October 2007 Blog Archive
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
New 3-D Brain Scan Technology
The brain is a complicated part of the body that requires very careful attention when being worked on by medical professionals. Because of that, medical researchers are always trying to find new ways to make brain surgery go more smoothly. This includes not only implementing new tools during surgical procedures but also developing new imaging methods that will make working on the brain easier for all of the professionals involved. To that end, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
is exploring what it can do with Diffusions Tensor Imaging (DTI) in
brain scans for tumor removal.
"This method provides images with more detail than conventional MRI imaging, allowing doctors to better map out a tumor's proximity to nerve tracts and plan the dissection. DTI captures information about water diffusion within fiber tracts. The technique provides colorful images of the brain showing 3-D views of the tumor and the nerve tracts."
The difficulty of brain surgery comes from the complexity of the brain. There are so many different parts of the brain that control function in the body and each of them is important. To remove a tumor without causing loss of various functions of the body, it is necessary to stay away from all of these different critical parts of the brain. The new DTI imaging should help to make that an even more improved process than
MRI imaging did for us in the past.
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Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Will You Be Part of the NHANES Preventive Health Study?
The Center for Disease Control has gone mobile and is out to do its NHANES study on selected participants around the country. For example,
Orange County residents who are participants in the study will start seeing the "health exam center on wheels" roll up to their doors this week. The participants will undergo approximately four hours of medical health testing in order to provide the CDC with "a snapshot of the health and nutrition of the U.S. population".
This gives participants the opportunity to get free
preventive imaging information that can be important to their health. This kind of testing normally costs a decent amount of money (depending on the procedure being done) so it's to the benefit of the participants to contribute to the study. Tests that may be done for the participants include a DXA body scan to
measure bone density as well as such other localized scans such as
lung scans.
The first part of participating in the study is speaking to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey taker who comes to your door to ask health questions. To get additional information about who is able to participate in the study and what it entails, you should check out the
CDC's website page on NHANES.
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Monday, October 29, 2007
Brain Scan Helps Thai Princess
Her Royal Highness Princess Galyani Vadhana of Thailand is not living a fairy tale life these days. She was
admitted to the hospital last week due to the fact that she began experiencing a significant weakening of the body on her right side. The princess and her family didn't know what was wrong with her but they certainly knew that something wasn't right. A
brain scan performed by the treating doctors uncovered the fact that the left side of the princess's brain has been severely damaged by clogged blood vessels. Catching the problem through the use of the brain scan allowed the doctors to begin treatment by medication.
The princess is no spring chicken. The eldest sister to the King of Thailand, she is eighty four years old. But that doesn't mean that she doesn't deserve the royal treatment when it comes to diagnosing and medicating the problem at hand. Unfortunately, the brain scan's findings are not the only medical issue that the princess is contending with. She was also recently diagnosed with cancer and is undergoing treatment for that as well. Despite the difficulties, she is hoping that ongoing
preventive treatment can improve her condition.
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Friday, October 26, 2007
CT Scan Reveals Toothbrush in Woman's Nose
Fridays are always a good day for a little bit of light reading, right? And weird news from around the world falls in to that category. The news comes
from India via AHN and reports on a case last week in which a
CT scan revealed that a woman had surgery for removal of a toothbrush that was lodged in her nose. Is this for real?!
According to the report, a middle-aged woman in Mumbai was brushing her teeth when her husband accidentally bumped into her. The jarring motion caused the toothbrush that she was using to jam up in to her nose. It broke off and she was reportedly unable to locate a portion of it. After a short time, her nose began emitting a noxious stench and she began having difficulty breathing.
For some reason, it took the woman two months before she went to the hospital. She reported severe pain to the doctors who immediately noted the smell of her nose. They performed a CT scan and that was when the toothbrush was discovered. It was surgically removed immediately. Or so the news report says anyway.
This may be a funny news story to cap off the end of the week, but it belies the seriousness of the CT scan.
CT scans can be used to catch a whole range of different problems in the body. This just happens to be one of the more unlikely ones.
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Thursday, October 25, 2007
Catch Alzheimer's Early with a Brain Scan
Alzheimer's is a detrimental disease which wreaks havoc not only on the person suffering from it but also on all of those around him or her. It takes over the brain and body, causing a loss of memory which creates pain for everyone involved in the situation, especially the patient. And there is no cure. But it has been shown that catching Alzheimer's in its early stages allows for preventative treatments which can slow the effects of the disease. One of the main methods of learning early on about Alzheimer's is through the use of a
brain scan.
The thing about Alzheimer's is that it is an insidious disease. It creeps up on you. You start to notice that something is amiss but you can't quite put your finger on what it is. For some people, the Alzheimer's takes over so slowly that they suffer increasingly bad effects for many years before anyone realizes what the problem is. But the problem is there all along, and a brain scan can reveal it.
By catching Alzheimer's early through a brain scan or
CT head scan, you give yourself the chance to start Alzheimer's medication early on while it can still be helpful in preventing the disease. This also allows you a lengthy period of "clear thought" in which you can study the disease, learn about the impact it may have on you and work with medical professionals for increased prevention. You want to be able to live with as much of your mind as possible in the years to come. Catching Alzheimer's early may do that for you.
Read one story about a woman's struggle with Alzheimer's which was discovered after a check-up and brain scan.
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Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Body Scans Hit The Airport
Preventive imaging technology was created for the purpose of improving the medical field. But this technology is now being used in new ways that having nothing at all to do with medicine. The Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix
recently became the first airport in what could be a series of them to adopt body scan technology for security purposes. This stirs up a lot of controversy amongst the public and brings up important issues of privacy. But it also speaks to the potential for imaging techniques to be used in new and important ways that may have been overlooked up until this time.
Much of the controversy coming from the use of
body scans at the airport is derived directly from the concern for individual privacy. Some of this controversy is linked to the fact that most people do not understand how the
total body scan works. They have concerns that the body scan is like the kind of X-ray imagery that you see on adolescent sitcoms, in which boys put on X-ray glasses and can see women's underwear through their clothes. Obviously, this isn't what the purpose of a body scan is.
Only time will tell whether body scans at the airport will end up becoming a part of the standard procedure. But this points towards a bigger trend that's worth paying some attention to. Medical technology, including the technology that is being used for all sorts of imaging scans, can be used in a variety of creative and innovative ways. As more people get access to exploring the use of this technology, possibilities will open up for a broad array of different fields.
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Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Heart Scan Helps Save Basketball Player
The students of the University of Louisiana could have been singing a mournful tune for one of their star basketball players if it weren't for a
heart scan and the ensuing medical attention that the player received. Clarence Holloway, a freshman on the school's basketball team,
was admitted to the hospital last month after experiencing a life-threatening tear in the wall of a large heart artery. At first diagnosed with a heart murmur, a heart scan quickly revealed the real problem. Holloway immediately underwent heart surgery and is now well on his way to a full recovery.
What came out after all of this was said and done was the information that the heart problem had probably been plaguing Holloway since he was in high school. It was further revealed that this was the same problem that had lead to the untimely death of Holloway's father. A heart scan done earlier may have caught the problem earlier and prevented it from reaching such a life-threatening stage. As it was, the
heart scan revealed information to the doctors in enough time to perform the surgery and eventually send Holloway back to the court.
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Monday, October 22, 2007
Calcium Scan for Breast Cancer?
If you're a woman, especially an older woman, you know that you need to be watching your calcium levels. You don't want to increase your risk of
osteoporosis because you have low calcium levels. You might even have had a
calcium scan done in the past so that you could be knowledgeable about your own calcium levels in order to assist with your osteoporosis prevention. But did you know that low calcium also increases the spread of breast cancer to the bone? If you are a woman who is currently fighting off breast cancer, you want to be particularly careful to keep those calcium levels up.
"Calcium deficiency, due either to low calcium in the diet or to vitamin D deficiency, is very common in older women, who are also the population at highest risk of breast cancer and breast cancer bone metastases," lead researcher Dr. Colin R. Dunstan pointed out to Reuters Health."
The information linking low calcium deficiency with increased rates of breast cancer migration to the bone comes from studies recently completed in Australia. The studies further confirmed that proper treatment of the calcium deficiency does work to counteract the problem, reducing breast tumors in the bone and decreasing the spread of growth. Women who are at high risk of breast cancer should be taking particular cautions to maintain their calcium levels. Of course, all women should be taking
preventative health measures by getting their daily dose of calcium anyway.
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Friday, October 19, 2007
Are CT Scans a "Mammogram of the Heart"?
A recent
post over at The Heart Scan Blog drew comparisons between the CT Heart Scan and the mammogram. The similarities that are pointed out include that both are low-radiation screening tests which are done on a periodic basis for specific age groups. The blog also points the interesting similarity that both the mammogram and the
heart scan is good for the purpose its intended for but isn't perfect, although when you think more about that, it makes sense for most medical techniques and doesn't necessarily point to a similarity specific to the scans.
The most interesting similarity pointed out between the two tests is how they both started off with a lack of acceptance among the general population and then grew to more widespread acceptance. However, it took the heart scan a significantly shorter period of time to gain that acceptance. Part of that may be due to the fact that the heart scan is significantly more effective at what it does than the mammogram is, despite the fact that the mammogram has been around longer. Plus, heart disease is a much more frequent killer of women than breast cancer so it perhaps serves a greater purpose in the eyes of many women.
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Thursday, October 18, 2007
Female Athletes on Steroids Risk Osteoporosis
Steroid use amongst athletes has typically been a male problem. However, the increased competitiveness that we are seeing in women's sports in recent years is also leading to an increased use of steroids amongst female athletes. A
recent online article took a look at the damage that steroids can do to the female body which is unique from what it does to male athletes.
Although many of the issues that come up regarding women and steroid use are related specifically to reproductive issues, another important area of concern was mentioned in the article. Steroid use in women leads to an increased risk of
osteoporosis. The article explains that this is "due to a steroid's exhaustion of a woman's blood circulating calcium (as well as other minerals) levels. When this occurs the body begins to leech stored calcium deposits directly from the bones leaving them brittle."
There are obviously a large number of reasons why women (and men also) should not take steroids. Concern about osteoporosis is one of them. Those athletes who have dabbled with steroid use in the past may consider getting a bone density scan to see if they have put themselves at risk.
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Wednesday, October 17, 2007
What Would a Bone Density Scan Reveal About George Clooney?
Actor George Clooney suffered a frightening
fall off of a motorcycle a few weeks ago and is still continuing to heal from the cracked ribs that were sustained from the crash. There really wasn't a whole lot that Clooney could have done to prevent the injury was there? Well, maybe there was. While it's common to get injured ribs from a fall like the one that he took, there are definitely ways to protect your bone density. The most common way, of course, is to eat a calcium-rich diet which helps sustain the density of the bones.
You can get your own bone density checked out with a
bone density scan. That way, if you're planning on doing some Clooney-style riding, you at least know what kind of risks you're taking. Having dense bones won't necessarily prevent you from getting hurt in a motorcycle accident, but it can help with that prevention and can also help with easing the healing process.
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Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Get a Body Scan Before Lipo or other Plastic Surgery
If you're thinking about getting lipo or any other
plastic surgery done, you should also be thinking about getting a
body scan. No, technically one thing doesn't have anything to do with the other. But if you're going to be making major changes to your life, such as improving the appearance of your body through lipo, then you should go all out with it. The appearance of your body on the outside is important, but you also need to be paying attention to what's going on inside your body. If you're getting
lipo or other plastic surgery because of serious weight problems, you might have weight-related problems that you aren't yet aware of.
Getting a body scan is a fairly simple procedure that will tell you if you have bigger things to worry about than how big you are. One of the most important parts of the body scan will be the heart scan. This is because overweight people often have heart conditions that can be found through the heart scan. Another important part of the body scan is the scan over the kidneys and liver. Weight problems are often related to a malfunction in either of these areas of the body. Wouldn't you want to find out before lipo if you were overweight because of a medical condition?
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Monday, October 15, 2007
FDA Approves New Angiographic Imaging Tool
The people over at Pinyons Medical Technology are having a good week because the
FDA just approved their new angiographic imaging tool so it can now begin to be marketed. The tool is called The PowrSyringe Injector. It is a hand-held
angiographic imaging device which reportedly has a unique ergonomic design that facilitates medical imaging.
"The PowrSyringe bridges the gap between syringes and electronic power injectors," said Shawn Fojtik, Pinyons Chief Executive Officer. "PowrSyringes should deliver the ease-of-use, cost-effective, and tactile feedback characteristics of a syringe, plus the faster injection speed and image quality benefits of electronic power injectors."
There are new products being developed all of the time to improve medicine. Some of them become standard in the industry because they are so efficient at making medical practices easier. And others fall by the wayside as just fads. Which way will The PowrSyringe go?
logo photo credit
Friday, October 12, 2007
Which Television Shows Teach You About Preventive Imaging?
There are a lot of television shows out there these days which show you different aspects of medicine. Of course, some of the details of these shows are more accurate than others when it comes to the reality of what happens at the hospital but these shows are important because they are raising awareness about different medical issues and procedures amongst the general public. Of these shows, which do you think are the ones that are best for teaching you the basic about preventive imaging? My personal favorite happens to be
House. Not only does the wit of that show keep me entertained but there is a lot of preventive imaging information presented throughout the episodes which helps you get a basic understanding of how
MRI scans,
PET scans and
total body scans can provide important information to doctors. Now if only the show could explain to people that preventive imaging is intended to be for preventative health and not just for resolving emergency situations, we'd be all set. Are there shows out there that achieve this aim better?
Thursday, October 11, 2007
America's Next Top Model Should Support Lung Scans
Believe it or not we're already four episodes into season nine of
America's Next Top Model. At the start of the season, we found out that Tyra was instituting a no-smoking ban in the house of the models as part of the season's theme of environmental and health awareness. The reason that this is important is that for so long, smoking has been seen as such a "cool" activity due in no small part to the fact that celebrities do it on camera. Sure, we're a long way from the days when the Marlboro Man and Ms. Virginia Slims were the ones that we looked up to but celebrities still play an important role in raising awareness about the dangers of smoking. One such way that this awareness could be heightened would be through spreading the word about
lung scans. Celebrities who smoke may get lung scans as part of their annual check-ups and awareness of that would increase awareness about the dangers of smoking.
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Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Walker's Heart Scan Shows All Clear
A recent article on the
Longmont Daily Times reported on the reasons that many people have taken to walking. One of the major reasons is that walking is good for the health of your heart. One example cited was that of Patty Brown, a middle-aged woman who started walking more than a decade ago after a loved family member died from a heart problem. Her heart health seems to be good according to her most recent
heart scan - probably due in no small part to this walking that she does. The walking in combination with the regular heart scan and a proper diet is one of the best ways to keep the heart healthy. Of course, walking also helps to keep weight under control which is another preventative hearth health measure.
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Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Does Celebrity Plastic Surgery Increase The Need For Body Scans?
Celebrity plastic surgery is as common in Hollywood these days as diet fads are. In fact, plastic surgery in general is sweeping the nation as individuals try to emulate the actions of the stars. That's all fine and dandy but when you're messing around with doing things to your body that weren't necessarily intended to be done, it's a wise idea to stay on top of the changes in the body that might be taking place as a result of your actions. This isn't to say that plastic surgery is bad or unsafe for celebrities or anyone else. It's just to point out that if you're having work done, you might want to think about staying aware of what changes that work does to your body. Preventive imaging can be one way to maintain that awareness. The likelihood that something might go wrong over time varies depending on the plastic surgery that you had done. Preventive imaging such as body scans can let you know if that surgery had any effects that you need to know about. If celebrities are aware of the
body scan trend, the public might catch on as well.
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Monday, October 08, 2007
Baby Boomers and Body Scans
Baby boomers are from that generation that questioned the status quo but then created a new one. That generation is now at the age where
preventive imaging techniques can be used to assist with preventative health plans that help prolong and improve the quality of life. As such, body scans seem to be a hot new
trend among the baby boomer generation, a generation which is known as much for its precautionary measures as for its revolutionary ones.
Baby boomers can choose to get a particular scan if they are worried about certain ailments that are already showing signs of cropping up. More often, these baby boomers are in relatively health condition and opt to get a series of scans or a body scan package to make sure that everything is in good working order. Will the younger generations follow the example set by the baby boomers or will their need to rebel reveal a trend in future years away from preventive imaging?
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Friday, October 05, 2007
Looking at Celebrity Plastic Surgery Gone Wrong
If you're interested in gossip that involves pictures instead of words, you might want to check out
Mr. Tabloid's recent photo blog post of bad celebrity plastic surgery. There are before and after celebrity plastic surgery photos which highlight what can happen when you try too hard to use plastic surgery to give you what nature just did not provide. The photos are really classic examples of stars that we know to have had lots of work done to remedy the damages that time (and sometimes hard drugs) have done. The photos show how plastic surgery didn't work for Kenny Rogers, Courtney Love, Michael Jackson, Cher and Joan Rivers. Of course, bad celebrity photos are only half the story about celebrity plastic surgery. In many cases, plastic surgery is what makes the hot folks look the way that they do. But there's a flip side to any coin and this recent post looks at that side, saying a whole lot about celebrity plastic surgery gone wrong without actually saying anything much at all.
Photo found here
Thursday, October 04, 2007
Skin-Activating Liposuction is not just for Celebrity Surgery
Rodeo Drive Plastic Surgery is a place that caters towards providing celebrity-level cosmetic surgery procedures to the average person living in the Los Angeles area. One of the
newest procedures that they are touting is a form of liposuction which they say uses a unique technique that results in a tighter, leaner post-surgery appearance. The technique is called Skin Activating Liposuction (and alternatively known as liposculpture) because it activates the skin with the purpose of reducing the likelihood of skin looseness after surgery. A major complaint by people who have gotten liposuction in the past is that the fat is gone but the skin hangs loose around where the fat used to be. Nobody wants to have a belly that looks like it had plastic surgery so changes in techniques have worked to tighten up the skin. Rodeo Drive Plastic Surgery claims that their technique does this efficiently, giving the average person the kind of taut body that normally only celebrities can achieve. The work is done at their "center within a center", LipoPlus, where the staff specializes specifically in liposuction.
photo found here
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Should Britney be a Celebrity with Cosmetic Surgery?
A
recent opinion article asks the question of whether or not plastic surgery could have saved Britney Spears from bombing in her MTV performance. The thing about Britney, as pointed out by the article, is that she probably doesn't "need" cosmetic surgery if she's willing to make some adjustments to her performance style. But if Britney really wants to bare it all on stage, some simple cosmetic surgery procedures could be in order to save her the embarrassment of a repeat talked-about performance.
The reality of Hollywood is that you need to be in tip-top shape to be accepted. No matter what your personal opinion is on the issue, most celebrities use cosmetic surgery to keep themselves looking good at this level of the game. Britney's comeback showed that you can't just be the average young mom in the industry, looking good for someone who has had a couple of kids in recent years. Instead, Hollywood demands that you look less like a mom and more like … well, a celebrity.
photo of Britney @ MTV awards found here
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Are You Getting Plastic Surgery to Look Like a Celebrity?
It's increasingly common to get plastic surgery and if you've done it or are considering doing it, you certainly shouldn't be ashamed. Plastic surgery is a completely reasonable way to get the look that you desire. But you should be aware of your reasons for getting cosmetic procedures done because if the reasons are wrong, the results are not going to be what you are looking for. Plastic surgery which is done to enhance a body that you're already mostly comfortable with can be a really positive experience. In contrast, plastic surgery which is undergone in the hopes of getting rid of low self-esteem will probably not be successful.
For many people, plastic surgery just helps to fix a flaw that they could be okay living with would prefer not to have. Cosmetic mole removal, laser hair removal, slight breast enhancements … these are all common procedures which improve the appearance of an otherwise appreciated body. In contrast, some people desperately get procedure after procedure done to fix perceived flaws in a hopeless effort at becoming "perfect".
If you're getting plastic surgery for yourself, it will probably be a positive experience. If you are getting plastic surgery solely to try to live up to some ideal, to look like a celebrity or to please someone else in your life, the results aren't going to be nearly so positive. Know your reasons before making the leap so that you can make plastic surgery work for you.
photo found here
Monday, October 01, 2007
Increase in Male Celebrity Who Undergone Plastic Surgery
It used to be that it was the females in the world of stardom that we all heard had undergone plastic surgery. That trend hasn't ceased, especially as plastic surgery has gotten increasingly more popular around the world. New procedures are making it possible for female celebrities to get their work done and get back to work without a blink in their schedule. But these new procedures have also sparked a new trend in the industry - an increase in the number of male celebrities who have undergone plastic surgery.
As awareness increases about men in Hollywood using plastic surgery to look their best, it's likely that men in the real world will start making more of those appointments as well. Botox is one increasingly requested procedure among fairly young men who want to make sure that their premature wrinkles aren't putting a wrinkle in their status with the ladies. Women these days have no reason that they can't have it all and men - in Hollywood and elsewhere - have to jump on the good looks bandwagon if they're going to want to keep up.
photo from Inmagine
