Exercise Helps Improve Symptoms

An exercise-training program significantly improves - even cures - patients with a debilitating heart syndrome, according to a new research. Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) is called 'The Grinch Syndrome' because most patients have a heart that's 'two sizes too small'. In the small study, 18 Caucasian women (average age 27) and one man completed the double-blind drug trial. They were randomized to receive either the beta blocker propranolol or a placebo for four weeks followed by three months of exercise training. All patients completing exercise training showed improvement in heart rate responses. Ten (53 percent) of 19 patients were "cured" of POTS. Aldosterone-to-renin ratio (that plays a critical role in how the body handles changes to blood circulation during prolonged standing) increased among those in the exercise program. This ratio is low in POTS patients, and it remained low after the beta blocker treatment. "The exercise training program is a resounding success in the treatment of POTS," said Benjamin Levine, M.D., senior study author and director at the Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine at Texas Health Presbyterian Dallas. The research has been published in Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Smart Bandage

Smart bandages that can change colour to reveal the progress of wound healing, besides speeding up their recovery, are in the offing.
'We hope that the dressing could lead to more rapid and effective treatment of chronic wounds such as leg ulcers, saving time and money, as well as improving patient well-being,' says the lead inventor Louise van der Werff.
'We've created a fabric that changes colour in response to temperature - showing changes of less than 0.5 of a degree,' said der Werff, a Monash University doctoral student.
'We expect that, when incorporated into a bandage it will allow nurses to quickly identify healing problems such as infection or interruptions to the blood supply, which are typically accompanied by a local increase or decrease in temperature,' she says.
'If problems are not quickly identified and treated,' Louise says, 'Wounds can persist for months or years resulting in a major reduction in quality of life,' according to a Monash statement.
The colour-changing material the researchers have developed is in the form of a fibre, which may be woven or knitted into a loose textile product for incorporation into a wound dressing.
This could lead to more timely, effective and relevant treatments by doctors and nurses and to limited self-diagnosis by patients allowing faster closure of the wounds.