and more. Having a disabled niece, I knew that all you want is for people to treat you normally and to give you a chance. Angelica told me that she wanted to be more independent, and to be able to provide for herself, but that the only job she has had in the states was folding silverware in cloth napkins at a restaurant for minimum wage, stated Deidun. In front of me was a person on a mission for a better life because she knew she was capable of more. English wasnt Angelicas first language, and she cant see anything, but her heart is as big as a basketball, and she had such a strong desire to help others, and be a role model for the visually impaired community.

After their meeting, Deidun contacted the Virginia Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired to find out what support could be provided to Rios within their program. Through their collaboration, Rios is graduating from the 7-month program to become a licensed massage therapist in the Northern Virginia area. The ceremony will be held from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on March 17at the American Massage & Bodywork Institute, 1593 Spring Hill Rd, Suite 210 (East Concourse), Vienna, VA 22182.

The Virginia Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired is committed to provide quality services to assist Virginians who are blind, deafblind or vision impaired in achieving their maximum level of employment, education, and personal independence. The department provides an array of specialized services to blind and visually impaired Virginians of all ages to assist them in attaining the skills, confidence and positive outlook that are critical to independence.

More here:
Reaching Goals With Blindness - Alexandrianews.org

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NAS Issues Report on Preparing for Future Products of Biotechnology - JD Supra (press release)

GRAND ISLAND When she gets home after basketball practice, Hayley Henke appreciates the chance to soak in the familys hot tub. The fact that the hot tub is outside doesnt bother her, even when the weather is cold.

The hot water brings relief to her knees.

Henke, 13, has juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, which causes joint inflammation and stiffness.

Henke returned to Nebraska earlier this month from Washington, D.C., where she was one of two Nebraska representatives at the Arthritis Foundation Advocacy Summit.

For Henke, the discomfort is worse when she gets up in the morning or after shes been active. An eighth-grader at Central Catholic school in Grand Island, she takes part in volleyball, basketball and track.

The arthritis bothers her fingers, ankles, toes and wrists, but the greatest pain is in her knees.

After shes been running a while, she sometimes has to take a break at practice. Last year, she ran the 400 meters in track, but this spring she will concentrate on the 100- and 200-meter dashes, because the longer distances are harder on her knees.

Henke was diagnosed with arthritis when she was in first grade. The pain was so bad that Henke would sometimes curl up in her mothers lap.

Henke has undergone 10 knee surgeries. During those procedures, a doctor scopes the knee to assess damage to the joints, drains the fluid and injects steroids.

Both of her knees will have to be replaced before she turns 18.

Henke was one of about 45 people who spoke at the Capitol this month to an audience that included members of Congress. She also met with Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) and people who work on medical issues for Sen. Ben Sasse and Rep. Adrian Smith.

Henke urged the Nebraskans to join the Congressional Arthritis Caucus. Nebraska is one of five states not represented in that group. The health representative from Smiths office seemed especially interested in her information, Henke said.

In her talks, Henke told her story and reminded people that children and teenagers can be victims of arthritis.

Stephanie Henke appreciates her daughters strength. Its been fun to watch her grow and be able to speak to the groups in Washington, she said.

As a Junior Platinum Ambassador for the Arthritis Foundation, Henke is given a monthly task to call attention to arthritis.

Every Sunday, Stephanie injects a medicine called methotrexate into her daughters thigh. That drug prevents joint damage.

After each one of her knee surgeries, she needs crutches or a wheelchair to get around for about a week.

When she wakes up each morning, she knows if the weather is about to change. She feels stiffness or pain in her joints.

Because rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease, regular illnesses take a greater toll on Henke.

She ended up in the hospital last year for just a common flu, her mom said. That hospital stay lasted five or six days.

Henke is also partially blind in one of her eyes from the arthritis.

Because of the support of local Shriners, Henke receives medical care at Shriners Hospitals for Children in Minneapolis.

She also sees a childrens rheumatologist twice a year in Omaha.

Link:
13-year-old with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis visits DC - Omaha World-Herald

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a particularly nasty form of arthritis. While the more common form of arthritis osteoarthritis typically results from use and overuse of joints which wear down protective cartilage, RA is known to result from autoimmunity. The immune system is misdirected to attack the lining of joints, causing swelling, severe pain, and if not treatedjoint destruction. Not only the joints are affected, however. RA involves an inflammatory process that can affect many body organs, including the skin, heart, lungs and bone marrow. For example, it's known that RA sufferers have a higher risk of developing osteoporosis.

Of course, just because autoimmunity is involved doesn't mean that external factors can't or don't play an important role in instigating the disease. And recent research published in Science Translational Medicine suggests how good dental care might well be an important factor in preventing the onset of RA.

The investigators, led by Dr. Maximilian Koenig from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, explained that mucosal surfaces such as those of the gums, lungs and GI tract have long been suspected as possible sites of RA initiation. In fact in the early part of the 20th century, pulling all a patient's teeth was thought to be a means of treating RA it didn't work, though.

This recent study investigated the possibility that a bacterium associated with periodontal disease Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans (Aa) could be the initiator of the autoimmune feature of RA. The investigators noted that Aa, of all the other identified microbes, was the only one known that could produce the spectrum of antigens found in the joints of individuals with RA.

To investigate this possibility, they collected fluid from the gum regions ofpeople with periodontal disease and from those of controls and analyzed them for the presence of altered proteins those which had been "citrullinated"1 which are known to be immune system targets.Further, they identifieda pore-forming toxin, leukotoxin A (LtxA) produced by Aa which triggers the production of the citrullinated proteins.And the immune system will make antibodies to such proteins the autoantibodies.They determined that62 percent of individuals with periodontitis had antibodies to LtxA, compared to only 11 percent of controls without periodontal disease (a statistically significant difference). Also, these antibodies were significantly enriched in patients with RA compared to healthy patients without periodontitis.

In sum, people with periodontitis are more likely to have the Aa bacterial toxin and thus more likely to produce targets (citrullinated proteins) for the immune system. This in turn, links periodontal disease and rheumatoid arthritis.

While these data are certainly not the last word in RA initiation, they are reasonable evidence that the disease can be triggered by the products of this particular bacterium, and could provide a means of identifying those at risk of developing the condition. At the very least, they underline the importance of good dental hygiene and health.

1. A citrullinated protein is one in which the amino acid arginine is converted to the amino acid citrulline. This change affects the way the protein folds and functions.

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Brush and Floss to Prevent Rheumatoid Arthritis - American Council on Science and Health

March 14, 2017

Arthritis diagnoses are at an all-time high in the United States, affecting 54 million adults, Anne Schuchat, M.D., acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a recent press conference. And that number is expected to grow to 78 million adults by 2040, she added.

The March 7 media event was held in conjunction with the release of a new Vital Signs report about the condition, which the CDC produced by analyzing data from the National Health Interview Survey.

In addition to the sheer numbers, Schuchat said she found alarming the number of people who are limited by the condition. Twenty-four million people with arthritis now have trouble doing things such as kneeling on the ground, holding a cup, lifting a grocery bag or walking to the car, she said.

Among adults with arthritis, the percentage whose lives are particularly limited has increased by about 20% since 2002, from about 36% in 2002 to 43% in 2015,she said.

Schuchat recommended that physicians and other professional caregivers encourage older adults to exercise and attend disease management programs, where they can learn to reduce their symptoms by 10 to 20%.

Physical activity can decrease pain and improve function by almost 40%, she said, but only about one-third of adults with arthritis report being active.

In the past, people with arthritis may have been told not to be active in fear of making their arthritis worse, Schuchat said. It's now proven that being physically active can be helpful, and there are ways to be active that can accommodate physical limitations from arthritis.

Schuchat suggested that older adults with arthritis try walking, biking, swimming or participating in other exercise, starting slowly and building up to longer periods of activity.

Exercise also presents an alternative to the opioids that some adults with arthritis may be prescribed for pain, aching, stiffness and swelling of the joints, Schuchat said. It also can help with depression and other chronic diseases, including heart disease and diabetes, that have been linked to the condition, she said.

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Arthritis is at an all-time high, CDC says - McKnight's Senior Living - McKnight's Senior Living

Fresh off a third-place finish in the 2017 Burton U.S. Open slopestyle competition, Olympian and five-time X Games medalist Spencer OBrien is arguably one of the sports most progressive and talented riders. But thats the stuff of headlines.

Behind the scenes, the Canadian, 29, has fought her way through painful rheumatoid arthritis since a 2013 diagnosis, just two months before the Sochi Winter Olympics.

The year before OBriens genetic condition was identified was torture. Advancing swelling and stiffness made it nearly impossible to get out of bed, let alone launch off of a lofty, icy slopestyle feature.

I was like an 80-year-old woman, but I was only 25, OBrien told GrindTV. Id go to the gym and have morning stiffness for five hours. It was mind-blowing that I let it go on that long.

But it wasnt surprising. Onset of her arthritis was slow, it often presented as injury and no one in OBriens immediate family had it. It was hard to diagnose.

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In the morning I would have creaky, achy knees, but it would subside. You adapt to it, she says. I thought I was just getting older. I do an impact sport, so I thought it was normal aches and pains. You get blinded by the pain.

In fact, the arthritic inflammation of OBriens joints was especially awful in her shoulders. By Olympic trials time, she couldnt lift her arms over her head. There were cortisone shots, a progressing cyst in her knee and scary joint inflammation in her toes.

Id have to prep myself to lift my head off the pillow, she says. Putting my feet on the ground was so hard.

From trauma to treatment Once doctors finally nailed the issue, OBrien was exhausted mentally and physically. Amazingly, she has continued to compete as shes dialed in medical treatment over the years.

Now she injects a refrigerated shot in her thigh once a month for prolonged relief. While the immune suppressant helps ward off the bodys inflammatory response, it also makes OBrien more susceptible to infection, which means she can get sick easily.

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Even small cuts, if they were to infect the blood or bones, could be deadly.

Im a young woman, so I dont want to be on this injection forever, OBrien says. But for now, its working. Theres more hope: Rheumatoid arthritis can go into remission. However, the trade-off is going off the medicine, and OBrien is not ready to test that just yet.

An elimination diet is another alternative something shes researching. But first theres more snowboarding to prepare for, which, for OBrien, includes extensive dryland training more than most in her sport will do.

Im focused on the [2018 PyeongChang, South Korea] Olympics now. It would be amazing to go again for Canada, says OBrien, who, newly diagnosed at Sochi, didnt even make it to the opening and closing ceremonies.

I finally feel my age again, OBrien says, like a fully able-bodied person.

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Pro snowboarder Spencer O'Brien overcomes odds of early arthritis - GrindTV