More good news for us Statin users. According to the BBC health news here Statins not only lower your cholesterol, reduce strokes but they also slow down the ageing process of arteries. There is also a hint that this effect might work elsewhere in the body, could the humble Statin be the secret of eternal youth.........

Seems like a good time to hurry down to County Pathology to get a lipid profile done, so that you can benefit from these miraculous little pills.

A recent study here shows that the the carbon-14-urea breath test (C14-UBT) is more accurate than serology in diagnosing Helicobacter pylori infection, a major cause of stomach ulcers. The C14-UBT breath test is a simple noninvasive, nonradioactive procedure which can be completed in 45 mins. It requires a patient to breathe into a test tube, have a drink containing C14 and to then produce a second breath sample 30 mins later.

Serology was a very useful test for ruling out H.pylori with a sensitivity of 98% but it was very prone to false positives.

The sensitivity of C14-UBT was nearly as good as serology at 92% to 96% but it was far less prone to false positive results.

"Uncritical use of H. pylori serology," the authors conclude, "will represent a considerable overestimation of H. pylori prevalence in the population tested. H. pylori serology is, on the other hand, very reliable to exclude H. pylori infection and thereby useful in screening purposes."

World J Gastroenterol 2008;14:5039-5045.

In a recent review of thrombosis here the risks to patients on chemotherapy were highlighted. With 13% of all thrombotic events occurring in cancer patients it is important to be aware of the risks. While the types of cancer and therapies are important the laboratory can provide support by analysing blood samples for risk factors. These include: Factor V Leiden, Prothrombin mutation, Platelet counts > 350 x10^9/L, WBC > 11.0 x10^9/L, increased levels of tissue factor, raised D-Dimers and CRP levels.

An interesting piece of research here highlights the importance of a continual low level exposue to the virus that causes chicken pox, Varicella zoster. This continual exposure keeps adults immune systems fighting fit, thus preventing a recurrence of the virus in old age causing shingles. If all children were vaccinated against the virus we could expect a 20% increase in the incidence of shingles in the elderly, unless they were vaccinated as well.

I had not heard much about vCJD recently so I looked up the latest figures here and I was pleased to see that the incidence seems to have peaked in 2000 and there has only been one case so far this year. Good riddance.