Discontinuing the practice of drawing blood each week from patients undergoing radiation therapy for prostate cancer can save time and money with out jeopardizing the patients care, a new examine has found. Researchers reviewed the charts of 89 patients treated for nonmetastatic prostate cancer at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Philadelphia. The patients had been treated with exterior-beam radiation therapy; some additionally had undergone hormonal therapies. Radiation therapy reduces the bodys means to produce blood cells, stated Kenneth Blank, MD, of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia Veterans Administration Medical Center. Because of that, it has been common observe for patients undergoing remedy to have common blood exams to see if their white blood cell, hemoglobin, and platelet levels are appropriate. Blood counts in these patients stayed inside an acceptable stage all through treatment, said Dr. Blank. This strongly suggests that weekly blood depend monitoring is probably not essential. The truth is, based mostly on the results of this examine, the Veterans Administration Hospital not recommends weekly blood count monitoring, BloodVitals health saving about $30,000 per a hundred handled patients, he mentioned. We advocate that patients have a blood count taken when treatment begins.

The Apple Watch Series 6 feels like it has perfected many of the options I appreciated about its predecessor. It has a brighter all the time-on show, a more powerful processor, quicker charging and two new colorful options to choose from. But the feature I used to be most excited to check out was its new sensor that measures oxygen saturation in the blood (aka BloodVitals SPO2) with the tap of a display. As someone who panic-purchased a pulse oximeter firstly of the coronavirus pandemic and BloodVitals health still checks her ranges at the first sign of a cough, the thought of having one strapped to my wrist always was sufficient to pique my interest. But not like the ECG feature on the Apple Watch, which has been tried, tested and cleared by the US Food and BloodVitals health Drug Administration, along with the irregular coronary heart rhythm notifications, BloodVitals SPO2 on the Apple Watch nonetheless seems to be in its early phases. Navigating all this new knowledge will be daunting for anyone who's not a medical skilled.

I purchased an FDA-cleared pulse oximeter, the gadget doctors use to measure BloodVitals SPO2 in your fingertip, as a precaution when coronavirus instances within the US started to climb. Having low blood oxygen ranges would not assure you've gotten COVID-19, however it is certainly one of the most important signs of the illness. I had read horror stories of people who waited too long to go to the hospital and had died of their sleep as a result of they didn't notice their ranges had dipped overnight. You should always test with a physician in case you are experiencing shortness of breath (another symptom of COVID-19), even if a pulse oximeter says you're in a wholesome range, however I found consolation in knowing that I might at the least use it as a reference if I ever experienced shortness of breath. That's not one thing you can do with the Apple Watch -- Apple says it should be used for wellness functions only and not as a medical device, which means you may must take the outcomes with a grain of salt and should not use it to display for any kind of disease, which is what I had been hoping to get out of it.

But there may be other benefits of getting it strapped on your wrist always. Very like a pulse oximeter, the Series 6 uses purple and infrared mild from its new sensor to find out the proportion of oxygen within the blood. But as a substitute of shining the sunshine by your fingertip, it makes use of the sunshine that's mirrored back from the blood vessels in your wrist to find out your oxygen ranges based on the shade of your blood. Throughout the setup process you are requested whether or not you wish to activate SpO2 monitoring, which I did, however you may all the time return and disable it within the settings after the very fact. The first thing I did after strapping on the Watch was open the Blood Oxygen app. It gives you a couple of recommendations on learn how to get the perfect consequence and you want to relaxation your arm on a table or flat floor whereas the Watch is taking a studying.

Then the 15-second countdown begins and you're done -- straightforward and painless. I acquired a 95% on my first read, which was decrease than what I'm used to from my pulse oximeter. Anything above 90% is generally thought of by clinicians to be inside a healthy vary, but generally, greater is best. I tested it a couple of extra occasions and got barely totally different results inside just a few proportion factors relying on whether or not I used to be fully nonetheless and silent during the take a look at, the place I had the watch positioned on my wrist and how tight the strap was. There are numerous components that can have an effect on a reading, corresponding to skin temperature or the position of the sensors on the body. Side-by-facet with my pulse oximeter, the Apple Watch was often off by about one or two points, but typically spot on. What was extra interesting to me was the SpO2 data that collected over time within the BloodVitals health app .