Researchers in Austria have developed an ultrasound-guided technique to repair the urinary tract of patients with urinary incontinence by injecting stem cells harvested from the patient's own body. They found that almost every patient had been cured one year after the stem cell treatment.
Researchers in Austria have developed an ultrasound-guided technique to repair the urinary tract of patients with urinary incontinence by injecting stem cells harvested from the patient's own body. They found that almost every patient had been cured one year after the stem cell treatment.
Ultrasound-guided stem cell injection has the potential to become a minimally invasive, cost-effective, and revolutionary treatment option for urinary incontinence. It can be performed as an outpatient procedure in 15 minutes with local anesthesia and can easily be done again if necessary. Current surgical options are costly and time-consuming, and they do not have long-lasting effects. Collagen injections also have limited effect. Use of diapers (or nappies) as a long-term solution is not only costly but socially embar-rassing, lead author Dr. Ferdinand Frauscher, a radiologist at the Medical University of Innsbruck, said at the RSNA meeting.
The social implications of urinary incontinence tend to overshadow more prominent economic factors, Frauscher said. Incontinence affects about 30% of people 60 years and older, which means more than one billion people will have the condition by 2030. Although it afflicts mostly women, it is becoming a concern for an increasing number of men.
In 2002, Frauscher and colleagues enrolled 20 female patients aged 36 to 84 with urinary stress incontinence. They underwent left arm biopsies designed to obtain autologous myoblasts and fibroblasts that were then cultured in a lab for six weeks.
Using ultrasound guidance, the researchers injected the stem cells into the patients' urethral wall and sphincter muscles. Transurethral ultrasound showed a substantially increased thickness of the urethra and the rhabdosphincter (p
The same investigative team evaluated the viability of color Doppler ultrasound to assess urethral function, using an endoluminal probe. They enrolled 10 healthy and 10 incontinent women as well as 10 female patients who had undergone incontinence surgery. The investigators confirmed a sliding movement from the distal to the proximal urethra in addition to the known constrictive ability of the female sphincter. This may be useful in evaluating both continent and incontinent subjects, Frauscher said.
New Literature Review Assesses Merits of Cardiac MRI After Survival of Sudden Cardiac Arrest
April 19th 2024While noting inconsistencies with the diagnostic yield of cardiac MRI in patients who survived sudden cardiac arrest, researchers cited unique advantages in characterizing ischemic cardiomyopathy (ICM) and facilitating alternate diagnoses.
Study of Ofatumumab for Multiple Sclerosis Shows 'Profoundly Suppressed MRI Lesion Activity'
April 17th 2024The use of continuous ofatumumab in patients within three years of a relapsing multiple sclerosis diagnosis led to substantial reductions in associated lesions on brain MRI scans, according to research recently presented at the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) conference.