| |  While hospitals grapple with what operating room (OR) infection control procedures work best, a new study of Texas hospitals has determined two areas that stand out: mandating sterile operating conditions at or close to the wound itself; and tracking in-hospital outcomes on surgical site infections (SSIs) and sharing that information with surgeons and other OR staff. | |
|
| |  Two studies conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Massachusetts Medical School indicated that mothers who were affected with severe infections that required hospitalization are at an increased risk of having an autistic child. | |
|
| |  UofL gastroenterologist Matthew Cave, M.D., believes that chemicals we breathe, consume or come in contact with in the environment may be contributing to liver disease in as many as one in four people. He has been awarded $4.01 million over eight years by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, one of the National Institutes of Health, to explore the long-term effects of environmental chemicals on the liver. | |
|
| |  A faculty member in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences has received a $7.3 million grant for innovative research on a cellular protein that could be a target for enhancing immune function in response to a variety of diseases and environmental toxins. | |
|
| |  Hamilton Storage announces that their Hamilton BiOS automated storage system was selected for use in the Biobank for Microbiome Research in Massachusetts project; a collaborative effort between Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital. | |
|
| |  Carcinoid tumors may sometimes be asymptomatic but may show symptoms in other patients. The signs of the illness are not definite and depend greatly on the location of the tumor. Hormones released into the blood by one out of ten carcinoid tumors are responsible for causing the symptoms of the illness. | |
|
| |  The early stages of carcinoid syndrome are difficult to diagnose for various reasons. Most symptoms are quite common and wide-ranging. For example, flushing can be a symptom of carcinoid syndrome but it may also be indicative of menopause, an alcoholic reaction, or an aftereffect of the drug, which can make differential diagnosis difficult. | |
|
| |  The tumors that originate from the neuroendocrine cells and are derived from the primitive stem cells present in the gut walls are known as carcinoid tumors. Carcinoid tumors have a high potential for metastatic growth in organs such as kidneys, thymus, pancreas, liver, lungs, mediastinum, bronchus, prostate, and ovaries. | |
|
| |  Barrett’s esophagus is a condition in which the tissue lining the esophagus – the tube that passes the food from the mouth to the stomach – is replaced by tissue similar to that of the intestinal lining. This occurs chiefly in the cells of the epithelial tissue which lines the lower end of the esophagus. | |
|
| |  TIPS stands for Transjugular (via jugular vein) Intrahepatic (within the liver) Portosystemic (between a portal vein and a hepatic vein) Shunt (stent that is used to route blood flow within or between different organs). The TIPS procedure is usually carried out on patients suffering from serious liver diseases. | |
|
| |  Esophageal varices are the abnormal enlargement of veins at the bottom part of the esophagus (i.e., the part close to the stomach). The esophagus is a narrow, muscular, and elongated tube that joins the pharynx and the stomach. The blood vessels or veins are located just below the lining of the esophagus. The swollen veins can burst and cause detrimental bleeding, sometimes the condition can become fatal. | |
|
| |  Through the portal vein, the blood reaches the liver from spleen and intestines. In cirrhosis patients, there could be impairment in the normal blood flow. The small blood vessels in the esophagus or stomach will reroute the blood that comes from intestines around the liver. As a result, some of the blood vessels may become swollen and large. | |
