Get Healthy

Congressman sees firsthand equipment bought with federal funds

Dr. Nancy Mangini, professor of anatomy and cell biology, demonstrates digital imaging of an electron microscope for U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky as he tours Indiana University Northwest's Medical Professional Building in Gary on Tuesday to check out equipment bought with federal funding he secured. (Photograph by Natalie Battaglia/The Times.)

U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky visited the Indiana University School of Medicine Northwest on Tuesday to view research equipment bought with about $500,000 in federal funding he secured to help stimulate biomedical research in the region.

“What I appreciated most was the use it was being put to,” Visclosky, D-Merrillville, said after the tour. “They’ve done a terrific job here at the school.”

The school received the money from the Health Resources and Services Administration last fall after Visclosky obtained funding through a 2008 appropriations bill.
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There was a time Gavin Matusak’s family wasn’t sure he’d survive the day, much less be able to travel to Florida for a Disney vacation.

But then, the little guy has beaten some incredible odds.

With the support of family, doctors and a new technology at the Cardiac Critical Care Unit at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Matusak was healthy enough to make the trip. And with a gift in June from the Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors of Northwest Indiana, under the auspices of its “Make a Dream” program, the cost of the vacation was covered.

Matusak, who turned 3 on July 8, was born with a combination of four related heart defects that commonly occur together, called Tetralogy of Fallot. He also has pulmonary atresia, where his pulmonary valve was completely obstructed.
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Doctors consider new tool in quest to catch breast cancer earlier

Dr. Anthony Gentile stands with the new HALO breast pap test, a new kind of breast cancer detection system that takes things up a notch in the detection of breast cancer, Dr. Gentile said. HALO uses a noninvasive technology to suction out nipple aspirate fluid (NAF), which is then tested for precancerous cells. A small group of cells won't turn up on a mammogram or ultrasound, but having abnormal cells in your nipple fluid is related to an increased risk for breast cancer. (Photography by John Luke/The Times.)

Current statistics on breast cancer have women on edge. The fact that one in four cancers diagnosed in American women is breast cancer, that death rates are higher than any other cancer besides lung cancer, and that one in eight women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime, have researchers seeking ways to get in front of the disease.

Finding women at risk for developing breast cancer, who may harbor atypical cells years before a lump forms is the idea behind collecting and analyzing nipple aspirate fluid, essentially a Pap test of the breast.

A device popping up in gynecology offices across the country, albeit rare and slow to catch on in Chicagoland, is emerging as another tool in the armamentarium doctors use to zero in on breast cancer earlier.
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St. Mary Medical Center is now using a new FDA-approved radio-frequency detection system for tracking and locating surgical sponges. It is the first hospital in Northwest Indiana to use the RF Surgical Detection System, which scans and signals an alert if it detects any unaccounted surgical sponge left inside the body during surgery. Across the country, about one out of every 1,000 abdominal operations has an incident where a sponge is retained in the patient, according to the New England Journal of Medicine.

“This new system provides an added layer of security to our already stringent patient safety practices,” says Glenn Carlos, MD, chairman of surgery at St. Mary Medical Center. “The new technology adds very little time or effort to the surgical process, and it will be used in addition to traditional tracking methods.
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Eating out is difficult if you or a family member (or a friend) has serious food allergies. If you’ve got an iPhone, finding suitable allergy-free menu options is much easier, thanks to Allergy Free Passport and their iPhone Apps. You can quickly select from any combination of ten common food allergens, including gluten, dairy, soy and peanuts, and the app will present menu items safe for your diet—and a list of questions to ensure you’re totally safe. Nab it for $8.99 in the iTunes App Store.

Porter Health System is offering a new technology that creates 3-D images of the heart that is used for diagnosing cardiac conditions. Porter is the only facility in Northwest Indiana to offer the 3-Dimensional Transesophageal Echocardiography (3-D TEE). The procedure is done by inserting a small tube into a patient’s mouth or esophagus. At the end of the tube, a probe the size of a pinky finger emits high-frequency sound to create a real-time image of the heart. Doctors can use this image to track the pathway of blood and view the heart chambers, valves and blood vessels.

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Wondering if swine flu’s bad enough to require a doctor’s attention? An interactive website may help you decide, using the same type of triage calculations that doctors at Emory University use.

Microsoft Corp. unveiled the site last Wednesday at h1n1responsecenter.com. Type in your age—it’s only for people over 12—and answer questions about fever, other symptoms and your underlying health.

The program may conclude you’ve probably got swine flu—known as the 2009 H1N1 strain—but that rest and fluids should be enough care, or that you need a non-emergency call to your own doctor.
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Bust a gut with The Biggest Loser. It’s like having your own personal trainer.

Based on NBC’s reality TV series, this game is about losing weight, dieting, and exercising—or just generally getting in shape. To me, wellness games like Wii Fitness sound like oxymorons. A game that helps you get fit doesn’t sound like much fun at first.

Anyway, when I made my personal file, I used the name “Russell Crowe” due to my dislike for that actor’s work. Then I got down to business. You record your birth date, weight and height in order to compute your body mass index and how many calories you should eat per day. Then you pick a four-, eight- or 12-week challenge to reach your recommended weight. The routines get exhausting, the further you go into the program.

You have to have dedication to meet your goal. Show hosts Jillian Michaels and Bob Harper are your animated (literally) trainers. Read the rest of this entry »

If you find yourself groggily wondering why you rarely (if ever) wake up feeling well rested, bright-eyed or ready to greet the day, the Zeo alarm clock might be the gadget of your dreams. Assuming, that is, that the gadget of your dreams comes with an elastic headband that monitors your brainwaves and wirelessly transmits them to the clock you set on your nightstand. Still think you’re dreaming? When you wake up, you stick the headband onto the charging shelf on the clock (it’s magnetic and snaps right in). The screen on the clock will show you a readout of your night: when you were awake, in light sleep, in REM sleep or in deep sleep. The Zeo stores records of your nights on a memory card. You can take this data to myzeo.com, which will analyze your sleep patterns and offer tips and techniques to help you get a great night of sleep. The alarm itself could be worth the steep $400 price tag: that elastic headband will let the alarm know when you’re in a light sleep near the time your alarm is set—when it might actually be a “good morning” moment—and music or nature sounds will slowly grow louder to lull you awake. Find it online at myzeo.com.

Cardiovascular surgeons at Community Hospital in Munster are using a new technique in chest surgeries that decreases the risk of infection and improves recovery time. The hospital is one of the first in the nation to use the Rapid Sternal Closure (RSC) Talon system instead of the standard wire system to close up patients after chest surgery. During such surgeries, doctors need to break the sternum bone in the middle of the chest in order to access the heart. The sternum bone needs to be held together to heal after the surgery is over. With the old closure system, the stainless steel wires could come loose if patients coughed or breathed too deeply. Under the new RSC Talon system a clamp secures both sides of the sternum, making it harder for patients’ motions to move the healing sternum bones.