Kryptonite bone glue helps open-heart surgery patients

I am happy to hear co-principal investigators Calgary cardiac surgeon Dr. Paul Fedak, MD PhD FRCSC and nurse researcher Dr. Kathryn King, RN PhD have found a way to help open heart surgery patients to recover better and faster using Kryptonite^TM adhesive, a biocompatible polymer manufactured by the Connecticut-based Doctors Research Group Inc.

Here is an excerpt from the official news release (PDF) (emphasis added),

““We can now heal the breastbone in hours instead of weeks after open-heart surgery. Patients can make a full recovery after surgery and get back to full physical activities in days instead of months,” reports Dr. Paul W.M. Fedak, MD PhD FRCSC, a cardiac surgeon at Foothills Medical Centre and scientist at the Faculty of Medicine who pioneered the new procedure.

Over 20 patients have received the new technique in Calgary as part of a pilot study. Fedak and Kathryn King, RN PhD are the co-principal investigators on the study. King, a cardiovascular nurse scientist, is an expert in post-operative recovery after open-heart surgery. “We know that recovery from sternotomy is a multi-faceted process that includes not only healing of the breastbone but the ability to return to normal activities,” she says. “Being able to resume normal activities is a hallmark of a good recovery; this surgical innovation should enable that.”

[...] The encouraging results of this pilot study have prompted the Calgary researchers to establish a worldwide study to further investigate its benefits. The STICK Trial (STernal Innovative Closure with KryptoniteTM) aims to apply the technique in over 500 patients across the globe over the next 12 – 24 months.

[...] KryptoniteTM is approved for use in Canada (Health Canada), USA (FDA), and Europe (CE Mark). This pilot study has been supported in part by Doctor’s Research Group Inc.”

I like to thank Dr. Fedak for sending along the product monograph and his Oct 29, 2009 presentation about Kryptonite (TM). After watching the 30 minutes presentation including Dr. Fedak’s research findings, I now have a deeper understanding of the benefits of Kryptonite to open-heart surgery patients in their healing process. I’ve posted some selected screen captures from the presentation here, here, and here.

The following are some related news plus a link to the patent application of the adhesive.

• Kryptonite revolutionizes heart surgery recovery (CTV news with video)
• Kryptonite glue helps breastbone heal after surgery (CBC news with audio)
• Super glue tested on Calgary heart surgery patients (Calgary Herald)
• Health FYI (Global News video clip)
• Pilot study goes worldwide (University of Calgary information)
• Surgeon ‘Gluing’ The Breastbone Together After Open-heart Surgery (Science Daily)
• Using glue to mend breastbone after open-heart surgery means quicker healing (Canadian Press)
• 醫學新知/強力膠粘合傷口　開心手術病人復原快疼痛少 (Taiwan Chinese newspaper website)

Note: Here is a link to the patent application “Methods of performing medical procedures which promote bone growth“ by Dr. Richard Deslauriers, CEO of Doctors Research Group Inc., and other co-inventors.

P.S. As a Calgarian and U of C alum (Haskayne MBA), I am exceedingly proud and excited of Dr. Fedak and Dr. King’s achievements.

[Thanks to this Libin Institute's blog entry for the links of the official press release and Global TV news clip.]

Re-invent the syringe (Reuse of syringes kills 1.3m each year)

(TED Video) Reuse of syringes, all too common in under-funded clinics, kills 1.3 million each year. Marc Koska clues us in to this devastating global problem with facts, photos and hidden-camera footage. He shares his solution: a low-cost syringe that can’t be used twice.

Vscan: pocket-sized, ultra-smart ultrasound

Read more about GE’s Vscan (check out this video), a pocket-sized, ultra-smart ultrasound. Doctors should also be careful and not let tools like Vscan trick them into focusing too much of their attentions in small small details and missing the bigger pictures.

P.S. With the unhealthy focus of Indians and Chinese parents wishing to have boys and aborting girls, the Vscan can be really bad because it will be almost impossible to monitor and control the use of devices like Vscan.

H1N1 info at Flu.gov

Some H1N1 info at Flu.gov. Here are some H1N1 flu symptoms (comparing to seasonal flu).

Will there be a at least a Canadian government site that links to all provinces’ H1N1 flu information sites? We will find out soon. Ah, the joy of health care under provincial jurisdiction!

Small c: The penis post

I deeply appreciate Jeff Jarvis sharing his experiences and insights by chronicling his prostate cancer saga.

Canadian researchers show how a breast tumor evolves

• B.C. research alters view of breast tumours (CBC News)
• Genetic `typos’ open new doors in breast cancer research (Canada.com)
• Canadian researchers show how a breast tumor evolves (LA Times)
• A cancer evolves: heterogeneity and mutational evolution in a breast tumour (source Nature magazine article)

Winners of Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2009

The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has today decided to award The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2009 jointly to Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak for the discovery of “how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase“

News report with video from CBC. Here is a report from Reuters,

Three Americans won the Nobel prize for medicine Monday for discovering and identifying telomerase, the enzyme that renews the little caps on the end of chromosomes whose natural fraying underlies aging and cancer. [...]

“The discoveries…have added a new dimension to our understanding of the cell, shed light on disease mechanisms, and stimulated the development of potential new therapies,” it said.

Here is a very insightful NobelPrize website telephone interview with Carol that talks more than just the science. Here is an interview with Elizabeth. And the one with Jack. All very insightful interviews.

More will likely be posted here later. Here are some videos.

Until we know the 2009 Nobel winner in Physiology or Medicine

Portrait of the 2005 Nobel Laureates (the two insightful Australian “Mad Scientists”) in Medicine (8 minutes)

A presentation of the lives and work of the 2005 Nobel Laureates in Physiology or Medicine.

More info on the 2005 winners: Doctors Barry J. Marshall and J. Robin Warren

H1N1 Rap

H1N1 Rap by Dr. Clarke. More info at Flu.gov.

[via Whitehouse]

How listeria works?

Researchers find how listeria evades immune system

Nature Cell Biology press release.

Nature Genetics: New Alzheimer’s Gene Discovery

New Alzheimer’s Gene Discovery Sparks Hope for Treatment

Asbestos Export – Canada’s Ugly Secret

Canada’s Ugly Secret
June 10, 2009 (Runs 15:14)

From CBC’s show info,

Mellissa Fung reports on how Canada’s overseas sales of asbestos may be breathing new life into a dying industry – but may also be making exposed workers sick.

(Read backstory here.)

As a proud Canadian, I am ashamed of what my government condone.

Swine Flu Buildings

On one hand, the Hong Kong government is telling HK citizens to not panic. At the same time, it is publicizing the

List of building(s) with confirmed case(s) of Swine Influenza in the past 7 days 過去七日曾有確診豬型流行性感冒個案之大厦名單
As of 6 pm, 17 June 2009 (截至2009 年6 月17 日, 下午6 時) (*local downloaded* PDF file, there are 5 pages of building names!) (current gov site file)

in this CHP (Centre for Health Protection) site.

You know, I can imagine people who live in one of these building trying to find out who has/had Swine flu. And can you imagine how those people and their families (and friends) will be treated? And then people in surrounding buildings worrying. Sooner then you think, you have enough of Hong Kong public panicking.

The way HK government is treating Swine flu, a new but relatively non-lethal disease (compare to seasonal flu), is setting some bad precedence.

Swine flu will definitely be one topic of discussion if and when I do launch a series of medical discussion with my doctor & friend. (There are some medical practices that are harmful and he definitely like to have more people know about them. Lead to more informed medical and science based discussions.)

Topics on my “discussion list”:

• Swine flu
• Seniors with blood pressure like a young man! Good or Bad? I thought it was good but I was very wrong!

Japan Times reviews documentary “Mental” & interviews Soda

Kazuhiro Soda’s documentary “Mental” has a successful opening in Japan (see the long lineup in the above photo). Here is an insightful review of “Mental” in Japan Times, “From despair to somewhere – Kazuhiro Soda’s latest film is a fascinating insight into a Japanese mental-health clinic“. And here is an interview in Japan Times, “Soda takes a pop at taboos“.

I am very much looking forward to interview Soda about “Mental” and “Campaign” in the next while. I will conduct and then post the interviews soon.

Swine Flu & Tamiflu Resistance

Since I was the last patient today, my doctor and I had some time to engage in a more detailed chat. Our wide ranging discussion covered not just eyes (where he is an ophthalmologist and surgeon) but many areas of medicine.

In one discussion thread, I described the swine flu (豬流感) panic in Hong Kong where one student in a school tested positive with swine flu and that lead to the whole school (or class?) being prescribed with Tamiflu.

Yes, I am blunt, I am describing this kind of prescription as Tamiflu Candy. Is the hospital authority a bit too cautious to prescribe Tamiflu so widely? Is the HK Hospital Authority taking wise risk in balancing the actual risk of Swine Flu with the risk of developing drug resistance to Tamiflu?

In the old days, HK doctors loved to prescribe antibiotics, the stronger the better, for things that antibiotics have absolute no effect. They went by the theory that patients asked for them, and the pills make the patients feel “better”, why not? And of course, they and their patients learned (?) some hard lessons when the bacteria became resistance to those over-used antibiotics!

I am hoping to create a series of blog entries and video chats with my doctor to talk about different areas in medicines. For example, do you think a 75 years old person having the blood pressure of a 20 years old person is good? Well, you will be very WRONG! My plan is to provide credible scientific reading materials and links alongside with the blog entries and videos. Arm the patients will solid medical researches and results so they can have well-informed discussions with their health care providers.

For the record, the following is a New York Times June 9th article “How a Mild Virus Might Turn Vicious” (emphasis added). I wrote my blog entry before I read this NYT article which also expresses concern with Tamiflu resistance.

*******

June 9, 2009
How a Mild Virus Might Turn Vicious
By Donald G. Mcneil Jr.

The swine flu virus is rapidly making its way around the world, but it has been relatively mild so far, causing only 139 confirmed deaths. Could it mutate into something more lethal?

Scientists looking at its genetic structure say there is no obvious pressure for it to do so — no reason for this virus to “want,” in the Darwinian sense, to kill more of its hosts.

It is already doing a near-perfect job of keeping itself alive by invading human noses and inducing humans to cough it from one to another, said Dr. W. Ian Lipkin, director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.

“A really aggressive flu that quickly kills its host” — like SARS and H5N1 avian flu — “gives itself a problem,” Dr. Lipkin said.

But flu viruses are highly mutable, and anything could happen in the next two years, the time a new strain normally takes to circle the globe.

An Outsider Look of the Swine Flu Quarantined HK Hotel

To give us a closer look of the Swine Flu quarantined Hong Kong Hotel, my friend Daisann risked her life and file this blog entry “Let’s Resist the Virulent Flu Together“. Here is an excerpt,

If Hong Kong’s hyper-drive flu season sounds to you like a bad case of politics trumping medicine, you’re not alone. I find it unsettling that feverish emotion, not cool science, is the driving force behind the Hong Kong government’s actions. My acquaintance Dr. Lo Wing Lok, one of Hong Kong’s most respected epidemiologists said on RTHK yesterday that the quarantine of the Metropark was entirely unnecessary, from a medical and scientific point of view.

Daisann: taking a page from the HK (and Chinese) government, I said “risked her life” since, after all, taking the ferry to Wan Chai, crossing the street, etc all these activities have “risks”.

Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi – Great minds our of time

The psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced “CHICK-send-me-high) has influenced my thinking the most through his book/audio book Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention and Flow. Highly recommended.

Here is Mihaly on Positive Psychology,

Strangely I enjoy the above brief interview more than this 2008 TED talk,

I think Mihaly is much more insightful than what he showed in the TED talk.

Here is Mihaly being interviewed on European TV (contain non-English (German?) dialog which I skipped. Even I don’t understand the non-English part, I enjoy these videos the most. Highly recommend.

97 Years Old Physician’s Formula for a good life

An insightful and heart warming article about a 97 Years Old Physician’s Formula for a good life. A highly recommended quick read. Here is an excerpt,

My inspiration is Robert Browning’s poem “Abt Vogler.” My father used to read it to me. It encourages us to make big art, not small scribbles. It says to try to draw a circle so huge that there is no way we can finish it while we are alive. All we see is an arch; the rest is beyond our vision but it is there in the distance.

Pain is mysterious, and having fun is the best way to forget it. If a child has a toothache, and you start playing a game together, he or she immediately forgets the pain. Hospitals must cater to the basic need of patients: We all want to have fun. At St. Luke’s we have music and animal therapies, and art classes.

Don’t be crazy about amassing material things. Remember: You don’t know when your number is up, and you can’t take it with you to the next place.

[HT: Kevin Roberts]

Swine Flu

Here is a report from CBC with video, Swine flu outbreak international ‘public health emergency’: WHO

Stroke of Insight (CBC short doc)

“A stroke severely damaged neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor’s left brain, but also led her to discover the pleasures of the creative right brain.” (13:35)

Highly recommended.
“中風嚴重破壞 neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor 的左腦，但也使她發現右腦創意的樂趣。” (13:35)

高度推介。