| THE UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND |
The new method will allow doctors to work out an individual's potential to recover hand and arm function just three days after a stroke and set realistic goals for rehabilitation.
Image: rackermann/iStockphoto
In work that may revolutionise rehabilitation for stroke patients, researchers from The University of Auckland and the Auckland District Health Board have shown it is possible to predict an individual’s potential for recovery of hand and arm function after a stroke.
The new approach can be used to personalise rehabilitation so that patients and therapists set realistic goals for recovery. It may also improve outcomes of trials that evaluate new therapies, by identifying patients who are most likely to respond to specific treatments. “One in six people worldwide will have a stroke in their lifetime,” says principal investigator Professor Winston Byblow. “After stroke, impairment of the arm and hand is very common and has a major impact on independence and quality of life. “Until now it has only been possible to group patients together according to their broad similarity to others who have already gone through upper limb rehabilitation, but this information cannot inform an individual patient’s rehabilitation plan. We have developed the first clinical algorithm to actually predict the individual patient’s potential for recovery based on information gathered before rehabilitation begins.” The lead author of the study, Dr Cathy Stinear explains: “The algorithm begins with a bedside test within three days of stroke. The test takes only a few minutes and requires no special equipment. This is sufficient to provide a prediction for many patients, but for others an additional test is required to measure the integrity of neural pathways from the brain to the arm. If this test gives no definitive result, an MRI assessment can be performed to better determine whether the pathways in the stroke-damaged side of the brain remain viable.” The research team have trialled the process in patients and followed their recovery. “When the tests are combined in our stepwise algorithm they accurately predict each patient’s recovery at 12 weeks, which is around the time that therapy normally ends,” says Dr Stinear. Neurologist Professor Alan Barber, a member of the research team and Head of the Auckland Hospital Stroke Service, says that the findings are very significant. “This is the first study to predict an individual’s potential for motor recovery using measures obtained from that patient in the initial days after stroke. This information can be used to tailor rehabilitation before it begins.” The team is now involved in a three-year trial of the algorithm within the hospital. The results will show whether the algorithm leads to improved outcomes for patients and increases the efficiency of rehabilitation services. The team’s work was published in the journal Brain. It was funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand.
Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here.
|
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Stroke recovery can be predicted
Dual-virus linked to prostate cancer
| THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES |
The researchers caution that the presence of both HPV and EBV is not conclusive of a role in prostate cancer.
Image: courtneyk/iStockphoto
Two common viruses known to be associated with human cancers are both present – and may even be collaborating with each other - in most male prostate cancers, a new study suggests.
The research has revealed that both the human papilloma virus (HPV) and Epstein Barr virus (EBV) are present in more than half of malignant prostate cancers found in Australian men, as well as in a high proportion of benign and normal prostate samples. Details of the study, led by Associate Professor Noel Whitaker and Professor James Lawson, of the UNSW School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, are published in the journal The Prostate. The research team included other UNSW researchers and colleagues from the Department of Forensic Medicine Sydney South West Area Health Service and Douglass, Hanly, Moir Pathology. “Recent unpublished experimental evidence by other researchers suggests that HPV and EBV can collaborate to promote the survival and proliferation of cancer cells, so our findings may well have important implications for understanding and preventing prostate cancer,” says Professor Whitaker. “Significantly, in our prostate samples we found a high-risk strain known as HPV 18, which is known to be associated with other human cancers. “HPV 18 is a common high-risk strain in Australia and is a specific target of the Gardasil vaccine now offered free to teenage girls to protect against cervical cancer. “We note recent proposals to offer Gardasil to Australian teenage boys as well, with the aim of preventing the spread of the virus to women through sexual contact. If HPV 18 is also associated with prostate cancers, as our research suggests, vaccinating boys may yet prove to have an unexpected direct benefit for them as well.” Earlier research by Professor Whitaker’s team has found that HPV is present in about 40% of breast cancers as well. The new study found that HPV alone is present in about 70% of the malignant prostate cancers sampled. EBV has also been linked to head and neck cancers, particularly in south-east Asian countries: like HPV, it is spread mostly by close skin contact, leading it to be dubbed “the kissing disease”. While HPV has been detected before in prostate cancers, this is one of only a few – and the first in Australia – to confirm the presence of both high-risk HPV and EBV in the same cancer tissues. “I should caution that their presence is not conclusive of a role in prostate cancer,” says Professor Whitaker. “But given their well-established track record with other cancers, it would seem quite unlikely that they are harmless.”
Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here.
|
Electronic nose helps find tumour
| THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES |
| THURSDAY, 02 AUGUST 2012 |
Malignant mesothelioma is a rare form of cancer that is linked to long term asbestos exposure.
Image: ChrisPole/iStockphoto
Australian researchers have developed a breath test using an electronic nose to help diagnose malignant mesothelioma in its early stages, a potentially life-saving move.
The non-invasive test was created by a team lead at the University of New South Wales. The device was designed to distinguish between benign and malignant disease and to detect disease early. “If you catch it earlier your chances of actually giving people the right treatment to stop it spreading are actually better,” says study team leader, Associate Professor Deborah Yates. “We tried to exclude the other asbestos diseases because it’s very important from a patient’s point of view that you don’t pick up something that is a benign asbestos disease, so that you don’t diagnose them with something that’s not actually a problem.” Asbestos-related disease affects thousands of people in Australia, which has one of the highest age-specific rates of mesothelioma in the world*. Malignant mesothelioma is a rare tumour that has traditionally been difficult to diagnose in its early stages. Globally, up to 20,000 people die each year as a result of the disease. The researchers say conventional techniques for distinguishing between benign and malignant asbestos-related disease are inaccurate, invasive and difficult for the mostly elderly patients with the illness. Associate Professor Yates and her team analysed breath samples from 20 patients with malignant mesothelioma, along with 18 people with asbestos-related diseases and 42 control subjects in the study of which the results are published in the European Respiratory Journal. In the study, patients with malignant disease, asbestos-related diseases and control patients were correctly identified in 88% of cases. The study authors say exhaled breath profiling can accurately distinguish between each of these groups of patients using the carbon polymer array electronic nose, a technique that could eventually translate into a screening tool for high-risk populations.
Editor's Note: The original press release was not available at the time of publishing. Please refer to the UNSW newsroom for more information.
|
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)