CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE
It is the class of diseases that involve the heart, and its blood vessels .The four most common types of cardiovascular disease are Coronary Artery Disease (which includes heart attack and angina pectoris or chest pain), stroke, high blood pressure and heart failure.
High blood pressure, also called hypertension, means the pressure in your arteries is consistently above the normal range. Blood pressure is the force of blood pushing against blood vessel walls. It's written as two numbers, such as 122/78 mm Hg. The top (systolic) number is the pressure when the heart beats. The bottom (diastolic) number is the pressure when the heart is at rest. High blood pressure is a consistently elevated pressure of 140 mm Hg systolic or higher and/or 90 mm Hg diastolic or higher.
Heart attacks, occur when the blood flow to a part of the heart is blocked, often by a blood clot. If this clot cuts off the blood flow completely, the part of the heart muscle supplied by that artery begins to die.
Heart failure, means that your heart isn't pumping blood as well as it should. It keeps working, but the body doesn't get all the blood and oxygen it needs.
Stroke and Transient Ischemic Attack ("Mini" stroke) happens when a blood vessel that supplies oxygen to a part of the brain gets blocked. Then that part of the brain is unable to perform and neither can the part of the body that it controls can perform. A stroke can also occur when a blood vessel supplying part of the brain ruptures.
STEM CELL THERAPY FOR HEART DISEASES
VesCell is a revolutionary new treatment for heart disease that actually rebuilds heart tissue using the patient's own stem cells. Stem cells are the body's "master cells" whose normal function is to repair and replace damaged tissue. VesCell harnesses and enhances stem cells' unique abilities, enabling the patient's own body to heal itself.
There are 2 major types of cells to consider
One is skeletal myoblasts, which are already committed skeletal muscle cell precursors or satellite cells that are present in skeletal muscle. These cells can be harvested and, after 2 or 3 weeks of culture, implanted into (for example) an area of scar in the heart, for the purpose of muscle substitution.
On the other side of the stem cell world, are cells derived from the bone marrow or from other tissues. These include true stem cells in the sense that they may turn into a variety of tissues.
If you are suffering from the debilitating effects of heart disease with little hope of getting better, there is no other treatment in the world that can give you a better chance to get back to a normal life than VesCell
Emergency heart attack patients will be injected with their own stem cells in a dramatic new treatment. The low-cost treatment, which involves removing stem cells from the patient's bone marrow, could be given within a few hours of a heart attack.
It is intended to stop patients suffering further attacks and developing heart failure, something existing treatments fail to do in many cases
The new trials, however, would be the first in the world to give patients the cells within hours of their heart attack in a bid to prevent any heart failure developing at all.
PROCEDURE:
People who suffer from a heart attack are taken to the hospital. After their angioplasty, those who agree will have stem cells removed from their hip using a needle under local anesthesia. The stem cells will then be placed in the same artery as the angioplasty - all within five hours of their original attack.
Doctors will then monitor the patients over the following months to establish how effective the stem cell treatment has been at preventing heart failure and repairing the damaged organ.
MAMMOGRAPHY
Mammography is a specific type of imaging that uses a low-dose x-ray system to examine breasts. A mammography exam, called a mammogram, is used to aid in the early detection and diagnosis of breast diseases in women.
Two recent advances in mammography include digital mammography and computer-aided detection.
Digital mammography
It is also called full-field digital mammography (FFDM). Here the electrical signals are used to produce images of the breast that can be seen on a computer screen or printed on special film similar to conventional mammograms.
Computer-aided detection (CAD)
This systems use a digitized mammographic image that can be obtained from either a conventional film mammogram or a digitally acquired mammogram. The computer software then searches for abnormal areas of density, mass, or calcification that may indicate the presence of cancer. The CAD system highlights these areas on the images, alerting the radiologist to the need for further analysis.
WHAT A WOMAN EXPERIENCES DURING THE PROCEDURE
You will feel pressure on your breast as it is squeezed by the compression paddle. Some women with sensitive breasts may experience discomfort.
LIMITATIONS OF MAMOGRAPHY
Initial mammographic images themselves are not usually enough to determine the existence of a benign or maligant disease with certainty. If a finding or spot seems suspicious, your radiologist may recommend further diagnostic studies.
Interpretations of mammograms can be difficult because a normal breast can appear differently for each woman. Also, the appearance of an image may be compromised if there is powder or cream on the breasts, or if you have undergone breast surgery. Because some breast cancers are hard to visualize, a radiologist may want to compare the image to views from previous examinations. Please Note - Not all cancers of the breast can be seen on mammography, there might also be a false-positive result.
NEW RESEARCH - DIGITAL TOMOSYNTHESIS REPLACING MAMOGRAPHY
One out of seven women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime. Up until now, a mammogram has been the best hope for early detection. But mammograms can be uncomfortable and difficult to read. Now, new technology may change all that.
For most women, the prospect of getting a mammogram is scary. That's because 50-percent of women have dense breast tissue and on a mammogram, that density looks similar to cancer.
Digital tomosynthesis is a new kind of breast imaging that is anticipated to replace regular mammography because it makes breast cancers easier to find in dense breast tissue, and makes the procedure much more comfortable. The technique is currently being reviewed by the FDA and would be commercialized within a year. It is easy to implement in any centers that currently provide mammography, with no necessary extra training for technicians to interpret the results.
