UPI NewsTrack Health and Science News

IBM creates fast, portable diagnostic test

ZURICH, Switzerland, Nov. 17 (UPI) -- IBM scientists say they have created a rapid, portable one-step test that can quickly diagnose many diseases.

IBM researchers said their test is based on an innovative silicon chip that requires less sample volume, is significantly faster and easier to use than similar existing tests. IBM said the new technology is designed to allow physicians to react in seconds instead of minutes or hours.

"The results are so quick and accurate that a small sample of a patient's serum or blood could be tested immediately following a heart attack to enable the doctor to quickly take a course of action to help the patient survive," IBM scientists said in a statement.

The new technology was developed by IBM-Zurich, Switzerland, scientists Luc Gervais and Emmanuel Delamarche in collaboration with the University Hospital of Basel, Switzerland. IBM said it uses capillary forces to analyze tiny samples of serum or blood for the presence of disease markers, which are typically proteins that can be detected in people's blood for diagnostic purposes.

"We are giving back precious minutes to doctors so they can make informed and accurate decisions right at the time they need them most to save lives," Delamarche said.

The achievement is reported in the December issue of the journal Lab on a Chip.

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Pet therapy helps decrease painkillers

CHICAGO, Nov. 17 (UPI) -- U.S. medical researchers said patients using pet therapy may need less pain medication.

Researchers at Loyola University Health System in Chicago said adults recovering from total joint-replacement surgery given pet therapy required 50 percent less pain drugs that those not receiving pet therapy.

The study was presented by Julia Havey at the annual conference of the International Society of Anthrozoology and First Human Animal Interaction Conference in Kansas City, Mo.

"Evidence suggests that animal-assisted therapy can have a positive effect on a patient's psychosocial, emotional and physical well being," Havey said in a statement. "The data further support these benefits and build the case for expanding the use of pet therapy in recovery."

Havey and Loyola colleague Frances Vlasses have been raising puppies to become assistance dogs to people with physical and developmental disabilities for more than a decade through the program Canine Companions for Independence.

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U.S. supercomputers lead the world

WASHINGTON, Nov. 17 (UPI) -- The United States earned eight of the top 10 spots on the latest list of the world's fastest supercomputers.

The National Nuclear Security Administration earned three of the top 10 spots: Roadrunner (No. 2, Los Alamos National Laboratory); BlueGene/L (No. 7, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory); and Red Sky (No. 10, Sandia National Laboratories/National Renewable Energy Laboratory).

In addition, the NNSA's Dawn platform at Livermore was ranked as the 11th fastest in the world.

The No. 1 spot went to the Jaguar Cray supercomputer located at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. No. 3 was the Kraken Cray supercomputer at the National Institute for Computational Sciences at the University of Tennessee.

The sixth fastest supercomputer was located at NASA's Ames Research Center, No. 8 at the Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago and No. 9 at the Texas Advanced Computing Center located at the University of Texas.

The TOP500 list is compiled by Hans Meuer of the University of Mannheim in Germany, Erich Strohmaier and Horst Simon of NERSC/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Jack Dongarra of the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.

The list is available at http://www.top500.org/list/2009/11/100.

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New therapy for brain cancer is developed

NEW YORK, Nov. 17 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they've developed the world's first brain cancer treatment that involves directly spraying a chemotherapy agent onto the tumor.

Neurosurgeons at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center said the breaching of the blood-brain barrier has been a major obstacle in treating glioblastomas -- brain cancers -- because intravenous chemotherapy agents cannot effectively reach brain tissue from the blood stream.

The neurosurgeons said their new procedure involves using micro-catheters that spray the drug directing onto the tumor, in hopes of halting its growth and spread, as well as avoiding common side effects associated with IV chemotherapy, such as nausea and fatigue.

Glioblastoma is the same cancer the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., had, and is diagnosed in 10,000 new cases each year in the United States, with a median survival time of about 15 months, researchers said.

The medical scientists said their new technique -- called super selective intra-arterial cerebral infusion of Avastin -- has been successfully performed on five patients with promising results.

The scientists are currently enrolling patients for a Phase I study, which will test the safety and tolerability of the new method of drug delivery. If proven successful, the scientists said their technique might herald the birth of a new field of interventional neuro-oncology.

Details of the first case are to appear in the Journal of Experimental Therapeutics and Oncology.