15-03-2011, 03:58 PM
[attachment=10222]
EARLY DETECTION OF HEART DISEASE USING NANOTECHNOLOGY
A miniature Ultrasound Machine that can detect whether you may be at risk for heart disease was released on the markets this last week.
This nifty little gadget weighs less than 2 pounds and can take an image of the neck arteries and show if they are clogged with plaque or thickened. It's suggested that if they are clogged, then the chances are pretty high that the heart arteries are as well. Too thick arteries are a sign of higher risk for heart attack so doctors can send patients for further testing and put them on preventative treatments such as cholesterol lowering drugs.
Many doctors feel that this mini ultrasound device meets the need to identify people who have no symptoms of heart problems but have risk of heart disease. Recent medical journals and publications paid for by drug manufacturers like Pfizer (who sell Lipitor) contain articles encouraging wider heart disease screening. They say that early detection and treatment could save lives.
Of course cholesterol drug manufacturers are heavily promoting this quick and easy "peace of mind" test because the more people who are informed that they are at risk for future heart disease, the more cholesterol lowering pills will be sold. Once again a classic example of how screening and treatment has overtaken prevention in the medical field. Statin drugs (cholesterol lowering) are the fastest growing prescription drugs but the health risks of the side effects are rather alarming.
Hidden Heart Disease Revealed By Small Ultrasound Scanners!
the first symptom of one-third of heart disease sufferers is dropping dead of a heart attack.Therefore, there is a great need to find a non-invasive and safe way to identify early and treat these people, especially those who do not have signs but have risk of heart disease.
During Oct 2007, pocket-sized ultrasound machines weighing less than 1 kilogram hit the market. Some of these devices can make images of neck arteries, which are linked to heart arteries that cannot be seen easily. Clogging in the neck vessels is probably a good indication that those around the heart probably are clogged as well. This would signal doctors to carry out treatment or do more testing.
The test may be especially good for women, who often have few or none of the traditional signs. For example, with the help of ultrasound machines, an athletic mother having normal cholesterol and blood pressure but a troubling family history of heart attacks was found to have a big clog in the main artery from her heart to her head. Her doctor immediately put her on medications to lower her risk of a heart attack or stroke.
The ultrasound screening involves checking for plaque and measuring the thickness of the wall of the main neck artery. Normal thickness does vary by age, race and sex, and charts do give doctors detailed guidance. When the because there is still a lack of evidence of benefit.
In the United States, fewer than 1 in 10 heart defects in children are detected before birth. If pregnant women were tested by ultrasound later in their pregnancy than the first trimester, the odds of finding such a defect would improve greatly, as would the survival chances of a baby with a congenital heart problem, says Mary Jo Rice, a cardiologist at Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland. Rice spoke at a seminar in Portland sponsored by the American Heart Association in July.
First-trimester ultrasound examinations are typically done to predict birth date and to check overall development of the fetus, but they cannot get clear images of its tiny heart. Rice estimates that one-third of pregnant women in the United States do not get an ultrasound at all.
Heart defects occur in 8 of every 1,000 babies. Before birth, the baby receives oxygenated blood from its mother, but once the baby is born, its heart takes on this task. A structural defect can be fatal at this point. Prenatal detection would allow a mother to give birth at a cardiac center, where a team of heart specialists could be ready should an operation on the newborn prove necessary, Rice says. Early detection could also help prepare the family for the emotional strain, expense, and logistical problems of surgery on the newborn. "We need to optimize delivery to maximize survival," says Rice.
Some heart problems could even be treated prenatally. In cases of fast heartbeats, for example, doctors can give medicine to the mother or the fetus directly through the umbilical vein. Rice advocates training ultrasound technicians to check images for cardiac irregularities.
Although some families--those with a history of heart disease or diabetes, for example--are at greater risk than others, 60 to 70 percent of babies born with heart defects had no risk factors, Rice says. The only way to find out whether such babies have a defect is through ultrasound screening.
In Great Britain, where ultrasound is routine at 18 to 20 weeks, 80 to 85 percent of heart defects are detected before birth. The detection rate in the United States is only 8 to 10 percent, Rice says.
The point is to pick a time in gestation, at 18 to 20 weeks, when we can get good pictures of the heart," says Henry Sondheimer, a cardiologist at Children's Hospital at the University of Colorado at Denver.
It is almost impossible to think of a medical institution without being equipped with an ultrasound machine. The detailed results this type of technology has brought to the table of the medical scene has revolutionized diagnoses and treatments at large. The most gratifying aspect of ultrasound machines is the fact that the risk with previous methods and tools used to diagnose an array of medical conditions has declined tremendously.
Various techniques are applied, all depending on the condition to be treated or the organ that needs to be examined and the physical state of the patient. One of the major benefits of the use of ultrasound machines are that you do not need a lot of time to prepare a patient for an ultrasound scan.
The first thing that comes to one’s mind when mentioning the use of an ultrasound machine is an expecting mother. One would be surprised to learn that the use of obstetrics ultrasound might be the most general use for ultrasound machines, but their versatility and use reaches far beyond just pregnancies and determining the health and gender of a fetus! However, the uterus is the organ most commonly viewed by making use of an ultrasound machine.
One of the most common life saving uses of an ultrasound machine during pregnancy is to detect congenital heart disease. This allows doctors or cardiologists to make high priority treatment decisions at once.
While on the subject of the heart and saving lives, a specialized portable ultrasound machine is used to perform an echocardiography. This type of ultrasound machine is used to view the functioning and present state the heart is in. With the use of ultrasound, serious malfunctioning of the heart, heart valves and blood vessels can be detected soon enough and with accuracy, which resulted in saving plenty of patient’s life. Echocardiography is an extremely useful method to discover blood clots in heart chambers, damage to the heart muscle, detecting aneurysms, congenital heart disease, large blood vessel complications etc.
Ultrasound Machine Tags: Medical Equipment, portable ultrasound machines, ultrasound machine, Ultrasound Machines
EARLY DETECTION OF HEART DISEASE USING NANOTECHNOLOGY
A miniature Ultrasound Machine that can detect whether you may be at risk for heart disease was released on the markets this last week.
This nifty little gadget weighs less than 2 pounds and can take an image of the neck arteries and show if they are clogged with plaque or thickened. It's suggested that if they are clogged, then the chances are pretty high that the heart arteries are as well. Too thick arteries are a sign of higher risk for heart attack so doctors can send patients for further testing and put them on preventative treatments such as cholesterol lowering drugs.
Many doctors feel that this mini ultrasound device meets the need to identify people who have no symptoms of heart problems but have risk of heart disease. Recent medical journals and publications paid for by drug manufacturers like Pfizer (who sell Lipitor) contain articles encouraging wider heart disease screening. They say that early detection and treatment could save lives.
Of course cholesterol drug manufacturers are heavily promoting this quick and easy "peace of mind" test because the more people who are informed that they are at risk for future heart disease, the more cholesterol lowering pills will be sold. Once again a classic example of how screening and treatment has overtaken prevention in the medical field. Statin drugs (cholesterol lowering) are the fastest growing prescription drugs but the health risks of the side effects are rather alarming.
Hidden Heart Disease Revealed By Small Ultrasound Scanners!
the first symptom of one-third of heart disease sufferers is dropping dead of a heart attack.Therefore, there is a great need to find a non-invasive and safe way to identify early and treat these people, especially those who do not have signs but have risk of heart disease.
During Oct 2007, pocket-sized ultrasound machines weighing less than 1 kilogram hit the market. Some of these devices can make images of neck arteries, which are linked to heart arteries that cannot be seen easily. Clogging in the neck vessels is probably a good indication that those around the heart probably are clogged as well. This would signal doctors to carry out treatment or do more testing.
The test may be especially good for women, who often have few or none of the traditional signs. For example, with the help of ultrasound machines, an athletic mother having normal cholesterol and blood pressure but a troubling family history of heart attacks was found to have a big clog in the main artery from her heart to her head. Her doctor immediately put her on medications to lower her risk of a heart attack or stroke.
The ultrasound screening involves checking for plaque and measuring the thickness of the wall of the main neck artery. Normal thickness does vary by age, race and sex, and charts do give doctors detailed guidance. When the because there is still a lack of evidence of benefit.
In the United States, fewer than 1 in 10 heart defects in children are detected before birth. If pregnant women were tested by ultrasound later in their pregnancy than the first trimester, the odds of finding such a defect would improve greatly, as would the survival chances of a baby with a congenital heart problem, says Mary Jo Rice, a cardiologist at Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland. Rice spoke at a seminar in Portland sponsored by the American Heart Association in July.
First-trimester ultrasound examinations are typically done to predict birth date and to check overall development of the fetus, but they cannot get clear images of its tiny heart. Rice estimates that one-third of pregnant women in the United States do not get an ultrasound at all.
Heart defects occur in 8 of every 1,000 babies. Before birth, the baby receives oxygenated blood from its mother, but once the baby is born, its heart takes on this task. A structural defect can be fatal at this point. Prenatal detection would allow a mother to give birth at a cardiac center, where a team of heart specialists could be ready should an operation on the newborn prove necessary, Rice says. Early detection could also help prepare the family for the emotional strain, expense, and logistical problems of surgery on the newborn. "We need to optimize delivery to maximize survival," says Rice.
Some heart problems could even be treated prenatally. In cases of fast heartbeats, for example, doctors can give medicine to the mother or the fetus directly through the umbilical vein. Rice advocates training ultrasound technicians to check images for cardiac irregularities.
Although some families--those with a history of heart disease or diabetes, for example--are at greater risk than others, 60 to 70 percent of babies born with heart defects had no risk factors, Rice says. The only way to find out whether such babies have a defect is through ultrasound screening.
In Great Britain, where ultrasound is routine at 18 to 20 weeks, 80 to 85 percent of heart defects are detected before birth. The detection rate in the United States is only 8 to 10 percent, Rice says.
The point is to pick a time in gestation, at 18 to 20 weeks, when we can get good pictures of the heart," says Henry Sondheimer, a cardiologist at Children's Hospital at the University of Colorado at Denver.
It is almost impossible to think of a medical institution without being equipped with an ultrasound machine. The detailed results this type of technology has brought to the table of the medical scene has revolutionized diagnoses and treatments at large. The most gratifying aspect of ultrasound machines is the fact that the risk with previous methods and tools used to diagnose an array of medical conditions has declined tremendously.
Various techniques are applied, all depending on the condition to be treated or the organ that needs to be examined and the physical state of the patient. One of the major benefits of the use of ultrasound machines are that you do not need a lot of time to prepare a patient for an ultrasound scan.
The first thing that comes to one’s mind when mentioning the use of an ultrasound machine is an expecting mother. One would be surprised to learn that the use of obstetrics ultrasound might be the most general use for ultrasound machines, but their versatility and use reaches far beyond just pregnancies and determining the health and gender of a fetus! However, the uterus is the organ most commonly viewed by making use of an ultrasound machine.
One of the most common life saving uses of an ultrasound machine during pregnancy is to detect congenital heart disease. This allows doctors or cardiologists to make high priority treatment decisions at once.
While on the subject of the heart and saving lives, a specialized portable ultrasound machine is used to perform an echocardiography. This type of ultrasound machine is used to view the functioning and present state the heart is in. With the use of ultrasound, serious malfunctioning of the heart, heart valves and blood vessels can be detected soon enough and with accuracy, which resulted in saving plenty of patient’s life. Echocardiography is an extremely useful method to discover blood clots in heart chambers, damage to the heart muscle, detecting aneurysms, congenital heart disease, large blood vessel complications etc.
Ultrasound Machine Tags: Medical Equipment, portable ultrasound machines, ultrasound machine, Ultrasound Machines
