Positron Emission Tomography (PET) in Cardiology
Positron emission tomography (PET) imaging is useful in assessment of myocardial perfusion and viability, atherosclerotic plaque activity as well as cardiac innervation in heart failure. PET is also useful in prosthetic valve endocarditis, endocarditis associated with cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIED), infiltrative cardiomyopathy, aortic stenosis and cardio oncology [1].
PET imaging has superior diagnostic accuracy compared to SPECT (Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography). It has improved spatial and temporal resolution and can measure regional blood flow and has less radiation. In PET, high energy gamma...
Source: Cardiophile MD - April 20, 2021 Category: Cardiology Authors: Prof. Dr. Johnson Francis Tags: Positron emission tomography Source Type: blogs
March 2021: The Toxicity of Fire Smoke
A 54-year-old man was brought to the ED unresponsive by paramedics after his neighbors called 911 because they smelled smoke in his apartment. The patient was found unconscious in his living room, and a fire was burning in an adjoining room.His initial vital signs were a blood pressure of 115/80 mm Hg, a heart rate of 120 bpm, a respiratory rate of 30 bpm, an SPO2 of 94% on a nonrebreather, and a temperature of 98.9° F. The patient was unresponsive to verbal and physical stimuli but had spontaneous respirations. His nose and mouth were filled with soot, his lungs had trace wheezes, and his skin appeared flushed.What toxin...
Source: The Tox Cave - March 1, 2021 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
Microfluidics and AI Microscopy for Hemoglobin Measurements
In this study, we demonstrate that the applicability of a system originally designed for the purposes of imaging can be extended towards the performance of biochemical tests without any additional modifications to the hardware unit, thereby retraining the cost and laboratory footprint of the original device,” said Srinivasan Kandaswamy, a researcher involved in the study.
The system consists of a microfluidic chip onto which a small-volume blood sample is loaded. The chip runs a sodium lauryl sulfate assay to detect hemoglobin within the sample. The chip can then be viewed using a microscope with automatic AI imag...
Source: Medgadget - February 25, 2021 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Anesthesiology Cardiology Critical Care Emergency Medicine Military Medicine Pediatrics Surgery Sigtuple Source Type: blogs
New dietary guidelines: Any changes for infants, children, and teens?
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has published new dietary guidelines to help Americans get and stay healthier across all parts of the lifespan. Babies and toddlers are included for the first time, because the recommendations cover our full lifespan.
The guidelines are called “Make Every Bite Count.” If we want to get and stay healthy, we shouldn’t be eating foods that are basically empty calories — or worse, foods that actually do us harm.
Because foods can do us harm. Eating an unhealthy diet can lead to obesity, with the cardiovascular disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and everything else...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - January 26, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Claire McCarthy, MD Tags: Adolescent health Children's Health Healthy Eating Parenting Source Type: blogs
A wide complex tachycardia
Submitted by Van Wall M.D., Written by Pendell MeyersLet ' s go back to the basics for a common and classic scenario.A middle-aged patient presents with shortness of breath and palpitations. The patient was stable without signs of low cardiac output or distress. Her ECG is shown below (first see what you think without using the baseline): What do you think?There is a (minimally) wide complex, regular monomorphic tachycardia at a little faster than 150 bpm. I measure the QRS duration at almost exactly 120 ms. The differential would include ventricular tachycardia, any cause of narrow complex regular tachycardia plus ad...
Source: Dr. Smith's ECG Blog - January 11, 2021 Category: Cardiology Authors: Pendell Source Type: blogs
Aggressive hypertension treatment does not lead to dangerous drops in blood pressure
Hypertension (high blood pressure) is a leading cause of death and disability worldwide. It is a primary risk factor for numerous medical conditions, including heart attacks, strokes, heart failure, kidney disease, atrial fibrillation, and dementia.
Blood pressure (BP) control is so critical that when the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology updated their treatment guidelines in 2017, they called for more aggressive blood pressure treatment. They lowered the definition of normal, or optimal, blood pressure to less than 120/80 mm Hg, and they recommended treatment for blood pressure higher than ...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - December 2, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Alyson Kelley-Hedgepeth, MD Tags: Hypertension and Stroke Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, November 30th 2020
We examined specific aspects of metabolism in male PolG+/mut mice at 6 and 12 months of age under three dietary conditions: normal chow (NC) feeding, high-fat feeding (HFD), and 24-hr starvation. We performed mitochondrial proteomics and assessed dynamics and quality control signaling in muscle and liver to determine whether mitochondria respond to mtDNA point mutations by altering morphology and turnover. In the current study, we observed that the accumulation of mtDNA point mutations failed to disrupt metabolic homeostasis and insulin action in male mice, but with aging, metabolic health was likely preserved by counterme...
Source: Fight Aging! - November 29, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
2 easy, affordable, plant-centered dinners
Plant-based diets have taken root in American culture in recent years, mostly thanks to the growing realization about the health benefits of this eating pattern. But contrary to what some people think, plant-based doesn’t necessarily mean you must forego all animal products. Rather, you might just eat meat or dairy products less frequently, or in smaller portions. To replace those lost calories, you should eat more beans and legumes, vegetables, whole grains, and fruits. These mostly low-fat, nutrient-rich foods have been linked to improvements in many health-related issues, including high blood pressure, diabetes, and h...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - November 25, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Julie Corliss Tags: Cooking and recipes Food as medicine Healthy Eating Source Type: blogs
Pass the Salt: Sodium ’s Role in Nerve Signaling and Stress on Blood Vessels
Most of the mouthwatering dishes in a Thanksgiving feast share a vital ingredient: salt! Though the words “salt” and “sodium” are often used interchangeably, table salt is actually a compound combining the elements sodium and chloride. Table salt is the most common form that sodium takes on Earth. Many other sodium compounds are also useful to us. For instance, you might use baking soda, also known as sodium bicarbonate, in preparing Thanksgiving treats. Sodium compounds are also used in soaps and cosmetics and in producing paper, glass, metals, medicines, and more.
The best-known sodium compound is table ...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - November 25, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Chemistry, Biochemistry and Pharmacology Cellular Processes Source Type: blogs
Hydrogel Contact Lens Measures Biomarkers in Tears
Researchers at the Terasaki Institute in Los Angeles have developed a prototype of a contact lens that can assist with tear sampling for diagnostic purposes, and to also improve tear flow to potentially prevent dry eye disease. The hydrogel lens contains microchannels through which tears can travel and testing chambers where electrochemical and colorimetric tests can assess sodium levels and pH, respectively.
Tears are a promising source for biomarkers, as they often contain levels of various analytes that are similar to those found in the blood. Examples of clinically relevant indicators found in tears include sodium, ...
Source: Medgadget - November 24, 2020 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Materials Medicine Ophthalmology Source Type: blogs
Diet is Science: Three Steps to Establish Healthy Eating Habits That Last
As any dietician, fitness blogger or biology student will tell you — if you want to lose weight, you must consume fewer calories than your body is burning. While this simple rule can certainly be a useful tool to incorporate into your larger health and fitness plan, cutting calories does not make a healthy diet. In fact, over-prioritizing portion control can lead to negative health consequences of its own, without offering the desired benefit of improved wellness and fitness.
A healthy diet is, at its core, more about understanding what goes into the food you eat than it is about reducing portion sizes. If you c...
Source: PickTheBrain | Motivation and Self Improvement - November 23, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Erin Falconer Tags: diet featured health and fitness self-improvement eating habits self improvemet Source Type: blogs
Inhibiting Protein Glycation as an Approach to Reduce the Contribution of AGEs to Aging
In today's open access paper, researchers propose the use of sodium 4-phenylbutyrate to inhibit protein glycation, reducing the creation of advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs) in the body, and thus limit the contribution of this class of compounds to aging and disease. AGEs are quite varied and comparatively poorly studied; it is still the case that new ones are being found, and there is considerable room for debate on which AGEs are more or less important to aging and outcomes of metabolic diseases such as diabetes. Short-lived AGEs, easily broken down, are inflammatory via the receptor for AGEs (RAGE), and this may be ...
Source: Fight Aging! - November 23, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Hypertension, health inequities, and implications for COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has led many people to forego follow-up and treatment of chronic health conditions such as hypertension (high blood pressure). It is now quite evident that people with hypertension are also more likely to develop severe complications from the coronavirus. In the US, African Americans and other racial and ethnic minorities, including Hispanics and Native Americans, are more likely to have hypertension, and consequently have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
What is the link between high blood pressure and heart disease?
Hypertension is the most common modifiable risk factor for...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - November 18, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Hanna Gaggin, MD, MPH Tags: Coronavirus and COVID-19 Health care disparities Hypertension and Stroke Source Type: blogs
Type 2 diabetes: Which medication is best for me?
If you are living with type 2 diabetes, you certainly are not alone. One in 10 people in the US has diabetes, according to the CDC. However, despite considerable progress in diabetes treatment over the past 20 years, fewer than half of those with diabetes actually reach their target blood sugar goal.
In part, this may be because doctors can be slow to make changes to a patient’s treatment plan, even when a patient’s treatment goals are not being met. One reason for this may be the overwhelming number of medications currently available. And yet, waiting too long to adjust treatment for type 2 diabetes can have long-last...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - November 5, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Samar Hafida, MD Tags: Diabetes Drugs and Supplements Source Type: blogs
What happens if you do not recognize this ECG instantly?
Written by Pendell MeyersA young man in his 20s with history of end stage renal disease and dialysis presented for acute chest pain. His last dialysis was 4 days ago. He was very hypertensive and short of breath, but oxygen saturation was normal.Triage ECG:What do you think?Pathognomonic for severe, life threatening hyperkalemia. QRS widening, PR interval prolongation (I believe those are P waves best seen in V1 and V2, but it matters not), and peaked T waves are apparent. There is also a large R-wave in aVR, which is typical of severe hyperkalemia.Prior ECG on file from 12 days ago:Baseline LVH with repolarization a...
Source: Dr. Smith's ECG Blog - October 21, 2020 Category: Cardiology Authors: Pendell Source Type: blogs
