Other problems in Polycystic Kidney Disease
Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease has several manifestations which are not confined to the kidney. These manifestations include the following.
It is very common for patients to have cysts on other organs of the body. The most common organ to find cysts other than in the kidney is the liver. Cysts in the liver may produce pain and patients may have bleeding into these cysts however the liver function is not usually affected. However in patients who have the recessive type of polycystic kidney disease usually seen in children there may be fibrosis of the liver. Cysts may also be found in the pancreas intestine and...
Source: All Kidney News - September 29, 2015 Category: Urology & Nephrology Authors: jadhavbca Tags: Kidney News Few Guidelines MRI Source Type: blogs
What is the Impact of Aortic annular dilatation on TAVR ? Does it carry a risk of dislodgement ?
TAVR is the new state of the art Aortic valve replacement procedure done by cardiologists .Nearly 200 thousand implants have been done , and it is
backed up by major trials What keeps the Aortic prosthesis in situ in the aortic root/Annulus ?
The valve is not actively fixed but passively positioned in aortic root by either self expanding or balloon expanded valve system .It retains the position by two different forces acting on the valve in two difffernt directions , but work coherently to keep the valve static .The radial force of the hardware is centrifugal and the elastic force exerted by annulus is centripetal ...
Source: Dr.S.Venkatesan MD - August 7, 2015 Category: Cardiology Authors: dr s venkatesan Tags: TAVR /TAVI Para valvular leak following TAVR Percutaneous aortic valve replacement tavr tavi TAVR valve dislodgment displacement embolisation migration Source Type: blogs
The dilemma of treating patients, based on their contributions to society
During my third-year internal medicine rotation, I was introduced to and helped care for a patient named Casey (name changed to protect privacy). I identified with Casey because we were the same age, and I felt empathetic toward her situation.
Casey was very sick, a direct result of her risky behavior. She was admitted for infective endocarditis secondary to intravenous opioid abuse. She had her second heart valve replacement eight days prior with the first replacement done nine months before. The valve replacement was done at another area hospital, and she was discharged to a skilled nursing facility for extended antibiot...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - July 28, 2015 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Kelsey Childress Tags: Physician Hospital Source Type: blogs
Novel oral anticoagulants – NOACs
Warfarin is the standard oral anticoagulant in use for a long time. But there are a quite a few disadvantages for warfarin in spite of its reasonable efficacy. Most important is the unpredictable biological action needing frequent monitoring of anticoagulant efficacy with prothrombin time international normalized ratio (PT-INR) monitoring. This often means travel to a distant laboratory and hospital for individuals staying far from a tertiary care centre. Innumerable drug – drug and food – drug interactions of warfarin makes it quite difficult even for an experienced physician to the monitor warfarin on long te...
Source: Cardiophile MD - July 17, 2015 Category: Cardiology Authors: Prof. Dr. Johnson Francis, MD, DM, FACC, FRCP Edin, FRCP London Tags: General Cardiology Source Type: blogs
3D printing
Last Sunday, the University of Sheffield (with the help of Sheffield Hallam University) held an event to mark National Women in Engineering Day (which is today). In the city's Winter Gardens, students and staff, most (but not all) of them women, helped my son and I build tetrahedrons (tetrahedra?) out of sticks and elastic bands, and a rocket out of balsa wood. We met robots, saw how candy floss is made, and extracted DNA from strawberries. The balsa wood rocket was supposed to be a plane, but the students on the stand were very adaptable to my son's wishes to build a rocket, which he has since taken to s...
Source: Browsing - June 23, 2015 Category: Databases & Libraries Tags: 3D printing medical technology women in science Source Type: blogs
Cardiology MCQ: Prosthetic valve thrombosis
Prosthetic valve thrombosis is most likely at:
a) Aortic position
b) Mitral position
c) Tricuspid position
d) Pulmonary position
Correct answer: c) Tricuspid position
Prosthetic valve thrombosis is most likely to occur at tricuspid position because the pressure gradient across that valve is the least. But mechanical prosthetic valves are seldom used in tricuspid position, where bioprosthesis is preferred because of lower thrombogenicity and lesser degeneration at this position.
Being much more in use, among cases of prosthetic valve thrombosis, most cases will be of mitral prosthetic valve thrombosis, where the pressure g...
Source: Cardiophile MD - April 17, 2015 Category: Cardiology Authors: Prof. Dr. Johnson Francis, MD, DM, FACC, FRCP Edin, FRCP London Tags: Cardiac Surgery Cardiology MCQ DM / DNB Cardiology Entrance Source Type: blogs
Encouraging Long Term Results For Less Invasive Heart Valves
The publications five years ago of the two part PARTNER trial brought a major change in the treatment options available to some people with aortic valve disease, which is often an extremely serious condition with a poor prognosis. The trial demonstrated that transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) was a reasonable treatment option, first for patients who were not surgical candidates and then for patients who were at high risk for surgery. One important lingering concern about TAVR was whether its results would prove to be sufficiently durable. Now the final 5 year findings from the trial, More… (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - March 15, 2015 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: Interventional Cardiology & Surgery aortic valve replacement Edwards Lifesciences Medtronic Sapien TAVR Source Type: blogs
Enterococcus faecalis
is a gram positive, catalase negative bacteria that is an increasing worry for clinicians as a cause of hospital-acquired infections.
It is a normally occurring bacteria in the intestines, bile ducts, and genitourinary system. However, when there is local overgrowth due to other flora being suppressed (especially by cephalosporins) it causes clinically important urinary and biliary tract infections.
Interestingly, Enterococcus faecalis has an outer capsule that prevents it from being degraded by bile salts.
Of particular worry is the ability of Enterococcus faecalis to enter the bloodstrean and colonize heart valves in su...
Source: Inside Surgery - March 15, 2015 Category: Surgery Authors: Editor Tags: Infectious Disease cephalosporins enterococcus UTI vancomycin resistant Source Type: blogs
Looking Into Ways to Prevent Heart Calcification
Many elastic tissues harden with age in part due to calcification, an increased deposition of calcium between cells. In the cardiovascular system this is eventually fatal, as elasticity in blood vessels and the heart are essential to proper function. The usual focus for discussion here is the stiffening of blood vessel walls through this and other mechanisms, causing hypertension and all its attendant consequences, but heart tissue also stiffens and calcifies:
Calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD) is the third leading cause of heart disease. In CAVD, which can develop with age, heart valves begin to produce calcium, causi...
Source: Fight Aging! - March 13, 2015 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
High Risks And Rewards Found With Heart Valve Device From Edwards And Medtronic
Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is one of the most important advances in cardiovascular medicine in recent years. TAVR devices, introduced recently in the US by Edwards Lifesciences and Medtronic, are associated with very high risks, but offer a less invasive alternative to traditional aortic valve replacement surgery. Because of early concerns about potential overuse and misuse of TAVR, many observers have been eagerly awaiting information about its use in the real world. Now a new report published in JAMA offers the best perspective yet on the introduction of TAVR in the US with an analysis of the...
Source: CardioBrief - March 10, 2015 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: Interventional Cardiology & Surgery Policy & Ethics aortic valve replacement Edwards Lifesciences Medtronic TAVR Source Type: blogs
Prosthetic TTK Chitra aortic valve on chest X-ray
X-ray chest PA view showing a prosthetic aortic valve within the lower portion of the cardiac silhouette overlapping the spine. Multiple sternal suture wires are also seen on this chest X-ray. There is mild obliteration of costophrenic angles suggesting minimal pleural effusion. Only the cobalt based alloy cage of the prosthetic valve is seen on this chest X-ray. It is a tilting disc valve with non radio-opaque disc made of polyethylene. Hence the disc cannot be seen on the X-ray image. Left dome of diaphragm is slightly elevated compared to the right, though normally the right dome is at a higher level than the left.
Th...
Source: Cardiophile MD - February 28, 2015 Category: Cardiology Authors: Prof. Dr. Johnson Francis, MD, DM, FACC, FRCP Edin, FRCP London Tags: Cardiac Surgery Cardiology X-ray Source Type: blogs
The Role of Age-Related Extracellular Matrix Restructuring in Heart Conduction Disorders
The extracellular matrix (ECM) is the complex structure of proteins surrounding and supporting cells. The varied mechanical properties of different tissues derive from the particular arrangement and types of molecules making up this structure: the elasticity of skin and blood vessels, the load bearing resilience of bone and cartilage, and so forth. Some of the fundamental forms of cellular and molecular damage that cause aging produce degenerative effects through changes to the extracellular matrix that degrade its properties. For example, cross-links formed by sugary metabolic waste glue together structural proteins. The ...
Source: Fight Aging! - February 27, 2015 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Coronary angiography prior to surgery for valvular heart disease
Brief Review
Abstract: Coronary angiography prior to surgery for valvular heart disease is considered for those forty years and above if there are no coronary risk factors and for those thirty five years and above when there are coronary risk factors.
Screening coronary angiography is usual prior to surgery for valvular heart disease in older individuals even though most of these diagnostic angiograms turn out to be normal. This is done because clinical, electrocardiographic, echocardiographic and radionuclide are not very specific for detection of coronary artery disease in the presence of severe valvular heart diseas...
Source: Cardiophile MD - January 11, 2015 Category: Cardiology Authors: Prof. Dr. Johnson Francis, MD, DM, FACC, FRCP Edin, FRCP London Tags: Angiography and Interventions Cardiac Surgery Source Type: blogs
What is cardiomyopathy?
Cardiomyopathy
Diseases involving the heart muscle are called cardiomyopathy (‘cardio’ stands for heart, ‘myo’ stands for muscle and ‘pathy’ for disease). In general, the term is used to denote primary disease of the heart muscle and not damage to the heart muscle secondary to diseases of the blood vessels or the heart valves.
Common types of cardiomyopathy
Cardiomyopathies are generally classified into three:
Restrictive
Hypertrophic
Dilated
Restrictive cardiomyopathy
In restrictive cardiomyopathy, there is restriction of filling of the affected ventricle (lower muscular chambers of t...
Source: Cardiophile MD - November 23, 2014 Category: Cardiology Authors: Prof. Dr. Johnson Francis, MD, DM, FACC, FRCP Edin, FRCP London Tags: Heart Disease FAQ Source Type: blogs
