A Crime Bigger than the Murdaugh Murders
Paul MatzkoThe Cato Institute has advocated for tort reform for decades. As the CatoPolicy Handbook put it in 2017, tort litigation creates an incredible quarter of a trillion dollar annual bill that is ultimately footed by consumers. While such litigation is an important means for holding companies liable for bad behavior, in excess it is a growth ‐minimizing and innovation‐stymyingcancer.The latest example of the costs of excessive litigation comes from a surprising source: the murder trial of Alex Murdaugh in the low country of South Carolina.Murdaugh himself stole millions in settlement money f...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - February 21, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Paul Matzko Source Type: blogs
Case of the Week 711
This week ' s impressive case was generously donated by Dr. Ryan Relich. The following was seen in Giemsa-stained thick and thin blood films (1000x) from a middle aged immunocompromised male with recent travel to Niger. Diagnosis? (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - February 20, 2023 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs
Answer to Case 711
Answer to the Parasite Case of the Week 711: Plasmodium falciparuminfection with high parasitemia. Primarily early stage trophozoites are seen, but a single (somewhat) banana-shaped gametocyte and possibly later stage trophozoites are often seen. Given the high level of parasitemia, it ' s not surprising that we are seeing some some extracellular forms. If there happens to be concern about an alternate diagnosis of babesiosis (i.e., if the travel history wasn ' t known), then PCR could be performed. In this case, the presence of hemozoin and elongated gametocytes allows us to rule out babesiosis from the differe...
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - February 20, 2023 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs
Case of the Week 710
This post is in recognition of Valentine ' s day while also keeping in our theme of parasites in muscle. The organ of interest this week is the heart of course! The following objects were seen in a endomyocardial biopsy from a patient with unexplained heart failure. What is your diagnosis? (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - February 14, 2023 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, February 13th 2023
This study investigated whether taller Polish adults live longer than their shorter counterparts. Data on declared height were available from 848,860 individuals who died in the years 2004-2008 in Poland. To allow for the cohort effect, the Z-values were generated. Separately for both sexes, Pearson's r coefficients of correlation were calculated. Subsequently, one way ANOVA was performed.
The correlation between adult height and longevity was negative and statistically significant in both men and women. After eliminating the effects of secular trends in height, the correlation was very weak (r = -0.0044 in men and ...
Source: Fight Aging! - February 12, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Answer to Case 710
Answer to the Parasite Case of the Week 710:Trypanosoma cruziamastigotes forming a pseudocyst in cardiac muscle. Note that you can make out the nucleus and kinetoplast of some of the amastigotes:While I posted this on Valentine ' s day, Chagas disease is actually a story of heartbreak. Here is a rather poignant poem aboutTrypanosoma cruzi by @DrCindyCooper:Fortunately treatment can be effective when the disease is caught early. April 14th is World Chagas Disease day, where the WHO and partners raise awareness pf this " silent disease " that affects mainly poor people with limited access to health care. (Source: ...
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - February 12, 2023 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs
Considering a Role for Infectious Disease in the Evolution of Aging
If interested in the evolution of aging, today's open access paper opens with a very readable tour of the history of thought on this topic, as well as the more recent debate between different classes of hypotheses that seek to explain the evolution of aging. The authors are opinionated, and the path leads to their favored theory, involving population-wide effects driven by infectious disease that do not require group selection, but it nonetheless covers a lot of ground and makes for an educational read. Theories of aging are much debated, perhaps in part because there are so many exceptions to the rule that must be explain...
Source: Fight Aging! - February 8, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Case of the Week 709
Since we are on the theme of parasites in muscle, here is another case from my archive. What parasite is shown here? (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - February 7, 2023 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs
Answer to Case 709
Answer to the Parasite Case of the Week 709:Taeniasp. cysticercus (larval form) in muscle. Since this case was from my archives, I don ' t know the source of the muscle (i.e., human vs. cow); however, given the number of cysticerci present and the co-existence ofSarcocystissp. sarcocysts (not shown well, but you can see them if you enlarge the two images), I ' m guessing it was a bovine case. Regardless of the origin, the features seen here are characteristic for cysticerci, including the overall shape and size, and the appearance of the internal protoscolex. Note the spiral canal which is often one of the clearest i...
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - February 6, 2023 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs
Case of the Week 708
We ' re on a roll with parasites in muscle biopsies! Here is one from my archives. No history, but the findings are classic. Diagnosis? How is this different from the muscle parasites in the last 2 cases? (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - January 28, 2023 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs
Answer to Case 708
Answer to theParasite Case of the Week 708:Trichinellasp. larva; coiled within a muscle " nurse cell " . Larvae are the only form seen in muscle with this infection. Compare this to ourrecent case ofHaycocknema perplexuminfection in which gravid female worms were seen ' crawling ' through the muscle fibers. These two helminths are also quite different than muscle infection with the protozoan parasite,Sarcocystis, as shown inCase 707. Keep an eye our for our next case that will show a very different parasite in muscle! Trichinellasp. larva within muscle: Note the presence of stichocytes - tall cells tha...
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - January 27, 2023 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs
Case of the Week 707
This week ' s case features another muscle biopsy - this time from a middle aged man from China with recent visit to Pangkor island. Approximately 10 days after his trip, he presented with high fever, headache, and generalized myalgia. Light microscopic evaluation of H&E-stained sections of muscle showed the following parasites within muscle fibers. What is your diagnosis? (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - January 17, 2023 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs
Answer to Case 707
Answer to theParasite Case of the Week 707:Sarcocystisspecies. Molecular testing is required for identification of the causative species. This case shows a single intramuscular sarcocyst containing multiple bradyzoites. The clinical history and epidemiology also supports a diagnosis of sarcocystosis.Many of you rightly suggested that the differential diagnosis includesToxoplasma gondii,a related apicomplexan parasite which can form similar-appearing cysts in tissues throughout the body. Toxoplasmosis involving skeletal muscle is seen primarily in profoundly immunocompromised individuals with widely disseminated ...
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - January 15, 2023 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs
Case of the Week 706
Happy New Year! I thought I ' d kick off the year with a fascinating and enigmatic parasite that can cause very rare but devastating disease in humans. The patient is a man in his late 30 ' s who presented with 8 years of progressive weakness, significant weight loss (>30 kg), dysphagia, and dysphonia. His creatine kinase levels were elevated and he had peripheral eosinophilia. He was previously healthy prior to the onset of symptoms, but was wheel-chair bound on presentation. The patient had spent a significant amount of time in the bush regions of coastal northern Queensland, Australia.Muscle biopsy revealed muscle da...
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - January 2, 2023 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs
Answer to Case 706
Answer to theParasite Case of the Week 706:Haycocknema perplexuminfectionWow, I am so impressed by the responses on this case! There are many helpful comments and links in the comment section of this blog which you may want to check out.Haycocknema perplexuminfection (haycocknematosis) is an extremely rare parasitic infection. There have only been 13 humans cases (including this one) reported to date. As Florida Fan noted, Blaine and I previously presented this case as a poster, and it has now been published inEmerging Infectious Diseases. You can read the articleHERE. The article describes the diagnostic features of...
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - January 1, 2023 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs
