NAPC News 12 August 2010

Anger As NICE Denies Children Asthma Drug

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has been berated for denying patients aged 6 to 11 access to Xolairon, a drug shown to benefit children suffering from severe asthma, on the NHS. NICE said that the high cost of the drug, £256 per vial, did not justify its ‘little extra benefit'.

Mike Thomas of Asthma UK said the news would be a massive blow to parents of children who had already trialed Xolair and had seen their lives transformed.

Brain Works More Like Internet Than Top Down Company

The brain appears to be a vastly interconnected network much like the internet, according to new research. This runs counter to the 19th Century ‘top-down' view of brain structure.

A novel technique to track signals across tiny brain regions has revealed connections between regions associated with stress, depression and appetite. The research, which has been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, may lead to a full map of the nervous system.
networks
Larry Swanson and Richard Thompson from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, US, isolated a small section of a rat's brain in the nucleus accumbens - a brain region associated with pleasure and reward. Their technique hinges on the injection of tracers at precise points in the brain tissue. These are molecules that do not interfere with movement of signals across the tissue, but can be illuminated and identified using a microscope.

What is new is that the researchers injected two tracers at the same point at the same time: one showed where signals were going, and one that showed where they were coming from. The approach can show up to four levels of connection.

If the brain had a hierarchical structure like a large company, as neurology long held, the ‘to' and ‘from' diagram would show straight lines from independent regions up towards a central processing unit: the company's boss. Instead, however, the researchers saw loops between differing regions, feeding back to and directly linking regions that were not known to communicate with one another. This is a better fit with model of vast networks such as the internet.

The region of the brain studied by the researchers displays a network connecting regions associated with stress, appetite and depression.

Such a highly interconnected structure has been hypothesised for some time, and could prove to be a powerful tool in analysing how the brain processes information. But it had not until now been demonstrated experimentally.

 Closing GP Surgeries Over Weekends Unacceptable

Treating continuity of care as a ‘holy grail', while denying patients access to services over weekends was ‘unacceptable' the NHS medical director told GPs at a Royal College of General Practitioners' breakfast meeting.

Sir Bruce Keogh said the NHS needed to adopt a more ‘consumerist' approach. He said he wanted to see a debate about the fact that much of the health service, including acute services, such as diagnostics, ‘shuts down for two and a half day a week.

A woman who finds a lump in her breast on a Friday afternoon is unable to talk to a doctor until Monday, creating ‘huge compassion issues', he said.

He told GP leaders attending the meeting that in modern day society people get irritated if they cannot buy their cigarettes on a Sunday from a local shop, and we don't offer the same service in the health services.

Drugmakers Buck Trend As Investors Seek Security Amid The Gloom

Drug companies registered three of the four steepest gains by any Footsie constituent on Tuesday. GlaxoSmithKline was chased 25p higher to £11.77, despite one of its bosses selling more than £162,000 worth of shares. There were also buyers for AstraZeneca amid further consideration of a favourable settlement this week of 17,500 personal injury claims in the United States related to Seroquel. Shire has been unsettled of late by worries among American parents and regulators about possible side effects related to its treatments for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, advanced by 27p to £14.98.

Gut Gene's Spread May Spell End Of Antibiotics Era

A new gene conferring high levels of resistance to almost all antibiotics has been found to be widespread in forms of gut bacteria that can cause potentially life-threatening pneumonia and urinary tract infections, according to Professor Tim Walsh of Cardiff University. He claims that in the three years since he discovered it, it has grown in prevalence from being rarely observed at all to existing in between 1% to 3% of patients with Enterobacteriaceae infections in India. Only two antibiotics still work against NDM 1-producing bacteria, and the likelihood is that they will also be overcome before too long. Professor Walsh said the potential for wider international spread were cleaf and frightening.

Brain Scan To Detect Autism Will Ease Diagnosis And Save NHS Money

Children with developmental problems could in future be screened for autism using a 15 minute brain scan, eliminating some of the confusion and delays in diagnosing the condition. The techniques, developed at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London, uses computer analysis to identity subtle differences in the structure and size of the brain - invisible to the naked eye - which can mark out people with the condition and confirm or rule out diagnosis. Not only is the method far quicker than conventional ways of identifying ASDs, but it could be up to 20 times more cost-effective.

Hopes For Cancer Breath Test Rise After Study's Success

A study conducted at Technion Israel Institute of Technology has concluded that it may be possible to devise a simple breath test for cancer that could be made available in a GP's surgery. As a cancer grows, the surface of the cells emit chemicals. The research found that sensors, involving gold nanoparticles, could be used to detect these chemicals in the breath.

Professor Abraham Kuten, co-author of the paper, said that the study showed that an ‘electronic nose' could distinguish between healthy and malignant breath, and could also differentiate between the breath of patients with different cancer types.

Dr Lesley Walker, Director of Cancer Information at Cancer Research UK, warned that the study had been a small one and was at a very early stage.

Study Links Heart Attacks To Cold Weather

Each fall of one degree Celsius at any time of year is associated with 200 extra people having a heart attack within the next 28 days, according to study conducted by researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Krishnan Bhaskaran, who led the research, said the findings meant that sustained cold experienced in the UK last winter must have claimed an unknown but significant number of lives, whilst the British Heart Foundation said those at risk of a heart attack during cold weather should take precautions, such as wrapping up warm and always wearing a hat to minimise body heat loss through the head.

Asthma Risk At School

Official figures have shown that going back to school or nursery triggers a sharp rise in hospital admissions for asthma. Last September, the number of children aged 16 and under admitted for asthma in England was 58 per cent higher than the average monthly figure for the year. In September 2008, the admission rate was more than double the monthly average, according to NHS figures.

Flu Pandemic Declared Over

The World Health Organisation yesterday formally confirmed that the H1N! flu virus was no longer a pandemic, while advising continued vaccination for groups most at risk, including children, pregnant women and people with respiratory or chronic conditions. The virus entered the ‘post-pandemic' phase, meaning disease activity has returned to levels usually seen for seasonal influenza.

Britain's Pride In NHS

A survey by the Post Office, dubbed the ‘Alternative Census' showed the NHS made almost half of Britons proud to be British. The survey sample was 10,000 adults and asked people which cornerstones of British society they took pride in. Our history and heritage came second, the countryside third and our sense of humour came in fourth.

Mother Discharged Just Before Killing Her Child

A mother accused of killing her child was discharged from hospital just hours before the killing took place. Melanie Rudell was taken to hospital after relatives became worried about her behaviour. Doctors at Hartlepool General Hospital discharged Ms Ruddell after concluding there were not ‘sufficient grounds,' to detain her under the mental health act. She went on to stay at her brother's house and is accused of killing her son, two year old Christy, hours later by strangling him. Ms Ruddell later tried to kill herself but failed. She then drove her son's body to a police station in Peterlee and is said to have announced to a police officer: ‘I've killed Christy.'

Cabinet Office Cost League Table

Labour MP, Tom Watson, has compiled a league table of ministerial costs. Vince Cable's office comes in at the cheapest at £258,0, while William Hague's office costs £582,000. Health secretary, Andrew Lansley, weighs in at £481,0, while the Department of Health's total ministerial private office cost is £1.4 million, the most expensive in Whitehall.