Painless laser device could spot early signs of disease

Fibre-optic probe Fibre-optic probes could use lasers to distinguish between cancerous, pre-cancerous and healthy cells

Portable devices with painless laser beams could soon replace X-rays as a non-invasive way to diagnose disease.

Researchers say that the technique could become widely available in about five years.

The method, called Raman spectroscopy, could help spot the early signs of breast cancer, tooth decay and osteoporosis.

Scientists believe that the technology would make the diagnosis of illnesses faster, cheaper and more accurate.

Raman spectroscopy is the measurement of the intensity and wavelength of scattered light from molecules.

It is already being used in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. For instance, Raman lasers are used to measure flame characteristics. By studying how fuels burn, pollution from the products of combustion can be minimised.

Michael Morris, a chemistry professor at the University of Michigan, US, has been using Raman for the past few years to study human bones.

So far, he has been working on cadavers, but he says that Raman could prove effective in living patients.

    In principle, it will take a couple of seconds to interpret the results”

"You can replace a lot of procedures, a lot of diagnostics that are out there right now. The big advantage is that it's non-invasive, pretty fast - much faster than classical procedures - and more accurate," he told BBC News.

When a person is sick, or about to become sick, the chemical mix in the tissue is quite different from that in healthy tissue, scientists say. So the Raman spectrum changes depending on the tissue it analyses, Professor Morris explained.

"Raman gives you a molecular fingerprint, a composition of whatever it is you're measuring," he said.

"In diseased states, the chemical composition is either slightly abnormal or very markedly abnormal, depending upon the diseases."

Non-invasive

The diagnoses could be carried out in a matter of minutes and without need for an X-ray.

"A patient simply puts his or her wrist on a table and then we have the optical fibres delivering laser light... connected to a holder, a sort of a bracelet made out of silicon, that is strapped to the patient's wrist," explained Professor Morris.

"We turn on the laser and after we've collected enough signal in a few minutes, we turn it off. In principle, it will take a couple of seconds to interpret the results."

Raman spectrometry Raman spectrometry is used in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries

Besides bone diseases, the tool could prove effective in detecting early tooth decay, say researchers.

And drawing blood might become unnecessary in some cases. For instance, to determine the levels of cholesterol, one would simply have to point the laser "where you would be looking to draw a blood sample at the crook of the arm, where the blood vessels are very close to the skin," said Professor Morris.

New applications

Another application could be using Raman as a non-invasive alternative to a typical mammography - a process that uses low-dose X-rays to screen patients for signs of breast cancer.

The laser would "look" into the tissue and generate different spectra - a distribution of colours reflecting differences in the properties of the tissue. This could reveal benign or malignant tumours, depending on characteristic changes in the protein structure and in the relative amounts of protein, lipids and nucleic acids in the tissue.

British researchers at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Didcot and at the Gloucestershire Royal Hospital have been using Raman to analyse calcifications in breast tissue that might be early signs of cancer.

Mammography Some believe Raman spectrometry could eventually be an alternative to the current technique of mammography

"We could target those calcifications and make a decision about whether they're benign or malignant," Nicholas Stone, head of the biophotonics research unit at the Gloucestershire Royal Hospital told the magazine Chemical and Engineering News.

"If they're malignant, or look like they are, you would come back for a biopsy. If they're benign, which is 80 to 90% of the cases, you would not come back for a biopsy."

"In the UK alone, that would save about 80,000 patients from having secondary procedures."

Fibre-optic probe Fibre-optic probes could use lasers to distinguish between cancerous, pre-cancerous and healthy cells
Portable devices with painless laser beams could soon replace X-rays as a non-invasive way to diagnose disease.
Researchers say that the technique could become widely available in about five years.
The method, called Raman spectroscopy, could help spot the early signs of breast cancer, tooth decay and osteoporosis.
Scientists believe that the technology would make the diagnosis of illnesses faster, cheaper and more accurate.
Raman spectroscopy is the measurement of the intensity and wavelength of scattered light from molecules.
It is already being used in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. For instance, Raman lasers are used to measure flame characteristics. By studying how fuels burn, pollution from the products of combustion can be minimised.
Michael Morris, a chemistry professor at the University of Michigan, US, has been using Raman for the past few years to study human bones.
So far, he has been working on cadavers, but he says that Raman could prove effective in living patients.
    In principle, it will take a couple of seconds to interpret the results”
"You can replace a lot of procedures, a lot of diagnostics that are out there right now. The big advantage is that it's non-invasive, pretty fast - much faster than classical procedures - and more accurate," he told BBC News.
When a person is sick, or about to become sick, the chemical mix in the tissue is quite different from that in healthy tissue, scientists say. So the Raman spectrum changes depending on the tissue it analyses, Professor Morris explained.
"Raman gives you a molecular fingerprint, a composition of whatever it is you're measuring," he said.
"In diseased states, the chemical composition is either slightly abnormal or very markedly abnormal, depending upon the diseases."Non-invasive
The diagnoses could be carried out in a matter of minutes and without need for an X-ray.
"A patient simply puts his or her wrist on a table and then we have the optical fibres delivering laser light... connected to a holder, a sort of a bracelet made out of silicon, that is strapped to the patient's wrist," explained Professor Morris.
"We turn on the laser and after we've collected enough signal in a few minutes, we turn it off. In principle, it will take a couple of seconds to interpret the results."Raman spectrometry Raman spectrometry is used in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries
Besides bone diseases, the tool could prove effective in detecting early tooth decay, say researchers.
And drawing blood might become unnecessary in some cases. For instance, to determine the levels of cholesterol, one would simply have to point the laser "where you would be looking to draw a blood sample at the crook of the arm, where the blood vessels are very close to the skin," said Professor Morris.New applications
Another application could be using Raman as a non-invasive alternative to a typical mammography - a process that uses low-dose X-rays to screen patients for signs of breast cancer.
The laser would "look" into the tissue and generate different spectra - a distribution of colours reflecting differences in the properties of the tissue. This could reveal benign or malignant tumours, depending on characteristic changes in the protein structure and in the relative amounts of protein, lipids and nucleic acids in the tissue.
British researchers at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Didcot and at the Gloucestershire Royal Hospital have been using Raman to analyse calcifications in breast tissue that might be early signs of cancer.Mammography Some believe Raman spectrometry could eventually be an alternative to the current technique of mammography
"We could target those calcifications and make a decision about whether they're benign or malignant," Nicholas Stone, head of the biophotonics research unit at the Gloucestershire Royal Hospital told the magazine Chemical and Engineering News.
"If they're malignant, or look like they are, you would come back for a biopsy. If they're benign, which is 80 to 90% of the cases, you would not come back for a biopsy."
"In the UK alone, that would save about 80,000 patients from having secondary procedures."

Mammograms less effective in detecting cancer

Routine mammograms are less effective in detecting breast cancer than expected. A research, published in New England Journal of Medicine , is the latest to show that the benefits of mammography are limited and will open up debate over the treatment. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that mammograms reduce the breast cancer death rate by 25 per cent in women over 50.

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Sexual dysfunction in females overrated

While experts aver that millions of women around the world suffer from sexual difficulty such as low libido and discomfort, a new book has said that all these claims are mere exaggerations to boost sales of 'Viagra' like drugs for what they call female sexual dysfunction (FSD).

Pharmaceutical companies have spent millions to find an effective drug solution hoping for similar returns to Viagra, the male impotence pill that is worth an astonishing 500 million dollars in sales every year.

Already women can be prescribed a testosterone patch to boost low libido; other treatments waiting to be licensed include an anti-depressant-type drug that affects the feel-good brain chemical serotonin and one containing the hormone DHEA that the body can turn into testosterone.

But now a new book suggests that not only is the effectiveness of such treatments questionable, but the claim that nearly half of all women have a problem is deliberately misleading and a wild exaggeration.

In fact, researchers and pharmaceutical companies are accused of 'medicalising' female sexual problems in order to sell drugs.

A business report from Datamonitor in 2003 predicted that the market for female sexual dysfunction drugs could soon approach 1 billion dollars a year

According to leading health journalist Ray Moynihan it's all part of the drive by drug companies to 'expand the patient pool' by 'creating markets for lifestyle drugs' for both men and women.

"Companies no longer just sell drugs," the Daily Mail quoted Moynihan as saying in his book, 'Sex, Lies And Pharmaceuticals: How Drug Companies Are Bankrolling The Next Big Condition For Women'.

"Increasingly they create a disease like female sexual dysfunction and then spend a fortune "educating" doctors to prescribe strong drugs to women that they don't need and that are unlikely to help them," said Moynihan.

Furthermore, these drugs, which are marginally effective at best, come with a nasty raft of potential side-effects, including nausea, dizziness and a raised risk of heart disease.

One drug currently applying for a licence can cause depression and even loss of consciousness.

Moynihan is livid over the claim that 43 per cent of woman suffer from a sexual problem, calling it 'one of the most pervasive medical myths, as extreme as it is absurd'.

Researchers into sexual disorders all agree that some women have genuine sexual problems that may involve anxiety, pain or difficulty that might respond to medical treatment.

But many others might be better helped with counselling.

Yet there is an awful lot of money and expertise invested in persuading both the medical profession and patients that popping a pill to revive a flagging libido is the quickest and easiest route to go.

Moynihan's book describes in impressive detail just how this is being achieved.

For instance, 95 per cent of the experts who hammered out the medical definition of female sexual dysfunction that's widely used in promotional literature had financial relationships with the company making a drug to treat it.

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