Ramanisblog

Tag: Medicine

  • Inside of Medical Reporting,Ignore Newspaper Reports.

    I have been quite sceptical about of the Reports in Newspapers on any thing connected with ‘Cure found’,”genes isolated’ ‘Coffe.tea causes cancer,inhibits(/) cancer’,’Experts say’ and the lot.

    When you go deep you would find that the Story has bo basis except in the imagination of the writer.

    And many atimes the reports quote some one called an Expert whom nobody seems to know!

    And the University/Research facility is still mor difficult to find.

    Even if you are able to find such institutions, you would get a reply that ‘the theory/cure is in experimental stage’

    How many’cures’ have been found for cancer till date!

    As also for AIDS!

    The same trend applies to most of the reports on Life Style,Sex, Behaviour.

    I came across a piece in Craked.com on the subject and I am reproducing here.

    ”

    I was busy finishing up the draft of what was to be my latest column, “Everything About Sausages Is Awesome,” when someone pointed out to me that the only research I had done was creating 45 animated gifs of rotating sausages. “Avant garde,” I mumbled, waving my hands around in an authoritative manner. “Daring,” I added, waving my hands in a more daring manner, before concluding with, “you slope-browed idiot.” This, it turned out, is the wrong way to win an argument with an editor, much in the same way that it’s the wrong way to win an argument with everyone else.

    So in order to find some sort of academic support for my deeply held belief that sausages are awesome, I went to the public library. My initial searches were frustrated by the fact that the academic community apparently has greatly neglected sausage-based research, and despite numerous queries — “Excuse me, you slope-browed idiot …” — I was unable to find the sausage section of the library at all. My only promising lead, a helpful elderly gentleman who led me to the washroom, turned out to be talking about something else entirely, and I was forced to leave the washroom empty-handed, though with my honor thankfully intact. (Being empty-handed actually kind of related to the intactness of my honor.)

    Frustrated, I turned to the archived newspapers and periodicals and began reading their health sections to see what the popular media had to say about sausages. Although I found little advice about tubed meats, I did find a lot of other advice, almost all of it dangerously insane. There wasn’t a single article about nutrition or health that didn’t make massive, barely substantiated claims about a new diet or medical treatment. This kind of journalistic malpractice is perfectly acceptable for Cracked (company motto: Journalistic Malpractice Is Perfectly Acceptable Here), but I was surprised to see this kind of ass-grabbery in the grown-up newspapers.

    #8. ____ Is Incredibly Good/Bad for You

    Here’s a headline you’ve probably read a few times already today:

     

    News report on Red Wine.
    News paper Report

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    …

    What these articles usually don’t do is qualify what exactly that “link” means. If you’re missing a discussion of:

    – the cost of a diet/treatment,

    – its side effects,

    – how it compares with other treatments and

    – how it compares with doing nothing at all,

    … then you’re not reading very useful advice. Consider that last item for a second. Does a new diet reduce the risk of getting a disease from 5.4 percent to 5.2 percent? (I don’t know or care what the units could be. Riskometers, let’s say.) That is a potentially interesting finding, and it could certainly serve as a guide for future research, but it’s not the kind of evidence that should inspire you to cram fish oil into your throat until you stop blinking.

    ……

    #5. Lack of Knowledge

    Earlier I talked about choosing proper methodologies, and cost/benefit analysis, and literature review. These are just some of the terribly boring chores that are a sad but necessary part of being an expert in a field. That’s why we can’t expect reporters to be experts in all the areas they’re covering; it’s often the case these days that a new reporter who a month ago was writing the “Tides Update” on page G18 is promoted to covering something actually useful, even if he doesn’t know the first thing about it. And the easiest way for this reporter to write about something he doesn’t know is to find and cite an expert. It’s a safe play for our young reporter; by simply describing the expert’s credentials and then relaying what they’re saying, the reporter’s young, soft ass is covered. It’s the expert telling the story, not the reporter. So it’s up to the audience to figure out if the expert is:

    – actually an expert.

    – a hired stooge.

    – two children atop each other’s shoulders in a long coat.

     

    Ad on Smoking
    Misleading ad on Smoking

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     


    http://www.cracked.com/blog/8-lies-its-surprisingly-easy-to-tell-as-health-reporter_p2/

     

     

     

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  • Clinical Testing of Drugs and Pharma Companies, Patents.

    English: Logo of the .
    Image via Wikipedia

    Recently I came across an article in The Scientist on the Clinical trials of drugs in the US by the Pharma Corporations.

    baby.
    MATT COLLINS (BABY); US GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE REPORT, “PEDIATRIC RESEARCH,” MAY 2011

    Drugs ,it is reported that , are not tested on children and are marketed.

    The FDA is of the opinion that Clinical Trials of Drugs conducted on Children give off reliable results,especially the contra-indications.

    I am reproducing a real instance quoted in The Scientist.

    ”

    But the story of Paxil also illustrates the power of somewhat obscure laws that have saved children’s lives by changing the way drugmakers test their products.

    Paxil—which increases extracellular levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin by inhibiting its reuptake into presynaptic cells—was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 1992, and by 2000 it was making the drug company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) $2 billion per year. But around this time, problems with Paxil began to surface. Adult and adolescent patients were anecdotally reporting side effects, including sexual dysfunction, weight gain, high blood pressure, and increased suicidality—an uptick in thoughts of suicide or self-inflicted injury in some severely depressed patients. These reports of increased suicidality particularly worried pediatricians.

    In 1999 the FDA sent GSK a letter requesting that the company conduct clinical trials of Paxil in children and adolescents. To sweeten the deal, the FDA offered GSK a 6-month marketing exclusivity extension for Paxil in return. This extension, which in effect would buy GSK 6 extra months of patent protection by delaying marketing of generic versions, was an incentive written into the FDA Modernization Act (FDAMA) of 1997.

    GSK eventually agreed to conduct the requested studies and submitted the results to the FDA sometime in early 2002, after FDAMA had expired and been replaced by the Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act (BPCA) of 2002. Though GSK’s own reports on preliminary studies of Paxil in adolescents indicated that it was safe and more effective than a placebo—a heavily disputed interpretation contained in the article reporting the results of the now infamous study 3291—the FDA’s analyses of Paxil studies found that suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts, and episodes of self-harm were almost twice as high in young patients with major depressive disorder taking the drug than among those taking a placebo. To boot, the agency found that the drug was no more effective than placebo in treating major depression in children and adolescents”

    The point to be noted is that the Company doctored the report.

    Imagine a Corporation earning Billions of Dollars, despite getting a undeserved

    6 months  of patent protection, the company thought it fit to doctor the

    report,with scant report for Human Life.

    The Companies dodge testing on Children because of Legal implications and high cost of testing on children.

    Another point I note is that is testing drugs on Children Safe for them?

    I also read an interesting comment  on Patents.

    “

    Featured Comment

    Legislators should remember who pays their salaries and to whom they are responsible. If taxpayers fund any part of a research activity then (a) no patents or copyrights should issue as a result, and (b) all results and unprocessed data should be available freely, similarly funded by the taxpayers. If the researchers and their sponsoring organizations don’t like the bargain, they should seek funding from non-public sources.tddial, Elsevier Abandons Anti-Open Access Bill“

    VERY THOUGHTFUL AND VALID.

    http://the-scientist.com/2012/03/01/are-the-kids-alright/#fn-21915-1

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  • Worst Plastic Surgery cases-Images.

    Science often results in ghastly aftermath.

     

    From Jocelyn Wildenstein, a US$4 million monster, to –who else?– Michael Jackson, meet these ten plastic surgery addicts, terrible examples of really bad plastic surgery gone wrong.

     Hang Mioku: the korean plastic surgery addict who injected cooking oil into her own face

    Disfigured face.
    Face after Plastic Surgery.

     

    One of the most famous cases of awful plastic surgery gone wrong, Hang Mioku, a 48 year-old woman from South Korea, became so addicted to plastic surgery that she was left unrecognisable after her obsession led her to inject cooking oil into her face. She had her first plastic surgery procedure when she was 28. Following operation after operation, her face was eventually left enlarged and disfigured, and the surgeons she visited refused to carry out any more work on her and one suggested that her obsession could be a sign of a psychological disorder. So Hang resorted to injecting cooking oil into her face. It became so grotesquely large that she was called “standing fan” by children in her neighbourhood – due to her large face and small body.

    As Hang’s notoriety spread she was featured on Korean TV, viewers seeing the report took mercy on her and sent in enough donations to enable her to have surgery to reduce the size of her face. During the first procedure surgeons removed 60g of foreign substance from Hang’s face and 200g from her neck. After several other sessions her face was left greatly reduced but still scarred and disfigured, a true challenge for korean plastic surgery.

    Distorted faces after surgery.
    Disfigured faces after Plastic Surgery.

     

    Known by the press by the nickname of “The Bride of Wildenstein” –a reference to The Bride of Frankenstein–, Jocelyn Wildenstein has allegedly spent almost US$4,000,000 on cosmetic surgery over the years, ending up as one of the worst and most famous cases of plastic surgery addiction. But who did that happened?

    Once upon a time, in the late 70’s there was a beautiful women named Jocelyn Wildenstein. Jocelyn really had it made. She was a fresh-faced mother of two and married to an extremely rich art dealer. That is until she caught her husband in bed with a 21 year old Russian model. Now, any normal person would just leave her husband and take all of his money with her, right? Not Jocelyn Wildenstein! Instead she decided to win back her husbands love and make herself more beautiful by going under the knife. Well, her husband left her anyways, but Jocelyn will always have her plastic surgeon.

    http://www.oddee.com/item_96587.aspx

  • A Journey to and through a Tumor.

    It was on the 30th of October 2011, my daughter called me up to read a Report of Blood Test carried out on my son-in-law who is 32 years old.

    The report had ESR( Erythrocyte Sedimentation rate) at 145 Hemoglobin at 9.(ESR maximum 20,Haemoglobin around 14-15)

    ‘The erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), also called a sedimentation rate or Biernacki Reaction, is the rate at which red blood cells sediment in a period of 1 hour. It is a common hematology test that is a non-specific measure of inflammation. To perform the test, anticoagulated blood is placed in an upright tube, known as a Westergren tube, and the rate at which the red blood cells fall is measured and reported in mm/h.

    Age 20 55 90
    Men 12 20 19
    Women 18 21 23

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erythrocyte_sedimentation_rate

    Hemoglobin concentration measurement is among the most commonly performed blood tests, usually as part of a complete blood count. For example it is typically tested before or after blood donation. Results are reported in g/L, g/dL or mol/L. 1 g/dL equals about 0.6206  mmol/L.[56] Normal levels are:

    • Men: 13.8 to 18.0 g/dL (138 to 182 g/L, or 8.56 to 11.3 mmol/L)
    • Women: 12.1 to 15.1 g/dL (121 to 151 g/L, or 7.51 to 9.37 mmol/L)
    • Children: 11 to 16 g/dL (111 to 160 g/L, or 6.83 to 9.93 mmol/L)
    • Pregnant women: 11 to 12 g/dL (110 to 120 g/L, or 6.83 to 7.45 mmol/L)

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemoglobin#Diagnostic_uses

    I had asked my daughter to have the tests redone at another Lab.

    She had done so and informed me that Haemoglobin was at 9.6 and ESR  at 98.

    All these tests were taken because we noticed that my son-in-law was losing weight for about 3 weeks and on my advice to have it see a doctor and have his Blood tested, he was reluctant to do so saying that I read a lot and get worried over nothing and that he was on Diet to reduce his weight.

    He was also getting tired very often, had a persistent light cough and light temperature was noticed.

    I stay in a different city,Chennai and my daughter,son-in-law and my grand son(2 years old) paid a visit to us and on her returning to Bangalore i advised her sternly to meet an experienced ,preferably elderly for consultations and avoid surgeons and Multi speciality Hospitals at this stage.

    The Doctor recommended the above tests.

    As these parameters indicated some serious ailment,ESR High reading indicates inflammation somewhere in the Body and coupled with Low Hemoglobin count it is really a cause for concern, I discussed the case with a leading doctor in Chennai who is a good friend of mine.

    These indicators indicated some thing serious , possibly in the Renal area(kidney).

    I left for Bangalore on 31.

    On the advice of the doctor we had an Ultra sound of the Thoracic region and the Abdomen.

    In the mean while we had done a Mantoux  Test to eliminate TB.(the symptoms exhibited in this case apply roughly to about 80 diseases)

    It had a reading of 10, bordering on confirming TB.

    In the meanwhile Ultra sound report came in.

    It found a Lesion of about 10cms, nestling in the gap between the Pancreas, Spleen and the Kidney.

    It was pressing down the Kidney and seemed to be pressing the Spleen and the Pancreas.

    As this is on the Kidney, we were referred to a Renal Specialist who had advised us to meet a Renal Surgeon.

    We met him.

    His flippant attitude made us think about having the surgery done by him and we decided to move to a Multi-Specialty Hospital,The Manipal Hospital,Bangalore as the tumor is big  and in a critical area we decided to have the Surgery done by an Oncologist as surgery by an Oncologist will facilitate easy treatment without complications if the  tumor were to turn out to be malignant.

    We met, by mistake ,a Clinical Oncologist in Lymphoma who immediately decided that the the Tumor was Lymphoma and scared the wits out of us.

    We immediately corrected ourselves and met a Surgical oncologist who told us that the lesion has to be removed by Open Surgery and as the mass was huge Laproscopy was ruled out.

    He also wanted us to have a LFT(liver function test) done.

    We also on the advice of our relative who is a Doctor, had done EMA test-to know whether the Lesion/Tumor is secreting hormones.

    LFT indicated slight mal function of the Liver and EMA indicated non secreting tumor.

    Taking all these facts into consideration the Surgeon took a decision to surgically remove the Tumor which now has been christened as non secreting Adrenalin Tumor.

    These Tumors of this size tend to be malignant and as such the Doctor informed us that he shall treat it as such until proved otherwise by a Biopsy.

    Adrenalin  Tumors ,I am informed, do not respond to Chemotherapy and radiation is the only option after Surgery.

    We also had done a Biopsy of the Liver which turned negative for Cancer.

    The Operation date was set on 19th November.

    Imagine the pressure on a 28-year-old girl,my daughter,and me who is very much attached to my son-in-law,son and daughter and they to me.

    I could not express my anguish lest the children may lose heart,though they know the essentials of the case .

    But I had the deep conviction that Goddess Abirami will not let me down and left every thing to her.

    The Surgery was conducted on the scheduled day and a tumor weighing 375 gm were removed from my son in law’s abdomen.

    It has been found to be harmless and not cancer.

    It is found out to be Phe0crom Cytoma.

    A pheochromocytoma or phaeochromocytoma (PCC) is a neuroendocrine tumor of the medulla of the adrenal glands (originating in the chromaffin cells), or extra-adrenal chromaffin tissue that failed to involute after birth [1] and secretes excessive amounts of catecholamines, usually noradrenaline(norepinephrine), and adrenaline (epinephrine) to a lesser extent.[2] Extra-adrenal paragangliomas (often described as extra-adrenal pheochromocytomas) are closely related, though less common, tumors that originate in the ganglia of the sympathetic nervous system and are named based upon the primary anatomical site of origin.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pheochromocytoma

    A tumor in the abdominal region.
    Pheocromocytoma.

    My son-in-law is discharged and he is well.

    I have learnt the following lessons from this incident..

    Life is Fragile.

    People are important for people have been offering good will and help ,especially medically and people are essentially good at heart by nature.

    When you face difficulties of grave nature you draw reserves from within you which you never knew you ever had.

    Medicine, with all its Technology is final analysis depends on the Human(Doctor) and his instinct.

    This blog is intended to inform people

    -never take the symptoms lightly, we have been able to be successful because we did not take symptoms lightly.

    -have faith in your Doctor.

    -discuss the case  with the Doctor rationally .

    -have the appropriate tests done .

    -select the best multi speciality hospital.

    -do not bother about minor administrative problems in the Hospital, what matters most is good medical attention and cure.

    Never, ever give up.

    He is up there.

  • Scientists Measure Pain.-New Technic.

    Every thing seems to be quantified!

     

    Physicians gauging pain have little to go on besides a patient’s self-report. And some sufferers simply can’t communicate how they’re feeling.

    So scientists have searched for a reliable way to measure pain physiologically. And they may finally have one.

    Researchers performed functional MRI scans on the brains of 24 subjects who were having an arm heated to the point of moderate pain. The subjects’ brain patterns were recorded both as they experienced pain and zero pain. The researchers then used an algorithm to develop a pain model, based on the patterns. The work was published in the journal PLoS One.

    The researchers then analyzed the brain scan patterns of 16 new subjects, some experiencing pain, some not. They found that their model accurately predicted pain levels 81 percent of the time.

    Most studies of physiology-based measurements of pain have focused on heart rate, skin conductance and EEG. These measures correlate with pain, but nothing has been accurate enough to substitute for self-reports.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/21/measure-pain-mri_n_974213.html