Author: ModernMedia

Categories : Lab Tests and ImagingTags :

Beyond Diagnosis: The Treatment Power of Modern Radiology

On By ModernMedia
Diagnostic selective angiogram (DSA) to visualise the blood vessels of the small bowel, performed to localise internal bleeding.

When you think about radiology, you probably think of an X-ray, MRI or a CT scan to help radiologists and doctors see what is happening inside the body. This is the ‘medical detective’ part of radiology.  But it has become so much more than that… Interventional Radiology can offer patients an effective alternative to open surgery, with a much shorter recovery time.

Dr Siviwe Mpateni, an Interventional Radiologist (IR) at SCP Radiology, provides insights and answers questions about Interventional Radiology. Why it has become such an important part of modern healthcare and how these highly targeted procedures are helping to improve outcomes for patients across a wide range of conditions.

Dr Siviwe Mpateni – Interventional Radiologist with SCP Radiology

Can you explain IR in simple terms?

In a nutshell, it bridges the gap between diagnosis and treatment. Radiologists use imaging technologies, not only to see inside the body but also to treat disease with extraordinary precision. What is even more remarkable, is that it’s usually through tiny incisions, often no larger than a pinhole.  IR guides miniature instruments, through blood vessels or tissues to stop bleeding, open blocked arteries, treat tumours, relieve pain or for a biopsy.

For patients, this means shorter hospital stays, less pain and a quicker return to normal life. The impact of these procedures can be extraordinary.

You say the impact can be extraordinary – can you give us an example?

One particularly memorable case was a young man who suffered an acute stroke and had lost his ability to speak. Imaging showed a major vessel blockage in his brain, our team performed an urgent thrombectomy (removing blood clots from arteries or veins), successfully restoring blood flow. Seeing him and so many others recover, together with the positive impact of what we do, daily, reinforces my passion for the field.

It is obviously a passion of yours, can you explain what it is that draws you to IR?

It is the problem-solving aspect, the innovative approach to patient care and the impact we can have on patients who often have very few options left. It’s a truly special field.

Many patients referred to us have exhausted conventional therapies, particularly for pain management. A number of these are oncology patients, who may have limited time left. Using targeted, image-guided pain blocks, we can relieve their suffering in a precise and minimally invasive manner. This is the part of IR that I am truly passionate about. Knowing that, without these options, patients could spend their final days in severe pain, drives my commitment to this field. It’s the ability to preserve patient’s dignity and relieve pain at their most vulnerable moment. With our interventions, they can spend that time with their loved ones –  awake and alert, rather than heavily sedated on pain medication.

What IR advancements have there been in the last 10 or 15 years?

IR has progressed rapidly since the 1950s when Charles Dotter pioneered the idea of using imaging. His first major success was opening a blocked leg artery in a patient facing amputation. He saved her limb and launched a new field of medicine.

Since then, there have been remarkable advancements. We have smaller and more versatile devices, while the number of conditions we can treat has expanded significantly.

In collaboration with oncologists, surgeons and other clinical specialists, IR has become invaluable in the patient journey.

Are there any specific areas of medicine that IR have been particularly successful in or made a major impact?

There are several areas, most notably in oncology where IR has developed a powerful and expanding role. Interventional radiologists are now integral partners in the management of solid organ tumours, offering image-guided therapies such as ablation, embolisation and targeted drug delivery. Beyond tumour control, IR plays a crucial role in palliative care – managing cancer-related pain and complications, often significantly improving quality of life for patients who may have previously had limited or no treatment options

These advances reflect how IR has evolved into a central therapeutic specialty, working collaboratively within multidisciplinary teams to improve both progression-free survival and quality of life.

When you think of the trauma of surgery, being under anaesthetic and the recovery, IR is quite revolutionary.

It certainly is but, it is important to remember that IR is not a substitute for surgery. Rather, it complements surgical care and offers alternative or adjunctive options for patients who may benefit from less invasive approaches.

And, because IR spans the entire body, from head to toe, our scope is broad. This can be confusing for patients or referrers, unlike specialties confined to a single organ system. But it’s what makes the work exciting. No two days are ever the same, and there’s always a new challenge to tackle.

‘Radiology is advancing in leaps and bounds’, says Dr Mpateni. ‘IR is a fine tune medicine that has an enormous place in healthcare, where people are being more conservative about having major surgery.’

Dr Mpateni will soon take up an Interventional Radiology Fellowship at the University of Toronto, where he will gain further experience in complex procedures, particularly in interventional oncology and pain management.

‘Training alongside global leaders is an invaluable opportunity,’ he says. ‘My goal is to bring that knowledge and expertise back to South Africa so that we can continue expanding access to advanced, minimally invasive treatments that improve outcomes and quality of life for our patients.’

As IR continues to grow, specialists like Dr Mpateni are helping ensure that South African patients have access to some of the most advanced, targeted and patient-centred treatments available in modern medicine.

Categories : Neurology Obstetrics & GynaecologyTags :

More Evidence Tying Epilepsy Drugs in Pregnancy to Developmental Risks

On By ModernMedia

Study adds weight to previously reported risks and calls for monitoring of new antiseizure drugs

Photo by SHVETS production

Findings published by The BMJ reinforce previous research linking use of the antiseizure drug valproate during pregnancy to neurodevelopmental disorders such as ADHD and autism in children, and indicate no substantial risk for several other antiseizure drugs including levetiracetam and lamotrigine.

However, the researchers say continued monitoring of the few signals – possible associations between a medicine and an unintended side effect – that emerged (eg, for zonisamide) will be important.

Antiseizure drugs are commonly and increasingly used by women of childbearing age for conditions like epilepsy, bipolar disorders, and migraine prevention. Women with epilepsy are advised to continue taking these during pregnancy, as uncontrolled seizures pose risks to both mother and child.

Yet, while valproate use during pregnancy has been linked to impaired neurodevelopment in children, information on other antiseizure drugs is limited.

To address this gap, researchers analysed claims data for pregnancies with diagnosed epilepsy from two large US public and commercial insurance databases, spanning the period from 2000 to 2021.

They compared 14,993 children exposed to at least one antiseizure medication during the second half of pregnancy with 8,887 unexposed children. Of these, 5,505 were followed for at least 5 years and 2,516 for at least 8 years after birth.

Potentially influential factors including mother’s age, ethnicity, mental health, substance use, other medication use and underlying conditions were also taken into account.

Valproate and zonisamide showed associations with several neurodevelopmental disorders, whereas levetiracetam and phenytoin were not associated with an increased risk of any of the studied outcomes.

Although no meaningful associations were found for topiramate and lamotrigine across most outcomes, there was a potential signal for intellectual disability (both drugs) and learning difficulty (topiramate only). However, the authors note that  these findings are based on small numbers and require confirmation in follow-up studies.

Several other drugs were also associated with a risk increase for intellectual disability. However, the authors note that these estimates are based on small numbers and therefore should be interpreted with caution.

Carbamazepine and oxcarbazepine also showed a modest risk increase for ADHD and behavioral disorders.

This is an observational study, so no definitive conclusions can be drawn about cause and effect, and the authors point to several limitations including relying on insurance claims data and the potential influence of other unmeasured factors such as underlying epilepsy type and severity.

However, the use of two large nationwide databases of insured pregnant women linked to their children enhanced the generalisability of their findings and enabled them to assess the risk of specific neurodevelopmental disorders associated with individual antiseizure medications. Results were also consistent after additional analyses, suggesting that they are robust.

As such, they conclude: “Our study reinforces the substantial risks of neurodevelopmental disorders associated with prenatal valproate exposure and suggests the need to further evaluate the safety of zonisamide during pregnancy.”

“Continued monitoring of newer antiseizure drugs and the few potential signals that emerged (ie, the moderate increased risk of ADHD and behavioural disorder after carbamazepine and oxcarbazepine exposure, and the association of several antiseizure drugs with intellectual disability) will be important,” they add.

Source: BMJ Group

Categories : Cardiovascular Disease NeurologyTags :

Algorithm for Paramedics Predicts Brain Damage Risk After Cardiac Arrest

On By ModernMedia
Photo by Ian Taylor in Unsplash

Researchers at King’s College London have shown that a widely used cardiac arrest risk score can be applied before patients reach hospital, enabling paramedics to assess the risk of brain injury at an earlier stage of care.

Results from the RAPID-MIRACLE trial have found, for the first time, that the widely used MIRACLE2 risk score can be applied outside a hospital setting to accurately predict brain injury following a cardiac arrest. This could inform the type of immediate care patients receive, helping to ensure they have the best treatment available while saving crucial resources.

An out of hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) carries a high risk of death, with fewer than 10% of patients surviving. Even when a patient’s heart is successfully restarted through CPR and circulation is restored, known as return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC), clinicians often face uncertainty about the extent of brain injury.

Despite current UK and European guidelines recommending that patients who experience an out of hospital cardiac arrest are sent to a specialist cardiac centre, the majority of patients are still conveyed to local emergency departments. The MIRACLE2 score, when applied in the pre-hospital setting, may now open up the possibility of identifying patients earlier and enabling direct transfer to specialist centres, allowing faster access to expert care and advanced treatments for patients who might otherwise have been conveyed to a local hospital.

Created by Dr Nilesh Pareek, Adjunct Senior Lecturer and Consultant Interventional Cardiologist, the MIRACLE2 score accurately predicts the extent of brain damage after 30 days following an OHCA. Until now, it has only been applied once a patient reaches hospital.

Dr Pareek and his team worked with the London Ambulance Service and Heart Research UK to evaluate whether the score could be calculated immediately after ROSC in the community.

The study followed patients from paramedic care through to hospital treatment across multiple London sites, providing real-world evidence of how the score performs outside a hospital environment.

The researchers tested two new versions of the score – one which included a blood test and one which didn’t. While the version with the blood test was highly accurate, paramedics frequently found it impractical due to technical failures and time pressure. The version without the blood test, known as Pre-MIRACLE2, was almost identical in terms of accuracy.

While MIRACLE² has supported early in-hospital risk stratification following out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, RAPID-MIRACLE extends this work into the pre-hospital setting, enabling paramedics to assess risk earlier in a patient’s care pathway. By validating the model in the field, we have taken an important step towards integrating earlier risk assessment into routine emergency care.”Dr Nilesh Pareek, senior author of the study and Adjunct Senior Lecturer, King’s College London and Consultant Interventional Cardiologist, King’s College Hospital

Alongside the study, the MIRACLE² app, led by Dr Pareek, has been updated to incorporate the newly validated pre-hospital model. The app, developed by Ensono Digital, uses the MIRACLE2 algorithm and is designed as a practical tool to help clinicians calculate the score quickly and accurately, without needing to recall each variable from memory.

By entering patient information such as age, initial heart rhythm and other markers, paramedics and hospital clinicians can generate an immediate estimate of a patient’s risk of poor neurological outcome following out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

The research team is now in discussion with emergency medical services regarding a potential service evaluation to explore how the updated tool could be implemented in routine practice.

Heart Research UK were delighted to fund the RAPID-MIRACLE trial with the aim of improving outcomes for this poorly served patient group. The promising results from the trial suggest that better outcomes can be delivered, and we hope the risk score can be adopted nationally for all patients.”Dr Kate Langton, Director of Research at Heart Research UK

The research findings were presented in Washington at the CRT 2026 conference and the full study was published in European Heart Journal – Acute Cardiovascular Care.

Source: King’s College London

Categories : Medical Research & TechnologyTags :

World’s Longest Running Birth Cohort Study Marks 80 Years

On By ModernMedia
Participants were children when the study began. Photo: supplied.

The world’s longest continuously running birth cohort study, which follows thousands of participants born in the first week of March 1946 and is hosted by University College London, is celebrating its 80th birthday.

The Medical Research Council (MRC) National Survey of Health and Development (NSHD), also known as the British 1946 birth cohort, has advanced understanding of what affects our health and wellbeing over a lifetime.

Through questionnaires, clinic visits, and home visits, these study members have helped shape our knowledge of developmental milestones, education, diet, exercise, mental and physical health and healthy ageing across the life course.

Findings have helped reveal how early life conditions, schooling and social circumstances influence adult health, chronic disease and later‑life function, and provided evidence on topics ranging from childhood lung infections and later respiratory disease, to the long‑term effects of diet and physical activity, to the lasting effects of childhood social inequalities.

Professor Nishi Chaturvedi, Director of the Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing at UCL, said: “On the NSHD’s 80th birthday, we want to extend our deepest thanks to every study member. Their lifelong contributions have been invaluable to medical science, and their generosity with their time continues to make this work possible.”

The origins of the study go back to the 1930s, a period when concerns were growing about declining birth rates and the rising cost of having children. Policymakers feared that financial pressures were discouraging families from expanding. The result was the Maternity Survey of 1946, which captured every birth that took place in England, Wales, and Scotland during a single week in March of that year. Its success was immediate and influential, paving the way for nurses to be able to offer pain relief in childbirth.

From this initial survey, a cohort of 5362 babies was selected for continued follow-up, and remarkably, more than 2000 are still taking part eight decades later.

In recent years, the NSHD has become a flagship study of ageing, with study members taking part in clinical sub-studies to improve our understanding to dementia and poor heart health:

  • Insight 46. This sub-study uses detailed brain scans, memory tests, and cardiovascular measures to identify early brain changes linked to dementia risk. Now in its 10th year, it has increased our understanding on the factors leading to dementia, including the links with the amyloid protein in the brain and dementia; the effects of shift working on the brain; and the effects of air pollution on brain health. It has also shown that a blood test may help diagnose people in the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s disease. (The test is now being trialled in centres across the UK.)
  • MyoFit 46. This sub-study focused on the heart, using cardiac imaging to investigate cardiac ageing. The study has found that even moderately elevated blood pressure in early adulthood increases later heart disease risk. The study has developed a cardiac MRI vest, which non-invasively maps the heart’s electrical activity, enabling safer diagnosis of heart rhythm problems. 

UCL is home to some of the world’s most impactful cohort studies which have shaped our understanding of health. These include the 1958 National Child Development Study, the 1970 British Cohort Study, the Millennium Cohort Study and the most recent study, Generation New Era, which is led by a team at UCL’s Centre for Longitudinal Studies and aims to recruit more than 30 000 babies born this year.

Note: UCL200 
2026 also marks a major milestone for UCL – 200 years since we were founded as the first university in London. UCL200 promises an exciting and varied programme of activities, events and storytelling, aiming to celebrate and reinforce UCL’s commitment to our founding values, highlight the excellence and impact of our groundbreaking work and people, and present an ambitious and inspiring portrait of our future. Highlights of the UCL200 programme include: a major new free exhibition – Two Centuries Here – that explores UCL’s past, present and future; a public art programme; and three specially published books about the histories of UCL, Bloomsbury and students in London.  

Source: University College London

Categories : HIV VaccinesTags :

Landmark South African Study Shows HPV Vaccination Protects Girls Living with HIV

On By ModernMedia
Photo by Elen Sher on Unsplash

In South Africa, where the burden of HIV remains high, women living with HIV face a disproportionately increased risk of cervical cancer, around six times higher than women without HIV. This heightened risk is driven by persistent infection with high‑risk strains of human papillomavirus (HPV). In settings where access to HPV vaccination, cervical screening and treatment is uneven, the impact on women’s health and lives is profound.

New research published in The Lancet Global Health provides the first population‑level evidence globally that a national HPV vaccination programme can be highly effective in a high HIV‑prevalence setting. The study was led by researchers from Wits RHI at the University of the Witwatersrand in partnership with the Kirby Institute (University of New South Wales).

The study evaluated South Africa’s free, school‑based national HPV vaccination programme, introduced in 2014, which offers HPV vaccination to girls in Grade 4 (aged nine years and older) attending public schools across the country. Crucially, the research assessed vaccine impact among adolescent girls and young women both living with HIV and without HIV, reflecting the realities of South Africa’s dual HIV and cervical cancer burden.

Until now, most evidence on HPV vaccine effectiveness in people living with HIV has come from studies where vaccination occurred after HIV infection, often after exposure to HPV and in the presence of immune suppression. This South African study, led by Professor Sinead Delany-Moretlwe at Wits RHI, Director of Research, is the first to demonstrate the real‑world impact of vaccination delivered early, before most girls are exposed to HPV, within a national public‑health programme in a high HIV‑burden context.

The findings show that the HPV vaccine provides excellent protection, including among girls living with HIV. Researchers observed substantial reductions in vaccine‑type HPV infections, demonstrating that high‑coverage HPV vaccination programmes can deliver strong population‑level benefits, even in settings with widespread HIV.

“For the first time, we can demonstrate at a population level that HPV vaccination delivered early, through a national public programme, provides excellent protection in a high HIV‑prevalence setting. This is a major public‑health success for South Africa and sends a clear message globally: investing in early, school‑based HPV vaccination can dramatically reduce future cervical cancer risk, including among girls living with HIV,” said Professor Sinead Delany-Moretlwe.

These results have major global implications. They reinforce the critical importance of early, school‑based HPV vaccination and provide compelling evidence for countries, particularly those with high HIV prevalence, to implement and sustain national HPV vaccination programmes. Such programmes have the potential to dramatically reduce cervical cancer risk, improve women’s health outcomes, and ultimately save lives worldwide.

Read the full paper

Categories : Ageing DermatologyTags :

Why Grey Hair Happens – and How Science May Soon Turn Back the Clock

On By ModernMedia

From genetics to stress myths, researchers reveal what really drives greying and the breakthroughs pointing to natural colour restoration

Photo by Ravi Patel on Unsplash

Grey hair is more than a cosmetic concern – it drives a booming industry, influences how people are perceived, and can affect confidence. Globally, the hair colour market was valued at nearly USD 28 billion in 2025, with over half of purchases linked specifically to concealing greys. In South Africa, spending on hair colourants is projected to grow from roughly USD 172 million in 2021 to over USD 228 million by 2028, highlighting the demand for solutions that go beyond temporary cover-ups.

By age 50, roughly 50-70% of adults have visible grey hair, while premature greying can appear in some as early as the 20s. The psychological weight is clear: studies indicate grey hair can make people appear 20-30% older, influencing workplace perception, social interactions, and self-esteem. Studies show faces with grey hair are consistently perceived as more subdued than the same faces without greys, confirming that hair colour alone can shape social impressions.

“Many popular beliefs about greying hair are misleading,” says Dr Kashmal Kalan, Medical Director at Alvi Armani. “Stress does not turn hair grey overnight, plucking one strand won’t trigger several more, and no supplement or home remedy has been proven to restore pigment reliably. The reality is far more biological – genetics and pigment cell behaviour are the keys we are finally beginning to understand.”

At the heart of greying are melanocyte stem cells (McSCs) within hair follicles. In youth, these cells migrate and maintain melanin production, the pigment responsible for hair colour. With age, many become inactive or “trapped,” interrupting pigment delivery and causing grey strands. In mouse models, freeing these cells restored pigment production in roughly half of cases – a major step toward therapies that could reawaken natural colour without dyes.

Emerging research aims to tackle the root cause rather than just the appearance of grey hair. Scientists are exploring topical agents that target dormant pigment cells, metabolic modulators that influence follicle behaviour, and activation therapies designed to revive pigment production. These innovations could allow hair to regain its natural shade – not just cover it – while supporting overall follicle health.

“We are witnessing science that was once purely theoretical become reality,” says Dr Sunaina Paima, aesthetic and hair-restoration physician at Alvi Armani Johannesburg. “For patients, this could mean seeing grey strands regain their original shade naturally – a moment the hair science world has long dreamed of. The potential impact on confidence and self-esteem is enormous, because this isn’t just about covering colour, it’s about restoring it at a biological level.”

While most pigment-restoring therapies remain in development, advances in genetics, dermatology, and biotechnology are converging at unprecedented speed. “For decades, grey hair was seen as an irreversible hallmark of ageing,” adds Dr Kalan. “Today, that assumption is being seriously challenged. We’re on the brink of options that rejuvenate hair from the inside out, not just cosmetically.”

These breakthroughs signal a new era in hair science: ageing hair may no longer be inevitable or purely cosmetic, but a biological process that can be understood, guided, and ultimately restored.

Categories : IT in HealthcareTags :

‘Google Earth’ for Human Organs Made Available Online

On By ModernMedia

A new open-access 3D portal that allows users to explore human organs in unprecedented detail, from the whole organ to individual cells, has been launched by an international team led by UCL scientists.

The Human Organ Atlas, described in a new paper in the journal Science Advances, brings together some of the most detailed images of 3D organs ever produced. It enables scientists, doctors, educators, students and the wider public to interactively “fly through” organs such as the brain, heart, lungs, kidney and liver, providing a new way of understanding human anatomy and human diseases.

The resource can be accessed directly through a standard web browser, without specialist software, at this link.

The Atlas is powered by an advanced X-ray imaging method called Hierarchical Phase-Contrast Tomography (HiP-CT), developed at the European Synchrotron (ESRF) in Grenoble, France. HiP-CT uses the ESRF’s Extremely Brilliant Source – a new generation of synchrotron source – which is up to 100 billion times brighter than conventional hospital CT scanners.

This allows researchers to scan entire intact ex vivo human organs (i.e., donated organs) non-destructively and then zoom in to near-cellular resolution (down to less than one micron, 50 times thinner than the size of a human hair).

The technique bridges a century-old gap in medicine between radiology and histology, and represents a major advance in biomedical imaging.

Professor Peter Lee (UCL Department of Mechanical Engineering), principal investigator of the Human Organ Atlas beamtime, said: “To create the Human Organ Atlas, we brought together scientists and medics from nine institutes worldwide. This grouping is continuing to expand, helping gain new insights into diseases from osteoarthritis to heart disease and changing how we learn about the human body.”

Dr Claire Walsh (UCL Department of Mechanical Engineering), Director of the Human Organ Atlas Hub, said: “The Human Organ Atlas shows what team science can achieve at its best – we went into this project wanting this data to be used by others and to help further the understanding of human physiology. The Human Organ Atlas is an incredible resource that will continue to grow. I am personally hugely excited to see how the AI community use the Human Organ Atlas in AI foundation models.”

From Covid-19 to cardiac and gynaecological disorders

Initially developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, the method has already led to high-impact publications and scientific advancements, revealing previously unseen microscopic vascular injury in the lungs of patients who died from Covid-19 or reshaping understanding of cardiac disorders. The technology has also been applied to other organs, providing new insights, for instance, into the way gynecological disorders develop.

Professor Judith Huirne, based at Amsterdam UMC, said: “The virtual 3D histological data derived from Human Organ Atlas hub provides us with valuable insights into the pathogenesis of gynecological disorders. This knowledge is crucial to bridging the current gaps in both understanding and gender disparities.”

This Human Organ Atlas portal is the result of more than five years of collaborative effort between many researchers, engineers, clinicians, and infrastructure specialists, united within the Human Organ Atlas Hub, a consortium involving nine institutes across Europe and the United States.

Since its inception, the team has been committed to open science. Dr Paul Tafforeau, ESRF scientist and pioneer of the imaging technique used to create the Human Organ Atlas, said: “From the beginning, we wanted these data to be accessible to everyone and build an open, shared scientific infrastructure at a global scale. This is a resource for researchers, doctors, educators – but also for anyone curious about how the human body is built.

A unique tool for AI, medicine and education

To the team’s knowledge, this is the highest-resolution open 3D dataset of intact human organs currently available. The Human Organ Atlas currently provides access to: (to be updated)

  • 62 organs, 319 full 3D datasets from 29 donors
  • 12 organ types, including brain, heart, lung, kidney, liver, colon, eye, spleen, placenta, uterus, prostate and testis
  • Multiscale scans, from whole-organ views down to near-cellular resolution (routinely down to 2 µm, as fine as 0.65 microns for some organs)

The portal has been designed to extend far beyond specialist research laboratories. Each dataset can reach hundreds of gigabytes or even over a terabyte in size. The largest one (a brain) is 14 Tb. To make the data usable worldwide, the portal provides:

  • Interactive browser-based visualisation (no special software required)
  • Downloadable datasets at multiple resolutions
  • Tutorials and software tools for analysis
  • Regular addition of new data

Beyond advancing anatomical and biomedical research, the atlas is expected to become a major resource for artificial intelligence. Large, high-quality 3D datasets are rare – limiting the development of advanced medical AI systems. The Human Organ Atlas provides a curated, hierarchical dataset ideally suited for training machine-learning models for segmentation, disease detection and super-resolution analysis.

At the same time, it offers powerful new opportunities for medical education and public engagement with science, allowing anyone to explore the human body out of curiosity.

Source: University College London

Categories : Injury & Trauma UrogenitalTags :

Timely Scan Could Save Lives of A&E Patients with Haematuria

On By ModernMedia
Photo by Camilo Jimenez on Unsplash

One in ten emergency patients with visible blood in their urine die within three months of presenting at A&E, new research has found. The WASHOUT study, presented Monday 16 March at the European Association of Urology Congress (EAU26) in London, found that a scan within 48 hours could reduce this risk. 

Such a scan also ensured patients with cancer were diagnosed significantly faster. Around 1 in 4 people who presented at A&E with visible blood in their urine had an underlying cancer, with the most common being bladder cancer, the study found. 

Around 25 000 people visit UK A&E departments each year because they have blood in their urine. Currently, patients receive different care depending on which hospital they visit or even which doctor they see. This is because there are no guidelines built on real-world evidence for doctors to follow. Based on global figures, only around half (53%) of patients receive a scan and a third (35%) receive surgery, with others discharged home or admitted to the ward to watch how their symptoms progress, says the WASHOUT study. 

The WASHOUT study drew on global data to show that rapid action is critical for better patient outcomes. A CT scan or cystoscopy to look inside the bladder within 48 hours of arriving at A&E should determine the most appropriate next steps – such as whether the person should be treated for bladder cancer. Patients who didn’t receive investigative tests or appropriate treatment were 2.5% more likely to die within the next three months compared to those who did. They also spent more time in hospital and were more likely to be readmitted with the same problem within three months.

For patients with an underlying cancer, those who received investigative tests within the first 48 hours of admission were diagnosed within one day on average. In contrast, patients who were discharged without investigation faced a significantly longer wait, with diagnosis taking on average three weeks.

The research team is now taking steps to incorporate their findings into clinical guidelines, to help hospital staff provide the best treatment for these patients. 

The study looked at data from more than 8500 people across 380 hospitals around the world and followed their journey for 90 days after arriving at A&E with blood in their urine. It also considered other factors that might have affected results, including age, frailty and other underlying conditions. 

Nikita Bhatt, consultant urologist at St Vincent’s University Hospital, Dublin, led the research being presented at EAU26. She said: “This is the largest study exploring how we should treat people who present at A&E with blood in their urine. It’s a common problem affecting thousands of people around the world, and these patients are usually very unwell. But too often they fall through the gaps because it isn’t obviously tied to a specific disease. Our findings show how important it is that doctors take the necessary steps to identify the cause of the problem. For patients, the message is clear: if you have visible blood in your urine, don’t ignore it. See your doctor as soon as you can. If it doesn’t clear up, keep pushing until you find an answer. I hope our study gives patients the encouragement to do that.”

Jacqueline Emeks, a patient advocate on the WASHOUT study, who was diagnosed with a kidney infection and sepsis after arriving at A&E with visible blood in their urine, agrees: “These findings highlight that blood in the urine should trigger immediate action. It’s not something to watch and wait. For patients, this should mean quicker triage, earlier investigations and faster treatment, translating into safer care, fewer delays, and a better chance of avoiding severe illness or long-term harm. Patients know their bodies and deserve to be taken seriously. Blood in urine is a red flag until proven otherwise.”

Prof Dr Joost Boormans, a member of the EAU Scientific Congress Office and a urologist at the Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, said: “This is an important study highlighting the scale of the problem that emergency blood in the urine presents, both for patients and our already over-stretched healthcare systems. It’s difficult to draw strong conclusions about specific conditions because blood in the urine can be caused by many things, including cancer, and this group of patients is very diverse. But this study shows that timely investigative tests can accelerate diagnosis and reduce patients’ risk of readmission and long hospital stays, both being significantly high as shown in the WASHOUT study. As urologists in emergency care, we should be aware of these numbers and do more to get an immediate diagnosis for people with blood in urine, to reduce the burden on our healthcare systems and give our patients the best outcomes.”

Source: European Association of Urology

Categories : Cancer UrogenitalTags :

Prostate Cancer Screening on Par with Breast Cancer Screening

On By ModernMedia
Credit: Darryl Leja National Human Genome Research Institute National Institutes Of Health

Prostate cancer screening compares favourably to screening for breast cancer in identifying significant cancers, reducing mortality and avoiding unnecessary harms, according to new research. The findings are presented on Sunday 15 March 2026 at the European Association of Urology Congress (EAU26) in London. The research is also accepted for publication in European Urology.

The researchers maintain that the similarities between the two forms of screening mean it is no longer rational to reject prostate cancer screening on one hand while endorsing screening for breast cancer on the other. Nevertheless, they recommend some caution given their research compares a trial with a population-based screening programme and across two different cancers. 

Although breast and prostate cancer are the most commonly diagnosed cancers in Europe amongst men and women respectively, screening for the diseases is vastly different. Organised breast cancer screening programmes have been established across Europe for more than three decades. Prostate cancer screening has lagged behind, primarily due to concerns around the effectiveness of the PSA blood test and the risks of overdiagnosis and overtreatment. Nevertheless, many men undergo variable, ‘opportunistic’ screening for the disease, mostly based on self-referral.

Several prostate cancer screening trials in Europe have now reported long-term outcomes, showing a reduced risk of death from prostate cancer [1]. This risk reduction is similar to that seen in breast screening programmes.

The new analysis compares the two types of cancer screening in terms of the effectiveness of the diagnostic tests and levels of overdiagnosis. The researchers, from the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg, Germany, drew on data from the PROBASE prostate cancer screening trial in Germany and the country’s breast cancer screening programme.

They used data from 39,392 men who underwent an initial PSA blood test as part of the PROBASE trial at age 45 or 50. They compared this with data from just over 2.8 million women, aged 50–69, who had a mammography as part of Germany’s organised breast cancer screening programme. They found:

  • PSA blood testing followed by an MRI scan leads to a higher number of false positives than mammography (37-42% vs 10%).
  • A similar proportion of men and women were referred for biopsy (0.8-2.4% for men and 1.1% for women) as men in the PROBASE trial were triaged before referral using various factors to determine the likelihood of significant cancer (known as risk stratification)
  • Biopsies were far more likely to identify significant cancer in prostate screening than in breast screening (50-68% vs 10%), indicating that fewer men were referred for biopsy unnecessarily.
  • The percentages of invasive cancers identified were similar across both prostate and breast cancer screening (60-74% vs 73%).
  • Prostate cancer screening was more likely to identify non-aggressive cancers than breast cancer screening (26-31% vs. 22%). However, in prostate cancer the option of active surveillance is well-established, and the researchers maintain this would limit the risk of overtreatment. Active surveillance involves monitoring lower grade cancers and only starting treatment (radiotherapy or surgery) if they progress.

Dr Sigrid Carlsson, who leads Clinical Epidemiology of Early Cancer Detection at the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ) in Heidelberg, is lead author of the research. She said: “Until we have a population-based screening programme for prostate cancer, we can’t make an exact like-for-like comparison with breast cancer. But we can make some informed assumptions based on the data from our trial, which shows that if prostate cancer screening were extended to the wider population, then the outcomes are likely to be very similar to breast cancer. Although our study used German data, the findings are applicable to other countries. The final question we now need to answer is: what will this cost compared to what we are already paying for opportunistic screening? And that work is already underway.”

Tobias Nordström is a clinical urologist and Associate Professor at the Karolinska Institute, Sweden and a member of the EAU Scientific Congress Office. He said: “There is much that prostate cancer screening can learn from breast cancer screening and that is why this analysis is an important addition to our knowledge base. As these kinds of comparisons are very challenging, the results do need to be taken with a level of caution. That said, the clear overall similarities between the outcomes for breast and prostate cancer screening show that we are moving in the right direction, ensuring prostate cancer screening offers more benefits than harm.”

[1] See the 23-year follow-up from the European Randomised Study of Screening for Prostate Cancer (ERSPC) in the New England Journal of Medicine: European Study of Prostate Cancer Screening — 23-Year Follow-up | New England Journal of Medicine

Source: European Association of Urology

Categories : Environmental EffectsTags :

Rising CO₂ Levels are Reflected in Human Blood. Scientists Don’t Know What it Means

On By ModernMedia
FabrikaCr / Getty Images

Alexander Larcombe, The Kids Research Institute Australia; Curtin University and Philip Bierwirth, Australian National University

Humans evolved in an atmosphere containing roughly 200–300 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide (CO₂). Today, that figure sits above 420 ppm, higher than at any point in the history of our species.

We know this extra CO₂ is contributing to climate change, but could it also be changing the chemistry of our bodies?

In our recently published research we looked at two decades of information from one of the biggest health datasets in the world to start answering this question. We found some concerning trends.

What we found

We analysed blood chemistry data from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), which collected samples from about 7000 Americans every two years between 1999 and 2020. We looked at three markers: CO₂, calcium and phosphorus.

CO₂ is mainly carried in blood in the form of bicarbonate (HCO₃⁻).

When CO₂ enters the blood, it is converted to bicarbonate. This process largely occurs inside red blood cells, and also produces hydrogen ions.

During short-term exposure to increased CO₂, this can make blood more acidic, and result in a modest increase in bicarbonate levels in the blood (to reduce acidity).

If the exposure continues for a long time the kidneys reduce the amount of bicarbonate lost in urine and also produce more bicarbonate. This has the net effect of higher bicarbonate levels in the blood, to counteract the persistent acidity.

Levels of calcium and phosphorus in the blood may also be affected, as they too play a role in regulating acidity in the blood. These processes are completely normal.

Over the 21 years from 1999 to 2020, we found that average blood bicarbonate levels rose by about 7%. Over the same period, atmospheric CO₂ concentrations rose by a similar proportion.

Atmospheric CO₂ has risen, along with increases in levels of carbonate in the blood and decreases in calcium and phosphorus. Larcombe & Bierwirth / Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health, CC BY

Meanwhile, blood calcium levels dropped by about 2% and phosphorus by around 7%.

If these trends continue, blood bicarbonate levels may exceed healthy levels in around 50 years. Calcium and phosphorus levels may fall below healthy levels, too, by the end of the century.

Our hypothesis is that rising CO₂ exposure could be contributing to these trends.

What’s causing the changes?

It’s important to be clear about what this study does and doesn’t show. It identifies population-level trends in blood chemistry that parallel rising atmospheric CO₂.

But correlation is not causation. The study does not adjust for factors such as diet, kidney function, diuretic use or obesity, which can influence the measurements and should be considered in future analyses.

There are other plausible contributors. One important consideration is indoor air.

Participants in the NHANES study likely spend most of their time indoors, where CO₂ concentrations often exceed 1000 ppm in poorly ventilated spaces. Other studies show time spent indoors has increased over the past two decades.

The NHANES dataset doesn’t capture this parameter, so we can’t directly assess this contribution. However, if more time indoors is contributing, it means total CO₂ exposure is rising even faster than atmospheric trends suggest. This arguably reinforces rather than alleviates the concern.

Other factors, such as shifting dietary patterns, changing rates of obesity, differences in physical activity and even variations in sample collection or processing across survey cycles, could also be important.

Can our bodies cope?

Some critics have argued that, based on what we know about how our bodies manage blood chemistry, we should have no trouble compensating for future increases in atmospheric CO₂, even under worst-case climate scenarios. For example, the lungs can increase ventilation and the kidneys can adjust to produce more bicarbonate.

For most healthy individuals, small long-term increases in outdoor CO₂ are not expected to meaningfully change the levels of bicarbonate, calcium or phosphorus in the blood.

This makes the population-level trends we observed puzzling. They could reflect a confounding rather than a direct CO₂ effect, but they do highlight how little data we have on long-term, real-world exposure.

A lack of long-term data

The argument that we can cope easily with higher CO₂ is based on short-term responses. Whether the same reasoning applies when CO₂ levels are higher across a person’s entire life remains largely untested.

There is, however, a growing body of evidence across many species which shows that even modest, environmentally relevant increases in CO₂ can produce subtle but measurable physiological effects.

In humans, short-term exposure at concentrations commonly found indoors (1000–2500 ppm) has been linked to reduced cognitive performance and changes in brain activity, though the mechanisms aren’t fully understood.

These new findings highlight a gap in evidence about long-term, real-world CO₂ exposure and human physiology. Unfortunately, there simply aren’t any studies assessing the physiological effects of breathing slightly elevated CO₂ over a lifetime.

This is particularly important for children, who will experience the longest cumulative exposure. And that’s why it’s vital to investigate this area further.

What this means

Our findings are not suggesting people will become suddenly unwell when atmospheric CO₂ reaches a certain level. What the data show is a signal that warrants attention.

If rising atmospheric CO₂ is contributing to gradual shifts in blood chemistry at a population level, then the composition of the atmosphere should be monitored alongside traditional climate indicators as a potential factor in long-term public health.

Reducing CO₂ emissions remains crucial for limiting global warming. Our findings suggest it may also be important for safeguarding aspects of human health that we’re only just beginning to understand.

Alexander Larcombe, Associate Professor and Head of Respiratory Environmental Health, The Kids Research Institute Australia; Curtin University and Philip Bierwirth, Emeritus Research Associate, Australian National University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.