How to know if chest pain is due to heart disease or not? Cardiology Basics
It is not always possible to be certain about the origin of chest pain just by its characteristics as the variation between individuals is quite a bit. There can be a lot of overlap between symptoms due to heart disease and disease of other nearby organs.
Still some general observations are possible regarding chest pain originating from the heart. The typical pain of cardiac origin is a central chest pain which occurs on walking or other forms of exercise, known as effort angina. This pain is caused by insufficient blood supply to a region of the myocardium. Effort angina is commonly due to significant obstruction to a co...
Source: Cardiophile MD - October 4, 2022 Category: Cardiology Authors: Johnson Francis Tags: General Cardiology Source Type: blogs
The Present And Future Of Digital Pills
Flicking your wrist as your smartwatch nudges you, you find a notification alerting that it’s time to take your digital pill. You grab one from your smart medicine pack, alert your GP, and ingest it with a glass of water. Thereafter, the pill broadcasts a real-time video stream as it goes down your oesophagus and into your stomach. Your GP is simultaneously monitoring the visuals, assessing the progression of your ulcer.
Afterwards, you have a video call with your GP who reassures you of the ulcer’s healing. She also notes that the digital pill contains your personalised medicine 3D-printed onto it and it will...
Source: The Medical Futurist - July 21, 2020 Category: Information Technology Authors: Prans Tags: 3D Printing Health Sensors & Trackers Personalized Medicine schizophrenia digital pill otsuka abilify pillcam patch etectRx infarmate hipaa Source Type: blogs
poem
Perfect SandwichAs a boy I had a very peculiar approachTo the eating of my salami and cheese sandwiches:Start on the perimeter and suffer through the crust,Then an inward spiral to the middle.The goal was to save the thickest, meatiestBite for last, to be savored. Things were supposed to always get better.That was the natural progression:Sadness, suffering, dutiful prep workAnd then a flourishing of flavor and satisfaction.The problem was it always culminated in anti climax;It never ended the way I hoped.It wasn ’t fair to those pitiful school lunch sandwichesI had meticulously made myselfBefore the school bus...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - May 25, 2020 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
Ultrasound Case 087
A 28 year old with reduced GCS after several seizures requires intubation. Their neck extension seems limited and you wonder whether this may be a difficult intubation. You decide to monitor it with ultrasound.
The post Ultrasound Case 087 appeared first on Life in the Fast Lane • LITFL • Medical Blog. (Source: Life in the Fast Lane)
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - April 7, 2019 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Dr James Rippey Tags: TOP 100 Ultrasound difficult intubation esophageal intubation esophagus Oesophageal intubation oesophagus Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, January 14th 2019
In conclusion, reduction of LDL-C to less than 50 mg/dl seems safe and provides greater CV benefits compared with higher levels. Data for achieved LDL-C lower than 20-25 mg/dl is limited, although findings from the above mentioned studies are encouraging. However, further evaluation is needed for future studies and post-hoc analyses.
Wary of the Beautiful Fairy Tale of Near Term Rejuvenation
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2019/01/wary-of-the-beautiful-fairy-tale-of-near-term-rejuvenation/
One might compare this interview with researcher Leonid Peshkin to last year's discussion with Vadim Gladyshev....
Source: Fight Aging! - January 13, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Old Tissues Have Many Mutations, Even Absent Cancer
Cancer is the result of random mutational damage to nuclear DNA, but most such damage has no real effect, not even to the behavior of the affected cell. Cells in old tissues are riddled with mutations, but it is an open question as to how much this accumulated damage contributes to aging beyond cancer risk. Does it produce sufficient disarray in tissue function to be measured? A mutation capable of meaningfully altering cell behavior (a small subset of all possible mutations) can only have a noticeable affect when it occurs in many cells, a significant fraction of those present in a tissue. One slightly defective cell is a...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 11, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, October 29th 2018
This study shows that some genetic changes linked to cancer are present in surprisingly large numbers of normal cells. We still have a long way to go to fully understand the implications of these new findings, but as cancer researchers, we can't underestimate the importance of studying healthy tissue."
Early Onset of Menopause Correlates with Shorter Life Expectancy
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2018/10/early-onset-of-menopause-correlates-with-shorter-life-expectancy/
Aging is a phenomenon affecting all organs and systems throughout the body, driven by rising levels of molecular damage. The varia...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 28, 2018 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Random Mutations in Nuclear DNA are Prevalent in Old Tissues
This study shows that some genetic changes linked to cancer are present in surprisingly large numbers of normal cells. We still have a long way to go to fully understand the implications of these new findings, but as cancer researchers, we can't underestimate the importance of studying healthy tissue."
Link: https://www.sanger.ac.uk/news/view/mutant-cells-colonise-our-tissues-over-our-lifetime (Source: Fight Aging!)
Source: Fight Aging! - October 23, 2018 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Barn Owl pellet
Barn Owl (Tyto alba) hunting over Rampton, VC29
If you have ever stopped to think about the gustatory habits of owls, then you have perhaps wondered what happens to all the bones and fur from the little creatures on which they predate after they eat them.
Dry Barn Owl pellet, obtained from WWT Welney
Well, avian digestive enzymes do not have the capacity to break down bones and fur and as the flesh and organs are digested those materials accumulate in the upper gastrointestinal tract forming a hairy bolus, a pellet, that ultimately the owl will regurgitate. A pellet forms after six to ten hours following a meal in the bird...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - October 2, 2018 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Biology Birds Science Sciencebase Source Type: blogs
Tropical Travel Trouble 009 Humongous HIV Extravaganza
LITFL • Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog LITFL • Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog - Emergency medicine and critical care medical education blog
aka Tropical Travel Trouble 009
The diagnosis of HIV is no longer fatal and the term AIDS is becoming less frequent. In many countries, people with HIV are living longer than those with diabetes. This post will hopefully teach the basics of a complex disease and demystify some of the potential diseases you need to consider in those who are severely immunosuppressed. While trying to be comprehensive this post can not be exhaustive (as you can imagine any patient with a low ...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - July 7, 2018 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Amanda McConnell Tags: Clinical Cases Tropical Medicine AIDS art cryptococcoma cryptococcus HIV HIV1 HIV2 PEP PrEP TB toxoplasma tuberculoma Source Type: blogs
Button Battery Update
LITFL • Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog LITFL • Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog - Emergency medicine and critical care medical education blog
Button battery ingestion is one of the leading causes of death in paediatric poisoning and this has sharply risen from 2016 despite manufacturing warnings and the addition of tape to cover the negative side (not very useful once you’ve removed that to place it in your device). See Poison.org for more statistics. What makes button battery ingestion more frightening is the fact that the ingestion may go unwitnessed, the child may have vague symptoms like ‘off...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - June 20, 2018 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Neil Long Tags: Toxicology and Toxinology button battery tox library toxicology library Source Type: blogs
Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 231
LITFL • Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog LITFL • Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog - Emergency medicine and critical care medical education blog
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 FFFF…introducing Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 231.
Readers can subscribe to FFFF RSS or subscribe to the FFFF weekly EMAIL
Question 1:
You find yourself on holiday in Africa helping out with a dermatology clinic (yes, your forte as an emergency physician). In the queue is a young boy who describes a papular â€...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - March 22, 2018 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Neil Long Tags: Frivolous Friday Five anthrax cholera Dilip Mahalanabis Dr Bayford dysentery dysphagia lusoria ORS saber shins Thomas Hodgkin wool-sorters disease yaws Source Type: blogs
Eponymythology: Diffuse Toxic Goitre
LITFL • Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog
LITFL • Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog - Emergency medicine and critical care medical education blog
Despite a drive to provide a consistent, modern nomenclature for signs, symptoms, diseases, procedures, equipment and medical conditions…eponyms still persist. We review 500 *common eponyms, the person behind their origin, history, accuracy, relevance today, modern nosology and their eponymythology.
The problem of nomenclature of diffuse toxic goitre (Parry, Graves or Basedow disease) remains an unsettled one. So lets review the chronological history of eponymous aet...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - February 6, 2018 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Mike Cadogan Tags: Eponymythology Basedow disease Caleb Hillier Parry exophthalmos goiter Graves disease Karl Adolph von Basedow Parry disease Robert James Graves thyroid Source Type: blogs
Early Detection
We do regularly try to detect some cancers early through mammograms, colonoscopies, and PSA tests. I think most of us (meaning the general public) are comfortable with these tests as we age. But what if there was a genetic test available which you could have done regularly, every few years or whatever time frame, to test you for several different cancers before they had a chance to spread.A new test,CancerSEEK, has been tested on more than 1000 patients and seems very hopeful." The CancerSEEK test looks for mutations in 16 genes that regularly arise in cancer and eight proteins that are often released.It was trialled on 1,...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - January 20, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: cancer detection cancer diagnosis medical tests Source Type: blogs
Cardiac CT scan – Aortic arch level
Cardiac Computerized Tomographic (CT) scan – Aortic arch level
Cardiac CT scan requires a multi slice CT scanner, usually 64 or 128 slice or even higher. Heart rate has to be stabilized at around 60/minute for electrocardiographic (ECG) gating. If the heart rate is fast, betablockers or ivabradine (pure sinus node inhibitor) or both together are given to bring down the heart rate. Some centers use intravenous betablockers to bring down the heart rate earlier, to avoid postponing a scheduled scan. After a plain scan, contrast CT scan is acquired at a fast speed along with injection of about 100 ml of iodinated radioco...
Source: Cardiophile MD - October 27, 2017 Category: Cardiology Authors: Johnson Francis Tags: Cardiac CT scan Source Type: blogs
