UPI NewsTrack Health and Science News

More complications with staples

CHICAGO, Feb. 5 (UPI) -- Women experience fewer complications after having a Caesarean delivery if sutures were used instead of staples to close the wound, U.S. researchers found.

Dr. Suzanne Basha, an obstetrician-gynecologist, said she was surprised to find nothing in the literature that provided evidence about which method was better to close a wound after a Caesarean.

"It seemed to me that I was seeing more patients return with complications after a Caesarean birth when staples were used instead of sutures but I couldn't find any studies that supported a recommendation for the use of either method," Basha said in a statement.

Basha and colleagues at the Lehigh Valley Health Network in Allentown, Pa., conducted a study of 425 patients who were randomized.

Staple closure was associated with a more than four-fold increased risk of wound separation. However, median operative time was eight minutes shorter in the staple group.

Wound complication data was complete for 98 percent of subjects -- 219 suture and 197 staples -- and included wound separation, wound infection, antibiotic use, need for a wound-related physician visit and readmission.

The study was presented at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting in Chicago.

Wireless glucose monitors on horizon

CAMBRIDGE, England, Feb. 5 (UPI) -- An algorithm that analyzes glucose levels could lead to wireless devices that recommend insulin adjustments in type 1 diabetics, British scientists said.

In a study on children, researchers at the University of Cambridge found an algorithm that analyzed glucose levels and suggested adjustments in insulin doses was more effective than standard diabetes management devices, The New York Times reported Friday.

The discovery someday could aid millions of parents worldwide who need to monitor their children's insulin levels several times nightly to ensure blood sugar levels are stable, the researchers said in Friday's issue of The Lancet, a British medical journal.

The algorithm could be incorporated into a new generation of wireless devices that act as an "artificial pancreas," mimicking the way a healthy pancreas works by sensing unstable glucose levels and dispensing insulin in the correct dose at the correct time.

Today's standard system involves a glucose monitor that operates separately from a preprogrammed insulin pump.

Vaccine would target prostate cancer cells

CORK, Ireland, Feb. 5 (UPI) -- Researchers in Ireland say they've created a vaccine that stimulates the immune system to attack cancer cells left after prostate surgery.

Cancer researchers at University College Cork are ready to begin testing the vaccine in human trials, The Irish Times reported Friday.

The vaccine uses DNA to stimulate the immune system, which enables the vaccine to target cancer cells while ignoring healthy cells, Dr. Mark Tangney and Dr. Safraz Ahmad wrote in the journal Genetic Vaccines and Therapy.

Tangney and Ahmad, through laboratory trials, have established how the vaccine would be used, and in what quantities, in post-surgery treatment, The Irish Times said.

The vaccine would compliment existing treatments which involve surgical removal of a tumor and radiotherapy by destroying cells that migrate from the surgical site to other parts of the body.

Genetic makeup linked to endurance

TUSCALOOSA, Ala., Feb. 5 (UPI) -- Our genetic makeup determines how much endurance we can build from exercising, scientists at the University of Alabama said.

The scientists found about 20 percent of all people don't build as much endurance as others from exercise because of their genetic makeup.

That doesn't mean, however, that exercise isn't beneficial, said the scientists, who teamed with researchers at the Pennington Biomedical Center in Baton Rouge, La.

If you are in that 20 percent, exercise won't build much endurance but it can improve heart rate, cholesterol levels, blood pressure and insulin metabolism, researcher Tuomo Rankinen said.

"That's an important public health message," Rankinen told USA today in story published Friday.

The study's findings could help personalize exercise regimes to help people get the most from their workouts, the study's co-author Molly Bray said.

"Having genetic information about a person can at least give us some informed guidance," she said.