Features

Metabolic Syndrome Update !

Malaria Control Software !

"Breech" Can Be Missed !

"Curry" Facts

Longer Needles Best !

New Cancer Test !

New Products of SQUARE Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

EDITORIAL TEAM

OMAR AKRAMUR RAB

MBBS, FCGP, FIAGP, FRSH (UK)

P G Dip. Business Management

LATIFA NISHAT, MBBS

MAHFUZUR RAHMAN, MBBS

WALIUR RAHMAN, MBBS

EDITORIAL

Dear Doctor:

Welcome to this edition of 'e-SQUARE' healthcare online !

Our current issue focused on some interesting features like "Metabolic Syndrome Update, Malaria Control Software, Breech Can Be Missed , Curry Facts, Longer Needles Best, New Cancer Test".

In our regular feature, we have some new products information of SQUARE Pharmaceuticals Ltd. as well.

Please send us your feedback !

Click on to reply mode.

Yours sincerely,

Editorial Team

Reply Mode      : e-square@squaregroup.com

The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of its editor or SQUARE PHARMACEUTICALS LTD.

 Break Through  Treatment for Metabolic Syndrome

Researchers from Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital revealed a molecular switch, regulating the production of fat and cholesterol that may play a major role in advancing the treatments of Metabolic Syndromes which comprises high cholesterol, obesity, type II diabetes and high blood pressure. It’s a protein that acts together with a family of molecular switches to turn on cholesterol and fat (or lipid) production and the nature of the molecular interface may allow to pursue a more comprehensive approach to the treatment of metabolic syndrome – the lead researcher said. However, more effective ways are needed to treat all of the components of metabolic syndrome and one attractive approach might be to target the genetic switches but it would require a detailed understanding of the regulatory mechanisms before drug targets can be identified.

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Special Software for Malaria Control

The European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) has conceived a project called Africa@home, which lets volunteers download a software that runs in the background of an idling computer and records simulations that model the spread of malaria through Africa. The software, called MalariaControl.net, developed by researchers at the Swiss Tropical Institute, takes the institute’s model and converts it into a form that can be scattered across hundreds of computers. The volunteers have to download the software from the Africa@home website, which will do the scientific calculations in the background while they use their PCs. Thus the simulations will run on thousands of computers and the results will be regularly returned to a server at the University of Geneva for evaluation. This will enable the researchers to better understand and improve the impact of introducing new treatments.

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                                                        Routine Physical Examination Can Miss Breech Presentation

The researchers from the University of Sydney have warned that routine examinations to check a baby’s position comprising simple palpation are not sensitive enough. They had examined 1,633 women who were in their 35th to 37th week of pregnancy and were attending an antenatal clinic at a local obstetric hospital in the usual way to assess the position of the baby, and were later made to an ultrasound scan to confirm the position. On simple palpation they had detected 70% of the babies who were not in the ideal head-down position but had missed the other 30%. They clarified further that if these figures were to be applied to a general maternity population of around 1,000 women, the clinical examination would identify only about 101 women as having an abnormal lie, but in which case only 56 would be correct and 24 women with abnormal lie would be missed altogether. The British Medical Journal has suggested that a routine ultrasound tests may be needed for proper diagnosis.

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Curry Could Help Keep off Alzheimer’s and Fight Spread of Cancers

Recent studies have shown that eating curry helps enhances mental performance and could help keep off Alzheimer’s. In a research conducted by National University of Singapore on more than a thousand Asian people aged between 60 and 93 not suffering from the disease, they found that those who ate the dish at least once in a month or once in 6 months had better mental performance than those who had never had it or had it rarely. Consumption of the curry even once in a while improved mental performance- the lead researcher said. Curcumin, an ingredient of spice turmeric which is a regular ingredient in many Indian dishes, responsible for the distinctive yellow color of the curry is thought to be responsible for the effects. Even though, curcumin helps keep off Alzheimer’s by inhibiting the buildup of amyloid plaques. In combination with drugs Curcumin also can prevent spread of breast cancer, and prostate cancer by blocking the protein that plays a key role in the spread of the cancer

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Longer Needles Best for Infant Immunization

Researchers from Oxford found that, infants vaccinated with a long needle experience fewer reactions but get the same protection (immunogenicity) as a shorter needle. Despite recommendations for use of a wide-long (23G, 25mm) needle, many UK practitioners immunise infants using a narrow-short (25G, 16mm) needle and uncertainty has arisen because of insufficient data to define best practice. The researchers carried out a trial comparing three needle sizes varying in length and diameter. 696 infants were randomly immunised with either a wide-long (23G, 25mm); a narrow-short (25G, 16mm); or a narrow-long (25G, 25mm) needle at 2, 3 and 4 months. Parents recorded local and general reactions for 3 days following each dose and antibody concentrations were measured 28-42 days after the third dose. Local reactions decreased significantly with wider-longer over narrower-shorter needles and immunogenicity following injection with the longer needle was, however, comparable to that achieved with the shorter needle.

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New Test Could Detect Breast Cancer  Early

During the past few years, interest in the health benefits of probiotics or so-called "good" bacteria has grown. Found in certain yogurts and in supplement form, probiotics are increasingly used to treat diarrhea and other gastrointestinal ailments. Now a new study suggests that they may also help prevent respiratory infections like the common cold. Researchers in Sweden compared workers who took the probiotic bacteria Lactobacillus reuteri every day with those who didn't. The workers who took the probiotic had less than half the sick leave of workers who didn't. There are more than 400 species of bacteria in the human digestive tract, and it is commonly believed that at least some of these help prevent illness by keeping sickness-causing bacteria from  flourishing. The newly published study from Sweden included 181 factory workers who consumed a drink containing L. reuteri or a drink without the probiotic for 80 days. Twenty-three of the 87 workers in the placebo group reported taking sick days during the study, compared with only 10 of the 94 workers who took the L. reuteri. The difference was most dramatic among 53 shift workers: none of the 26 shift workers in the L. reuteri group reported taking any sick leave, compared with nine out of 27 shift workers in the placebo group.

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