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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 19, 2024 at 9:04am

It sounds straightforward, but patients must be sedated for the procedure, which means they lose a day of work. Endoscopy is also expensive, and there's a shortage of doctors who can do it.

We're only catching 7% of cancers through endoscopy.

Doctors are turning to  artificial intelligence to identify additional characteristics that can improve their ability to identify those most likely to have Barrett's and esophageal cancer.

Researchers are developing an AI tool that scours the electronic medical records of  patients to find those who should be screened for Barrett's. The tool considers more than 7,500 distinct data points, including past medical procedures, lab test results, prescriptions and more. (Among the surprises: A patient's triglycerides and electrolytes had predictive value.)

This is probably something a human would not be able to do efficiently.

In tests, the overall accuracy of the tools was 84%. While those are substantial improvements, the team would like to bump that up to 90% .

Source: LA times

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Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 19, 2024 at 9:00am

How AI can help researchers make esophageal cancer less deadly

Approximately 600 times a day, the esophagus ferries whatever is in your mouth down to your stomach. It's usually a one-way route, but sometimes acid escapes the stomach and travels back up. That can damage the cells lining the esophagus, prompting them to grow back with genetic mistakes. Sometimes those mistakes culminate in cancer.

Esophageal cancer can be cured if it's discovered and treated before it burrows in deep or spreads to other organs. But that's rarely the case.

To improve on that situation, doctors say they don't necessarily need better medicines. What they need are better ways to find the cancer while it's still in its earliest, highly treatable stages.

And to do that, they need a breakthrough in screening for the disease.

Screening someone for esophageal cancer is not a trivial procedure.

The standard method involves inserting an endoscope—a flexible tube with a camera on one end—into a patient's throat and threading it down to the stomach. The camera allows doctors to inspect the esophagus up close and check for abnormal cells that could become cancerous.

The tube also serves as a conduit for tools that can collect tissue samples, which can be sent to a pathology lab for diagnostic analysis. If a doctor sees a growth that looks like early-stage cancer, it can be removed on the spot.

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 19, 2024 at 8:55am

Iron given through the vein found to correct anemia in pregnant women faster than iron taken orally

A sizable proportion of pregnant women in proceed to give birth while still anemic despite taking iron tablets for prevention during pregnancy. Some reasons for this are that some women do not tolerate the tablets because of side effects like diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting, or they forget to take the tablets.

Available iron preparations given through drip in some countries like iron dextran have been associated with high risk of severe side effects, while iron sucrose needs repeat dosing. There is a need for an effective and safer alternative to overcome these problems.

Anemia (low blood level) is a common cause of ill-health or death in mothers and their babies, especially in sub-Saharan Africa and South-East Asia where more than four out of 10 pregnant women have the condition.

Researchers found that a medicine called ferric carboxymaltose given in drip through the vein works faster and better than an iron tablet taken by mouth for the treatment of anemia—and it is as safe as the tablet. The findings were published in Lancet Global Health in a paper titled "Intravenous versus oral iron for anemia among pregnant Nigerian women (IVON): an open label randomised controlled trial."

 Intravenous versus oral iron for anaemia among pregnant Nigerian women (IVON): an open label randomised controlled trial, The Lancet Global Health (2024). DOI: 10.1016/S2214-109X(24)00239-0. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan … (24)00239-0/fulltext

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 19, 2024 at 8:50am

Discarding the placenta after birth leads to loss of valuable information, pathologists say

In an article published September 18 in Trends in Molecular Medicine, physician-scientists argue that with most placentas discarded after birth, placental pathology is underutilized clinically, should be a routine part of obstetric and neonatal care, and also deserves more research attention.

Placentas should not be considered a waste tissue, they say, because they can teach us a lot about not just what went wrong in a pregnancy, but also inform about subsequent pregnancies for the health of the pregnant person and baby.

The placenta is critical for the exchange of nutrients and waste products between the developing offspring and the pregnant person. If the placenta becomes diseased, it can impact the parent and offspring, both during pregnancy and later in life.

At its most severe, placental pathology can cause stillbirths, and this is the medical scenario in which placentas are most often examined clinically. However, different types of placental pathology are also associated with small birth size and neurological issues in infants, and with hypertension (preeclampsia) and other cardiovascular issues in the parent.

Placental pathology can potentially identify not just the cause of an adverse outcome in the baby, but also insight into why something happened in the mom, and what that means for their health in the future.

Incorporating placental pathology into clinical care and research, Trends in Molecular Medicine (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.molmed.2024.08.002

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 19, 2024 at 8:38am

Highly-sensitive beaks could help albatrosses and penguins find their food

Researchers have discovered that seabirds, including penguins and albatrosses, have highly-sensitive regions in their beaks that could be used to help them find food. This is the first time this ability has been identified in seabirds.

An international team of researchers, led by the University of Cambridge, studied over 350 species of modern birds and found that seabirds have a high density of sensory receptors and nerves at the tip of their beaks, which has been previously identified in specialized tactile foragers such as ducks.

The researchers say this touch-sensitive region could have come from a common ancestor, and further work is needed to determine whether it serves a specific function in modern birds. Further study of their beaks and food-gathering behavior could help conserve some of these birds, many of which are at threat of extinction. The results are reported in the journal Biology Letters.

Tactile bill-tip organs in seabirds suggests conservation of a deep avian symplesiomorphy, Biology Letters (2024). DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2024.0259. royalsocietypublishing.org/doi … .1098/rsbl.2024.0259

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 19, 2024 at 8:30am

The study confirmed that the bubble helps lizards stay underwater for longer periods, providing them with a refuge from predators.

So by jumping in the water, they can escape a lot of their predators, and they remain very still underwater. They're pretty well camouflaged underwater as well, and they just stay underwater until that danger passes. We know that they can stay underwater at least about 20 minutes, but probably longer.

Novel rebreathing adaptation extends dive time in a semi-aquatic lizard, Biology Letters (2024). DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2024.0371. royalsocietypublishing.org/doi … .1098/rsbl.2024.0371

Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 19, 2024 at 8:25am

"Scuba-diving'' lizards use bubble to breathe underwater and avoid predators

Presenting the world's smallest (and scrappiest) scuba diver: A species of semi-aquatic lizard produces a special bubble over its nostrils to breathe underwater and avoid predators, according to new research.

Water anoles is a type of semi-aquatic lizard found in the tropical forests of southern Costa Rica.

They can stay underwater for a really long time. We also know that they're pulling oxygen from this bubble of air.

“Scuba diving” lizard can stay underwater for 16 to 20 minutes

Lizard skin is hydrophobic. Typically, that allows air to stick very tightly to the skin and permits this bubble to form. But when you cover the skin with an emollient, air no longer sticks to the skin surface, so the bubbles can't form.

This is really significant because this is the first experiment that truly shows the adaptive significance of bubbles. Rebreathing bubbles allows lizards to stay underwater longer.

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 19, 2024 at 8:06am

Ocean waves grow way beyond known limits, new research finds

Scientists have discovered that ocean waves may become far more extreme and complex than previously imagined.

The new study, published in Nature recently, reveals that under specific conditions, where waves meet each other from different directions, waves can reach heights four times steeper than what was once thought possible.

It has often been assumed that waves are two-dimensional and understanding of wave breaking to-date has been based on these assumptions. Yet in the ocean, waves can travel in many directions and rarely fit this simplified model.

This new research  reveals that three-dimensional waves, which have more complex, multidirectional movements, can be twice as steep before breaking compared to conventional two-dimensional waves, and even more surprisingly, continue to grow even steeper even after breaking has occurred.

The findings could have implications for how offshore structures are designed, weather forecasting and climate modeling, while also affecting our fundamental understanding of several ocean processes.

 Mark McAllister, Three-dimensional wave breaking, Nature (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07886-z. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07886-z

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 19, 2024 at 7:11am

Metals in the body from pollutants associated with progression of harmful plaque buildup in the arteries

Metal exposure from environmental pollution is associated with increased buildup of calcium in the coronary arteries at a level that is comparable to traditional risk factors like smoking and diabetes, according to a study.

The findings support the fact that metals in the body are associated with the progression of plaque buildup in the arteries and potentially provide a new strategy for managing and preventing atherosclerosis. The results are published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

These findings highlight the importance of considering metal exposure as a significant risk factor for atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease

Atherosclerosis is a condition where the arteries become narrowed and hardened due to a buildup of plaque, which can restrict blood flow and cause clots to form. It's an underlying cause of heart attacks, strokes and peripheral artery disease (PAD), the most common forms of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Atherosclerosis causes coronary artery calcium (CAC), which can be measured non-invasively over time to predict future cardiac events.

Widespread cadmium, tungsten, uranium, cobalt, copper, and zinc pollution occurs from agricultural and industrial uses such as fertilizers, batteries, oil production, welding, mining, and nuclear energy production. Tobacco smoke is the main source of cadmium exposure.

Results provided evidence that metal exposure may be associated with atherosclerosis over 10 years by increasing coronary calcification.

Urinary Metal Levels and Coronary Artery Calcification: Longitudinal Evidence in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, Journal of the American College of Cardiology (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.jacc.2024.07.020

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 19, 2024 at 7:06am

When a small body (like an asteroid) passes close to a large body (like a planet), it gets stretched by gravity. If it gets close enough (inside a distance called the Roche limit), the small body will break apart into lots of tiny pieces and a small number of bigger pieces.

All those fragments will be jostled around and gradually evolved into a debris ring orbiting the equator of the larger body. Over time, the material in the ring will fall down to the larger body, where the larger pieces will form impact craters. These craters will be located close to the equator.

So if Earth destroyed and captured a passing asteroid around 466 million years ago, it would explain the anomalous locations of the impact craters, the meteorite debris in sedimentary rocks, craters and tsunamis, and the meteorites' relatively brief exposure to space radiation.
Back then, the continents were in different positions due to continental drift. Much of North America, Europe and Australia were close to the equator, whereas Africa and South America were at higher southern latitudes.

The ring would have been around the equator. And since Earth's axis is tilted relative to its orbit around the sun, the ring would have shaded parts of Earth's surface.

This shading in turn might have caused global cooling, as less sunlight reached the planet's surface.

This brings us to another interesting puzzle. Around 465 million years ago, our planet began cooling dramatically. By 445 million years ago it was in the Hirnantian Ice Age, the coldest period in the past half a billion years.

Was a ring shading Earth responsible for this extreme cooling? The next step in our scientific sleuthing is to make mathematical models of how asteroids break up and disperse, and how the resulting ring evolves over time. This will set the scene for climate modeling that explores how much cooling could be imposed by such a ring.

 Andrew G. Tomkins et al, Evidence suggesting that earth had a ring in the Ordovician, Earth and Planetary Science Letters (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.epsl.2024.118991

Part 3

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