WORLD MEDICAL TENNIS SOCIETY

http://www.lats.lv/wmts2013/ 43rd Congress of the World Medical Tennis Society Jurmala, Latvia, August 17-23, 2013

USA CONGENITAL SYPHILIS San Antonio.

By Eileen Pace The San Antonio Metropolitan Health District has initiated a campaign to re-educate the population about syphilis as the city has seen an increase in the number of congenital syphilis cases over the past couple of years. Metro Health said San Antonio is number two in the state in the number of syphilis cases per capita. Last year in Bexar County 18 babies were born with syphilis and the department said that number should be zero. Dr. Anil Mangla of the Metro Health District said the city is reaching out to all the local hospitals, the medical school and local health providers to step up the testing of pregnant women and to educate their patients about the rapidly-spreading disease. "We are actually reaching out to all hospitals," Mangla said. "As a matter of fact, I’ve started presenting grand rounds at the hospitals and the medical school on congenital syphilis and making people aware because the population, as well as many of the providers, think this is a problem of the past. But it hasn’t gone away yet."

Prof.B.PETRUSON inventor of NOZOVENT alar dilators & NOZOHAEM for epistaxis

Why should one breathe through the nose? Björn Petruson, Göteborg, has devoted his professional life to nasal diseases. As a professor and senior physician at the ENT Clinic at Sahlgrenska University Hospital, his life has centred around treating patients, lecturing, researching and supervising post-graduate students. Björn Petruson has written textbooks on the nose, developed pharmaceutical and other treatment methods for various conditions in the nose and written a number of scientific and medical history books and articles. As a medical consultant at Pharmacure AB, Björn Petruson guarantees the quality and scientific rigour of the company’s nasal products and product information. In this interview, he answers a number of topical questions about the nose, its function and illnesses. Professor Björn Petruson Björn Petruson, how do human beings actually benefit from having a nose? Isn’t it just as easy to breathe through the mouth? To begin with, the nose is our organ of smell. Without the ability to smell, our lives would be far less enjoyable – and far more dangerous! Breathing in through the nose has many positive effects. Jon Lundberg, Professor of Pharmacology at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, has demonstrated that the gas molecule, nitrogen oxide, which forms in the nasal sinus, has a positive effect on the blood vessels in the lungs. It dilate and oxygenation improves. The longer competitors in the Vasa Ski Race, the Stockholm Marathon or other demanding sporting events can breathe through their nose, the better. You mentioned the Vasa Ski Race. It can be quite cold at the start in Sälen. Is breathing through the nose also recommended at low temperatures? Absolutely. Breathing in through the nose humidifies and heats the air in a phenomenally effective way. It takes just five 100ths of a second for the air temperature to be raised from zero to 30 degrees while covering a distance of just seven centimetres. Breathing in cold air through the mouth, on the other hand, increases the risk of asthma, otherwise known as cold-induced asthma. What happens to the outdoor humidity at low temperatures? The lower the temperature, the drier the air. The drier the air, the greater the problems caused by dry mucous membranes in the nose. Problems caused by dry nasal mucous membranes are very common in the inland regions of Norrland in northern Sweden, for example. However, the relative humidity is low not only when it is cold outdoors but also in an indoor climate that is regulated by air conditioning. A flight to Thailand or the USA can also dry out the nasal mucous membranes.The air on board aircraft is very dry. Not everything can be blamed on the environment, however. Elderly people, and women in particular, develop dry mucous membranes as part of the ageing process. In addition to its ability to heat and humidify, the nose is also able to cleanse the air we inhale from particles in the air. All of us have worked in a dusty environment at some time and then blown our noses. Our handkerchiefs reveal just how much air pollution remains in the nose. Breathing in through the mouth does not have the same ‘filter effect’ as breathing through the nose. Snoring, overweight, blood oxygenation and the risk of heart attacks – could you explain how they are related? Snoring is a common phenomenon among people who are overweight . The reason is that in the overweight, the ‘fat’, is located not just around the waist but also in the palate. When the size of the soft palate increases and reduces the air passages, inhalation is more difficult and the oxygenation of the blood in the lungs is therefore reduced. Snorers, especially the ones who stop breathing for short periods during sleep (otherwise known as sleep apnea), risk suffering heart attacks. It goes without saying that the best remedy is to change lifestyle and reduce body weight by not eating and drinking as much. Is nasal congestion as a result of a deviation in the septum a common complaint? Yes, this is a deviation that is well known to every ear, nose and throat doctor. It causes problems of different kinds for the patient, such as snoring, an increased tendency to develop nasal congestion in conjunction with allergies and so on.There are two main causes of septum deviation :damage during delivery and being exposed to violence later in life. As I wrote in the introduction to my surgical guide Med kniven i näsan (With a knife in the nose), interventions in the nose are not easy to perform. The area for surgery is very restricted and deep, making things difficult for one surgeon and naturally even more difficult for two. The intervention always takes place via the nostrils. The results are good, however; most patients are cured of their problems. Finally, a linguistic question. The “ceiling” of the nose, the bone that separates the nose from the brain, is called the ethmoid bone. Can you explain why? The word ethmoid comes from the Greek and means sieve-like. In ancient Egypt, people believed that the heart was the centre of the body and the seat of the soul. The brain’s sole task was to produce mucus to keep the nose moist. The belief that nasal mucus was produced by the brain and then dropped or was sieved through the opening at the top of the nose persisted for centuries. It was not until the 17th century that the Englishman Richard Lower, who was training to be a doctor, showed that this was not the case. He conducted an experiment which involved injecting ink into the cerebral fluid of animals and he revealed that that the ink was transported away, but not via the nose. None of the injected ink was found there.

JAPAN: CHAGAS' DISEASE

TRYPANOSOMIASIS (CHAGAS DISEASE) - JAPAN: BLOOD DONOR ***************************************************** A ProMED-mail post ProMED-mail is a program of the International Society for Infectious Diseases Date: Thu 15 Aug 2013 Sources: Yomiuri Online, Sankei News and the Japanese Red Cross Society [in Japanese, trans., edited] , and The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare said on Thursday [15 Aug 2013] that Japan had confirmed its 1st blood donor case of Chagas disease. Tests showed from a man in his 40s from Latin America with positive results of antibody tents and confirmed by finding DNA from _Trypanosoma cruzi_ [by PCR (polymerase chain reaction), we presume]. He donated blood 10 times from 2006 to June 2013; his blood was administered to 10 people. The Ministry and the Japanese Red Cross Society are trying to locate the donor and recipients of the blood. Japan Red Cross handles all blood donations in Japan. [Since 15 Oct 2012] they have required voluntary declaration of living or travel to Latin American countries [in order to donate blood]. So the declaration was obtained in June 2013, but not for the previous 9 donations. -- communicated by: ProMED-mail rapporteur Kunihiko Iizuka [It is well known that people infected with _Trypanosoma cruzi_, which causes Chagas disease, can transmit the infection though blood donation. The case illustrates how important it is to screen potential blood donors with a background in South America for infection with _T. cruzi_. The infection can be completely asymptomatic for decades even if patients have low-level parasitemia. - Mod.EP

Ont.Govt Insurance fails Univ.Toronto Emerita Prof. Cornelia Johanna BAINES

http://www.cmaj.ca/content/184/11/1328.full.pdf+html " Smart Ontarians buy private insurance for use in "WELLNESS CLINICS" legally avoiding restriction of Canada Health Act which does not allow charging for (undefined)"medically necessary" care. QUEBEC allows PRIVATE MEDICINE.

BENCE JONES SOCIETY (Measurement in Medicine)

NEUTROPHIL graphing shows earliest change from MGUS("static" plasma cell cancer) to proliferative plasma cell cancer. Confirmed by IgG, M protein & total WBC. Test cheap, widely available, & office test. Free Light Chain best best but expensive. Comments invited.

USA NIH: EYE & AQUAPORIN PROTEINS

Researchers get close-up view of water pores needed in the eye’s lens NIH-funded study of aquaporins could hold clues to cataract Researchers have achieved dynamic, atomic-scale views of a protein needed to maintain the transparency of the lens in the human eye. The work, funded in part by the National Institutes of Health, could lead to new insights and drugs for treating cataract and a variety of other health conditions. Aquaporin proteins form water channels between cells and are found in many tissues, but aquaporin zero (AQP0) is found only in the mammalian lens, which focuses light onto the retina, at the back of the eye. The lens is primarily made up of unique cells called lens fibers that contain little else besides water and proteins called crystallins. Tight packing of these fibers and of the crystallin proteins within them helps create a uniform medium that allows light to pass through the lens, almost as if it were glass. Views of the open and closed AQP0 channel. This illustration shows two views of a single unit of the aquaporin-0 channel. The left channel is open, allowing the passage of water molecules (red). The right channel is closed because amino acids in its core have flipped inward. Credit: Reichow et al. Nature Structural and Molecular Biology. Abnormal development or age-related changes in the lens can lead to cataract — a clouding of the lens that causes vision loss. Besides age, other risk factors for cataract include smoking, diabetes, and genetic factors. Mutations in the AQP0 gene can cause congenital cataract and may increase the risk of age-related cataract. “The AQP0 channel is believed to play a vital role in maintaining the transparency of the lens and in regulating water volume in the lens fibers, so understanding the molecular details of how water flows through the channel could lead to a better understanding of cataract,” said Dr. Houmam Araj, who oversees programs on lens, cataract and oculomotor systems at NIH’s National Eye Institute (NEI), which helped fund the research. Closing of AQP0 channels is regulated by a calcium-sensitive protein called calmodulin, but the precise mechanism has been unclear. Some models have suggested that calmodulin simply acts as a plug to fill the open channel. The new study, published in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, reveals a more nuanced process in which calmodulin essentially grasps the open channel and forces it to close. The research was a collaboration between investigators at the University of California, Irvine, and the Janelia Farm Research Campus in Ashburn, Va., a part of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). Drs. James Hall and Douglas Tobias led the effort at UC Irvine. Dr. Tamir Gonen led the effort at Janelia Farm. In prior studies, Dr. Gonen had examined the atomic structure of the AQP0 protein by X-ray crystallography, which involves crystallizing a protein and bombarding it with X-rays. But X-ray crystallography does not work well for large groups of proteins or for proteins in motion. So in the new study, the researchers first used electron microscopy to view AQP0 and calmodulin bound together. Then they combined their microscopy and crystallography data to generate computerized models of how the two proteins interact and to identify the most critical amino acids (the building blocks for proteins) within AQP0. To test their models, they neutralized those amino acids one by one in the actual AQP0 channel. The AQP0 channel is made up of four identical barrel-shaped units, bundled together side by side. The researchers found that in the presence of calcium, calmodulin binds to one unit and then another, as if grabbing a pair of reins. This makes the channel twist slightly, which causes just a few amino acids within each unit to slide into the channel’s core and block the flow of water. “Calmodulin essentially throws a molecular switch that moves in and out of the water pore, like the gate valve of a plumbing fixture,” Dr. Hall said. This new view of AQP0 could help lead to new approaches for treating cataract, Dr. Hall said. Cataracts are the most common cause of blindness worldwide. In the United States, they affect about 1 in 6 people over age 40 and half over age 80. Congenital cataracts (present from birth) affect about 1 in 5,000 American children. Cataracts can be successfully treated with surgery, in which the cloudy lens is removed and replaced with an artificial plastic lens. But the new findings “may be a step toward learning how to prevent or delay cataracts,” said Dr. Hall. The new findings also provide inroads to understanding how calmodulin interacts with a variety of protein channels, and thus could open doors to new drugs for other common health conditions. In addition to aquaporins, our bodies rely on a vast menagerie of channels, many of which are regulated by calmodulin. For example, calmodulin helps control the gating of ion channels, which allow the passage of ions (charged particles) in and out of our cells and are essential for nerve cell firing, muscle contraction, and the rhythmic beating of the heart. This study provides the first structural model of calmodulin bound to any complete protein channel. Drs. Daniel Clemens and Steve Reichow were co-first authors on the study. NIH support for the study came from NEI (grants EY005661, EY018768), the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS grant GM079233), a joint program on “Making Sense of Voltage Sensors” co-funded by NIGMS and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (grant GM086685), and the National Library of Medicine (grant LM007443). Additional support came from HHMI, the National Science Foundation, and the German Academy of Sciences. To set up an interview with Dr. Hall, please contact Tom Vasich at UC Irvine (tmvasich@uci.edu, 949-824-6455).