Medical Portal

The jobless Austrian within three years free-of-charge got some meal and a shelter in the Austrian hospitals, pretending to be ill. According to police, the swindler has managed to deceive the staff of 93 medical institutions for this time.

The 59-years old inhabitant of Vienna Franz Steiger has been detained in an admission room of a hospital. He has gone to the hospital with complaints about fit of weakness and waves of nausea begun after falling from a motorcycle. Suspicions of physicians were caused with complete absence of damages on a body of the patient and contradictions in his story about circumstances of a road accident. When the police detained him, the malingerer confessed, that tried to deceive doctors not for the first time.

Now Franz Steiger is incriminated in illegal residing at 93 medical institutions in Austria. By estimation, the caused damage makes about €100 thousand.

Russian government has approved the draft of the federal law providing a full ban on advertising of tobacco and tobacco products. This step will allow the country to join the Frame convention of the World Health Organization on struggle against tobacco. The interdiction should take effect within five years.
The convention has been adopted in May, 2003 and supported by 172 countries, including the European Union. Russia till now is among the countries which has not ratified the convention.

Annually from the diseases concerned with smoking die about five millions people worldwide. In Russia in 2006 about 400 thousand people have died for this reason. But harm of tobacco products is not reflected yet in consumption - cigarette manufacture in Russia constantly grows.

It is supposed, that within the framework of struggle against smoking in Russia, the project of National strategy on struggle against tobacco will be developed.

Employees of Medical College in Houston conduct clinical tests of cocaine vaccine, informs AP. The preparation forces immune system to generate antibodies which will neutralize a drug before its penetration into a brain - in result dose of cocaine loses any sense for a drug addict.

To make cocaine molecule familiar for immune system, scientific have attached it to a large aluminous molecule of comma bacillus toxin. Unlike the true cocaine, this chemical compound does not cause euphoria and addiction. However antibodies generated in an organism in response to preparation, can distinguish both a “hybrid” molecule, and pure cocaine.

Developers of a vaccine, the spouse Tom and Theresa Kosten, have apply for the third expanded stage of clinical tests at the end of the last year. It is expected, that about 300 patients with a long history of cocaine abuse will take part in the research. However, as researchers mark, even in case of the successful outcome, mass application of the preparation will be possible only in some years.

British and American scientists have declared the successful completion of the first stage of vaccine’s clinical tests, capable to provide long-term protection against all flu varieties, A type. The new preparation will make unnecessary annual updating of vaccines for struggle against seasonal flu epidemics.

Modern influenza virus vaccines help immune system to distinguish superficial virus albumins hemagglutinin and neuraminidase. The structure of these albumins varies because of often mutations, and new vaccines are required to struggle against new flu varieties.

Vaccine ACAM-FLU-A developed by Acambis’ experts causes immune response to other superficial albumin named M2e. Gene, coding the structure of this albumin, remains invariable at all varieties of A type viruses, so all of them will be identified and destroyed by immune system of the vaccinated person.

ACAM-FLU-A can not protect from B type viruses, which also can cause an outbreak of disease. However all pandemia, including possible H5N1 pandemia, have been caused by A type viruses. According to WHO’s data, annually from 500 thousand up to one million people die because of flu.

American experts from College of allergy, asthma and immunology have conducted the researches devoted to influence of New Year trees on the person.
It was found out that in a closed space the substances emitted by a fur-tree, can be extremely dangerous for highly allergic individuals.

Within the first three day after a celebratory tree has appeared indoors, it distributes 800 spores per square meter - a doze which slightly lags behind the maximum permissible norm.

But already in four days the amount reaches up to 5000. Such concentration extremely negatively influences state of highly allergic individuals and asthmatics.

For people, who are not subject to allergic reactions, such volume of spores in a room can also be dangerous, as they create additional stress for mucous membrane of respiratory tract.

Research has shown that the maximum permissible norm of coniferous tree’s presence in a premise makes four days.

American students-physicians from Calvin College have created an electronic stethoscope, which uses OS µClinux as an operational system.
The new stethoscope is equipped with a small liquid-crystal display with one line of the text, for example, for information of patient’s pulse. The device can record an audiodata in high quality, convert them in the necessary format and send through USB connection to computer.

The stethoscope works using 32-bit microprocessor Freescale Coldfire MCF5275 which supports network Ethernet interface and hardware cryptography.

It is necessary to note, that the free software, such as Linux, is rarely used in medical devices, as US medical authorities reluctantly give authorization for use of such devices.

Many people have to wear glasses, which require careful attitude as are very fragile. Last development of the scientists can a little facilitate the life.

Mineral lenses are made from an inorganic glass, color or without coloration. Inorganic glass is a firm, amorphous material, transparent in the certain optical range, received after cooling of glass forming components. Components of an inorganic glass are oxides of various chemical elements - silicon, boron, lead, phosphorus and others. Due to various variations of oxides’ structure, experts receive substances with various parameters of refraction, specific gravity, Abbe number.

Mineral glass lenses are characterized by high and stable optical properties and firmness to scratches. Mineral lenses are sun, completely painted, with a mirror covering or photochromic. The problem of “thick” lenses can also with ease be solved by means of mineral lenses - they are more thin, flat and lightweight because of lenticular and aspherical design of a surface.

Canadian scientific from hospital Mount Sinai(Ontario) have conducted some researches and found out, that excessive immune system activity doesn’t only provoke allergic diseases, but also prevent from pancreas cancer.
Scientists have conducted an experiment in which participated 654 persons with pancreas cancer and the same amount of healthy people.

Having studied medical patients’ histories scientists found out that people, suffering from allergies, fell ill with pancreas cancer 57 % less often than those who have never suffered from an allergy.

It is necessary to note, that the data of a new research enable scientists to study interrelation between allergies and some oncological diseases. In fact the reasons of such interrelation are unknown till now.

Pancreas cancer takes one of the first places among the reasons of mortality from oncological diseases. Only in the USA it is annually diagnosed about 30 thousand new cases of the disease and only 5 % of the patients can live more than 5 years after diagnosing.

The group of the American scientists has managed to create a microchip, which can determine in blood the smallest fragments which have come off a primary cancer tumor and have got in a bloodstream (circulating malignant cells).
The novelty is a silicon chip as a plastic card in size with antibodies on its surface. These antibodies can determine protein contained in the majority of cancer tumors.

During the movement of blood along the chip, its surface draws malignant cells like glue. Therefore the microchip can find out one thousand malignant cells in 60 billion blood cells.

The new device has already been tested on blood samples of 68 patients with metastases from cancer of lung, prostate, breast, pancreas and large intestine. And, as scientists declare, they have managed to find out circulating malignant cells in 115 of 116 tested samples.

It is necessary to note, that circulating malignant cells in blood can lead to development of metastases outside the sick organ. These particles are fragile and rare, and are badly determined with the help of existing methods. Therefore scientists believe that the new technology can be used for diagnostics of cancer diseases, and also for the control of treatment’s efficiency.

Scientists from University of Texas in Austin have conducted a research which has allowed to draw the conclusion, that creative mood in work allows the person to keep health for longer.
Experts mark that as a result of the research they have established, that such factors as absence of routine, pleasure from work, an opportunity to study constantly and meet challenges promote the feeling of being healthier.

Besides, remuneration of labor is also an important factor.

Authors of the research appreciate effect of the creative work extremely high as, in their opinion, active employment allows to support health in the condition of a young man. Besides creative work allows to compensate lack of means - creative work has the same beneficial influence, as an increase of family income in 15 times.

It is necessary to note, that experts consider as the creative, work of the high status with the certain management functions, which demands analysis of huge amounts of information and taking of unordinary decisions.