The Story of an American Mask Distributor
By SAURABH JHA Seven weeks before President Trump declared COVID-19 a federal emergency heralding the economic lockdown, Jesse’s customers began cutting their orders. Jesse sells garments and cotton, imported predominantly from India, to wholesalers and retailers, big and small, in malls across the North East corridor.  His business had a good January. December was like any December. But February was different.  His customers, reassuring him that it wasn’t personal, were predicting a falling demand for their products because of COVID-19. They may be over reacting, but better shortage than glut, they felt. J...
Source: The Health Care Blog - August 13, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: COVID-19 Health Policy masks Pandemic Saurabh Jha Source Type: blogs

AI System Decides When to Help Diagnose X-Rays
Artificial intelligence is playing an ever larger role in modern clinical care. For example, there are already imaging processing systems that are able to automatically spot polyps during colonoscopies and help analyze head CT scans for hemorrhage and mass effect. A universal issue with such systems is that they do not take into account how experienced, busy, or in need of actual help a given clinician is. A team of MIT researchers has now developed a machine learning system that can adjust how it makes clinically relevant decisions, whether to let an expert decide something or to do so itself, and to do so while taking in...
Source: Medgadget - August 11, 2020 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: Informatics Radiology Source Type: blogs

Somatom On.site Portable CT Scanner FDA Cleared
Siemens Healthineers won FDA clearance for the company’s SOMATOM On.site mobile head CT scanner. The device can be easily brought in directly into patient rooms thanks to its powered wheels and an on-board battery. Normally, patients have to be moved to the CT scanner, wherever it may be within a hospital. With the SOMATOM On.site, patients that need head scans do not have to be unnecessarily disturbed, reducing the potential for injury and further aggravation of a condition during transport. Moreover, since only one person is required to move the new CT scanner from room to room, fewer clinical staff are tied...
Source: Medgadget - August 5, 2020 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: Critical Care Diagnostics Emergency Medicine Neurology Radiology Source Type: blogs

An Very Elderly Male with Epigastric pain, " ischemic ECG " and Interesting Imaging.
CONCLUSION: Prior to reviewing the literature for discussing this case — I had not fully appreciated the impact of the mechanism of cardiac compression as a causative factor in: i) altering QRS morphology; ii) precipitating supraventricular and/or ventricular arrhythmias (including VT, which can be sustained) — and, iii) producing ST-T wave changes (ST elevation and/or depression) that may mimic old or new infarction.CT imaging (as shown by Dr. Smith) clearly suggests there was compression of cardiac structures in this case b...
Source: Dr. Smith's ECG Blog - July 6, 2020 Category: Cardiology Authors: Steve Smith Source Type: blogs

Functional dyspepsia: Causes, treatments, and new directions
Functional dyspepsia (FD) is a common condition, loosely defined by some physicians as a stomach ache without a clear cause. More specifically, it is characterized by the feeling of fullness during or after a meal, or a burning sensation in the mid-upper abdomen, just below the rib cage (not necessarily associated with meals). The symptoms can be severe enough to interfere with finishing meals or participating in regular daily activities. Those with FD often go through multiple tests like upper endoscopy, CT scan, and gastric emptying study. But despite often-severe symptoms, no clear cause (such as cancer, ulcer disease, ...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - July 6, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Vikram Rangan, MD Tags: Digestive Disorders Mind body medicine Pain Management Source Type: blogs

I Joined Twitter to Teach
I joined Twitter to teach. In May 2016, I started tweeting “questions of the day” for my inpatient hospital medicine team at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital from @RJmdphilly. #GreenQOD (“Green” is our teaching service, and “QOD” for question of the day) was born in the days of only 140 characters per tweet (now expanded to 280), which placed a potentially daunting onus on brevity in phrasing—and answering—clinical questions. My inaugural question? “What’s the real story with beta blockers in reactive airway disease? If increase risk is real, how do you balance risk/benefit?” Rules of t...
Source: Academic Medicine Blog - June 30, 2020 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Guest Author Tags: Featured Guest Perspective social media teaching Twitter Source Type: blogs

Repost: 63 minutes of ventricular fibrillation, followed by shock. What is going on?
In this study, 5% of VF arrest was due to PE: V fib is initial rhythm in PE in 3 of 60 cases. On the other hand, if the presenting rhythm is PEA, then pulmonary embolism is likely.  When there is VF in PE, it is not the initial rhythm, but occurs after prolonged PEA renders the myocardium ischemic.--Another study by Courtney and Kline found that, of cases of arrest that had autopsy and found that a presenting rhythm of VF/VT had an odds ratio of 0.02 for massive pulmonary embolism as the etiology, vs 41.9 for PEA.    ===================================MY Comment by KEN ...
Source: Dr. Smith's ECG Blog - June 27, 2020 Category: Cardiology Authors: Steve Smith Source Type: blogs

Autoimmune lung disease: Early recognition and treatment helps
A man who was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) five years ago sees his rheumatologist for a follow-up visit. Fortunately, his arthritis is well controlled through medication. He can walk and do all his daily activities without pain. But over the past six months, he’s been feeling short of breath when climbing stairs. He has an annoying dry cough, too. COVID-19? That’s ruled out quickly. But a CT scan of his chest reveals early fibrosis (scarring) of the lungs, most likely related to rheumatoid arthritis. “I can finally walk normally, and now I can’t breathe when I walk!” says the frustrated patient, whose...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - June 24, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Paul F. Dellaripa, MD Tags: Arthritis Autoimmune diseases Health Inflammation Lung disease Source Type: blogs

What ’s a diagnosis about? COVID-19 and beyond
By MICHEL ACCAD Last month marked the 400th anniversary of the birth of John Graunt, commonly regarded as the father of epidemiology.  His major published work, Natural and Political Observations Made upon the Bills of Mortality, called attention to the death statistics published weekly in London beginning in the late 16th century.  Graunt was skeptical of how causes of death were ascribed, especially in times of plagues.  Evidently, 400 years of scientific advances have done little to lessen his doubts!  A few days ago, Fox News reported that Colorado governor Jared Polis had “pushed back against recen...
Source: The Health Care Blog - May 28, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: COVID-19 Medical Practice Physicians Diagnosis MICHEL ACCAD Source Type: blogs

AI-Powered Teleradiology FDA Cleared for Triage in Departments Swamped by COVID-19: Interview with David Stavens, CEO of Nines
Nines, a teleradiology company based in Palo Alto, CA, recently received FDA clearance for their NinesAI medical device, which supports the automated radiological review of CT Head images for the possible presence of two time-critical, life-threatening indications: intracranial hemorrhage and mass effect. The technology can help radiologists in triaging cases. Nines is the first company to receive FDA clearance for AI technology that triages mass effect conditions. Teleradiology is an increasingly vital service for healthcare providers, whereby radiological images are sent to a radiologist in a remote location for analy...
Source: Medgadget - May 21, 2020 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Exclusive Radiology Telemedicine Source Type: blogs

Issues in thrombolysis: There may not be anything called “ Absolute contraindication ”
This post was originally written in 2013. A middle-aged man with STEMI  came to our CCU.  It is just another case of STEMI and asked my fellow to lyse. But it was not the case . He, told me, Sir, the patient had a syncope following chest pain and he has injured his face and Jaw. He was actively bleeding. When I saw this face, it was indeed  frightening. What shall we do ? When a patient  with STEMI presents with bleeding facial Injury Rush for Immediate PCI (Which was  of course not possible in our place as it happened out of office hours! ) Take that ultimate risk and thrombolysis Give only heparin ( Many times it ...
Source: Dr.S.Venkatesan MD - May 16, 2020 Category: Cardiology Authors: dr s venkatesan Tags: bio ethics Cardiology -Therapeutic dilemma cardiology -Therapeutics Cardiology -unresolved questions Cardiology Risk assesment cardiology- coronary care Cardiology-Coronary artery disese Primary PCI Thrombolysis relative and absolute con Source Type: blogs

Tree in Bud Appearance: CT
This is 13 year old child with mother who is sputum positive for TB. CT scan shows Tree in Bud lesions showing an appearance of multiple areas of centrilobular nodules with a linear branching pattern. This finding is considered classical for endobronchial TB as in this case. However, has been described in other conditions as well.Tree in Bud appearance Endobronchial infections like pulmonary tuberculosis, bronchiolitis, bronchiectasis with mucus plugging in cystic fibrosis are other classical causes.Famous Radiology Blog http://www.sumerdoc.blogspot.com TeleRad Providers at www.teleradproviders.com Mail us ...
Source: Sumer's Radiology Site - May 11, 2020 Category: Radiology Authors: Sumer Sethi Source Type: blogs

Fight Aging! Newsletter, May 11th 2020
In this study, we found that older nematodes have higher ROS levels. Interestingly, after hydrogen treatment, the ROS levels were significantly decreased, and hydrogen could significantly extend the lifespans of the N2, sod-3 and sod-5 mutant strains, by approximately 22.7%, 9.5%, and 8.7%, respectively. In addition, aging is regulated by a variety of pathways, such as the insulin signaling pathway, the rapamycin target signaling pathway, and the caloric restriction pathway. However, our results showed that the lifespans of the daf-2 and daf-16 strains, in which these pathways are upregulated, were not affected afte...
Source: Fight Aging! - May 10, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs

Your headaches are getting worse. Do you need an imaging test?
Headache is a very common condition that affects up to 60% of the world’s population. In general, headache can be classified into two main categories: primary and secondary headaches. A primary headache is related to increased sensitivities, but not structural alterations of brain tissues. Common primary headaches are migraine with and without aura, tension-type headache, and trigeminal autonomic cephalalgias (headaches, such as cluster headache, that also involve facial pain and autonomic symptoms such as tear production and nasal congestion). Secondary headaches have various underlying causes including structural vascu...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - May 7, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Hsinlin Thomas Cheng, MD, PhD Tags: Headache Tests and procedures Source Type: blogs