Things just keep getting worst and worst....

by Elsewhere 2 Replies latest jw friends

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  Elsewhere

  Funny how JWs only see pain and misery in the world when there is so much that is great about it... and getting better.

  Valves grown from patient cells Doctors have developed a new type of replacement heart valve using cells taken from patients, it has emerged.

  Surgeons in Germany say they have already been used effectively in 23 patients with heart valve disease.

  Until now replacement valves have been artificial - made of metal or plastic - or taken from animal or human donors.

  At the American Heart Association conference in Orlando the surgeons said their technique appeared to speed recovery and avoid tissue rejection.

  Cells grown

  The surgeons, who are based at Berlin's Charite Hospital, created the valves by first removing a small portion of vein from a patient's leg or arm.

  They then grew endothelial cells - cells that make up the lining of blood vessels - from the vein. The cells were grown over a donor valve, taken from either a pig or a dead patient.

  The patients are in very good shape
  Dr Pascal Dohmen This valve was used as a scaffold - it was stripped of its own cells so that the patient's own cells would grow around it.

  The valve was then implanted into the patient.

  According to the surgeons, the patient's own cells form a completely new scaffold after about a year.

  The 23 patients who received the valves have been followed up for three years.

  Surgeons said the patients were in better condition than patients who had received traditional valves. They recovered more quickly and were discharged from hospital earlier.

  The surgeons said the technique also means that patient's bodies do not reject the valves since they are from their own tissue.

  "It does not cause an immunological reaction," said Dr Pascal Dohmen, who led the study. "The patients are in very good shape."

  Much further research is needed before the technique could be used more widely on patients.

  However, the surgeons are confident their technique will prove much better for patients with heart valve disease.

  Story from BBC NEWS:
  http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/3267615.stm
  
  Published: 2003/11/16 00:26:17 GMT
  
  © BBC MMIII
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  free will

  great new avatar elsewhere.
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  gumby

  Thanks elsewhere,

  A person has to wonder how far man will progress that might enable him to eliminate many or all of our human physical ailments. They are now also isolating various parts of the brain, to influencing that part to a controlled act. In other words.......will they be able to remove the disease of addiction by finding that part of the brain which signals it, and removing or changing the bad effect it produces?

  With my luck.....right after I die, they will find a way to live forever in happiness. ( now watch a dub post something to me along those lines)

  Gumby