Medical Xpress - latest medical and health news stories

'Do not eat': What's in those little desiccant sachets and how do they work?

Thu, 26 Jun 2025 06:05:04 EDT

When you buy a new electronic appliance, shoes, medicines or even some food items, you often find a small paper sachet with the warning: "silica gel, do not eat."

An AI-powered breath test could detect silicosis early

Mon, 31 Mar 2025 14:21:18 EDT

A new diagnostic tool developed by physicians and scientists from UNSW Sydney that analyzes a person's breath for signs of silicosis has the potential to catch the disease earlier rather than wait for irreversible lung damage to appear.

Bovaer is added to cow feed to reduce methane emissions. Does it get into milk and meat? And is it harmful for humans?

Mon, 09 Dec 2024 12:20:01 EST

Concern has been rising over the use of a feed supplement, Bovaer 10, to reduce methane production in cows.

Researchers develop an ultrasensitive broadband transparent ultrasound transducer

Mon, 11 Mar 2024 11:10:05 EDT

The 'ultrasound-photoacoustic dual-modal imaging system' combines molecular imaging contrast with ultrasound imaging, and it can visualize molecular and structural information inside the body in real time without any ionizing radiation. This advantage gives it the potential to enhance medical diagnosis by providing diverse physiological and histological information, ensuring greater accuracy and safety for patients.

Food additive E551 could promote celiac disease

Wed, 21 Feb 2024 16:24:03 EST

E551, more commonly known as silicon dioxide, is a powder composed of nanoparticles (i.e., particles < 100 nm in size). It serves as an anti-caking agent in an array of dry and powdered foods, including soups, spices, cereal-based infant formula, instant coffee, cocoa mix, and freeze-dried pasta. It can be found among the ingredients of over 2,600 processed foods worldwide.

Tire wear and higher temperatures found to accelerate neurodegeneration in C. elegans models

Thu, 01 Jun 2023 15:11:02 EDT

Scientists at the IUF—Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine in Düsseldorf, Germany, have shown that tire wear, age and temperature accelerate neurodegeneration (i.e. the decline of nerve cells) in models of the nematode C. elegans for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. The corresponding study was published in the journal Environmental Pollution.

Food additive nanoparticles could negatively affect your gut health

Thu, 04 May 2023 14:40:01 EDT

Common food additives known as metal oxide nanoparticles may have negative effects on your gut health, according to new research from Binghamton University, State University of New York and Cornell University.

Tiny bots that can deep clean teeth

Mon, 16 May 2022 09:55:56 EDT

Nano-sized robots manipulated using a magnetic field can help kill bacteria deep inside dentinal tubules and boost the success of root canal treatments, a new study by researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and IISc-incubated startup, Theranautilus, shows.

Scientists test promising biosensor aimed for use in brain

Thu, 03 Feb 2022 09:21:32 EST

Scientists have successfully tested in the lab a tiny biosensor they developed that can detect biomarkers tied to traumatic brain injuries.

Implantable sensor could measure bodily functions—and then safely biodegrade

Mon, 09 Nov 2020 09:26:28 EST

Sensors that monitor a patient's condition during and after medical procedures can be expensive, uncomfortable and even dangerous. Now, an international team of researchers has designed a highly sensitive flexible gas sensor that can be implanted in the body—and, after it's no longer needed, safely biodegrade into materials that are absorbed by the body.

Compact electronic nose to identify human lung diseases

Fri, 15 May 2020 07:08:16 EDT

Researchers from Russia and Italy have proposed a compact sensor system that can implement the functionality of an electronic nose device and have developed a reproducible technology for its manufacture. The device is a flexible electronics platform that can analyze exhaled air as well as identify pathologies of the respiratory tract and organs.

Next-generation brain implants with more than a thousand electrodes can survive for more than six years

Wed, 08 Apr 2020 14:00:01 EDT

Researchers have demonstrated the ability to implant an ultrathin, flexible neural interface with thousands of electrodes into the brain with a projected lifetime of more than six years. Protected from the ravaging environment of internal biological processes by less than a micrometer of material, the achievement is an important step toward creating high-resolution neural interfaces that can persist within a human body for an entire lifetime.

Novel high-sensitivity detector could aid in early Alzheimer's diagnosis

Thu, 08 Aug 2019 08:41:09 EDT

A prime suspect in the onset of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases is a normally benign enzyme that is essential to proper development of the nervous system. Under certain conditions, however, its chemical structure changes and it goes rogue, contributing to the neural devastation that accompanies dementia.

Rapidly detecting cancer markers for diagnosis

Mon, 29 Apr 2019 09:08:25 EDT

Researchers at Okayama University report in the journal Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical that terahertz radiation can be used to rapidly detect makers for breast-cancer cells. The scientists present a technique that makes use of the binding properties of aptamers, synthetic organic molecules acting as probes for cancer cells.

First in Michigan: Self-controlled tissue expanders for breast reconstruction after mastectomy

Tue, 19 Mar 2019 11:59:54 EDT

Henry Ford Cancer Institute is the first in Michigan to offer a needle-free, patient-controlled tissue expansion system for women undergoing breast reconstruction after mastectomy.

Tagging drugs to fight counterfeit medicines

Wed, 25 Feb 2015 10:50:01 EST

The U.S. and other countries are enacting rules to clamp down on the sales of fake pharmaceuticals, which pose a public health threat. But figuring out a system to track and authenticate legitimate drugs still faces significant obstacles, according to an article in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society.

A safer approach for diagnostic medical imaging

Mon, 29 Sep 2014 15:00:04 EDT

Medical imaging is at the forefront of diagnostics today, with imaging techniques like MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), CT (computerized tomography), scanning, and NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) increasing steeply over the last two decades. However, persisting problems of image resolution and quality still limit these techniques because of the nature of living tissue. A solution is hyperpolarization, which involves injecting the patient with substances that can increase imaging quality by following the distribution and fate of specific molecules in the body but that can be harmful or potentially toxic to the patient. A team of scientists from EPFL, CNRS, ENS and CPE Lyon and ETH Zürich has developed a new generation of hyperpolarization agents that can be used to dramatically enhance the signal intensity of imaged body tissues without presenting any danger to the patient. Their work is published in PNAS.

Photochemical imprinting of neuronal activity: A flash memory for spikes

Wed, 29 Jan 2014 15:32:07 EST

(Medical Xpress)—Animals experiments primarily serve two main functions. They give us insight into how biological systems might work, and they also act as test beds for treatments and devices we want to use on ourselves. In neuroscience, particularly with regard to large scale recordings, what we are ultimately interested in is correlating activity maps with thoughts. Cutting to the chase, the thoughts we really care about are not those of animals, or even so much those of other people, but actually the thoughts we generate ourselves. If we are to help a paraplegic do much more than kickoff the World Cup using an electrode pincushion-controlled exoskeleton, we can't simply infer some else's thoughts to generate algorithms for a machine, rather, we must first be able to infer our own.

More effort needed to prevent exposure to silica hazards as silicosis remains a major cause of illness, death worldwide

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 18:30:02 EDT

Immediate concerted efforts are needed to recognise and control exposure to silica hazards worldwide as the incurable and potentially fatal lung disease silicosis remains a major cause of illness and death around the world, concludes a Seminar published Online First in The Lancet. The paper calls for improved environmental controls and safety practices to help reduce the risk of acquiring this preventable disease, especially in developing countries.

Additives meant to protect vitamin C actually cause more harm

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 12:12:45 EDT

Anti-caking agents in powdered products may hasten degradation of vitamin C instead of doing what they are supposed to do: protect the nutrient from moisture.