Two Novel Conditions with an Intriguing Link
How could a Lyme disease lookalike rash and anaphylaxis to meat have anything in common? As I found out recently, they do. They both have a common vector, the Lone Star Tick, which is also known by its formal name, Amblyomma americanum, and is found predominately in the East, Southeast, and Southwest. It is an aggressive tick that loves humans.In fact, all three growth stages (adult, nymph, and larva) are known to feed on humans. Besides the common signs of irritation that often accompany a tick bite, a rash similar to the rash of Lyme disease has been commonly described. This "bull's-eye" rash is often accomp...
Source: M2E Too! Mellick's Multimedia EduBlog - September 1, 2016 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
DM / DNB Cardiology Entrance New Test Series 3
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Source: Cardiophile MD - July 9, 2016 Category: Cardiology Authors: Prof. Dr. Johnson Francis, MD, DM, FACC, FRCP Edin, FRCP London Tags: Cardiology MCQ DM / DNB Cardiology Entrance Featured Source Type: blogs
Kris Kristofferson: The latest celebrity quackery victim
If you grew up, as I did, as a child of the 1970s, you probably couldn’t escape the influence of Kris Kristofferson. He was big, and he was at his biggest during the 1970s, pumping out country music and mainstream hits, appearing in his movies, and generally rocking an awesome beard. Anyway, the 1980s came,… (Source: Respectful Insolence)
Source: Respectful Insolence - July 8, 2016 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Complementary and alternative medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking chronic lyme disease Julian Whitaker Kris Kristofferson Lisa Kristofferson Mark Filidei Source Type: blogs
AV block and DCM – Cardiology MCQ
AV block in the presence of features of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), may indicate:
a) Sarcoidosis
b) Lyme disease
c) Myotonic dystrophy
d) All of the above
e) None of the above
Correct answer: d) All of the above
Other conditions associated with this combination are lamin A/C mutation and giant cell myocarditis.
Reference
Japp AG et al.The Diagnosis and Evaluation of Dilated Cardiomyopathy. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2016;67(25):2996-3010. (Source: Cardiophile MD)
Source: Cardiophile MD - June 30, 2016 Category: Cardiology Authors: Prof. Dr. Johnson Francis, MD, DM, FACC, FRCP Edin, FRCP London Tags: Cardiology MCQ DM / DNB Cardiology Entrance Source Type: blogs
Confessions of a Health Plan CEO
By JIM PURCELL
The fact that I was once the CEO of a health insurer may cause you to read this with some skepticism.
I invite and challenge your skepticism. And I will do my very best to keep this piece strictly factual and not stray into the ambiguities that necessarily accompany complicated matters.
So bear with me.
Health insurers are not popular. No one wants to go to the prom with us. We have been vilified by no less than the President of the United States. Heady stuff. Let us see if this vilification and what I call the cartoonization of insurers has served us well in the healthcare debate. I think it has...
Source: The Health Care Blog - April 23, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Simon Nath Tags: Featured THCB Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Rhode Island Health insurance Health Plans Jim Purcell Source Type: blogs
Lyme Disease in the United Kingdom
The following background data on Lyme disease in the United Kingdom were abstracted from Gideon www.GideonOnline.com and the Gideon e-book series. [1,2] Primary references are available on request.
Time and Place:
Lyme disease is reported from East Anglia, Scotland, Wales, Yorkshire and Northern Ireland. Highest incidence is associated with popular holiday destinations such as Exmoor, the New Forest, the South Downs, parts of Wiltshire and Berkshire, Thetford Forest, the Lake District, the Yorkshire moors and the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. “Hot spots” for the disease include the New Forest and the...
Source: GIDEON blog - April 12, 2016 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Dr. Stephen Berger Tags: Ebooks Epidemiology Graphs lyme disease United Kingdom Source Type: blogs
Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 139
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 139
Question 1
Who is likely to have given one of the first blood transfusion in the United States (clue: famous surgeon)?
+ Reveal the Funtabulous Answer
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William Halsted, at the age of 29.
His sister had delivered her first baby and severe haemorrhage followed.
His sister had uncontrolled haemorrhage and others thought ...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - April 1, 2016 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Neil Long Tags: Frivolous Friday Five blood transfusion botulinum botulism FFFF herpes zoster hutchinson sign jarsich-herxheimer melanoma syphilis topagnosis William Halsted Source Type: blogs
Lyme Disease Rates in Finland
A recent report on ProMed that Lyme disease is an under-reported disease in Finland is disturbing. Officially-reported rates have been increasing rapidly since the year 2000, and already exceed those of the United States by more than three-hundred percent ! [1,2] See graph
References:
Berger S. Lyme Diseases – Global Status, 2016. 83 pages, 66 graphs, 882 references. Gideon ebooks, http://www.gideononline.com/ebooks/disease/lyme-disease-global-status/
Berger S. Infectious Diseases of Finland, 2016. 482 pages, 130 graphs, 2,035 references. Gideon e-books, http://www.gideononline.com/ebooks/country/infe...
Source: GIDEON blog - March 28, 2016 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Dr. Stephen Berger Tags: Epidemiology Graphs ProMED Finland lyme disease Source Type: blogs
Culture (1)
Two asides. The first. I get plenty of reading time with my daily commute from Sheffield to Leicester, and very much enjoyed Remarkable Creatures, by Tracey Chevalier. It is the story of two women who looked for and found fossils, Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpot. There are so many facets to the story - the attitude of men to women, of male scientists to female fossil hunters, of the landowning class to the working class. Anning discovered new species of creature, preserved as fossils in the continually sliding Dorset cliffs, and yet it was not her name that appeared by one of them in a Londo...
Source: Browsing - February 13, 2016 Category: Databases & Libraries Tags: fossils Mary Anning Source Type: blogs
What is complete heart block?
An abnormal heart rhythm is a change in either the speed or the pattern of the heartbeat — the heart may beat too slowly, too rapidly or irregularly. When the heart beats too slowly, too little blood is pumped out to the rest of the body. When the heart beats too quickly, it cannot fill completely so the body doesn’t receive the blood volume it needs to function properly. Slow heart rates are called bradycardias. Fast heart rates are called tachycardias. A heart that beats too fast or too slow can cause lightheadedness or dizziness, palpitations (skipping, fluttering or pounding in the chest), fatigue, chest pressure o...
Source: Nursing Comments - February 7, 2016 Category: Nursing Authors: Stephanie Jewett, RN Tags: Advice/Education Caregiving General Public Nursing/Nursing Students Patients/Specific Diseases 3rd degree heart block aging AV heart block AV node bradycardia complete heart block Lyme disease medications slow heart rate Source Type: blogs
Narrative Matters: On Our Reading List
Editor’s note: “Narrative Matters: On Our Reading List” is a monthly roundup where we share some of the most compelling health care narratives driving the news and conversation in recent weeks.
Disability In STEM
Jesse Shanahan, a master’s student in astronomy at Wesleyan University, has a physical disability. That makes her rare among students in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) fields, where only 9 percent to 10 percent of undergraduates, and only 1 percent of Ph.D. recipients, in the United States have disabilities.
Beyond the physical barriers she faces—like inaccessible buildings...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - January 28, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: Jessica Bylander Tags: Elsewhere@ Health Affairs Featured Narrative Matters clinical trials Disabilities On Our Reading List Source Type: blogs
Lyme disease
You wait for a blog post and then three come along at once.Last but not least, Lyme disease. News reports like this one in the Guardian report a rise in cases of this tick borne disease. News reports are investigated in this NHS Choices Behind the Headlines piece.There is more about Lyme disease here: (US) National Institute of Allergy and Infectious DiseasesThis site includes a history of discoveries about the disease.Clinical Knowledge SummariesPublic Health EnglandThere is also Lyme Disease Action, which works to raise awareness of the disease, including amongst clinicians. (Source: Browsing)
Source: Browsing - December 18, 2015 Category: Databases & Libraries Tags: Lyme disease Source Type: blogs
What? Removing thimerosal from vaccines caused the autism epidemic?
The blog post of mine that arguably “put me on the map” in the skeptical blogosphere was my very Insolent, very sarcastic deconstruction of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s deceptive pseudoscience-ridden bit of fear mongering that he called Deadly Immunity. It was originally jointly published both by Salon.com and Rolling Stone, a blot that neither publication… (Source: Respectful Insolence)
Source: Respectful Insolence - December 8, 2015 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking Beaux Reliosis chronic lyme disease fungus thimerosal vaccines Source Type: blogs
A New Diagnosis
On Monday, I awoke,took my child to the baby sitter(as schools were closed for the Jewish New Year) and came back to a voicemail on my phone."call us immeadietly." (Signed, Genetics Dept.of University)I called. I knew in my gut they were going to tell ME I was the reason for my child's genetic condition because that is how it is,my husband is the largely healthy one."we got the results back...Breathe.And you also have the 17Q12 deletion."Well, joy. And does this mean I have MODY as well?""yes,but we need to communicate with Dr.S (adult geneticist-it was J's genetic counselor who called me) to formulate a plan of actio...
Source: The D-Log Cabin - September 17, 2015 Category: Endocrinology Authors: HVS Source Type: blogs
