Prenatal care should start before pregnancy
Dr. Alisa Hideg via @spokesmanreview
Anyone thinking about pregnancy, should also be thinking about prenatal care. This care is important for the mother’s health and the health of the child. Whenever possible, it should begin prior to pregnancy.
A visit with your health care provider prior to pregnancy to review your immunizations, start a prenatal vitamin with folic acid (which can prevent certain birth defects if begun prior to pregnancy) and otherwise “check in” is always a good idea. Once you are pregnant, regular prenatal care visits during pregnancy are just as important to your baby’s ...
Source: Cord Blood News - May 15, 2015 Category: Perinatology & Neonatology Authors: joyce at mazelabs.com Tags: babies blood disorder brain development Cord Blood medical research parents pregnancy affordable cord blood banking cerebral palsy cord blood banking fees cord blood treatment for Leukemia cord clamping due dates healthy pregnanc Source Type: blogs
A Potential Approach to Clearing Cytomegalovirus
Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a herpesvirus that causes few if any noticeable issues in most people when they are first exposed to it. By the time old age rolls around, near everyone tests positive for CMV. It is thought that the presence of this virus goes some way towards explaining the age-related decline of the adaptive immune system. The immune system has in effect a limited number of cells at any given time since the replacement rate is low in adults. Since CMV cannot be cleared from the body, and continually reemerges to challenge the immune system, ever more immune cells become devoted to battling CMV rather than defend...
Source: Fight Aging! - April 8, 2015 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
TWiV 322: Postcards from the edge of the membrane
On episode #322 of the science show This Week in Virology, the TWiVodes answer listener email about hantaviruses, antivirals, H1N1 vaccine and narcolepsy, credibility of peer review, Bourbon virus, influenza vaccine, careers in virology, and much more.
You can find TWiV #322 at www.twiv.tv. (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - February 1, 2015 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: This Week in Virology antiviral Bourbon virus careers in virology crispr Dengue H1N1 hantavirus hepatitis C virus herpes simplex virus influenza vaccine influenza virus measles mumps narcolepsy NHL opossum patent peer r Source Type: blogs
How influenza virus infection might lead to gastrointestinal symptoms
Human influenza viruses replicate almost exclusively in the respiratory tract, yet infected individuals may also have gastrointestinal symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea. In mice, intestinal injury occurs in the absence of viral replication, and is a consequence of viral depletion of the gut microbiota.
Intranasal inoculation of mice with the PR8 strain of influenza virus leads to injury of both the lung and the intestinal tract, the latter accompanied by mild diarrhea. While influenza virus clearly replicates in the lung of infected mice, no replication was observed in the intestinal tract. Therefore injury of the g...
Source: virology blog - December 10, 2014 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Information CD4 common mucosal immune system diarrhea gastrointestinal gut influenza interferon intestine microbiome T helper cells Th17 cells viral virus vomiting Source Type: blogs
Research and Reviews in the Fastlane 060
This study enrolled 2500+ from whom 362 had a DVT, among them 6.3% have proximal DVT not located in common femoral or popliteal locations. This study shows a significant number of patients with proximal DVTs that a 2-point scan would miss.Recommended by: Daniel CabreraEmergency Medicine, Adminstration Gupta, M. Happy Meals for Everyone? Ann Emerg Med 2014; 64(6): 609 – 611. PMID: 25454564This excellent editorial points out the positive and negative aspects of an accompanying study (PMID: 25182541) which examined the patient and ED characteristics associated with patient satisfaction scores. Obviously, a growing ...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - December 4, 2014 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Jeremy Fried Tags: R&R in the FASTLANE critical care emergency Emergency Medicine Intensive Care Press Ganey recommendations Review Source Type: blogs
Top stories in health and medicine, November 20, 2014
From MedPage Today:
No Benefit to CABG, Mitral Valve Repair Combo. A year after coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) and mitral valve repair, patients with moderate ischemic mitral regurgitation did not seem to benefit from having the two procedures versus having only CABG.
Watchman Proves Long-Term Mettle in AFib. Left atrial appendage closure in atrial fibrillation patients using the Watchman device bested warfarin therapy for preventing the combined outcomes of stroke, systemic embolism, and cardiovascular death.
A Role for the Microbiome for Arthritis in Kids?. Children who were exposed to antibiotics had an i...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - November 20, 2014 Category: Journals (General) Authors: MedPage Today Tags: News Heart Neurology Source Type: blogs
HSV-1 and Alzheimer's Disease
There is a range of evidence to suggest infection by various fungi, bacteria, and viruses might contribute to the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD), all of this being somewhat unrelated to evidence suggesting that Alzheimer's is a lifestyle disease created by many of the same root causes as type 2 diabetes, such as obesity and lack of exercise. It may yet turn out to be the case that Alzheimer's is better considered as a collection of discrete conditions that happen to have the same end point. In this open access paper researchers look over what is known of the relationship between the ubiquitous persistent herpes si...
Source: Fight Aging! - September 1, 2014 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Rescue Me: The Challenge Of Compassionate Use In The Social Media Era
TweetThe Development of Brincidofovir And Its Possible Use To Treat Josh Hardy
Last March 4, seven-year old Josh Hardy lay critically ill in the intensive care unit at St Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee with a life-threatening adenovirus infection. His weakened immune system was unable to control the infection, a complication of a bone marrow stem cell transplant he needed as a result of treatments for several different cancers since he was 9 months old.
His physicians tried to treat the adenovirus with an anti-viral agent, Vistide (IV cidofovir), but had to stop due to dialysis-dependent renal failure. Th...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - August 27, 2014 Category: Health Management Authors: Arthur Caplan and Kenneth Moch Tags: Access All Categories Bioethics Biotech Consumers Pharma Policy Research Technology Source Type: blogs
Ecstasy at College Parties: Statistics and Experiences
According to the 2012 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, about 16 million people have used ecstasy at some point in their life, and during the 2012 year, 869,000 people used ecstasy for the first time, far higher than the number of new LSD and PCP users combined. The number of new ecstasy users is also greater than the number of new users of cocaine, stimulants and inhalants. The percentage of people who will use ecstasy sometime in their life is between 2.0 percent and 3.5 percent. The average age for first-time users was 20.3 years old, smack dab in the middle of the college years.
Ecstasy has been and remains pri...
Source: Cliffside Malibu - August 18, 2014 Category: Addiction Authors: Richard Taite Tags: Richard Taite Source Type: blogs
AdDRESSing the Causes of Rash
Conclusion: DRESS syndrome is a rare but potentially life-threatening condition with an estimated mortality rate of 10 percent. Suspicion must be high because it may present as a spectrum of nonspecific clinical and laboratory findings.Tags: rash, tox cave, DRESS, DRESS syndrome, RegiSCAR, hepatitis, myocarditis, myositisPublished: 8/7/2014 2:50:00 PM (Source: The Tox Cave)
Source: The Tox Cave - August 7, 2014 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
AdDRESSing the Causes of Rash
Conclusion: DRESS syndrome is a rare but potentially life-threatening condition with an estimated mortality rate of 10 percent. Suspicion must be high because it may present as a spectrum of nonspecific clinical and laboratory findings.Tags: rash, tox cave, DRESS, DRESS syndrome, RegiSCAR, hepatitis, myocarditis, myositisPublished: 8/7/2014 2:50:00 PM (Source: The Tox Cave)
Source: The Tox Cave - August 7, 2014 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
Can Gingko and Turmeric Help Stop Ebola?
Summary
There is no known pharmaceutical currently available that specifically treats Ebola disease.
One treatment modality that should be considered is the use of herbal medicines, which have both centuries old anecdotal success as well as recent modern biochemical and formal research rationales for their use.
Five areas of action that could be addressed by the herbal medicines as it relates to Ebola would be:
VP24/immune system evasion
GP protein/replicatio;
herbal strategies effective against similar hemorrhagic disease
beneficial modulation of patient immune and inflammatory response systems
prophylactic use for heal...
Source: Inside Surgery - August 1, 2014 Category: Surgery Authors: Editor Tags: Infectious Disease ayurvedic baicalen cathepsin b dengue Ebola gingko herb Quercetin resveratrol rosemary sage st johns work turmeric Source Type: blogs
The LITFL Review 143
The LITFL Review is your regular and reliable source for the highest highlights, sneakiest sneak peaks and loudest shout-outs from the webbed world of emergency medicine and critical care. Each week the LITFL team casts the spotlight on the best and brightest from the blogosphere, the podcast video/audiosphere and the rest of the Web 2.0 social media jungle to find the most fantastic EM/CC FOAM (Free Open Access Meducation) around.
Welcome to the 143rd edition, brought to you by:
Kane Guthrie [KG] from LITFL
Tessa Davis [TRD] from LITFL and Don’t Forget The Bubbles
Brent Thoma [BT] from BoringEM, and ALiEM
Chris Ni...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - July 9, 2014 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Kane Guthrie Tags: Education eLearning Emergency Medicine Featured Health Intensive Care LITFL review LITFL R/V Source Type: blogs
Microbial Contributions to Alzheimer's Disease
There are a lot of papers on Alzheimer's disease that fall outside the mainstream focus on the formation of amyloid in the brain. This is perhaps in part a consequence of the challenges and delays that have beset efforts to produce practical treatments based on the amyloid view of the progression of Alzheimer's. As soon as any consensus in medical research and development fails to keep up its momentum, there are factions nibbling at its heels and trying out other ideas. The past few decades of the broader field of medical science are littered with promising approaches discarded in favor of others in the course of a few sho...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 4, 2014 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Therapeutic teamwork: Coupling oncolytic viruses with immunotherapy to destroy tumor cells
This article was written for extra credit by a student in my recently concluded virology course.
by Nayan Lamba
A recent study by scientists at the Ludwig Center for Cancer Immunotherapy offers a new, multifaceted therapy for destroying tumors. A team of researchers led by Dmitriy Zamarin combined checkpoint blockade, a technique aimed at enhancing antitumor immune responses, with oncolytic viral therapy, a technique that uses viruses to kill tumor cells. By employing the two immunotherapies together, the researchers had more success in destroying tumor cells than they have had while investigating each therapy independent...
Source: virology blog - May 20, 2014 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Information antitumor checkpoint blockade melanoma Newcastle disease virus oncolytic viral therapy Source Type: blogs
