Fluorescent Peptides Make Nerves Glow During Surgery

 Image: NP41 highlighting buried nerve branches invisible by standard illumination (photo courtesy University of California, San Diego).

Source:

HospiMedica International staff writers

http://www.hospimedica.com/?option=com_article&Itemid=294733579&cat=Surgical+Techniques&ui=1960149838&vrf=3ef5d7cad7e81077c42186fce74ceed6&end=%2520

Injectable fluorescent peptides that cause hard-to-see peripheral nerves to glow could alert surgeons to their location, even before the nerves are encountered.

The Latest Asthma Breakthroughs Can Help Your Child

Source:

Victoria Clayton, Special to Lifescript

Published December 25, 2010

http://www.lifescript.com/Health/Conditions/Allergies/How_the_Latest_Asthma_Breakthroughs_Can_Help_Your_Child.aspx?utm_campaign=2010-12-25-68934&utm_source=healthy-advantage&utm_medium=email&utm_content=healthy-well-wise_How%20the%20Latest%20Asthma%20&FromNL=1&sc_date=20101225T000000

Breakthrough: Tylenol (acetaminophen) use linked to asthma.

The research low-down: A large study published this year in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine found a link between asthma symptoms and acetaminophen use. 

The more acetaminophen children took, the more asthma episodes they experienced, according to the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC), which looked at 322,959 adolescents in 50 countries.

“In the mid-1970s, we found the link between Reye’s syndrome and aspirin use in children,” says Bradley E. Chipps, M.D., an American Academy of Pediatrics spokesman.“Then we all jumped to Tylenol because we were afraid of aspirin. Now it’s time to rethink Tylenol.” 

What to do: Chipps, an allergy and asthma specialist in Sacramento, Calif., now recommends ibuprofen instead of acetaminophen for his young patients.

“While there’s risk associated with taking any kind of medication [even over-the-counter painkillers], ibuprofen sensitivity in adolescents and children is less than 1%,” he says. “I feel better recommending it.”

But talk to your pediatrician, before avoiding acetaminophen products for your children.

Cancer Drug Shortages Are Placing Patients at Risk

Source:

Zosia Chustecka

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/732883?src=mp&spon=24

November 19, 2010 — Across the United States, shortages of many critical drugs, including several cancer drugs, are placing patients at risk.

"The oncology community is experiencing severe and worsening shortages of many critical therapies, including but not limited to doxorubicin, leucovorin, etoposide, nitrogen mustard, vincristine, propofol, and morphine," the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) announced this week.

"The lives and well-being of cancer patients — including children — are at risk," said Michael Link, MD, president-elect of ASCO and pediatric oncologist at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University, California.