Endoscopes Not Always Cleaned Properly: Study

Used to examine patients' gastrointestinal tracts, dirty devices might pose infection risk

By Robert Preidt

HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, June 13 (HealthDay News) -- Three of every 20 flexible endoscopes used to examine patients' gastrointestinal tracts and colons were improperly cleaned, a new study finds.

Those 15 percent of endoscopes had unacceptable levels of "bio dirt" -- cells and matter from a patient's body that could pose a potential infection risk to other patients, according to the researchers.

They examined 275 flexible duodenoscopes, gastroscopes, and colonoscopes used at five U.S. hospitals and found that 30 percent, 24 percent and 3 percent, respectively, did not pass a cleanliness rating.

The study findings were to be presented last weekend at the annual meeting of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).

"Three out of 20 is an unexpectedly high number of endoscopes failing a cleanliness criterion," lead investigator Marco Bommarito, lead research specialist at 3M Infection Prevention Division, said in an APIC news release. "Clearly, we'd like no endoscopes to fail a cleanliness rating."

In recent years, improperly cleaned endoscopes at medical facilities in the United States have resulted in thousands of patients having to be checked for HIV and hepatitis B and C, according to the news release. More health-care-associated outbreaks have been linked to contaminated endoscopes than to any other medical device, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported.

Each year in the United States, between 15 million and 20 million endoscopy procedures are conducted with reusable endoscope devices to screen various parts of patients' gastrointestinal tracts and look for problems such as cancer.

Duodenoscopes examine the duodenum (the first section of the small intestine), while gastroscopes examine the stomach and colonoscopes examine the colon.

"The cleaning protocols for flexible endoscopes need improvement, such as guidelines tailored to the type of scope or identifying if there is a critical step missing in the manual cleaning process, and documented quality-control measures," Bommarito said. "These types of improvements could have a positive impact on patient safety."

Because this study was presented at a medical meeting, the data and conclusions should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

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Help! My Hair Always Looks a Little Sad by Happy Hour

One product, two minutes: That's all it takes to revive end-of-day hair.

If Your Hair Is Straight: Flip your part to the opposite side for instant volume (you'll get used to it, swear) and mist roots with hairspray, says Gwynne Mims, lead hairstylist for Ojon in New York City. Then spray a brush and run it through hair to tame flyaways.

If Your Hair is Wavy: Coat hands with wave spray. Twist 2-inch sections of hair around fingers, using them like a curling iron. For more lift, pull hair up and away from your head as you wind.

If Your Hair is Curly: Rub a leave-in curl enhancer between palms, then rake fingers from roots to ends to depoof and define curls. Twirl hairline pieces with fingers; they lose shape fastest.

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Image Credit: Catherine Wessel

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Closeness Isn't Always Key to Romantic Bliss

Title: Closeness Isn't Always Key to Romantic Bliss
Category: Health News
Created: 2/14/2013 12:36:00 PM
Last Editorial Review: 2/15/2013 12:00:00 AM

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Migraine Triggers May Not Always Trigger Migraines

Jan. 23, 2013 -- Worrying about what may trigger a migraine attack adds to the discomfort of many people with migraines. But according to a new study from Denmark, much of that worry may be unfounded.

The researchers studied the effect of light and exercise -- both commonly believed by patients to trigger migraine with aura -- and demonstrated that neither caused attacks in most of the people enrolled in the study.

“There are a lot of things about headache and migraine that are accepted as true but that remain untested,” neurologist Peter Goadsby, MD, Dsc, says of triggers. “The results of this study may surprise some patients.”

Goadsby, director of the University of California, San Francisco Headache Center, co-authored an editorial that accompanied the Danish study. In his clinical practice, he sees many patients whose quality of life suffers as a result of both their migraines and their efforts to avoid triggers that they believe will lead to attacks. In addition to light and exercise, other proposed triggers include stress, emotions, and certain foods.

But there’s little evidence that any of these things really do trigger attacks, says Goadsby. He hopes that, in addition to the current study, there will be much more research on triggers.

“There are tens of millions of people with migraine,” says Goadsby, “and all they have to go on are tales handed down about what triggers them.”

To investigate the impact of light and exercise, researchers at the University of Copenhagen recruited 27 people who had migraine with aura, a condition in which headaches are preceded most often by other symptoms, such as blind spots and light flashes. Nausea, excessive yawning, and numbness are among the other possible aura symptoms. About 1 in 5 people with migraines has migraine with aura.

The study participants -- 17 women and 10 men whose average age was 40 -- all said that light or exercise, or a combination of the two, triggered their attacks. To test their claims, the researchers exposed each of the participants to their triggers.

In 30- to 40-minute sessions, one of three different types of stimulation was used to mimic the light that patients said triggered their migraines. The exercise portion of the study was also intense. Participants went running or pedaled on a stationary bicycle until they reached 80% of their maximum heart rate. Afterward, the researchers monitored the participants for three hours for symptoms.

Overall, only three of the 27 participants had an attack of migraine with aura: one after exercise alone and two following a combination of light and exercise. Another three participants had a migraine without aura. None of the participants had an attack after being exposed to light alone.

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