STRESS AFFECTS MEN, WOMEN DIFFERENTlY
Mental stress affects the cardiovascular health of men and women differently, according to a new study which suggests that treatments for heart disease should be more gender-based. “The relationship between mental stress and cardiovascular disease is well known,” said the study’s lead author Zainab Samad, assistant professor of medicine at Duke University Medical Center. “This study revealed that mental stress affects the cardiovascular health of men and women differently. We need to recognise this difference when evaluating and treating patients for cardiovascular disease,” he said. Researchers from the Duke Heart Center examined 254 men and 56 women diagnosed with heart disease.
DEVICE DETECTS CANCER WITH ONE TEST
A low-cost device that could detect the presence of dozens of different cancers using a single blood sample is being developed in the US. A startup in the US, called Miroculus, is building the device dubbed Miriam and they plan to make it so simple that even untrained workers in clinics around the world could use it. The device detects microRNA in blood to determine whether patients might have cancer. The molecules can reveal not just whether a person may have cancer, but also the type of cancer. The USD 500 device works by having a patient’s blood sample pipetted into a specially designed 96-well plate. Each well has been pre-treated with Miroculus’s patented biochemistry to act as a sort of trap for various types of microRNA, most commonly associated with cancer, Wired reported.
BIONIC EYE lETS BlIND MAN ‘SEE’
A revolutionary new bionic eye implanted into a 66-year-old blind man in the US has allowed him to ‘see’ for the first time in 33 years. larry Hester was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa when he was in his early 30s. At the time, the degenerative disease that would rob his sight was poorly understood, and there were no known treatments, researchers said. On October 1, Hester became the seventh person in the US to have a so-called bionic eye — an Argus II Retinal Prosthesis Device — activated as a visual aid to send light signals to his brain. The device incorporates technology initially developed by researchers at the Duke Eye Centre; its sophisticated features were further enhanced and marketed by a company called Second Sight Medical Products.