Environmental Medicine News

The News Review:

- CARDIOVASCULAR MEDICINE: Should your patient have CABG or stents?(coro…
- Researchers Develop New Method To Control Complex Systems
- PLANNING A CLIMB
- Museums - washingtonpost.com
- Injury blow to All Blacks
- ‘Missing Link’ Stem Cells may Shorten Path to Therapies

CARDIOVASCULAR MEDICINE: Should your patient have CABG or stents?(coro…
Free with registration - The Practitioner - AccessMyLibrary.com - Jun 29, 2007
Author: Professor David Taggart MD PhD FRCS Professor of Cardiovascular Surgery, University of Oxford, and consultant cardiac surgeon, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford Patients with significant coronary artery disease can present with a spectrum of symptoms that range from the very subtle to the very obvious. In some patients chest discomfort may be clearly pleuritic or musculoskeletal in nature and does not require referral. However, in other patients who describe a history of chest discomfort, particularly of recent onset, related to exercise and radiating to the arms and neck, there should be a high suspicion that this represents coronary artery disease. Patients with these symptoms should always be referred early for further assessment, urgently if the symptoms are of recent onset or rapidly escalating, to delineate the extent and severityof coronary artery disease. This will determine if the disease is prognostically important and whether it can be controlled with medical therapy or requires invasive intervention. However, it is impossible to determine the prognostic significance of coronary artery disease on history alone.

Researchers Develop New Method To Control Complex Systems
Science Daily - Science Daily (press release) - Jun 29, 2007
By changing the feedback signal, the researchers were able to direct the system to change its activity - to spontaneous synchronization, desynchronization or cluster formation, which are patterns found in biological systems. The experiments suggest that these signals may be used either to tune essential behavior - what pacemakers do to regulate an irregular heartbeat - or alter pathological behavior - which is what deep-brain “anti-pacemakers” do to stop the tremors caused by Parkinson’s or other diseases. In such applications, a mild control is ideal because it can tune the system to the desired behavior without destroying its fundamental nature. Mild controls also have the potential to reduce side effects and increase the battery life of medical devices. “You’re trying to gently steer the system to go where you want it to go,” said John L. “Jack” Hudson, Wills Johnson Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Virginia’s School of Engineering and Applied Science. “Sometimes you want to create order in the system and sometimes you want to destroy that order… “Sometimes you want to create order in the system and sometimes you want to destroy that order. The challenge is to dial up complex structures with mild inputs in order to change the system’s behavior. ”
The scientists’ combined theoretical and experimental work offers a simple, yet flexible engineering method that may have potential applications in various fields, including communications, systems biology, chemical reaction engineering and medicine, where this research might eventually be used to improve existing treatments and develop new ones for tremors or seizures, among other chronic conditions. This research was published online May 24 in Science Express, on the Web site of the prestigious journal Science, which is used to highlight important papers accepted for publication by the journal. The paper also will appear in the upcoming print edition of Science. Along with Hudson, two of the researchers - István Z. Kiss, research scientist; and Craig G.

PLANNING A CLIMB
Houston Chronicle - Jun 29, 2007
To acclimate our bodies, we had taken as many precautions as possible. We avoided a direct route to the summit and took a more gradual and scenic trail, padding the schedule with an extra day to help us adjust to the elevation. We walked slowly, drank uncomfortably large amounts of water each day and took small doses of a medicine called Diamox, which counters the symptoms of mountain sickness. (Helpful tip: Diamox is a diuretic and, combined with lots of water and a barren landscape, makes for some immodest moments on the trail. )

Seeking motivation

The general rule is that hikers should gain no more than 1,000 feet a day. In the final ascent, we would be climbing more than 4,000 feet. Our plan was to hike through the coldest part of the night so that the powdery sand and ice beneath our feet would be firm… ” Surely, the impulse is a little more complex than a commercial for shoes. Maybe the urge to climb above the world is about the drive to conquer the worst forces of nature, to feel less constrained by earthbound limits and reach for something great and eternal. Or maybe it’s not so much about getting closer to God or nature as it’s a way of getting closer to ourselves. Either way, my own reasons were far more shallow. I went for some adventure, fresh air, to see the best view in Africa and to forget things like my computer user names and “anytime minutes. ” I didn’t go to learn anything about myself. But that was naive.

Museums - washingtonpost.com
Washington Post - Jun 29, 2007
Fourth and Independence SW. 202-633-1000 (TDD: 202-633-5285). NATIONAL MUSEUM OF HEALTH AND MEDICINE"Gregor Mendel: Planting the Seeds of Genetics," through Sept. Open indefinitely: "Cartoonists Take Up Smoking"; "Evolution of the Microscope"; "From a Single Cell"; "Human Body, Human Being"; "To Bind Up the Nation’s Wounds. " Open daily 10 to 5:30. Armed Forces Institute of Pathology,… 202-633-1000 (TDD: 202-633-9849). NATURAL HISTORY"Emissaries of Peace: The 1762 Cherokee and British Delegations," through Sept. Open indefinitely: "African Voices"; "Forces of Change: Global Links, El Nino’s Powerful Reach"; "Frozen in Time: The Iceman"; Korea Gallery; "Life in the Ancient Seas"; "Native Alaskan Cultures"; "T-Rex";.

Injury blow to All Blacks
NEWS.com.au - Jun 29, 2007
He said he rated Australia ahead of South Africa, but brushed aside suggestion he would be a target for the Wallabies. Australian flanker George Smith this week said McCaw, on the receiving end of several ugly incidents in last year’s Tests, had better be braced for a physical onslaught in front of a crowd of about 90,000. But McCaw, who will line up opposite Smith, said his rival flanker should expect some of his own medicine. "We’d like to think we’d do it legally," McCaw said. "The whole 15, if it goes well, you eliminate guys like that because you’re going forward. "
Asked if he was expecting the Wallabies to stay within the legal confines of the game, McCaw said: "I don’t know, there’s probably one or two that are not. "
But McCaw backed away from labelling Australia a dirty team, despite being tackled head-first into the ground by winger Lote Tuqiri in the corresponding clash last year… Tuqiri was hit with an 11-week suspension for the tackle. "I’ve always found playing Australia that both teams are there to get the ball and play rugby - and that’s all you can ask," he said. McCaw said the Wallabies proved the physical nature of their game in their loss to the Springboks a fortnight ago. "The Wallabies showed a physical side to their game against South Africa," he said. "I think they’ve got probably a bit more talent in the backs to be able to use the ball, so that adds up to be a bigger challenge for us, I think. "
All Blacks whiz Daniel Carter said New Zealand could strike another psychological blow against the Wallabies by ruining the final game in Melbourne for George Gregan and Stephen Larkham. Both Gregan and Larkham, who are set to take up European contracts next year, will use the World Cup as their swansong.

‘Missing Link’ Stem Cells may Shorten Path to Therapies
MedIndia - Jun 29, 2007
"They are a missing link between mouse and human embryonic stem cells," Roger Pedersen, who headed a research team at Cambridge University, told AFP. The other group was led by Ronald McKay at Oxford. Both studies, published in Nature, were hailed by other scientists as a breakthrough that would shed light on the origin of human embryo stem cells and help fulfill the rich promise of cell-based medicine. Adult bone-marrow stem cells are already used in the treatment of leukemia, and experiments suggest stems cells could also yield effective treatments for Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease, spinal cord injury, heart disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis, and numerous other illnesses. One of the great challenges of cell biology is figuring out how stem cells — found in embryos and in certain adult tissues — remain unspecialized or "pluripotent," maintaining the capacity to become virtually any type of cell found in blood, nerves and individual organs. Another difficulty is identifying the molecular signals that trigger this transformation. Scientists have successfully grown mice embryo stem-cell lines in the laboratory for decades, and human ones since the late 1990s… "They are a missing link between mouse and human embryonic stem cells," Roger Pedersen, who headed a research team at Cambridge University, told AFP. The other group was led by Ronald McKay at Oxford. Both studies, published in Nature, were hailed by other scientists as a breakthrough that would shed light on the origin of human embryo stem cells and help fulfill the rich promise of cell-based medicine. Adult bone-marrow stem cells are already used in the treatment of leukemia, and experiments suggest stems cells could also yield effective treatments for Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease, spinal cord injury, heart disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis, and numerous other illnesses. One of the great challenges of cell biology is figuring out how stem cells — found in embryos and in certain adult tissues — remain unspecialized or "pluripotent," maintaining the capacity to become virtually any type of cell found in blood, nerves and individual organs. Another difficulty is identifying the molecular signals that trigger this transformation. Scientists have successfully grown mice embryo stem-cell lines in the laboratory for decades, and human ones since the late 1990s.