Medical Discovery News
Science permeates everyday life. Yet the understanding of advances in biomedical science is limited at best. Few people make the connection that biomedical science is medicine and that biomedical scientists are working today for the medicine of tomorrow. Our weekly five-hundred-word newspaper column (http://www.illuminascicom.com/) and two-minute radio show provide insights into a broad range of biomedical science topics. Medical Discovery News is dedicated to explaining discoveries in biomedical research and their promise for the future of medicine. Each release is designed to stimulate listeners to think, question and appreciate how science affects their health as well as that of the rest of the world. We also delve into significant biomedical discoveries and portray how science (or the lack of it) has impacted health throughout history.
Medical Discovery News
Using Magnets to Remove Kidney Stones
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1014 Using Magnets to Remove Kidney Stones
Welcome to Medical Discovery News. I’m Dr Norbert Herzog.
And I’m Dr. David Niesel
Passing a kidney stone is so painful even women who’ve given birth say the pain is worse. About one in ten Americans have kidney stones and most leave the body naturally through drinking a lot of water.
But some people need medical treatment, often with ureteroscopic laser lithotripsy. A flexible tube inserted into the urinary tract shoots a beam of laser at the stones to break them up. A doctor guided by a camera in the tube gathers the fragments using a small wire basket.
But it’s not a full proof method. In forty percent of patients, fragments remain and continue to make them uncomfortable. And they may need surgery again.
Researchers may have found a much better method using magnets. It’s called Magnetic System for Total Nephrolith Extraction.
Again, using a tube inserted into the urinary tract, a gel that contains superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles is released. They bind to exposed calcium ions on the stone surfaces. In the gel is also a biopolymer that forces the stone pieces to clump together making them easier to remove.
Then a magnetic wire is inserted to draw the coated, magnetized stone remnants, removing many stones at once, even small fragments the basket misses.
In tests on pigs, even though most of the hydrogel was removed by the magnetic wire, further studies will need to show whether all of it will clear on its own. If so, this method may be worth its weight in magnets.
We are Drs. David Niesel and Norbert Herzog, at UTMB and Quinnipiac University, where biomedical discoveries shape the future of medicine. For much more and our disclaimer go to medicaldiscoverynews.comor subscribe to our podcast.
