Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 134
Just when you thought your brain could unwind on a Friday, you realise that it would rather be challenged with some good old fashioned medical trivia…introducing Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 134
Question 1
You do a ketamine sedation and the patient develops laryngeal spasm. What physical manoeuvre can you preform to try and resolve the laryngeal spasm while the nursing staff draw up a paralytic?
+ Reveal the Funtabulous Answer
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Larson’s point or the ‘laryngospasm notch’ [Reference]. Accordi...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - February 5, 2016 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Neil Long Tags: Frivolous Friday Five coffee FFFF fox's sign Hammon's crunch larson's point pancreatitis Source Type: blogs
My Parkinson's Disease
Conclusion: My brain wasn't generating the commands to the nerves to begin with. In other words, Parkinson's Disease. Soon, I visited another doctor who became my regular neurologist at that time, and he put me on Carbidopa/Levodopa, Mirapex (pramipexole dihydrochloride), and Azilect (rasagiline).What are these three drugs? Carbidopa/Levidopa is a form of dopamine, a brain chemical needed in the transmission of signals. Basically what's going on in the brains of Parkinson's patients is that the brain cells that manufacture dopamine are dying off so not enough is available for the brain to send the needed nerve signals to t...
Source: The Virtual Salt - January 20, 2016 Category: Neurology Authors: Robert Harris Source Type: blogs
A Year in Review: FDA 2015 New Drug Approvals
The approval of first-of-a-kind drugs rose last year to forty-one, resulting in the highest level of newly approved U.S. drugs in nineteen years. The total number of new drugs approved last year was even higher at sixty-nine. The rising figures reflect an industry-wide desire to research and develop drugs for rare and hard-to-treat diseases.
The newly approved drugs serve to advance medical care and the health of patients suffering from many ailments, including various forms of cancer, heart failure, and cystic fibrosis. Additionally, more than 40% of the new therapies were approved for treatment of rare or "orphan" dise...
Source: Policy and Medicine - January 13, 2016 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan - Policy & Medicine Writing Staff Source Type: blogs
MKSAP: 54-year-old man with a tremor
Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians.
A 54-year-old man is seen for follow-up evaluation of a tremor in his upper extremities that has been present since age 20 years. The tremor was mild for many years and did not interfere with his work but has become more prominent in recent years. He has difficulty writing and using utensils during meals. He has no associated slowness, stiffness, or change in gait. The patient started a trial of propranolol, which provided better control of the tremor, but after a few months, the tremor again worsened. He has su...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - December 19, 2015 Category: Journals (General) Authors: mksap Tags: Conditions Neurology Source Type: blogs
A domperidone dilemma: A patient’s perspective on ordering from Canada
Three years ago I received some of the best news of my life — that I have dopa-responsive dystonia. (Yes, a neuromuscular disorder was welcome news.) Painful, life-interrupting muscle contractions had made the dystonia diagnosis likely several years before, despite poor response to standard treatments, and I was fighting through graduate school: trying to compensate for medication-induced memory problems, increasing need to work from bed, and a disappearing social life. A visit to Mayo ended with the correct suggestion that I might respond to levodopa. In fact, I am among a small, perhaps 3 percent, group of dystonia...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - March 5, 2015 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Anonymous Tags: Meds Medications Neurology Source Type: blogs
MKSAP: 58-year-old woman with Parkinson disease
Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians.
A 58-year-old woman is seen for a follow-up evaluation of Parkinson disease, which she has had for 12 years. She was initially treated with ropinirole to which levodopa-carbidopa was added as the disease progressed. After 5 years of good control on medication, she began to experience involuntary generalized twisting and writhing movements after taking each dose of levodopa-carbidopa and noticed that the medication’s effect waned after several hours.
Over the past 2 years, she has tried to manage her diseas...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - February 14, 2015 Category: Journals (General) Authors: mksap Tags: Conditions Neurology Source Type: blogs
Parkinsonism in cirrhotics
var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www."); document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); Burkhard PR et al. Arch Neurol 2003;60:521-528 Authors studied cirrhotics prospectively and found a unique Parkinsonian syndrome in 20 %. Among 51 consecutive patients evaluated for liver transplant, 11 had Parkinsonism esp. stereotypical onset with generalized bradykinesia, dysarthira, postural instability, and prominent ACTION tremor. Six had dystonia especially of face or feet. ...
Source: neurologyminutiae - October 9, 2014 Category: Neurologists Source Type: blogs
Wheat Withdrawal Zinger
Here’s a smoothie that contains many of the ingredients helpful to get you through the process of wheat withdrawal, the unpleasant withdrawal process from the gliadin-derived opiates in wheat.
Once you remove the health disruptive effects of wheat, there are efforts necessary to regain full health. This will be a topic that I will discuss in a number of Wheat Belly Blog posts in coming months (as well as provide topics for another Wheat Belly book to be released September, 2014). We begin with this Wheat Withdrawal Zinger, a smoothie packed with nutrition that corrects some common nutrient deficiencies of former whe...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - February 27, 2014 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: Recipes Wheat withdrawal Source Type: blogs
Parkinson Disease – Current New Treatment Options
Parkinson disease was first described by James Parkinson in 1817 Over the years, various medication therapies have been FDA approved for Parkinson disease. In the 1960s, Sinemet (carbidooa-levodopa) was approved. Sinemet was and still is the gold standard therapy for Parkinson disease. While it is the gold standard, it should not be the first drug used to treat Parkinson disease. It should be the third or fourth drug used. Early use of Sinemet can result in unwanted, irreversible side effects.
Dopamine agonist were FDA approved in the 1990s for first line Parkinson disease therapy. These medications mimic the effect of dop...
Source: Sarasota Neurology - November 5, 2013 Category: Neurologists Authors: Dan Kassicieh, D.O. Tags: Movement Disorders Parkinson's disease Dr. Kassicieh neurologist Parkinson disease Sarasota Neurology Source Type: blogs
May 2013 Update on Medical Innovation
As the weeks go by, we try to collect stories and news coverage regarding physician-industry collaboration and the breakthroughs and successes that come from such relationships. Below is a short summary of some recent physician-industry-academic-government collaborations and the impact they have had on individual patients, the U.S. healthcare system, and beyond.
In light of the recently proposed budgets for FY 2014, numerous scientific and medical groups have urged Congress and the Obama Administration to increase funding for research. The Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Researchers of America (PhRMA) recently note...
Source: Policy and Medicine - May 6, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
Parkinson’s Disease
Pathophysiology of Parkinson’s Disease
Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disease marked by:
1) progressive slowing of all voluntary movements
2) muscular “cogwheel” rigidity
3) tremors at rest
4) mask-like facies
5) emotional lability
Signs and Symptoms
1) tremors disappear with voluntary movement
2) drooling
3) dementia (15%)
4) depression
5) micrographia
6) “pill rolling”
7) hesitancy when rising from chair
8) short shuffling gait
9) decreased blink rate
10) diminished arm swing
11) stooped posture
12) loss of postural righting reflexes
13) autonomic problems (constipation, i...
Source: Inside Surgery - March 16, 2013 Category: Surgeons Authors: Editor Tags: Neurology cogwheel rigidity dopaminergic neurons Lewy bodies mask like face pill rolling shuffling gate substantia nigra tremor tremors at rest Source Type: blogs
