The young and healthy can die from influenza complications
Nothing was helping. Everything had been tried for a week of the most intensive critical care possible. A twenty year old man, completely healthy only two weeks previously, was holding on to life by a mere thread and nothing and no one could stop his dying.His battle had been lost against MRSA pneumonia precipitated by a brief influenza-like illness. Despite aggressive hemodynamic, antibiotic and ventilator management, he was becoming more hypoxic, his lungs collapsing and his renal function deteriorating. He had remained unresponsive during his ICU ordeal due to intentional sedation.Continue reading ... Manage...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - February 20, 2013 Category: Family Physicians Tags: Conditions Infectious disease Source Type: blogs
My Dad on Exercise
Bullseye has walked four to six miles for exercise almost every day, for 25 years. When home, he’ll walk the same route around the neighborhood or on the treadmill if the weather is poor. He’ll also walk the same route when he’s on vacation at the beach (at the same hotel every year). At the last job he held for over 30 years, he walked the same blocks, or the same hallways if the weather was poor.
Despite spending more time in Washington, D.C., than almost any other location throughout his life, he couldn’t tell me about his surroundings, where landmarks are, or how to get anywhere. “What do I care where you y...
Source: I've Still Got Both My Nuts: A True Cancer Blog - February 17, 2013 Category: Cancer Tags: family Source Type: blogs
Death by Infection, the End of Modern Medicine
A post-antibiotic era means, in effect, an end to modern medicine as we know it. Things as common as strep throat or a child’s scratched knee could once again kill.
~ Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization
Alzheimer's Reading Room
In its recent annual report on global risks, the World Economic Forum (WEF) concluded that “arguably the greatest risk . . . to human health comes in the form of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. We live in a bacterial world where we will never be able to stay ahead of the mutation curve. A test of our resilience is how far behind the curve we allow ourselves t...
Source: Alzheimer's Reading Room, The - February 10, 2013 Category: Dementia Authors: Bob DeMarco Source Type: blogs
Evolutionary Biology of the Built Environment Working Group: Call for Participants
Call for participants: Evolutionary Biology of the Built Environment Working Group. Details copied from the announcement pasted below:
The Basics: We need your help. We are organizing the first working group aimed at understanding the evolutionary biology of the built environment—our bedrooms, our houses, our backyards and our cities. This working group will occur June 10 – 14, 2013, in Durham, North Carolina. We are now inviting applications for participants in the working group.
Why: As recently as one hundred thousand years ago the indoor environment did not exist. Yet, this is now wher...
Source: The Tree of Life - January 17, 2013 Category: Medical Scientists Authors: Jonathan Eisen Source Type: blogs
Notes from talk by Stephen J. O'Brien at #UCDavis
Stephen O' Brien talked at UC Davis a few days ago. I met with him in the afternoon before his talk. It was one of the more interesting discussions I have had in a long time. He has done some very interesting and important work (e.g., comparative genomics, HIV, feline evolution) though most of what we talked about was not work per se (e.g., we talked a lot about baseball and big cats since my kids are obsessed with big cats).
Anyway, below is a "Storification" of tweets from his talk. Best part - he signed a copy of his Tears of the Cheetah: The Genetic Secrets of Our Animal Ancestors
book with a dedication to my ki...
Source: The Tree of Life - January 9, 2013 Category: Medical Scientists Authors: Jonathan Eisen Source Type: blogs
New Technology & Inventions
By Matthew Coleman
This column focuses on the latest products, devices, and ideas to improve emergency medicine practice. Brief news releases and photographs are welcome, and must be submitted electronically. Images must be 300 dpi, in tiff, jpeg, or eps format, and at least 4“x4” in size. Please send information to emn@lww.com.
Portable Brain Cooler
Cooling the brain after cardiac arrest has been known to improve neurological outcomes in patients, and initiating this process as early as possible is essential. The RhinoChill Intra-Nasal Cooling System allows cooling to start in the field by using a noninvasi...
Source: Technology & Inventions - September 7, 2012 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
New Technology & Inventions
By Matthew Coleman
This column focuses on the latest products, devices, and ideas to improve emergency medicine practice. Brief news releases and photographs are welcome, and must be submitted electronically. Images must be 300 dpi, in tiff, jpeg, or eps format, and at least 4“x4” in size. Please send information to emn@lww.com.
Portable Brain Cooler
Cooling the brain after cardiac arrest has been known to improve neurological outcomes in patients, and initiating this process as early as possible is essential. The RhinoChill Intra-Nasal Cooling System allows cooling to start in the field by using a no...
Source: Technology & Inventions - September 7, 2012 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
Review: MRSA infection
NEJM 7/26 – Not an original research article, but a worthwhile read. An article by Daum reviews skin and soft tissue MRSA infection in the Clinical Practice section of the current NEJM. An increasingly common issue for which a refresher is always helpful – I thought the paper was so solid it deserved a mention anyway.
Daum, RS. Clinical practice. Skin and soft-tissue infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. N Engl J Med. 2007 Jul 26;357(4):380-90. Review. PMID: 17652653 (Source: Consider The Evidence: Med/Peds Journal Roundup)
Source: Consider The Evidence: Med/Peds Journal Roundup - August 1, 2007 Category: Internists and Doctors of Medicine Authors: medblog Tags: MRSA NEJM Source Type: blogs
