Medical Health Articles

Obama’s Cash Machine, Built in Silicon Valley

For Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, Barack Obama’s youth and relatively short resume is a plus. That’s the premise of a feature article by Joshua Green, author of an article in The Atlantic titled “The Amazing Money Machine: How Silicon Valley Made Barack Obama This Year’s Hottest Start-Up,” Green describes to Noah Adams how Obama’s campaign was able to break all records for online fundraising.

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Study: Digital Video Recorder Users Don’t Skip Ads

You would think that technology like TiVo would make it easy for people to skip commercials to get back to the programming they love. A study by Advertising Age suggests otherwise.

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CDC: Syringe reuse linked to hepatitis C outbreak

A hepatitis C outbreak affecting more than 80 people and exposing tens of thousands more was caused by workers reusing syringes at a Las Vegas clinic, federal health officials said Friday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report bolsters earlier conclusions by state and county officials, which led to the biggest public health notification operation in U.S. history.

State health officials contacted the CDC on Jan. 2 after two people treated at the now-closed Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada were diagnosed with acute hepatitis C.

The practice of reusing syringes with the sedative propofol “was observed, and interviews suggested it was a common practice,” the CDC investigators said in a report to the Nevada State Health Division.

“This was considered the most likely mode of transmission,” the report said.

Officials have linked 84 cases of the potentially deadly liver disease to the clinic and have notified 50,000 patients that they may be at risk. Another case was linked to a sister clinic.

The 85 are among about 400 former patients of the center who tested positive. Officials have determined the other patients could have contracted the virus through other means, including intravenous drug use, blood transfusions, organ transplants or kidney dialysis, receiving blood clotting agents before 1987, or sexual contact with a person with hepatitis C.

Hepatitis C results in the swelling of the liver and can cause stomach pain, fatigue and jaundice. It may eventually result in liver failure. Even when no symptoms occur, the virus can slowly damage the liver.

The Endoscopy Center and several other clinics were headed by doctors Dipak Desai and Eladio Carrera, whose Nevada medical licenses have been suspended pending state Board of Medical Examiners hearings.

Las Vegas police have seized medical records from the clinics, and the FBI, the state attorney general and the Clark County district attorney are involved in a criminal investigation. The owners of the clinics have surrendered business licenses and paid $500,000 in fines.

Former patients at the Endoscopy Center are being tested for hepatitis strains C, B, and HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. No cases of hepatitis strain B or HIV have been linked to the outbreak.

Since 1999, the CDC counts 14 hepatitis outbreaks in the U.S. linked to bad injection practices.

The largest outbreak occurred in Fremont, Neb., where 99 cancer patients were infected at an oncology center from 2001 to 2002. At least one died.

———

On the Net:

CDC report: http://health.nv.gov/

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: http://www.cdc.gov/

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Survival of quake victims depends on many factors

A nurse survived eight days in the wreckage of a Turkish hospital destroyed by an earthquake in 1992. A newborn was rescued after more than a week in the rubble of Mexico City’s 1985 quake. Now, in China, rescuers are pulling out victims days after they were buried by a powerful earthquake.

How long can people survive trapped under piles of rubble?

A week or more under the best circumstances, some experts say. That means the victim isn’t seriously hurt, was in good condition to begin with and the weather isn’t too hot or too cold.

Survival can depend on all of those things.

“The stronger the person was prior to being trapped or injured, the better the chances for survival,” said Dr. Paul Auerbach, who teaches emergency medicine at Stanford School of Medicine and is the editor of a book on wilderness medicine.

On Friday, four days after a powerful quake struck central China, rescuers freed a nurse from the debris of a clinic in Beichuan county, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

“It really depends on the condition of the patient,” said Dr. Irving “Jake” Jacoby of the University of California, San Diego. He heads a medical team that responded to the 1989 Loma Prieta quake in California, Hurricane Katrina and other disasters.

Those who are trapped but relatively uninjured could survive for a week or even 10 days, and in extreme circumstances two weeks or more, he said. However, the vast majority of rescues usually occur in the first 24 hours after a disaster, he said. After that, the chances of survival drop as each day passes.

Infants and the elderly are the most vulnerable, Jacoby said. Even so, there were several newborns pulled from the rubble days after Mexico’s 1985 quake.

In China, the situation is getting more dire as time passes.

“Now that we’re days after the earthquake, people who sustained serious injuries that caused severe organ damage or bleeding would not survive,” Auerbach said.

Access to water is more important than food for those trapped for days.

“People can survive for weeks without food — that’s really not the issue,” said Auerbach. “But dehydration can be severe.”

How long people can live without water can depend on the temperature, how much fluid they lose, and how well they can tolerate being dehydrated, he said. A reasonable range is anywhere from three to seven days, he said.

Trapped victims could have access to some water from broken plumbing in high-rise buildings, or water that accumulates in the wreckage, noted Battalion Chief Edward Brinkley of the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department in Virginia. He’s gone to Turkey and Taiwan with the department’s rescue team to help out after earthquakes there.

The weather after the earthquake can also affect survival. Soon after Monday’s quake in China, it rained heavily and the temperatures dropped to around 50 degrees.

Bad weather can slow rescue efforts, said Lt. Arnold Piedrahita, a rescue specialist and spokesman for the Miami-Dade County Fire Rescue Department. If dogs are used to search for victims, the wind can make it hard to pick up a scent, he said.

On Friday, the first international rescue crews arrived in the disaster area. There had been some discussion of sending the Virginia team, Brinkley said, but they probably won’t be dispatched because of the distance.

“The frustrating thing for us is to watch what’s going on and not be able to help,” he said.

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Experimental Novartis drug slows kidney cancer

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An experimental drug from Swiss drugmaker Novartis slowed the progression of kidney cancer in patients whose tumors returned after initial chemotherapy, researchers reported>

The drug, called RAD-001 or everolimus, may provide an option for patients with a difficult-to-treat cancer, the researchers said in an initial release of data ahead of a meeting of the American Society of Clinical>

The international team studied more than 400 people with kidney cancer, giving RAD-001 to 272 of them and placebos to 138 patients.

After six months, tumors had not grown or spread in 26 percent of patients who got RAD-001, compared to 2 percent of the placebo group.

On average, patients who got RAD-001 enjoyed four months of so-called progression-free survival compared to just under two months for those who got the placebo.

Independent monitors who watch drug trials were so impressed by the results that they stopped the trial last February so everyone could get RAD-001.

“This study has given us a new and clearly useful tool for treating renal cell tumors, and everolimus is an important step forward in terms of disease management and quality of life for patients living with this disease,” said Dr. Robert Motzer of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, who led the study.

Full details will be presented>

Kidney cancer will be diagnosed in 54,390 people in the United States this year and will kill 13,010, the American Cancer Society projects.  Continued…

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Low Vitamin D Tied to Depression in Older Adults

— Low levels of vitamin D and high levels of a hormone secreted by the parathyroid glands may increase the risk of depression in older adults, according to a new report.

The Dutch study, published in the May issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, supports previous speculation by researchers that vitamin D, depression and other psychiatric illnesses are linked, according to background information in the article.

Underlying causes of vitamin D deficiency — such as less sun exposure due to decreased outdoor activity, different housing or clothing habits, and decreased vitamin intake — may be secondary to depression, but depression may also be the consequence of poor vitamin D status, the article’s authors wrote. Moreover, poor vitamin D status causes an increase in serum parathyroid hormone levels.

Symptoms of depression often appear when the parathyroid glands are overactive, then disappear after the gland condition is treated.

Since both low vitamin D levels and high parathyroid hormone levels can be treated by increasing vitamin D or calcium in the diet and boosting exposure to sunlight, the findings could bring hope to depressed seniors, the researchers say. About 13 percent of older individuals have symptoms of depression.

Researchers at VU University Medical Center, in Amsterdam, found the vitamin D levels were 14 percent lower in test subjects diagnosed with major and minor depression compared with those non-depressed participants.

Parathyroid hormone thyroid levels were an average of 5 percent higher in those with minor depression and 33 percent higher in those with major depressive disorder than in those who were not depressed.

The researchers measured blood levels of vitamin D and parathyroid hormone among 1,282 community residents over the age of 65. They also assessed symptoms of depression, diagnosing 26 with a major depressive disorder, 169 with minor depression and 1,087 as not depressed.

Additional studies are needed to determine whether changes in levels of vitamin D and parathyroid hormone precede the onset of depression or follow it, the authors said.

More information

The Office of Dietary Supplements has more about vitamin D.

– Kevin McKeever

SOURCE: JAMA, news release, May 5, 2008

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United Concordia Dental Celebrates National Smile Month

Month-long Campaign to Emphasize the Importance of Oral and Overall Health

HARRISBURG, Pa., May 16 /PRNewswire/ — National dental insurer UnitedConcordia Dental is celebrating National Smile Month, a collaborationbetween Oral Health America and the British Dental Health Foundation topromote the importance of oral health to overall health. Beginning May 18,this year’s event is launching in the United States for the first time,making it the largest independent international dental health campaign.

United Concordia Dental educates adults and children by hosting agrowing number of free dental clinics across the country and providingonline dental health brochures on the connection between oral and medicalhealth, articles on general and emergency dental care and children’s funpages. In addition, the Harrisburg, PA-based dental insurer offers dentalplans designed to encourage preventive dental services.

“United Concordia Dental is committed to the healthy smiles of ourmembers,” said Dr. Richard P. Klich, United Concordia Dental’s NationalDental Director. “With the increasing body of evidence on how oral healthmay affect a person’s overall health, United Concordia Dental continues tobe proactive in providing this information to our members, empowering themto make informed decisions about their dental health and encouraging themto seek the preventive dental care necessary to minimize the risk of futurehealth problems.”

Running from May 18 to June 17, National Smile Month will inform thepublic of the possible connection between dental disease and a number ofmedical conditions, such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and pretermbirths.

“United Concordia Dental is excited at the opportunity to highlight theneed for better dental health awareness during National Smile Month,” saidDr. Klich. “Dental disease is one of the most common and preventable healthissues facing Americans. The more attention and focus we give toSOURCE United Concordia DentalCopyright©2008 PR Newswire.All rights reserved

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Paramedics, EMTs in Oregon, Washington State Ratify First-Ever Teamsters Contract

Contract Covers More than 500 Workers

WASHINGTON, May 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — More than 500 paramedicsand emergency medical technicians in the Greater Portland, Oregon andVancouver, Washington area have ratified their first-ever contract asTeamsters.

“The Teamsters are pleased that these workers are now covered by astrong contract that gives them job protection and a secure retirementfuture,” said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa.

The workers, both full-time and part-time, are employed by AmericanMedical Response, Inc. They are members of Local 58 in Vancouver,Washington and Local 223 in Portland, Oregon.

“These workers were determined to become Teamsters and we’re thrilledthey are now under a contract,” said John Silva, Secretary-Treasurer ofLocal 58. “This effort was a joint one with Local 223 headed bySecretary-Treasurer Clayton Banry, and Joint Council 37 led by PresidentTony Andrews.”

The three-year contract provides the workers with better wages,benefits and an improved workplace environment. The labor agreement wasratified by a significant majority of the members and provides manyimprovements, including pay increases of more than 18.5% over a three-yearperiod, reduced employee medical insurance costs, establishment of employerseeded FSA accounts, fully paid training and overtime after 8 hours for allclassifications.

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents1.4 million hardworking men and women in the United States, Canada andPuerto Rico.

SOURCE International Brotherhood of TeamstersCopyright©2008 PR Newswire.All rights reserved

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IEEE Fellow first woman to receive highest award in engineering profession

WASHINGTON (16 May 2008) — Dr. Kristina M. Johnson, provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs at Johns Hopkins University, recently received the John Fritz Medal from the American Association of Engineering Societies (AAES). She is the first woman so honored.

Johnson was one of seven honorees during the AAES 29th annual awards ceremony in the Great Hall of the National Academy of Engineering on 5 May. She was cited for her internationally acknowledged expertise in optics, optoelectronic switching and display technology.

The John Fritz Medal, referred to as the highest award in the engineering profession, is presented each year for scientific or industrial achievement in any field of pure or applied science. It was established in 1902 as a memorial to the great engineer whose name it bears. Past recipients include Alexander Graham Bell (1907), Thomas Edison (1908), Alfred Nobel (1910), Orville Wright (1920) and Guglielmo Marconi (1923).

Johnson is an IEEE Fellow and electrical engineer who, as the former dean of engineering at Duke University, increased the engineering faculty by 50 percent, tripled the size of the teaching and research facilities, and tripled the number of women engineering faculty, many in leadership positions. She co-founded the Colorado Advanced Technology Institute for Excellence in Optoelectronics and started several companies that are commercially successful in color projection devices and intellectual property licensing.

University of Michigan professor Dr. Donald B. Chaffin received the National Engineering Award.

Chaffin was honored for his truly inspirational leadership and devotion to the improvement of industrial operations, biomedical engineering education, the advancement of the engineering profession, as well as to the development of national policies for the protection of worker safety and health.

Chaffin is the Richard G. Snyder Distinguished University ProfesContact: Chris McManes
c.mcmanes@ieee.org
202-530-8356
IEEE-USASource:Eurekalertsor Emeritus, Industrial and Operations Engineering and Biomedical Engineering, at Michigan. He has for more than 40 years advocated using science to improve productivity in manufacturing operations and assure the health and safety of industrial workers. His book, Occupational Biomechanics, is used at more than 200 universities worldwide. The Human Motion Simulation Laboratory he founded at Michigan is dedicated to ensuring that worker safety and convenience are more thoroughly considered in vehicle and workplace design.

The National Engineering Award is presented for inspirational leadership and tireless devotion to the improvement of engineering education and to the advancement of the engineering profession, as well as to the development of sound public policies as an engineer-statesman. Previous recipients include astronaut Neil Armstrong (1979) and former Lockheed Martin CEO Norm Augustine (1991).

Dr. Patricia P. Nelson, a noted geotechnical engineer and disaster control specialist, received the Kenneth Andrew Roe Award for effectively promoting unity among the engineering societies through her leadership positions at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the New Jersey Institute of Technology, where she serves as provost.

As director of NSFs Civil & Mechanical Systems, Nelson created interdisciplinary research programs, established new research programs for sensors and professional opportunities for women. She founded the Institute for Infrastructure Systems to broaden the scientific basis of planning and decision making on infrastructure projects, and to expand infrastructure knowledge in society, particularly among elementary and high school students.

The Kenneth Andrew Roe Award is presented on behalf of the engineering community to recognize an engineer who has been effective in promoting unity among the engineering societies.

Dr. Gerald E. Galloway was presented the Norm Augustine Award for communicating theContact: Chris McManes
c.mcmanes@ieee.org
202-530-8356
IEEE-USASource:Eurekalert

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Green Tea Puts Sleep Apnea Woes to Bed?

May 16, 2008 — A cup of green tea may be just what the doctor ordered if you have learning and memory problems related to obstructive sleep apnea, the most common type of sleep-related breathing disorder.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) starves the body of oxygen during sleep. Persons with the condition experience pauses in breathing while sleeping. This condition can cause a drop in oxygen levels, which can affect organs of the body. OSA increases your risk for high blood pressure, heart attacks, and strokes, and affects cognitive function such as learning and memory.

The powerful antioxidants found in green tea may help thwart such cognitive problems, according to a study published in this month’s second issue of the American Thoracic Society’s American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. Green tea contains compounds called polyphenols, which animal studies suggest can protect against neurodegenerative changes related to Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. Green tea polyphenols (GTP) work by counteracting oxidative stress in the brain. Oxidative stress is cell damage brought on by harmful molecules called free radicals. Antioxidants protect against this damage. Oxidative stress is believed to play a role in many diseases.

Signs of oxidative stress and changes in the brain have been documented among some patients with OSA, the study cites.

“OSA has been increasingly recognized as a serious and frequent health condition,” study author David Gozal, MD, professor and director of Kosair Children’s Hospital Research Institute at the University of Louisville, says in a news release. “A growing body of evidence suggests that the adverse neurobehavioral consequences imposed by [intermittent hypoxia] stem, at least in part, from oxidative stress.”

The current study involved male rats that were intermittently deprived of oxygen during a 12-hour “night” cycle for two weeks. The intermittent oxygen deprivation was similar to that experienced by adults with OSA. The researchers gave half the rats water containing GTP and the other half plain water, and then tested the rats for markers of inflammation and oxidative stress.

After receiving the GTP cocktail or plain water drink, the rats entered a maze designed to test their spatial learning and memory abilities. In this case, the rats had to remember the location of a hidden platform.

The experiments showed that the rats treated with GTP made their way through the maze better than the other rats. The researchers say their findings suggest that the chemicals in green tea can calm learning problems related to OSA-induced hypoxia. They also found that there was chemical evidence of less oxidative stress in the rats given GTP.

GTPs “may represent a potential interventional strategy for patients” with sleep-disordered breathing,” Gozal says.

Polyphenols are found in many foods and beverages, including tea, wine, and certain fruits and vegetables.

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Gas-Filled Liquids Curb Appetite

May 16, 2008 — Fear you’ll have to forgo your mocha frappuccino fix to squeeze into summer’s skimpy fashions? No problem, just order your drink with an extra shot of, um, gas.

Scientists say a liquid meal made with tiny gas bubbles can fill up your tank and give you more mileage between meals. It might sound like an infomercial, but study data being presented this week at the 16th European Congress on Obesity in Geneva, Switzerland, shows that a new high-tech diet liquid meal infused with gas reduces appetite for hours.

Previous studies have suggested that increasing food volume with water or air can increase the feeling of fullness and decrease subsequent food intake, according to background information in the study abstract.

Researchers with the Unilever Food & Health Research Institute examined the effects of gas-filled liquid foods on the appetites of 24 overweight adults about 42 years old. Unilever makes many products, including Slim-Fast.

The study participants received a gas-filled liquid meal or a standard liquid shake, either as a single large serving (1,000 milliliters for the gas-filled liquid, 325 milliliters for the standard liquid), or as two half-servings given two hours apart. The total calorie count from the drinks was the same. Participants reported feelings of hunger and fullness for four hours after drinking the shakes.

The experiment showed that both the full- and half-size gas-filled liquids significantly reduced appetite ratings when compared to the standard liquid meals.

But one might wonder: Could a belly full of gas lead to a big bellyache? Researchers noted “increased reports of gastrointestinal complaints” among those who received the large gas-filled liquid meals.

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Mastectomies Up for Early Breast Cancer

May 16, 2008 — More women with early-stage breast cancer are opting to have a mastectomy, a new study suggests.

Breast-conserving surgery, in which only the tumor and surrounding breast tissue are cut out, has been the treatment of choice for most women with early-stage disease since 1990. That’s when a National Institutes of Health Consensus Panel reported that it is as effective at saving lives as the more disfiguring mastectomy, in which the entire breast is removed.

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But recently, the number of mastectomies performed at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., shot up 13% in just three years.

Mastectomy accounted for 43% of early-stage breast cancer surgeries in 2007, compared with 30% in 2003, says researcher Matthew Goetz, MD, a breast cancer specialist at the Mayo Clinic.

“The mastectomy rate in 2007 was about the same we saw in the late ’90s,” he tells WebMD.

Other studies have also documented an increase in mastectomy rates in the U.S., says Julie Gralow, MD. She is chairwoman of the cancer communications committee of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and associate professor of medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle.

For example, women who undergo a mastectomy for cancer in one breast are increasingly choosing to have their other, healthy breast removed as a preventive measure, Gralow tells WebMD.

The new study involved 5,464 women who had surgery for early-stage breast cancer at the Mayo Clinic between 1997 and 2007. It is scheduled to be presented here at ASCO’s annual meeting.

Why Mastectomy Rates Are on the Rise

One reason why more women are choosing mastectomy, the study suggests, is the increased use of breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans before surgery. MRIs can spot tiny lesions throughout the breast that couldn’t be seen on earlier tests.

The problem: Such lesions may or may not be cancerous, Gralow says. “If the MRI actually finds cancer, more aggressive surgery is appropriate. But it would be a tragedy to choose mastectomy if the MRI was just spotting tiny specks, little benign things.”

Plus, the increased use of MRI couldn’t account for the entire rise in mastectomy rates in the study; they also shot up among women who didn’t have the scans.

Gralow says better breast reconstructive techniques are another reason why more women are opting for the procedure. Thanks to new surgical techniques, mastectomy with breast reconstruction often results in at least as good cosmetic and functional outcomes as breast-conservation surgery, she says.

Also, studies have shown that while the chance of survival is the same after both procedures, mastectomy is associated with a lower risk of developing a new cancer in the affected breast: 2% vs. 10% for breast-conserving surgery, Gralow says.

Other women may wish to avoid radiation therapy, which is an integral part of breast-conserving treatment, she says. It’s given after the surgery to kill any remaining cancer cells.

“There’s often no right or wrong answer,” Gralow says. “Women need to sit down with their doctors and discuss all the options.”

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Kids Who Whip Cancer Face Heart Risks

May 16, 2008 — Kids who beat childhood cancer are five to 10 times more likely than their healthy siblings to develop heart disease in early adulthood, according to the largest study ever to look at the issue.

“Childhood cancer survivors in their 20s are developing the kinds of heart problems we typically see in older adults,” says lead researcher Daniel A. Mulrooney, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Minnesota’s Masonic Cancer Center in Minneapolis.

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There are more than 270,000 survivors of childhood cancer in the United States, Mulrooney says. He is scheduled to present the findings at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).

More than 65% of children and young adults are now cured of cancer, according to the American Cancer Society.

Heart Risks Increased in Child Cancer Survivors

The analysis from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study involved more than 14,000 young adults who were diagnosed with a childhood cancer between 1970 and 1986. They had survived a variety of cancers, including Hodgkin’s disease, brain or kidney tumors, leukemia, or lymphoma.

Participants, whose average age was 28 at the time of the analysis, were diagnosed with cancer at an average age of 8. They were followed for an average of 20 years.

Compared with their healthy siblings, the cancer survivors were:

• 10 times more likely to have plaque buildup in their arteries, or atherosclerosis
• Six times more likely to have congestive heart failure
• Five times more likely to have had a heart attack

Previous findings from the study, which features the largest group of people in the world who beat childhood cancer, showed that survivors are also at increased risk of other health woes, including lung scarring, blood clots, infertility, and second cancers.

Mulrooney tells WebMD that a major culprit behind the increased risk of heart disease as well as other health woes is the radiation used to diagnose and treat some cancers. Chemotherapy drugs called anthracyclines, such as Adriamycin, are also to blame, he says.

Mulrooney says that recent changes in the delivery of radiation and chemotherapy probably place children today at lower risk of secondary health problems.

For example, radiation is more targeted, right to the area of a tumor, “which would hopefully spare the heart,” he says.

At the same time, some of the same chemotherapy drugs used in the 1970s are still helping people beat cancer today. And there are no long-term data to prove today’s regimens are safer, Mulrooney notes.

Regular Checkup Stressed

The important thing for survivors to know is that the impact of these health problems can be reduced with regular checkups, says Richard L. Schilsky, MD, president-elect of ASCO and professor of medicine at the University of Chicago.

“As childhood cancer survivors age, they often transfer their care to a primary care physician and see their oncologist less frequently, if at all, as is appropriate.

“But it becomes incumbent upon the patients and the primary care physicians to be aware of the cancer history and its potential consequences,” Schilsky tells WebMD.

Mulrooney agrees. “The average age at which our young survivors developed heart problems, 28 years, is much younger than when most primary care physicians start screening for cardiac disease.”

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New Artificial Cornea Shows Promise

May 16, 2008 — Researchers from Stanford University have developed anartificial cornea, which they say could make cornea transplants involving donors athing of the past and help millions of blind people see again.

The polymer-based cornea has not been implanted in humans, but it is showingpromise in animal studies, Stanford senior scientist Jaan Noolandi, PhD, tellsWebMD.

Corneal disease is a leading cause of blindness. Examples of corneal diseaseinclude infection such as ocular herpes and corneal dystrophy such as keratoconus. It is estimatedthat 10 million people worldwide have lost their sight to corneal disease orillness.

Transplants from cadaver donors are not an option in many parts of theworld, due to shortages of donors or religious barriers to human tissuetransplant.

“There is really a global market for an artificial cornea, and webelieve that our material will prove more biocompatible than those that havebeen tried in the past,” Noolandi says.

Doing Away With Donors

Developed by chemical engineer Curtis W. Frank, PhD, the cornea is made oftwo interwoven polymer gels, similar to the materials used in soft contactlenses.

One layer is exceptionally strong while the other is able to absorb atremendous amount of water.

The result is a transparent, highly permeable substance with a water contentsimilar to that of the natural cornea, Noolandi says.

“Without a high water content the nutrients that feed the cells withinthe eye can’t penetrate and the cells eventually die,” he adds.

If the artificial cornea proves successful in human studies, it could oneday replace donor transplants.

But that is a very big if, says corneal disease specialist Ivan Schwab,MD.

“There have been dozens of attempts to come up with some version of anartificial cornea over many decades,” he tells WebMD. “Most have lookedpromising in the lab but have proven disappointing otherwise.”

He says that is the case with one of the only artificial corneas nowapproved for use in the U.S., which was developed by researchers inAustralia.

The failure rate among patients who get the AlphaCor cornea is about 20% ayear.

“Until the [Stanford] researchers publish human, or even animal studies,we won’t really know if their approach is promising,” he says. “Theymay have something terrific, but I am skeptical because of the many previousfailures.”

Human Studies Needed

Harvard Medical School professor of ophthalmology Claes H. Dohlman, MD, PhD,has been conducting cornea research for more than 50 years, and he isconsidered a founder of modern corneal science.

The artificial cornea he developed has been used in the U.S. since 1992 inpatients who are not candidates for donor transplants.

His artificial cornea cannot be used when corneal damage is caused byautoimmune disease, but Dohlman says it works very well in other patients.

“The search [for a safe and effective artificial cornea] goes as farback as the surgeons of the French Revolution, with mostly disastrousresults,” he tells WebMD. “It has only been within the last few decadesthat the elements have come together to make this a reality.”

Dohlman agrees that it remains to be seen if the artificial cornea developedby the Stanford researchers will advance the search for a donor transplantreplacement.

“This is a very good research team, but they still have a long way togo,” he says.

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