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the standard of living. One of the pointers of the living standards is the quality of the public health service. It should be said that the quality and perspectives of medicine have improved recently. Modern medicine has changed both in the area of qualified medical care and the level of financing (Maureen, 2009). But the main merit of scientific results application to medicine is innovative technologies introduction. Nowadays progress in qualified medical care is bound not only to research in biology or medicine, but also to scientific achievements in other fields of science. There are plenty of innovations used already and many possible changes are regarded to be perspective in future. In this article most of them are discussed and critically reviewed. Nuclear Medicine Nuclear medicine is a modern field of medicine that uses the achievements of physics and biology for diagnostics and treatment of various diseases. An estimated 16 million nuclear medicine imaging and therapeutic procedures are performed each year in the United States. Of these, 40-50% are cardiac exams and 35-40% are cancer related (Ozarks Community Hospital, 2011). When nuclear medicine methods are used for diagnostics they represent not only anatomical changes but also indicate the functional level alterations of the organs and systems examined. The image observed on the computer via a special camera is formed due to a radiopharmaceutical that entered the patients body through mouth or was injected or inhaled. The radiation amount received by the patient is even smaller than that resulting from X-ray diagnostic. Thats why nuclear medicine is considered to be a safe method that can be applied to children. First the term nuclear medicine was used when physicians used radioactive iodine to cure thyroid cancer (Resource Center, 2012). Scientists used the fact that thyroid gland absorbs
Wang Wei high amounts of iodine. But it was difficult to select a specific radioactive isotope for each organ. So, later monoclonal antibodies were used to deliver the isotope particularly to cancer cells. Nowadays some kinds of cancer and heart diseases are treated with the usage of this technology (Resource Center, 2012). A real break occurred in medicine with the development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) technique in diagnostics. These methods of diagnostics allow visualizing a three-dimensional structure of the organ. MRI can differentiate between different kinds of soft tissues, so this method is appropriate for brain disorders diagnosis (Jagust W, 2006). PET is a method that allows representing a tree-dimensional organization of the body processes. Even blood flow can be registered due to this method (Pennant et al., 2010). During the procedure a radioactive fluoride atom is joined to carbon or some other atom of the organic compound that is called a carrier in this case. The presence of the radioactive isotope in a particular organ is detected by the gamma rays emission (Alauddin, 2012). So, nuclear medicine is a perspective field that provides safe methods that can be used to diagnose and treat cancer and can be applied even to children. Stem Cells Application Stem cells are special cells of our body that renew the damaged parts of our body and provide physiological reparation. This ability of stem cells to renew different organs and tissues is widely used in medicine nowadays. There are two types of stem cells: embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells. Embryonic stem cells are obtained from the embryo before implantation. They are pluripotent that means that they are able to develop into any differentiated cell type. They can be supported in the laboratory as undifferentiated cells as well as be treated with specific growth factors to produced specialized cell lineage. Adult stem cells are those cells of the grown up organism that provide regeneration in the case of damages
Wang Wei or carry out physiological regeneration. These cells are multipotent as they can give rise to a limited number of different cell types (Avasthi et al., 2008). Stem cells are used to cure many disorders that result from cells malfunctioning. They may be used as gene carriers in the gene therapy procedure. Besides, stem cells can be used to substitute the damaged cells of the organ after they had worn out. Stem cells are injected into the injured organ and there they reproduce replacing the damaged cells of the patient. Such procedure is considered to be perspective in diabetes treatment (Avasthi et al., 2008). This technique is also applicable to treat some brain diseases. Nerve cells represent a low ability to divide and renew and that is the major problem of brain injuries treatment. But neural stem cells can be used to treat many of such diseases (Hedlund et al., 2007). Before been introduced in practice, drugs must prove their safety and efficiency in various clinical researches. Volunteers get the drug previously tested on animals. In most cases testing on animals doesnt represent the real effect of the drug on humans because of different metabolic processes and activities. From this side of view stem cells can serve as a model system for new drugs research (Rolletschek, Blyszczuk & Wobus, 2004). This application of stem cells also reduces moral problems caused by using animals as test systems for new drugs. Stem cells also represent the ability to fight against cancer. When injected into tumour stem cells convert safe prodrugs into therapeutic agents (Beachy, Karhadkar & Berman, 2004). In this case a drug that is potentially dangerous for body cells, doesnt affect them as it is converted into the active form only in the site of tumour. In spite of the stem cells treatment advantages, their research and usage are limited because of ethical problems and some possible negative results. Ethical problems appear when talking about the source of stem cells. If they are taken from an embryo, it means that a living organism
Wang Wei is killed to treat somebody. Besides, embryonic stem cells can cause cancer, rejection and provide pathogen transmission. Using autogenic stem cells reduces these risks as well as ethical issues. Besides, it is less expensive (Nadig, 2009). So, further stem cells researches can improve the level of modern medicine and help in curing more and more diseases. Medical Robots Nowadays medicine uses a wide range of apparatuses that make diagnostics and treatment easier. Surgery is quite a nervous occupation that requires accuracy, safety and precision. Surgical robots are used to deal with operations that can hardly be provided by humans alone. A robot provides the three-dimensional view due to a camera and helps the human to make accurate movements. Surgical robots application reduces the risks of the unsuccessful operation and minimizes the invasion into the body (Gentles, 2012). Besides, robot allows to chose and dose the pressure on the patients tissues and organs during operation. The main disadvantages of surgery robots usage are absence of tactile feedback for the surgeon and the high price of robots exploitation. But with new scientific researches and investigations the price of robots surgery procedure may decrease. Although its disadvantages, this procedure allows to overcome inaccuracy and improve the outcomes of the operations.With price tags often easily topping $1 million, surgical robots promise to help surgeons squeeze into tight places, performing minimally invasive repairs that, in theory, should lead to better outcomes. Another kind of medical robots are microprocessor-controlled prosthetics. They allow movement for people that have lost their limbs or fingers. It takes the patient some time to get used to the new body part and they cant fully substitute the lost body part but in future they probably will (Beasley, 2012). Genetic Medicine Nowadays science has found a way into the tiniest secrets of heredity. Such branches of science as molecular biology and genetics have greatly contributed to medicine
Wang Wei and still have chances to improve the situation with the patients suffering from genetic disorders. Genetic medicine technique used depends on the nature of genetic disorder. If it is a monogenic disease, like cystic fibrosis, gene replacement procedure may take place (Touchefeu, Harrington, Galmiche & Vassaux, 2010). During this procedure a defective gene in the patients cells is substituted by the normal gene delivered into the cell. There are two ways of delivery: viral and non-viral. Non-viral delivery is less specific but more safe while viral delivery may cause infection because of possible satellite viruses, especially in the case of adenoviruses. If the disorder is caused by a group of genes, it should be cured by drugs that are selected according to the genetic profile of the patient. So, DNA sequencing should come before the procedure. In the case of cancer, gene silencing based on interference is usually used. It causes particular genes to stop their expression without making damage to other genes (Touchefeu, Harrington, Galmiche & Vassaux, 2010). Genetic medicine is potentially perspective, it can help in curing some monogenic diseases nowadays, but lots of researches should be made so that it could help in curing cancer and most of the genetic disorders as such applications require knowledge in the tiniest intermolecular interactions. To make a conclusion, high speed of scientific researches in different fields has improved the quality of medicine and has all chances to introduce new technologies for treatment and diagnostics. Modern innovations are safe if used properly but most of them are rather expensive. It is expected to provide DNA analysis of every person before starting treatment. That can help to select a proper drug, to identify the way of treatment and to predict the possible genetic disorders. Ethical issues should also be taken into account when providing treatment with the help of stem cells and in genetic medicine. So, much should be done and investigated to make the innovations accessible for everyone and to persuade people about their efficiency.
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