A stretcher races through the entrance of a busy hospital. The car-accident victim lies on top and grimaces in pain. While surface injuries looks gruesome, the real medical danger is invisible - internal organ damage caused by being crushed against the steering wheel.
This isn't a scene from Seattle Grace Hospital, the set of the popular television drama Grey's Anatomy, but from its real-life model, Harborview Medical Center. Engineers at the University of Washington are working with Harborview doctors to create new emergency treatments right out of Star Trek: a tricorder type device using high-intensity focused ultrasound rays. This summer, researchers published the first experiment using ultrasound to seal punctured lungs.
"No one has ever looked at treating lungs with ultrasound," said Shahram Vaezy, a UW associate professor of bioengineering. Physicists were skeptical it would work because a lung is essentially a collection of air sacs, and air blocks transmission of ultrasound. But the new experiments show that punctures on the lung's surface, where injuries usually occur, heal with ultrasound therapy.
"The results are really impressive," Vaezy said. He cautions that this is still in the early stages and the technique is not yet being tested on humans.
Health & Wellness
A total of 48 children have been hospitalized with acute intestinal infection in a district of South Russia's Stavropol Territory, following food poisoning in kindergartens, a local hospital said.
A total of 96 children have fallen ill in the Georgiyevsk District, of which 46 refused to be admitted to hospital, said Olga Yeremenko, a hospital doctor. None of the infection cases are critical, she said.
A preliminary probe carried out by Russia's consumer rights watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, revealed that the infection may have been spread by kefir, a fermented milk drink, supplied to the kindergartens, under the Slavyanovsky brand. A criminal investigation has been launched.
A total of 96 children have fallen ill in the Georgiyevsk District, of which 46 refused to be admitted to hospital, said Olga Yeremenko, a hospital doctor. None of the infection cases are critical, she said.
A preliminary probe carried out by Russia's consumer rights watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, revealed that the infection may have been spread by kefir, a fermented milk drink, supplied to the kindergartens, under the Slavyanovsky brand. A criminal investigation has been launched.
Scientists have worked out why mosquitoes make a beeline for certain people but appear to leave others almost untouched.
Specific cells in one of the three organs that make up the mosquito's nose are tuned to identify the different chemicals that make up human body odour.
To the mosquito some people's sweat simply smells better than others because of the proportions of the carbon dioxide, octenol and other compounds that make up body odour.
Specific cells in one of the three organs that make up the mosquito's nose are tuned to identify the different chemicals that make up human body odour.
To the mosquito some people's sweat simply smells better than others because of the proportions of the carbon dioxide, octenol and other compounds that make up body odour.
Pop Weaver, one of the largest producers of microwave popcorn, is removing a controversial chemical flavoring agent from its products.
The chemical -- diacetyl -- adds buttery taste. Government worker safety investigators have linked exposure to the synthetic butter to the sometimes fatal destruction of the lungs of hundreds of workers in food production and flavoring factories.
And while Pop Weaver has dropped diacetyl from its product, it remains in widespread use in thousands of other consumer products, including the microwave popcorn brands Orville Redenbacher and Act II.
The chemical -- diacetyl -- adds buttery taste. Government worker safety investigators have linked exposure to the synthetic butter to the sometimes fatal destruction of the lungs of hundreds of workers in food production and flavoring factories.
And while Pop Weaver has dropped diacetyl from its product, it remains in widespread use in thousands of other consumer products, including the microwave popcorn brands Orville Redenbacher and Act II.
SOUTH GATE, Calif. -- She was once in constant motion; her co-workers compared her to a roadrunner because of the way she darted around the workplace. But now Irma Ortiz sits at the edge of her couch, too winded to sweep her patio or walk her son to school without resting. She is slowly suffocating.
More than 68,000 pounds of bagged fresh spinach are being recalled by a Monterey County grower after routine testing found salmonella in a sample taken from a Watsonville packing plant.
There have been no reports of illness from the spinach, but state and federal health officials said they are working with Metz Fresh of King City to determine the source and scope of contamination.
There have been no reports of illness from the spinach, but state and federal health officials said they are working with Metz Fresh of King City to determine the source and scope of contamination.
Mobile phones can take as little as ten minutes to trigger changes in the brain associated with cancer, scientists claimed yesterday.
WASHINGTON - Cell phone emissions excite the part of the brain cortex nearest to the phone, but it is not clear if these effects are harmful, Italian researchers reported on Monday.
Their study, published in the Annals of Neurology, adds to a growing body of research about mobile phones, their possible effects on the brain, and whether there is any link to cancer.
Their study, published in the Annals of Neurology, adds to a growing body of research about mobile phones, their possible effects on the brain, and whether there is any link to cancer.
A mobile phone company is to remove a mast from a block of flats after seven residents were struck down by cancer.
Three have died and another four have battled the disease since two masts were erected on the roof of the five-storey block which has become known locally as the Tower of Doom.
The cancer rate on the top floor - where residents of five of the eight flats have been affected and the three who died all lived - is 20 per cent, ten times the national average.
Three have died and another four have battled the disease since two masts were erected on the roof of the five-storey block which has become known locally as the Tower of Doom.
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| The mast (circled) on the block known to locals as the Tower of Doom. |
The cancer rate on the top floor - where residents of five of the eight flats have been affected and the three who died all lived - is 20 per cent, ten times the national average.
Some 68 people have died from a mystery illness over the course of nearly four months in central Democratic Republic of Congo, local authorities said Wednesday.
A total of 212 cases have been detected in Western Kasai province, said Fortunat Tumba Tshitoka, the provincial health minister.
A total of 212 cases have been detected in Western Kasai province, said Fortunat Tumba Tshitoka, the provincial health minister.
