Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Karla_Robbins

By Salynn Boyles
WebMD Health News
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

Feb. 26, 2010 — In response to research confirming that even small elevations in blood sugar during pregnancy can lead to sick babies, an international panel of experts is recommending sweeping changes in how gestational diabetes is diagnosed.

If adopted, the changes would mean that in the future two or three times as many pregnant women would be diagnosed and treated for gestational diabetes.

About 5% of pregnant women in the United States receive a diagnosis of gestational diabetes.

But Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine Professor of Metabolism and Nutrition Boyd Metzger, MD, says closer to 15% of pregnant women and their babies would benefit from treatment.

“Current recommendations for the diagnosis of gestational diabetes are designed to identify women at risk for developing diabetes after pregnancy,” Metzger tells WebMD. “But we now know that many low-risk women with blood sugar levels considered normal in the past are at risk for having overweight babies.”

High-birth-weight babies have an increased risk for obesity and diabetes later in life, and women carrying large babies are at increased risk for premature delivery and C-section delivery.

WASHINGTON — The FDA has formally approved the enzyme replacement therapy velaglucerase alfa (VPRIV) — already okayed for pre-approval marketing — for pediatric and adult patients with Gaucher disease.  Gaucher disease is a rare genetic disorder affecting between 1 in 50,000 and 1 in 100,000 in the general population.

It limits production of the enzyme glucocerebrosidase, the lack of which allows fatty lipids to build up in the liver, spleen, bones, bone marrow, and nervous system.  Drug manufacturer Shire had been given the go-ahead in September 2009 to market the drug before formal approval to ease a supply shortage of imiglucerase (Cerezyme), the only drug then approved for Gaucher’s patients. (See New Gaucher Drug Goes to Market During Shortage)  Approval of VPRIV was based on clinical trials involving 82 patients ages 4 and older with Type 1 Gaucher disease, some of whom switched from imiglucerase.  “The approval of VPRIV will provide a safe and effective alternative treatment for patients with Gaucher disease,” Julie Beitz, MD, director of the FDA’s Office of Drug Evaluation III, said in a statement. “Patients who previously received Cerezyme as an enzyme replacement therapy for their Type 1 Gaucher disease can be safely switched to VPRIV.”  The most common adverse reactions to VPRIV are allergic ones, although headache; dizziness; pain in the abdomen, back and joints; nausea; fatigue/weakness; fever; and prolonged activated partial thromboplastin time have also been noted.

Source: www.medpagetoday.com/ProductAlert/DevicesandVaccines/18719

Dialysis is dialusis in greek language ,dia means through but lusis means loosening it is an artificial replacement of kidneys in case of lost kidney function.

According to National Kidney Foundation Dialysis is a treatment that does some of the things done by healthy kidneys. It is needed when your own kidneys can no longer take care of your body’s needs.

Hemodialysis machine

When your kidneys are healthy, they clean the blood and also make hormones to keep your bones strong and your blood healthy. But when your kidneys fail, you need treatment to replace the work your kidneys used to do. Unless you have a kidney transplant, you will need a treatment called renal dialysis.

There are two types of dialysis : hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis.

Related videos:

Peritoneal dialysis

Preventing Hemodialysis Catheters Problems

Dialysis works on the principles of the diffusion of solutes and ultrafiltration  of fluid across a semi-permeable membrane. Diffusion describes a property of substances in water. Substances in water tend to move from an area where they are in a high concentration to an area of low concentration.

Blood flows by one side of a semi-permeable membrane, and a dialysate, or special dialysis fluid, flows by the opposite side. A semipermeable membrane is a thin layer of material that contains various sized holes, or pores. Smaller solutes and fluid pass through the membrane, but the membrane blocks the passage of larger substances (for example, red blood cells, large proteins).

The two main types of dialysis, Hemodialysis (HD) and Peritoneal dialysis (PD), remove wastes and excess water from the blood in different ways.[1] Hemodialysis removes wastes and water by circulating blood outside the body through an external filter, called a dialyzer, that contains a semipermeable membrane.

The blood flows in one direction and the dialysate flows in the opposite. The counter-current flow of the blood and dialysate maximizes the concentration gradient of solutes between the blood and dialysate, which helps to remove more urea and creatinine from the blood. The concentrations of solutes (for example potassium, phosphorus, and urea) are undesirably high in the blood, but low or absent in the dialysis solution and constant replacement of the dialysate ensures that the concentration of undesired solutes is kept low on this side of the membrane. The dialysis solution has levels of minerals like potassium and calcium that are similar to their natural concentration in healthy blood. For another solute, bicarbonate, dialysis solution level is set at a slightly higher level than in normal blood, to encourage diffusion of bicarbonate into the blood, to act as a pH buffer to neutralize the metabolic acidosis that is often present in these patients. The levels of the components of dialysate are typically prescribed by a nephrologist according to the needs of the individual patient.

In peritoneal dialysis, wastes and water are removed from the blood inside the body using the peritoneal membrane as a natural semipermeable membrane. Wastes and excess water move from the blood, across the peritoneal membrane, and into a special dialysis solution, called dialysate, in the abdominal cavity which has a composition similar to the fluid portion of blood.

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Peritoneal dialysis is a form of kidney disease treatment that utilizes the peritoneal membrane to filter out the blood of individuals who have renal disease.Peritoneal dialysis (PD) is a treatment for patients with severe chronic kidney failure. The process uses the patient’s peritoneum in the abdomen as a membrane across which fluids and dissolved substances (electrolytes, urea, glucose, albumin and other small molecules) are exchanged from the blood. Fluid is introduced through a permanent tube in the abdomen and flushed out either every night while the patient sleeps (automatic peritoneal dialysis) or via regular exchanges throughout the day (continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis). PD is used as an alternative to hemodialysis though it is far less common. It has comparable risks and expenses, with the primary advantage being the ability to undertake treatment without visiting a medical facility. The primary complication with PD is a risk of infection due to the presence of a permanent tube in the abdomen.

The kidneys are paired organs, which have the production of urine as their primary function. Kidneys are seen in many types of animals, including vertebrates and some invertebrates. They are an essential part of the urinary system, but have several secondary functions concerned with homeostatic functions. These include the regulation of electrolytes, acid-base balance, and blood pressure. In producing urine, the kidneys excrete wastes such as urea and ammonium; the kidneys also are responsible for the reabsorption of glucose and amino acids. Finally, the kidneys are important in the production of hormones including calcitriol, renin and erythropoietin.

Located behind the abdominal cavity in the retroperitoneum, the kidneys receive blood from the paired renal arteries, and drain into the paired renal veins. Each kidney excretes urine into a ureter, itself a paired structure that empties into the urinary bladder.

What is laparoscopic surgery?
Laparoscopic surgery refers to a special technique by which the surgeon performs the surgery through several small holes in the abdomen with the aid of a camera. It is also known as “minimally invasive surgery”. These incisions are much smaller than would have been required using traditional surgical techniques. Generally the operation that is performed is still the same operation, even though the incisions are much smaller.
What advantages does laparoscopic surgery have over conventional surgery?
Laparoscopic surgery usually results in reduced hospital stays, fewer wound infections, less pain, and a faster recovery time. From a surgeon’s perspective, laparoscopic surgery may allow for easier dissection of abdominal scar tissue (adhesions), less surgical trauma, and improved outcomes in certain groups like the elderly and extremely overweight individuals.

What are the indications for laparoscopic surgery?
These days, many surgeries that were once performed “open” (longer incisions of the abdominal wall allowing direct visualization of abdominal contents) can be performed laparoscopically. The laparoscopic surgeon can operate upon many organs, including but not limited to the colon, small intestine, stomach, gallbladder, liver, and pancreas. Any previous surgery can create scar tissue in the abdomen making a laparoscopic procedure more technically difficult. The surgeon would decide if a laparoscopic approach is the best choice for you. Certain conditions or disease states lend themselves well to laparoscopic intervention.
In the colon, the major indications for laparoscopic intervention are diverticulosis (see the ACG patient web page on diverticulosis), removal of large growths called polyps that are unable to be completely resected by colonoscopy, and colon cancer. The operation is typically performed by making four or five small abdominal incisions with the largest one being used to remove the specimen from the body. In general, these operations result in less blood loss during the surgery, less need for blood transfusions, and quicker time to eating a meal after surgery. Despite the accessibility of the colon by a laparoscope there has been much debate over the past decade regarding the safety of laparoscopic surgery for colorectal cancer. The main concern involves the possibility of spreading tumor cells to the surrounding tissue when the laparoscopic instrument contacts the tumor. Recent research presented at various national and international conferences by experienced
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