Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that home births are up by twenty percent.

Some are choosing it because it’s cheaper, others fear unnecessary intervention in hospitals especially women who’ve previously had caesarians or have minor medical concerns that might make doctors keen to press to interventions. White women seem to be taking more control of their births with 1 in 98 giving birth at home. Compared to 1 in 357 black women and 1 in 500 Hispanics.

Some doctors say that home births can be unsafe especially if there is no hospital nearby or the mother has high risk conditions, or the birth attendant is inadequately trained. Doctors pose the question if the home birth ideal isn’t a “Feminist Machismo” but while there are bound to be horror stories, most of their concerns are issues that can be planned out in advance. There are also plenty of examples to be found of mothers in hospitals being pushed to accept interventions. In one example a mother in labor was told she must sign for the Caesarian because vaginal birth carried too high risk of infection, as if a Caesarian was somehow magically safer, and her friend who had a Caesarian from the same doctor is still in a coma. The risk of surgery is clearly much greater for the baby with nearly two in one thousand babies born by elective Caesarian not surviving past four weeks old, against only 0.6 in 1000 for regular births.

Home birthers in general say they want to be free from drugs, fetal monitors, IVs and pressure to hurry their labor to satisfy busy doctors and maternity wards. They prefer labor in water on hands and knees, some walk around the living room or lie in their own bed with friends and family and relaxing music playing. Hypnosis is also popular, as are what is known as “doulas” women who are not medical professionals but serve to support the mother through her labor. Clearly though things get a little fanatical when mothers to be, choose to go without any professional care at all, replying solely on a husband or friend.

Julie Jacobs, 38, of Baltimore, who has multiple sclerosis, said:

“I chose midwives and hypnosis because I wanted to surround myself with people who would support me as a birthing mother, rather than view me as an MS patient who would be a liability in need of interventions at every turn.”

Her first two children were born in an independently run birth center operated by midwives. When the center closed, she decided to have her third child at home in 2007.

She continues:

“If I had been in a hospital I probably would have had C-sections for all three,” she said. “With the first, I would have been terrified to try a home birth. After the second one I was like, hey, I can’t necessarily walk in a straight line, but I can do this.”

Dr. Joel Evans, the rare board-certified OB-GYN who supports home birth, said the medical establishment has become “resistant to change, resistant to dialogue, resistant to flexibility.”

He continues:

“Women are now looking for alternatives where they can be treated as individuals, as opposed to being forced to comply with protocols, which however well meaning, have the impact of both medicalizing childbirth and increasing stress and anxiety around delivery,”

Evans is the founder and director of the Center for Women’s Health in Stamford, Connecticut, and an assistant clinical professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.

Looking back in history in 1900, 95 percent of U.S. births took place at home. That slipped to half by 1938 and less than 1 percent by 1955, although it wouldn’t be fair to compare survival rates, as sanitation and medical understanding was much less than it is today.

In 2005 The British Medical Journal gathered data from around 5,500 home births involving certified professional midwives in the United States and Canada. The study one of the largest for home births, showed 88 percent with no problems, while 12 percent of the women transferred to hospitals, including 9 percent for preventive reasons and 3 percent for emergencies. The study showed an infant mortality rate of 2 out of every 1,000 births, about the same as in hospitals at the time.

Today, most midwife-attended births occur in hospitals and most midwives are licensed nurses. It is worth noting however that there are also close to 1,700 midwives who practice outside of hospitals. In 27 states, so-called “lay” midwives who lack nurses’ training but are licensed and certified as professional midwives can legally attend births. The main issue is clearly being educated and informed. Davis-Floyd one of the researchers of the BMJ report said :

“Women who are truly educated in evidence-based maternity care understand the safety and the multiple benefits of home birth,” she said.

Source:
MedicalNewsToday

Homebirths Rise A Whopping 20%, Nursing Resource Admin

Nurses who wash their uniforms at home are increasing the risk of infection in their own homes and in the UK’s hospitals. Forced by cash strapped NHS Trusts to wash their uniforms at home, nurses are carrying potentially harmful infections both into the hospital and then back into the home at the end of the working day. That is the claim put forward in a new report published today [28 June] by the Textile Services Association (TSA).

NHS Trusts are following hygiene guidelines from the Department of Health and yet Britain is almost the only European country that tolerates the unquantified infection risk posed to patients and the public by home-washed uniforms worn by nurses in, and traveling to and from, their work place. The food industry, by contrast, has long accepted the potentially deadly consequences of such a hygiene loophole. The hygiene standards in a hospital kitchen, or a dog food manufacturer, are higher than those required for the cleaning of a nurses’ uniform.

The TSA is calling on the Department of Health and NHS to recognise that infections might be spread by the almost universal practice of nurses’ taking their uniforms home to wash and their policy needs to change.

“Department of Health guidelines irresponsibly allow nurses to wash their uniforms at home in totally unsuitable domestic washing machines. Our research shows that domestic machines do not reach a high enough, nor maintain the degree of temperature necessary to remove bacteria picked up during a nurse’s working day,” explains Murray Simpson, chief executive of the TSA.

Elsewhere in the world the NHS faith in the untested and unmonitored hygiene standards of nurses’ home washing machines, or the risk of a uniform coming into contact with any infected surfaces, is unthinkable. Uniforms are, instead, seen as a likely mechanism for transmitting bugs.

Thomas Krautschneider, of Austrian textile rental firm Salesainer Miettex, says: “It is obvious to everyone in Austria that if you work in hospital then uniforms get soiled with hazardous dirt, germs and viruses. If you have rules to wash bed linen hygienically, it is common sense that you do not stop when you come to the clothes worn by people who come into contact with patients.”

Ian Hargreaves, independent technical consultant and National Officer of the Society of Hospital linen services and laundry managers goes further. He says:

“The Department of Health has double standards. Whilst it advocates washing at home as being safe, it still insists that where uniforms are processed in-house or by external contractors they are subject to HSG(95)18 conditions, which requires thermal disinfection. This must be seen as dual standards or a waste of energy. If there is no risk associated with potentially infected uniforms, let’s do the research, provide the evidence and draw a line under the matter.”

The Department of Health and the NHS oversee a hygiene regime in stark contrast to that of the food industry; it has adopted an approach called Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP). The food industry’s does not wait to find evidence that contamination arose at a certain point before it does something about it. At every point they ask, what the risks of contaminating the product are and then implement the controls and the monitoring needed.

The TSA is calling for an urgent review of current policy and the adoption of a system allowing for the professional laundering of uniforms in a controlled environment to remove risk of infection. Murray Simpson comments:

“The Department of Health and NHS ignore the risks of home-washed uniforms at their peril. Nurses’ uniforms are by definition an unwitting potential time bomb. We are extending the offer of accelerated trials with NHS Trusts to support research into garment hygiene, which should be viewed as an investment in protecting our health service, the people who work in it, patients and the population at large. When considering the risks to people’s lives, the costs of ignoring this potential threat should not be just measured in monetary value.”

Source:
MedicalNewsToday

Department Of Health Uniform Rules Put Nurses And Patients At Risk, UK, Nursing Resource Admin

Four American Red Cross volunteer nurses have been selected by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to receive the Florence Nightingale Medal, nursing’s highest international honor.

Those honored with the 43rd Florence Nightingale Medal are Cheryl Schmidt of Benton, Arkansas; Debra Williams of Edmond, Oklahoma; Janice Lufkin of Abington, Pennsylvania; and John Mark Burton of Covington, Georgia.

“These Red Cross nurse volunteers have helped bring food, shelter, comfort and hope during countless large and small disasters,” said Vivian Littlefield, American Red Cross National Chair of Nursing. “They have worked tirelessly to teach people what they should do before, during and after an emergency, and have formally trained scores of nurses and nursing students in basic disaster response.”

All four medal recipients serve as American Red Cross disaster health services volunteers. Together they have responded to some of the most catastrophic disasters the nation has faced, as well as countless community emergencies ranging from house fires to airline crashes to ice storms.

Medal recipients’ volunteer service goes beyond disasters. Debra Williams, for example, brings Red Cross services to members of the military and their families. Cheryl Schmidt has served as a CPR instructor, and on Bloodmobiles. Janice Lufkin spends weekends at community events, telling people about the Red Cross.

The 2011 Florence Nightingale Medal recipients are leaders. College professor Cheryl Schmidt is changing the education of student nurses to include disaster training. Janice Lufkin leads the largest Red Cross Disaster Action Team in Greater Philadelphia. John Mark Burton served on his local Red Cross chapter Board of Directors. Debra Williams heads the American Red Cross State Nurse Liaison Network, with its 43 members spread from Maine to Hawaii.

The International Committee of the Red Cross awarded 39 medals this year, to nurses and nursing aides from 18 nations. Medal recipients were active in public health, conflict situations, disaster situations and nursing education.

Around the globe, this elite cadre exhibited courage and active compassion, and conducted practical activities on behalf of injured, sick or otherwise vulnerable people.

U. S. recipients of the prestigious 2011 Florence Nightingale Medal will receive the engraved silver and enamel medal during a ceremony at American Red Cross national headquarters.

Medal Recipient Service Sketches

- Debra Williams
- Cheryl Schmidt
- Janice Lufkin
- John Mark Burton

Source:
American Red Cross

Red Cross Volunteer Nurses Selected For Florence Nightingale Medal, Nursing Resource Admin

U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) today reintroduced the National Nursing Shortage Reform and Patient Advocacy Act, legislation to protect the rights of nurses to advocate on behalf of their patients, set minimum nurse-to-patient ratios in hospitals and invest in nurse training to address the nationwide nursing shortage. The bill was introduced during National Nurses Week, which is commemorated May 6th to May 12th annually.

“I am proud to reintroduce legislation to improve the quality of care in our nation’s hospitals and save the lives of countless patients by investing in our nurses,” Senator Boxer said. “We cannot guarantee high-quality health care to every American without supporting the nurses who work tirelessly every day to provide it.”

The legislation builds on the success of California’s historic law that set minimum nurse-to-patient ratios and extends those standards to all general and long-term care hospitals that participate in Medicare.

Specifically, the bill would:

- Establish minimum nurse-to-patient ratios that will save lives, improve the quality of care and help to counter the nursing shortage by creating a work environment that encourages nurses to remain in the hospital workforce;

- Provide whistleblower protections to protect the right of nurses to advocate for the safety of patients and report violations of minimum standards of care;

- Invest in nursing mentorship demonstration programs to better prepare nurses for work in a hospital setting.

Source:
U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer

Boxer Reintroduces Legislation To Support Nurses And Patient Care, Nursing Resource Admin

RN, PhD, FAAN, Lillian & Dudley Aldous Professor of Nursing Science, School of Nursing, University of California San Francisco will receive the AACN-GE Healthcare Pioneering Spirit Award.

The award, from the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) and supported by GE Healthcare, will be given at the 2011 National Teaching Institute & Critical Care Exposition, Chicago, April 30-May 5. This AACN Visionary Leadership Award recognizes significant contributions that influence high acuity and critical care nursing and relate to the association’s mission, vision and values.

Consistently funded by the National Institutes of Health, her studies helped to shape the development of commercial cardiac monitors and effect positive patient care in hospital and pre-hospital settings. Drew’s research has focused on improving electrocardiographic (ECG) monitoring techniques and clinical practices in hospital and pre-hospital settings for more accurate diagnosis of cardiac arrhythmias, myocardial ischemia and drug-induced prolonged QT syndrome.

Her leadership in developing guidelines to improve ECG monitoring has culminated in a five-year project funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to implement in hospitals the AHA standards for ECG monitoring.

Drew established that patients with acute coronary syndrome who experience transient ischemia, and usually demonstrate no symptoms, require continuous ECG monitoring to identify heart muscle injury. Based on Drew’s data, the American Heart Association (AHA) Practice Standards for ECG Monitoring in Hospital Settings recommend ST segment monitoring for all patients admitted to the hospital with acute coronary syndrome.

Drew is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and the American Heart Association’s Council on Cardiovascular Nursing. In 2005, she became the first woman and first nurse to be elected president of the International Society of Computerized Electrocardiology.

Source: American Association of Critical-Care Nurses

UCSF Nursing Professor Receives Pioneering Spirit Award From AACN For Her Work To Improve Cardiac Monitoring, Nursing Resource Admin

America’s oldest and biggest non-profit organization aimed at end-of-life choices, Compassion & Choices, has responded to the split verdict in a criminal trial that took place in Phoenix, Arizona. The verdict clearly shows up the need for rational public policy on end-of-life choices.

Dr. Larry Egbert was acquitted of conspiring to commit manslaughter in the April 2007 suicide of Jana Van Voorhis, a resident of Phoenix. Regarding Dr. Frank Lagsner, who also stood trial for conspiring to commit manslaughter in the same case, a unanimous decision by the jury was not possible.

Barbara Coombs Lee, president of Compassion & Choices, said:

“This case demonstrates the problem with vague ‘assisted suicide’ statutes such as Arizona’s. Terminally ill patients across the nation ask their physicians for aid in dying. Many doctors, in an uncertain legal environment, rebuff such questions and fail to discuss their patients’ concerns about pain and suffering. When patients cannot talk openly with their doctors they may seek assistance from others.

Sympathetic family members or friends are usually unequipped to assess a patient’s competence or end-of-life options. No one should have to risk prosecution to help a dying patient end life peacefully.”

According to media versions, Van Voorhis did not have a terminal illness and may have had a mental illness that clouded her judgment.

Any evidence regarding the patient’s psychological state was not allowed to be presented in court.

Coombs Lee said:

“In today’s legal framework, judges and juries do not distinguish between the choice of a mentally competent, terminally ill patient for a peaceful death via self-administered medication, and the act of a distraught individual who is not dying, who may be mentally ill and suicidal. The former is a practice known as aid in dying, which has strong and growing support among the public and medical professionals. The latter is suicide. Our nation’s laws should recognize the difference.”

According to Compassion & Choices, the only US states to have rational end-of-life choice policies are Washington, Montana and Oregon. According to studies, these states have superior communications among health care professionals, families and patients, as well as better palliative care.

There are choices for controlled and peaceful deaths across the USA. Compassion & Choices have an End-of-Life Consultation service that helps people and their loved ones navigate their options and see them through.

Source:
MedicalNewsToday

End-Of-Life Choices, Rational Public Policy Needed – Arizona Split Verdict Shows Need, Nursing Resource Admin

The benefits of blueberry consumption have been demonstrated in several nutrition studies, more specifically the cardio-protective benefits derived from their high polyphenol content. Blueberries have shown potential to have a positive effect on everything from aging to metabolic syndrome. Recently, a researcher from Texas Woman’s University (TWU) in Denton, TX, examined whether blueberries could play a role in reducing one of the world’s greatest health challenges: obesity. Shiwani Moghe, MS, a graduate student at TWU, decided to evaluate whether blueberry polyphenols play a role in adipocyte differentiation, the process in which a relatively unspecialized cell acquires specialized features of an adipocyte, an animal connective tissue cell specialized for the synthesis and storage of fat. Plant polyphenols have been shown to fight adipogenesis, which is the development of fat cells, and induce lipolysis, which is the breakdown of lipids/fat. Moghe presented her research at the Experimental Biology 2011 meeting for the American Society for Nutrition on Sunday, April 10, at 12:45 pm.

“I wanted to see if using blueberry polyphenols could inhibit obesity at a molecular stage,” said Moghe. The study was performed in tissue cultures taken from mice. The polyphenols showed a dose-dependent suppression of adipocyte differentiation. The lipid content in the control group was significantly higher than the content of the tissue given three doses of blueberry polyphenols. The highest dose of blueberry polyphenols yielded a 73% decrease in lipids; the lowest dose showed a 27% decrease.

“We still need to test this dose in humans, to make sure there are no adverse effects, and to see if the doses are as effective. This is a burgeoning area of research. Determining the best dose for humans will be important,” said Moghe. “The promise is there for blueberries to help reduce adipose tissue from forming in the body.”

These preliminary results contribute more items to the laundry list of benefits related to blueberries, which have already been shown to mitigate health conditions like cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome.

Source: Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology
via MedicalNewsToday

Blueberries May Inhibit Development Of Fat Cells, Nursing Resource Admin

1 in every 110 people in the USA has an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The US Autism Society is calling for greater awareness and action this month to support people with autism throughout the country.

The Autism Society, in a communiqué issued today, says it will launch several awareness campaigns.

National Autism Awareness Month started in the 1970s in an attempt to draw attention to the urgency for awareness and concern about autism. In this month, we should take the opportunity to educate people about autism and its issues. There is an ever-growing need for services and support.

Autism is a disorder of neural development, often described as a complex neurodevelopmental disability. Signs and symptoms generally appear during the first two years of a person’s life. It is characterized by impaired social interaction, communication, and restricted and repetitive behavior. Autism is a “spectrum disorder”, this means that each person is affected differently.

Experts say the brain of a person with autism processes information in a different way from other people, because of the way nerve cells and their synapses are connected and organized.

People with autism may have problems with:

* Social skills
* Empathy
* Physical contact
* Sharp sensations, such as lights, noises or smells
* Speech
* Repetitive behaviors
* Learning
* Physical ticks and stimming
* Obsessions

Just because individuals with autism might not express their feelings in the same way other people do, this does not mean that they do not have feelings – THEY DO! This myth must be destroyed. A person with autism feels sadness, happiness, pain, and love just like everyone else does.

Some types of autism include:

* Autistic disorder – what the majority of people with no contact with people with autism think when they hear about autism.
* Asperger’s syndrome – the individual has no language problem, has an average to above-average IQ, but has social problems, as well as some of the signs and symptoms mentioned above. Because they appear to function well, people with Asperger’s syndrome are frequently viewed as odd or eccentric, and can easily become victims of bullying or teasing.
* PDD (pervasive developmental disorder) – a term used for children who have some autism symptoms but do not fit into any category.
* Rett syndrome – affects females mainly. Signs and symptoms tend to start between the ages of 1 and 4 years.
* Childhood disintegrative disorder – there is normal development during the first 24 months, then some social and communication skills are affected.

There is no cure for autism, however, early intervention can considerably improve the child’s development, especially during their first few years of life. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, says that more health professionals are being educated to identify the signs and symptoms early on, allowing children to get effective and prompt treatment when they are young.

The HHS set up a new national resource and information center which provides information on community-based services and interventions for individuals with ASD and their loved ones. The HHS says that money is being spent to deepen our understanding of ASD, test new therapies, study the genes linked to ASD, and examine the needs of an ever-growing number of adults with ASD.

Sebelius added that President Obama’s Affordable Care Act of 2010 will help ease the financial burden associated with treating and caring for a person with ASD.

Source:
MedicalNewsToday

1 In 110 With Autism In The USA – National Autism Awareness Month, April, Nursing Resource Admin

Contrasting media reports abound regarding the dangers occurring at the Fukushima nuclear facility in Japan. The reports have triggered uncertainty, concern and even panic among members of the general public in Japan and around the world.

Workers in Japan have been bravely battling to save the facility from a disastrous meltdown, exposing their bodies to potentially dangerous and lethal doses of radiation. In this text, we attempt to explain what impact radiation may have on the human body.

Radiation takes place when the atomic nucleus of an unstable atom decays and starts releasing ionizing particles, known as ionizing radiation. When these particles come into contact with organic material, such as human tissue, they will damage them if levels are high enough, causing burns and cancer. Ionizing radiation can be fatal for humans.

REM (roentgen equivalent in man) – this is a unit we use to measure radiation dosage. We use this measurement to determine what levels of radiation are safe or dangerous for human tissue. It is the product of the absorbed dose in rads and a weighting factor (WR), which accounts for how effective the radiation is in causing biological damage.

A sudden, short dose of up to 50 rem will probably cause no problems, except for some blood changes. From 50 to 200 rem there may be illness, but fatalities are highly unlikely. A dose of between 200 and 1,000 will most likely cause serious illness – the nearer the 1,000 it is, the poorer the outlook for the human will be. Any dose over 1,000 will typically cause death.

When an atomic bomb explodes, as in Hiroshima and Nagasaki during WWII, people receive two doses of radiation: one during the explosion, and another from fallout. Fallout refers to the radioactive particles that float in the air after an explosion; they rise and then gradually descend to the ground. A dose of 100 rems will have probably cause some initial signs of radiation sickness, such as loss of white blood cells, nausea, vomiting, and headache. With a 300 rem dose you may lose hair temporarily – your nerve cells and those that line the digestive tract will be damaged. As the dose rises and more white blood cells are lost, the human’s immune system becomes seriously weakened – their ability to fight off infections is considerably reduced.

Exposure to radiation makes our bodies produce fewer blood clotting agents, called blood platelets, increasing our risk of internal bleeding. Any cut on the skin will take much longer to stop bleeding.

Experts say that approximately 50% of humans exposed to 450 rems will die, and 800 rems will kill virtually anyone. Death is inevitable and will occur from between two days to a couple of weeks.

Millisieverts per hour (mSv) – this is a measure used more commonly by the International Commission on Radiological Protection. For example:

* A gastrointestinal series X-ray investigation exposes the human to 14 mSv
* Recommended limit for volunteers averting a major nuclear escalation – 500 mSv (according to the International commission on Radiological Protection)
* Recommended limit for volunteers rescuing lives or preventing serious injuries – 1000 mSv (according to the International commission on Radiological Protection)

Below is a list of signs and symptoms likely to occur when a human is exposed to acute radiation (within one day), in mSv:

* 0 to 250 mSv – no damage
* 250 to 1,000 mSv. Some individuals may lose their appetites, experience nausea, and have some damage to the spleen, bone marrow and lymph nodes.
* 1000 to 3000 mSv – nausea is mild to severe, no appetite, considerably higher susceptibility to infections. Injury to the following will be more severe – spleen, lymph node and bone marrow. The patient will most likely recover, but this is not guaranteed.
* 3,000 to 6,000 mSv – nausea much more severe, loss of appetite, serious risk of infections, diarrhea, skin peels, sterility. If left untreated the person will die. There will also be hemorrhaging.
* 6,000 to 10,000 mSv – Same symptoms as above. Central nervous system becomes severely damaged. The person is not expected to survive.
* 10,000+ mSv – Incapacitation. Death. Those who do survive higher radiation doses have a considerably higher risk of developing some cancers, such as lung cancer, thyroid cancer, breast cancer, leukemia, and cancer of several organs.

Read More

Source:
MedicalNewsToday

What are the effects of Radiation?, Nursing Resource Admin

Using nanodiamonds, tiny particles of carbon, as a drug delivery system, researchers have developed a promising approach to treating breast and liver cancer tumors that are resistant to chemotherapy.

Led by Dr. Dean Ho, an associate professor of biomedical engineering at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, US, the researchers used lab mice to test how effectively and safely the nanodiamonds released the cancer drugs over time.

You can read how they did this online in the 9 March issue of Science Translational Medicine.

Finding ways to make chemotherapy drugs more efficient is a continual challenge, particularly for the treatment of cancers that are resistant to chemotherapy, such as recurring breast and liver tumors.

One way to do this, is through the use of nanoparticles to deliver the drugs. One example that researchers have been looking at recently is the nanodiamond, a particle of carbon that is between 2 and 8 microns thick; about 10,000 times thinner than a human hair.

The advantage of using such tiny particles is that you can get the drug to stick to their surfaces, use them to enter cancerous cells and release the drug slowly over time, exit the cell when they are finished, then leave the body altogether.

Ho told the press that in this study, they were able to boost the efficiency of the cancer drug they tested 70 times while still maintaining safety.

“It’s the best of both worlds,” he said.

If you could see a nanodiamond you would understand why it has that name, it looks like a diamond, and it is not just its size that makes it useful, but also its shape.

“They’re called truncated octahedrons,” explained Ho.

“They’re shaped like a soccer ball but the faces are more angled.”

It’s the faces of the nanodiamonds that allow the drugs to bind tightly to their surface and release slowly.

Ho said sustained release was an important feature because by their very nature, chemotherapy drugs are toxic.

Sustained release over time also reduces side effects of very toxic chemotherapies.

“The surface chemistry, coupled with the architecture of the surface, allows for a very sustained interaction with drugs,” said Ho.

The drugs can be bound tightly to the surface with a chemical bond, or temporarily with an electrostatic bond. It is useful to have these options because some drugs can do their job without letting go of the surface, while others have to come away to be effective.

Another advantage of nanoparticles as drug delivery systems is that you can make them seek out particular molecules or tumor sites by attaching a unique chemical compound or antibody to one end.

For this study, Ho and colleagues tested the nanodiamonds as a delivery system for doxorubicin, a common chemotherapy drug that is very efficient at killing cancer cells but as Ho explained, “it is also very effective at killing everything else”.

“We found that if you bind the drugs to the diamond, the efficiency is even enhanced compared to using the drug alone,” he added.

The advantage of targeting liver cancer with nanodiamonds is that the liver is where the body metabolizes drugs and detoxifies blood.

“A lot of this stuff ends up at the liver anyways and it takes some time to get there, but it also takes even a little bit longer to come off the diamond,” said Ho.

This is what he meant by “the best of both worlds”. The nanoparticle travels through the bloodstream, gradually shedding the drug, but most of that comes off in the tumor.

An important worry with nanoparticles is the potential side effects, coming from the material the nanoparticles are made of, especially in the liver, where toxins are removed and filtered out of the body.

Ho and colleagues found that even at high dosage, the nanodiamond system does not appear to affect liver toxicity.

“We also find that it doesn’t seem to cause blood toxicity, systemically. It appears to be a relatively biocompatible system,” he added.

In fact, the nanodiamond delivery system appears to reduce the side effects from chemotherapy.

One of the main side effects of chemotherapy is reduction in white blood cells, the main tools of the immune system, and this is often the main reason for limiting the dose patients can have at one time, to stop them getting infections.

“One of the things we find is that when you bind the diamond to the drug, from our studies, it doesn’t drop the white blood cell count, yet it still has efficacy to reduce tumor size,” said Ho.

Source:
MedicalNewsToday

Nanodiamonds Show Promise As Safe Chemo Boosters For Breast And Liver Cancer, Nursing Resource Admin