SKIN LIKE DEVICE MONITORS CARDIOVASCULAR AND SKIN HEALTH

A new wearable medical device can quickly alert a person if they are having cardiovascular trouble or if it's simply time to put on some skin moisturizer, reports a Northwestern University and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign study

The small device, approximately five centimeters square, can be placed directly on the skin and worn 24/7 for around-the-clock health monitoring. The wireless technology uses thousands of tiny liquid crystals on a flexible substrate to sense heat. When the device turns color, the wearer knows something is awry.

"Our device is mechanically invisible -- it is ultrathin and comfortable -- much like skin itself," said Northwestern's Yonggang Huang, one of the senior researchers. The research team tested the device on people's wrists.

"One can imagine cosmetics companies being interested in the ability to measure skin's dryness in a portable and non-intrusive way," Huang said. "This is the first device of its kind."

Huang led the portion of the research focused on theory, design and modeling. He is the Joseph Cummings Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Mechanical Engineering at Northwestern's McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science.

The technology and its relevance to basic medicine have been demonstrated in this study, although additional testing is needed before the device can be put to use. Details are reported online in the journal Nature Communications.

"The device is very practical -- when your skin is stretched, compressed or twisted, the device stretches, compresses or twists right along with it," said Yihui Zhang, co-first author of the study and research assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Northwestern.

The technology uses the transient temperature change at the skin's surface to determine blood flow rate, which is of direct relevance to cardiovascular health, and skin hydration levels. (When skin is dehydrated, the thermal conductivity property changes.)

The device is an array of up to 3,600 liquid crystals, each half a millimeter square, laid out on a thin, soft and stretchable substrate.

When a crystal senses temperature, it changes color, Huang said, and the dense array provides a snapshot of how the temperature is distributed across the area of the device. An algorithm translates the temperature data into an accurate health report, all in less than 30 seconds.

"These results provide the first examples of 'epidermal' photonic sensors," said John A. Rogers, the paper's corresponding author and a Swanlund Chair and professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois. "This technology significantly expands the range of functionality in skin-mounted devices beyond that possible with electronics alone."

Rogers, who also is director of the Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, led the group that worked on the experimental and fabrication work of the device. He is a longtime collaborator of Huang's.

With its 3,600 liquid crystals, the photonic device has 3,600 temperature points, providing sub-millimeter spatial resolution that is comparable to the infrared technology currently used in hospitals.

The infrared technology, however, is expensive and limited to clinical and laboratory settings, while the new device offers low cost and portability.

The device also has a wireless heating system that can be powered by electromagnetic waves present in the air. The heating system is used to determine the thermal properties of the skin.

The National Science Foundation supported the research.

The title of the paper is "Epidermal Photonic Devices for Quantitative Imaging of Temperature and Thermal Transport Characteristics of the Skin." In addition to Zhang, Li Gao and Viktor Malyarchuk of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are co-first authors.

Finally We Can See What Neuropathy Feels Like

Today's post from painnewsnetwork.org (see link below) finally presents a series of pain images and questions which truly relate to people living with neuropathy. We've all been asked what our pain feels like and many have had to choose a sort of vague smiley icon from the Wong Baker Scale to convince doctors of what we're experiencing but these images and this initiative from an Irish campaign to improve pain assessment, finally come close to describing exactly what we're feeling. It's notable that many neuropathy patients could possible choose two or more of the images to accurately describe their symptoms.

What Does Your Pain Feel Like?
By Pat Anson, Editor April 25, 2016

Does your chronic pain feel like you’ve been hit with a hammer, a bad sunburn that won’t go away, or ants crawling under your skin?

Those are some of the choices patients have in a new campaign launched in Ireland to change the way patients describe pain to their physicians.

Accurately assessing pain is difficult because pain is so subjective. For many years doctors have relied on various versions of the Wong Baker Pain Scale – a series of sad and smiling faces a patient chooses from to help their doctor understand how much pain they are in. The scale is so simple it was originally developed for children, but is now used around the world for adults.

The “Mypainfeelslike…” campaign aims to improve on that method by using more descriptive images and phrases to help doctors understand and diagnose their patient’s pain. The campaign focuses on neuropathic pain, but can be used for many other types of chronic pain. The initiative is sponsored by Grunenthal Group, a German pharmaceutical company.

Instead of an unhappy face, patients can choose from a dozen images, ranging from a burning flame to a rope tied in knots to a set of ice cubes. They also fill out a questionnaire and select different phrases to describe their pain, such as “a hot iron on my skin” or “a volcano erupting.” (see image above ed:)

Patients are also asked to fill out a questionnaire to select different phrases to describe their pain, such as “a hot iron on my skin” or “a volcano erupting.” And there's a list of multiple choice answers to describe how pain affects their ability to work, exercise and socialize.

It may take a few minutes to complete the questionnaire, but the idea is to get patients to “invest more time and accurateness in thinking about their symptoms, describing them more precisely, and preparing for doctors’ appointments.”

“Doing so forces us to reconsider our chronic pain, and the different ways that we feel it. This improves our self-awareness, allows us to better communicate our situation, and helps us get the most value out of the very short time that we usually have during doctors’ appointments,” the website says.

To take the questionnaire, click here.

According to a survey by Grunenthal, over half of Irish pain sufferers feel frustrated when trying to communicate their pain to a doctor. Over a quarter say they delay discussing their pain because they’re not sure how to do it.

“Living with chronic or nerve pain affects people’s well-being, their ability to be independent, their productivity and relationships, which can lead to feelings of depression," John Lindsay, chair of Chronic Pain Ireland told the Irish Independent. “The ‘Mypainfeelslike…’ campaign will help raise awareness of the impact of chronic pain and give people living with this disease the tools to re-evaluate their pain management plans.”

http://www.painnewsnetwork.org/stories/2016/4/25/what-does-your-pain-feel-like

WOMEN WITH Y CHROMOSOME DONT THINK LIKE MEN

Women born with a rare condition that gives them a Y chromosome don't only look like women physically, they also have the same brain responses to visual sexual stimuli, a new study shows.

The journal Hormones and Behavior published the results of the first brain imaging study of women with complete androgen insensitivity, or CAIS, led by psychologists at Emory.

"Our findings clearly rule out a direct effect of the Y chromosome in producing masculine patterns of response," says Kim Wallen, an Emory professor of psychology and behavioral neuroendocrinology. "It's further evidence that we need to revamp our thinking about what we mean by 'man' and 'woman.'"

Wallen conducted the research with Stephan Hamann, Emory professor of psychology, and graduate students in their labs. Researchers from Pennsylvania State University and Indiana University also contributed to the study.

The Y chromosome was identified as the sex-determining chromosome in 1905. Females normally have an XX chromosome pair and males have an XY chromosome pair.

By the 1920s, biochemists also began intensively studying androgens and estrogens, chemical substances commonly referred to as "sex hormones." During pregnancy, the presence of a Y chromosome leads the fetus to produce testes. The testes then secrete androgens that stimulate the formation of a penis, scrotum and other male characteristics.

Women with CAIS are born with an XY chromosome pair. Because of the Y chromosome, the women have testes that remain hidden within their groins but they lack neural receptors for androgens so they cannot respond to the androgens that their testes produce. They can, however, respond to the estrogens that their testes produce so they develop physically as women and undergo a feminizing puberty. Since they do not have ovaries or a uterus and do not menstruate they cannot have children.

"Women with CAIS have androgen floating around in their brains but no receptors for it to connect to," Wallen says. "Essentially, they have this default female pattern and it's as though they were never exposed to androgen at all."

Wallen and Hamann are focused on teasing out neural differences between men and women. In a 2004 study, they used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study the neural activity of typical men and typical women while they were viewing photos of people engaged in sexual activity.

The patterns were distinctively clear, Hamann says. "Men showed a lot more activity than women in two areas of the brain -- the amygdala, which is involved in emotion and motivation, and the hypothalamus which is involved in regulations of hormones and possibly sexual behavior."

For the most recent study, the researchers repeated the experiment while also including 13 women with CAIS in addition to women without CAIS and men.

"We didn't find any difference between the neural responses of women with CAIS and typical women, although they were both very different from those of the men in the study," Hamann says. "This result supports the theory that androgen is the key to a masculine response. And it further confirms that women with CAIS are typical women psychologically, as well as their physical phenotype, despite having a Y chromosome."

A limitation of the study is that it did not measure environmental effects on women with CAIS. "These women look the same as other women," Wallen explains. "They're reared as girls and they're treated as girls, so their whole developmental experience is feminized. We can't rule out that experience as a factor in their brain responses."

The findings may have broader applications in cognition and health. "Anything that we can learn about sex differences in the brain," Wallen says, "may help answer important questions such as why autism is more common in males and depression more common in females."

LIKE MY BODY ODOR LIKE MY POLITICS

A new study reveals that people find the smell of others with similar political opinions to be attractive, suggesting that one of the reasons why so many spouses share similar political views is because they were initially and subconsciously attracted to each other's body odor.

During the study, 146 participants rated the attractiveness of the body odor of unknown strong liberals and strong conservatives, without ever seeing the individuals whose smells they were evaluating.

"People could not predict the political ideology of others by smell if you asked them, but they differentially found the smell of those who aligned with them more attractive. So I believe smell conveys important information about long-term affinity in political ideology that becomes incorporated into a key component of subconscious attraction," said Dr. Rose McDermott, lead author of the American Journal of Political Science study.

Feel Like Joining A Neuropathy Clinical Research Study

Today's post from neuropathy.org (see link below) is a call for people who may be interested in taking part in clinical trials and research studies. Without these trials and studies, new treatments and drugs can't be developed and brought onto the market more quickly for neuropathy patients. One of the chief complaints of people living with neuropathy is the amount of time it takes for any promising new development to reach the doctors' prescription pads. One of the ways we can all help to speed up that process is by taking part in studies relevant to our own situation. Maybe something mentioned below will appeal to you, otherwise you could ask your neurologist if there are other appropriate studies going on in your area. It's a commitment certainly but one which may benefit many people in the long run.

Could You Benefit From Potential Treatments Accessible Through Clinical Research Studies? neuropathy.org

You can play an active role in bringing new therapies to the community by participating in clinical research studies. Clinical trials are studies in which researchers test new drugs for safety and effectiveness. Participating in clinical studies gives you a chance to advance and accelerate research, access emerging therapies that are being studied, and help bring new therapies to the community. Talk to your doctor to learn more about clinical trials.
When a pharmaceutical company develops a new drug, it sponsors a clinical trial to test the drug in people with the disease for which it was intended. The process is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA’s approval is required before a drug is allowed to be used. Natural products such as vitamins or food supplements, which are commonly sold in health food stores as alternative medicines, are not regulated by the FDA, and are not required to undergo clinical trials.

Listed below are some neuropathy clinical trials that are currently looking for participants. For a more comprehensive list of neuropathy clinical trials and to locate clinical trials in your vicinity, visit www.clinicaltrials.gov and search using the words "neuropathy" and the name of the city you live in (eg neuropathy, New York City).


Tetrodotoxin (TTX) for Pain Resulting from Chemotherapy Treatment
Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) is a major dose-limiting side effect of many chemotherapeutic agents, including vincristine, paclitaxel, cisplatin, oxaliplatin, bortezomib, and ixabepilone.Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy occurs in greater than 40% of patients. For this segment of our community, neuropathy and neuropathic pain is the “price of survival” that severely compromises quality of life and daily function. To improve the peripheral neuropathy, the chemotherapy dosing is often either decreased or discontinued potentially affecting tumor responsiveness, prognosis, and survival. There is an unmet medical need for treatment of cancer patients with chemotherapy-induced neuropathic pain (CINP). This clinical research study aims to investigate the efficacy and safety of multiple dose levels of tetrodotoxin (TTX) versus placebo in moderate to severe neuropathic pain caused by chemotherapy. Read more...

Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation in Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy
Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy is disease believed to be due to immune cells, cells which normally protect the body, but are now attacking the nerves in the body. As a result, the affected nerves fail to respond, or respond only weakly, to stimuli causing numbing, tingling, pain, and progressive muscle weakness. The likelihood of progression of the disease is high. This study is designed to examine whether treating patients with high dose cyclophosphamide (a drug which reduces the function of the immune system) and ATG (a protein that kills the immune cells that are thought to be causing your disease), followed by return of the previously collected blood stem cells will stop the progression of CIDP. Stem cells are undeveloped cells that have the capacity to grow into mature blood cells, which normally circulate in the blood stream. The purpose of the high dose cyclophosphamide and ATG is to destroy the cells in the immune system. The purpose of the stem cell infusion is to evaluate whether this treatment will produce a normal immune system that will no longer attack the body. Read more...

Safety and Efficacy of CBX129801 in Patients With Type 1 Diabetes
Currently available treatments for patients with type 1 diabetes focus on replacing insulin, but not C-peptide. In healthy individuals, C-peptide and insulin are co-secreted in equal amounts into circulation.  But in patients with type 1 and some patients with type 2 diabetes, destruction of the beta cells results in deficiency of both insulin and C-peptide. The purpose of this clinical research study is to determine the beneficial effects of CBX129801 (Ersatta™) -- a long-acting synthetic human C-peptide -- following weekly subcutaneous administration for 12 months in type 1 diabetes mellitus patients with mild to moderate diabetic peripheral neuropathy. Read more...

Efficacy and Saftety of ISIS TTR Therapy for Familial Amyloid Polyneuropathy
Familial Amyloid Polyneuropathy is a rare, hereditary disease caused by mutations in the transthyretin (TTR) protein. TTR is made by the liver and secreted into the blood. TTR mutations cause it to misfold and deposit in multiple organs causing FAP. When the nervous system is involved, patients present with progressive sensorimotor and autonomic neuropathy. The purpose of this clinical research study is to determine if ISIS TTR Rx can slow or stop the nerve damage caused by TTR deposits. This study will enroll late Stage 1 and early Stage 2 FAP patients. Patients will receive either ISIS TTR Rx or placebo for 65 weeks. Read more...

A Study Assessing the Safety and Tolerability of Fingolimod as an Oral Therapy for CIDP 
This clinical research study seeks to evaluate the safety and tolerability of fingolimod (FTY720) 0.5 mg -- administered orally once daily -- in the treatment of people with chronic inflammatory demyelinating neuropathy (CIDP). Fingolimod is a sphingosine 1-phosphate receptor (S1PR) modulator. It interacts with S1P receptors located on lymphocytes (a type of immune cell that is made in the bone marrow and is found in the blood and in lymph tissue). This interaction causes the lymphocytes to sequester in the lymph nodes, thus preventing them from moving towards, and damaging, targeted parts of the body. In experimental autoimmune neuritis, a T cell-mediated model of CIDP, fingolimod completely suppressed partial paralysis affecting the lower limbs (or paraparesis) and significantly decreased T-cell, B-cell, and macrophage infiltration and demyelination of sciatic nerves. Read more...

Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy (CIDP) and Treatment With Subcutaneous Immunoglobulin (IgPro20)
This clinical study seeks to assess subcutaneous immunoglobulin (IgPro20) for chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP). Patients on intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) maintenance therapy enrolled in this clinical research study will be assessed during three separate study periods. Patients first undergo a period of up to 12 weeks to test for on-going need of immunoglobulin therapy. Those patients will be administered IVIG during an IVIG re-stabilization period. Patients with improved and maintained adjusted inflammatory neuropathy cause and treatment scale (INCAT) in the IVIG Re-stabilization period will continue to the subcutaneous (SC) treatment period of the study. Patients entering the 24 week SC treatment period will be randomized to receive weekly infusions of 1 of 2 IgPro20 doses (0.2 or 0.4 g/kg body weight) or placebo. Read more...

Genetic and Physical Study of Childhood Nerve and Muscle Disorders
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) is conducting a clinical research study aimed at diagnosing patients with neuromuscular and neurogenetic disorders with congenital or pediatric onset and to studying the natural history and mechanism of these disorders. Some nerve and muscle disorders that start early in life (before age 25), like some forms of muscular dystrophy, can run in families. However, the genetic causes of these disorders are not known. Also, doctors do not fully understand how symptoms of these disorders change over time. Researchers want to learn more about genetic nerve and muscle disorders that start in childhood by studying affected people and their family members, as well as healthy volunteers. Read more…

Efficacy and Safety of ALN-TTR02 for the Treatment of Transthyretin (TTR)-Mediated Amyloidosis
The purpose of this clinical research study is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of the investigational drug patisiran (ALN-TTR02) in patients with transthyretin (TTR) mediated amyloidosis (also known as Familial Amyloidotic Polyneuropathy or FAP). FAP is an inherited, progressively debilitating, and fatal disease caused by mutations in the TTR gene. TTR protein is produced primarily in the liver and is normally a carrier for retinol binding protein. Mutations in TTR cause abnormal amyloid proteins to accumulate and damage body organs and tissue, such as the peripheral nerves and heart, resulting in intractable peripheral sensory neuropathy, autonomic neuropathy, and/or cardiomyopathy. Read more...

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Diabetic Neuropathic Pain
The purpose of this clinical research study is to evaluate the efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for the management of persistent pain associated with diabetic peripheral neuropathic pain. Study participants will be evaluated pre-treatment (baseline), 12 weeks post-baseline (post-treatment), and at 36 weeks post-baseline (follow-up). Baseline assessment will include a physical examination to confirm the diagnosis of diabetic neuropathy. The primary outcome measure will be pain intensity. Secondary outcome measures will be pain quality, pain-related disability, and physical and emotional functioning. Measures of treatment feasibility will also be examined. CBT plus standard pharmaceutical care (CBT/SC) is compared to an educational intervention plus standard pharmaceutical care (ED/SC) treatment condition.CBT and ED will be provided in 10 weekly, individual treatment sessions of 60 minutes. Read more...

Milnacipran for the Treatment of Idiopathic Neuropathy Pain
Many clinical trials for neuropathic pain are done in patients with diabetic neuropathy. Idiopathic neuropathy, however, is a common diagnosis and accounts for 25% of all neuropathies, and over 50% of small fiber neuropathies. The information in the clinical research study on milnacipran—an experimental medication that helps serotonin and noradrenaline work more effectively on the central nervous system—being conducted at Columbia University in New York—will provide information on whether the drug provides benefit as a medication for idiopathic neuropathic pain. Read more...

Improving Neuropathy and Mobility In Early Diabetes
 Neuropathy is the most common complication of diabetes mellitus. Impaired glucose regulation (IGR) is associated with development of peripheral neuropathy coupled with gait and mobility impairment that may be disabling for the patient.. Investigators at the VA Maryland Health Care System and University of Maryland (Dr. James Russell), and Ann Arbor VAMC and University of Michigan (Drs. Neil Alexander and Kim Gretebeck) are conducting a study on patients with impaired glucose tolerance or who have recently been diagnosed with type II diabetes and also have peripheral neuropathy. The purpose of this study is to determine if an individually tailored diet and physical enhancement program can improve mobility, physical activity, and neuropathy in people with early diabetes. Read more...

Study of Efficacy of ARA 290 on Corneal Nerve Fiber Density and Neuropathic Symptoms of Subjects With Sarcoidosis
 Sarcoidosis is an inflammatory disease that affects multiple organs in the body. In people with sarcoidosis, abnormal masses or nodules (called granulomas) consisting of inflamed tissues form in certain organs of the body that may alter the normal structure and possibly the function of the affected organ(s). Small-fiber neuropathy is one of the disabling and often chronic manifestations of the disease. The purpose of this clinical research study is to determine whether ARA 290 is effective in the treatment of the neuropathic symptoms of sarcoidosis. In this study, subjects with sarcoidosis and symptoms of small fiber neuropathy will be administered ARA 290 or placebo by subcutaneous injection daily for 28 days. In addition to monitoring the safety of the treatment, the symptoms of the subjects will be assessed with several questionnaires, function tests, and measurement of nerve fibers in their cornea and skin (via a non-invasive test and a biopsy, respectively). Read more... 

http://www.neuropathy.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Benefits_Of_Trials