November 2007 Blog Archive
Friday, November 30, 2007
Brain Scans Show Effectiveness of Gene-Based Therapy for Parkinson's
Through the use of brain scan technology, doctors have been able to determine that a new therapy for Parkinson's is effective.
The first gene-based therapy for Parkinson's disease has been found to be effective following brain scans of patients who received the treatment as part of an on-going trial. The success marks an important landmark for gene therapy, which has never before been used to treat a degenerative brain disease in humans.(Source)
Parkinson's is a problem that hasn't been able to be resolved yet with medicine. As such, researchers are working hard to find ways to offer medical options to people suffering from the disease. This particular research used injections of a gene-modified virus into the affected areas of the brain to limit the effect of the disease on the motor control of the patient.
Brain scans done on the study patients found that after six months of treatments, the patients had an average of thirty percent improvement in their function. Without the scans, it would have been impossible to determine if the treatment itself was beneficial or if the placebo effect was at work. The scans revealed that actual improvment did occur in the brain.
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Thursday, November 29, 2007
Rural Patients are Better About Utilizing Preventive Imaging
If you were asked to stereotype the average person who was likely to go in to the
doctor for preventive imaging, what would you say? More specifically, if you were asked where the person lived, would you say in a city or out in the country? Most people would assume that it's the urban individual who is more likely to take advantage of the benefits of preventive medicine. Most people would be wrong.
Research indicates that rural patients are actually more likely than their urban counterparts to receive an early diagnosis for both lung cancer and colon cancer. This information flies in the face of stereotypes which tend to have people believing that medical technology is more readily available and so more widely used in urban areas than in rural ones.
Being aware of the truth behind the stereotypes help doctors better treat their patients. "Knowing which types of patients are more likely to present with more advanced cancers helps doctors better implement screening efforts, allowing them to diagnose patients at earlier stages and improve their prognoses." (
Source) It also helps remind urban dwellers that they might want to take a lesson from their rural friends every now and then.
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Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Unique Imaging used in 5-year Osteoporosis Research Project
A standard
bone density scan can help to identify the onset and development risk of osteoporosis. However, for doctors interested in researching the disease in order to find new prevention and treatment, it is necessary to use a more detailed scan. That's what researchers are
doing now as part of a five-year osteoporosis research project.
The lead researcher on the project, Liyun Wang, developed a unique microscopic imaging method which uses flourescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP). The goal of the research is to use this method to actually see inside the living bone to better understand the transfer of communication between the bone and the cells. This is something that has never been accomplished before.
The research project, which was ranked in the top five percent of proposals recommended for NIH funding, could help doctors better understand the development of osteoporosis. Until then, it remains important for people at risk of osteoporosis to
find a doctor who can perform a bone density scan to at least assist in treating the disease as well as we can today.
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Tuesday, November 27, 2007
PET Scans Recommended after Cervical Cancer Treatment
When you think about getting a preventive
body scan, it's usually because you want to try and catch a disease early in its progression. However, body scans are frequently used after a disease has already been caught and treated. The post-treatment scans help to make sure that the treatment was successful. Alternatively, they can let patients know if additional treatment is required to eliminate the problem. As such,
PET scans are
being recommended for women who have had treatment for cervical cancer.
Patients who return to the doctor three months after treatment for cervical cancer can undergo a full body scan to determine whether or not they are in the clear. PET scans are used in place of
MRI or
CT scans because the tumors that are unique to cervical cancer show up best on these types of scans. In addition to making sure that additional treatment is not necessary, this can give significant peace of mind to patients who have undergone the traumatic experience of dealing with this kind of cancer.
Studies have shown that these PET scans are a reliable indicator of the success of treatment and the patient's hope for a cancer-free future. Additionally, such PET scans can provide useful information to doctors for the development of new treatments to aid future patients.
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Monday, November 26, 2007
Our Doctors in the News
Mike Azzarello had a well-founded fear of cancer. Both of his parents died prematurely from the disease and he knew that there was a good chance that he was at risk. Instead of waiting until it was too late to do anything about it, Azzarello decided to get a preventative
full body scan.
Azzarello went to one of
our facilities,
Virtual Physical, in Maryland. As noted in a
news report on the case, the name of the facility refers to the fact that a preventive scan is akin to a virtual tour of the insides of the body.
Azzarello's virtual body tour revealed that he did indeed have a reason for concern. A 7-pound malignant tumor was discovered on his kidney. Finding the tumor before it had done significant damage to his body gave Azzarello a better chance at beating the disease.
Even people who don't find malignant tumors in their scans are often glad that they foot the bill for preventive imaging. "A lot of people come here just for peace of mind," says Denise Gscheidle of Virtual Physical in Rockville.
You can view the full video report of Azzarello's treatment
here. You'll notice that the report also mentions the value of the
virtual colonoscopy which is another service provided at our facilities.
Friday, November 23, 2007
What an MRI may tell us about Pedophiles
We have always kind of assumed that something must be wrong in the mind of a pedophile. The average person just doesn't consider it "normal" to be attracted to children and it certainly isn't acceptable to act on that attraction. But it's not like we're able to just look at the brain and see a sign that reads "warning: pedophile in here". Or can we?
Research indicates that we may be able to take an
MRI brain scan and see clues that someone is likely to be a pedophile. The brain of the pedophile appears to have a smaller area of grey matter than that of the average person. This leads to the conclusion that an MRI scan has the potential to predict pedophiliac behavior before it takes place.
Of course, this brings up a number of ethical problems. We can't just order that everyone undergoes an MRI scan at birth. And we can't punish people for crimes that didn't yet occur. But in in the interest of keeping the public safe, an
MRI scan might be one diagnostic tool used in the assessment of criminals who appear to be on a path towards committing crimes against children.
It's a narrow tightrope to walk. Medical technology may allow us more insight into the brain of those people who are harming society. But our constitutional rights and the justice system act in a sort of checks-and-balances way to make sure that we don't abuse medical insights to incarcerate people for things they haven't done.
Question of the Day: When do you think an MRI brain scan should be used to determine the likelihood that someone will be a pedophile?photo link
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Tell Us About the Scan You're Thankful For
We all have a lot to be thankful for on this day of celebration. We have families that love us, friends that support us and lives filled with at least a few things that we're happy to share with others. One of the most common things that people express thankfulness for at this time of year is the fact that they have their health.
Although our bodies are impressively resilient, they are also rather fragile. We can lose our health in a heartbeat. Literally. And when we suffer from medical problems, we begin to be thankful for the medicine that has helped us get better. In some cases, that medicine has been some sort of preventive health medicine.
Often, it is a scan that we find ourselves grateful for. We're suffering from horrible headaches and a
brain scan reveals a tumor that we can have removed before serious damage is done. We catch cancer with a
lung scan before it goes to the bones. We are able to make necessary changes to our diet after a
bone density scan reveals that failure to make such changes poses risks to our future health.
Preventive health gives us many things to be thankful for. And we want to hear your story.
What scan did you have done that you're thankful for this year?photo link
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Brain Scan can Identify ADHD
ADD /
ADHD is a medical problem that many people take issue with due to the fact that it is not well understood. It's a psychological condition which some people say is a serious problem and others insist is just a made-up phenomenon which parents use as an excuse for their children's unruly behavior. New medical
findings may help to end that argument.
"A new study compares the brain scans of about 450 children, monitoring 40,000 sites in the brain. It found that kids with ADHD had a region in the front of their brains that developed about three years slower than children who didn't have the condition. It also found that the section of their brains that controls movement matured faster than kids without ADHD."
There are different kinds of ADHD with different types of symptoms which hasn't exactly contributed to the better understanding of the disease among the general public. These two sections of the brain relate directly to two of the major symptoms of these different types of ADHD (hyperactivity and inattention). This helps to explain the different types of the disease that we have seen develop in children.
This study is important because it helps lend credibility to the case for ADHD as a serious problem. This will allow it to be taken more seriously by parents and educators. More importantly, it gives the medical community a leg to stand on when researching new treatments for ADHD. Parents and children alike can benefit from relieved symptoms when ADHD is identified and treated.
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Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Will MA Court Mandate MRI?
A
Massachusetts fraud case is held up in court while a judge decides whether or not to mandate that the defendant undergo an
MRI. Kathrine Wieder used to be the chief forensic investigator for the state. She left the position in 2005 when 44 fraud and theft charges were brought against her as a result of her failure to inspect bodies before sending them off to cremation. During the course of these lawsuits, Wieder began to complain about anxiety and medical problems related to multiple sclerosis. She claims that these problems make her unfit to stand trial. The prosecutor in the case wants the court to order an
MRI scan of Wieder's brain to determine whether or not she has MS. She has not previously had an MRI.
"Given her history, this is a surprising omission, as MRIs are recognized as valuable tools in establishing or confirming the diagnosis and assessing for disease progression."
The MRI brain scan is frequently used in the MS diagnosis. In this case, it could determine if Wieder does indeed have the disease. More importantly, it could help determine how far along that disease is, assisting medical examiners in determining whether or not she is fit to stand trial. The judge hasn't yet determined whether or not she should court-order an MRI for this purpose. Her decision should come within the next week or so.
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Monday, November 19, 2007
New PET Scan Distinguishes Alzheimer's from Dementia
Dementia and
Alzheimer's are two conditions which look similar to the average person. In fact, they look similar to many doctors. Diagnosis between the two is difficult which makes the development of treatments for either of them hard for researchers. A
new breakthrough at the University of Utah makes differentiating between the two problems easier.
A dementia expert at the university has found that a special
PET scan, the FDG-PET scan, can help doctors tell whether a patient is suffering from Alzheimer's or whether it is dementia. In terms of what's going on in the brain, the major difference between the two is that Alzheimer's affects the back of the brain while dementia attacks the front. The scan allows doctors to tell which part of the brain is being affected in order to make a correct diagnosis.
This diagnosis is important for the individual patient as well as for researchers developing treatments for either disease. The symptoms and development of each disease appear similar but affect different areas of the brain function. Treatments to come in the future will depend on treating the right area of the brain for each patient. Those treatments have not yet been developed but doctors are one step closer if they can properly diagnose their diseases.
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Friday, November 16, 2007
Catch Early Onset Alzheimer's with a Brain Scan
You're middle-aged. Maybe you're nearing
menopause (or
andropause). Maybe you're not even quite there yet. But you're getting older and you realize that something is off. You're more forgetful than you used to be. Your attention span is shorter. The work that once came so easily to you is more difficult to complete. You're still young but you attribute these effects to aging.
The symptoms may be signs of aging, but they may be signs of something that can happen as a result of aging: Alzheimer's. You don't have to be pushing a century in age to start experiencing this devastating disease. You don't even have to be old enough to qualify for a
reverse mortgage. You could be in your fifties and begin to see the effects of Alzheimer's creeping in to your life.
This is particualrly true if you come from a family with a history of Alzheimer's. If relatives on both sides of your family tree suffered from the disease, you might want to keep an eye out for the symptoms. If you begin to notice them, you may consider getting a
brain scan to see if you do indeed have Alzheimer's. (Read one man's story about this exact scenario at the
LA Times.)
Catching Alzheimer's early won't help you avoid the effects of the disease. There is no cure for this problem. But you'll be able to prepare your life for coping with it. You can set important matters in order, make decisions about your future care and assist your family in understanding what is going to happen in the years to come. These things will mitigate the damages and assist you in living a more full life in spite of the disease
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Thursday, November 15, 2007
North Carolina Doctors Compete for MRI
You might think that it's fairly easy for a medical facility to acquire the technology that it needs in order to be able to best serve its patients. Sure, the equipment is expensive. But once the facility locates the funding, they just order the machine and it arrives, right?
Wrong.
In the region of Charlotte, North Carolina, two medical facilities are in
tight competition to get approval to purchase
MRI equipment. The equipment, which is needed for scanning the body to improve preventive health measures in the area, will likely only be approved for one of the facilities.
This is due to a law in the area which mandates that medical facilities file "certificate-of-need" applications with the state prior to purchasing any new equipment. The state must approve the equipment or purchase is not allowed. Approval is due in part to whether or not other facilities in the region have similar equipment. The purpose of this is to decrease overall health care costs by avoiding equipment duplication within a single region.
So if you're ever wondering why you have to drive out of your way to
find a doctor who can perform the MRI that you need, that could be one of the reasons.
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Wednesday, November 14, 2007
CT Scans Found to be Reliable for Heart Disease Prevention
Heart disease is a major cause of death. It concerns a great number of people. As a result, many people regularly get check-ups for their heart. No one wants their ticker to stop ticking. But to get the heart checked out isn't an easy procedure. Searching for blockages can be invasive and expensive. New technology may be making preventive healing of the heart a much easier procedure.
Angioplasty.org reports that Johns Hopkins medical researchers have concluded that the 64-slice CT
heart scan is as effective as more invasive procedures at finding blockages in the heart. It can also scan for blockages in the arteries surrounding the heart. This makes it a terrific tool for identifying heart problems before they become disastrous and allowing for preventive measures to improve overall health.
The new 64-slice CT scan offers vast improvement over the old 16-slice version. The old technology was only as accurate as invasive catheterization testing twenty to thirty percent of the time. The new technology is accurate ninety percent of the time.
Patients who undergo the heart scan may find that they need other proceudres such as coronary bypass surgery. Revealing such matters in advance can be a life-saving technique. And for those people whose heart scans reveal that they don't need any other work done, the peace of mind that comes along with the news is invaluable.
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Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Brain Scan May Reveal Child's Headache Caused by Tumor
Parents used to tell their children that "kids don't get headaches". Nowadays, of course, we know that kids do get headaches. In fact, we know that the lives of children can be incredibly stressful and that stress-related headaches are not uncommon among children of nearly all ages. However, we might have begun to err too much on the side of not worrying about our kids' headaches, attributing them to stress when they may be caused by something much more serious.
Speaking about responses to his new book,
How Doctors Think, Dr. Jerome Groopman
recently said that one of the biggest things he's seen is parents whose children have had headaches misdiagnosed as caused by stress. In reality, these headaches were caused by tumors. He writes:
"I had three stories sent to me about kids whose headaches that went on for months were attributed to stress. Everything in the society now is stress. And they of course turned out to have brain tumors. Most kids with headaches don't have brain tumors. But when the headache is lasting five or six months, to keep hammering on stress and tell the parents it's not worth getting a brain scan is a mistake."
Headaches are a somewhat mysterious medical thing, commonly experienced by a range of people. Even kids get headaches. But they shouldn't be taken lightly. If headaches in children persist over time, the cause could be something as serious as a tumor. A
brain scan may be in order to err on the side of caution.
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Monday, November 12, 2007
Could a Scan for Deep Vein Thrombosis Save your Life?
You probably don't ever think about your risk of getting Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT). You may not even know what the condition is. But if you were told that it kills more people each year than are killed by breast cancer or traffic accidents, you might take the time to get some information about it. And if you knew that you may be at risk for DVT but not have symptoms, you might consider the importance of getting a body scan to help determine your risk level.
The Ledger reported last week on DVT. Specifically, it reported on the case of a woman who went to her doctor because of an abnormality in a leg in her vein. She was told that it was just
varicose veins beginning to form, a natural part of
aging. But that wasn't the case. She became increasingly sick. Months later, she got a
CT Scan which showed that she had clots in her lungs. She had Deep Vein Thrombosis.
"It's the most preventable cause of death in the hospital," says Dr. Sandy Benjamin, medical director of laboratories at Carolinas Medical Center-Mercy.
You don't have to run out right this minute and get a scan to check for DVT. But you might consider making an appointment with a doctor (
find one here) to discuss your risk level for DVT. You know that you need to wear your seat belt and get a mammogram; know that you also need to think about DVT.
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Friday, November 09, 2007
Lung Scans for Non-Smokers?
The
CancerWise News Site reported last week on a problem that seems to be plaguing our nation. The problem is that there are a significant number of people who are non-smokers but end up suffering from lung cancer. In most cases, this is probably caused by exposure to secondhand smoke (also known as passive smoking). They report on two different cases in which CT scans revealed lung cancer in non-smoking patients.
In the first case profiled in the report, a middle-aged man had battled cancer for years after growing up in a smoking household. Despite this, he failed to get regular CT scans. Luckily for him, a new doctor recommended that a look be taken at his lungs and it was indeed found that he had lung cancer. The information was obtained by a chest X-ray and then confirmed by a
PET scan.
In the second case, an elderly man not only grew up in a smoking household but also lived for fifty years with a wife who smoked. His wife passed away in 2003, due in part to lung cancer. The following year, the man had a mild stroke. In the course of treating him for the stroke, a CT scan revealed that he had lung cancer despite the fact that he himself had not ever smoked.
Of course, no one is suggesting that every single person has to rush out right now and get a
lung scan. But if you've lived with someone who smoked, there's a good chance that you could be at risk for lung cancer. The report says that one in five women and one in ten men wih lung cancer are non-smokers. For these people, a scan could be the difference between life and death.
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Thursday, November 08, 2007
MRI Shows Sleeplessness Leads to Emotional Issues
Most of us know that when we get tired, we get grumpy. We tend to be more easily irritated and to have our emotions jump around from place to place because we haven't gotten enough sleep. We see it in babies and we sometimes admit it as adults. But now a
study done through the use of
MRI scanning technology proves that there is a direct link between lack of sleep and heightened emotional discomfort.
The study, which was done by researchers from UC Berkeley and Harvard Medical schools, used MRI scans to measure activity in the amygdala which is the region of the brain that registers emotional reactions. Using negative visual stimuli, the researchers created reactions in the brain amongst the participants in the study. The research showed that those people who had gotten less than eight hours of sleep were more prone to have negative emotional reactions to the stimuli than were those people who had gotten enough sleep.
Those people who have trouble with insomnia may want to consider what other effects the lack of sleep is having on the brain. Working with doctors, you should be able to find a solution that will let you sleep and therefore put your emotions back on the right track.
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Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Could an MRI be Used as a Lie Detector Test?
When you think about the traditional lie detector test, you probably imagine the machines that you've seen on your favorite late night crime dramas. These tests monitor various changes in the body in an attempt to tell if someone is lying. They are considered to be a good indicator of whether or not someone is telling the truth, but they aren't considered to be scientifically accurate. In fact, despite being seen regularly in crime dramas, these lie detector tests aren't admissable into courts as evidence.
Perhaps it's time for more advanced technology for detecting lies.
Recent discoveries made by a neuroscientist at The University of Pennsylvania suggest than MRI scans might be this more advanced technology. In doing research into the lying impulses of children with ADD, Dr. Daniel Langleben discovered that the functional MRI (fMRI) might be capable of determining that a lie is taking place as it occurs.
"The key point is that you need to exercise a system that is in charge of regulating and controlling your behavior when you lie more than when you just say the truth," Langleben said. "Three areas of the brain generally become more active during deception: the anterior cingulated cortex, the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex and the parietal cortex."
That scientific jargon basically say that there are three parts of the brain that begin working when you lie. An
MRI scan might be able to measure those parts of the brain to identify such changes. This scientific information has been picked up by the sales community which is already trying to promote such technology as the
No Lie MRI.
In truth, a little more research probably needs to go into studying the changes of the brain that occur during lying. Additionally, we would need to look at the potential consequences of the MRI when used for this purpose. But it's an interesting proposition to consider for the future. If nothing else, it would make a great addition to a new late night crime drama.
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Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Good Reasons to Get a Brain Scan
Should you get a
brain scan done to see if there are any abnormalities that could endanger your health? Doctors seem to be divided on the issue. On the one hand, brain scans often find problems such as aneurysms which can be fatal if not detected early by scanning technology. On the other hand, some doctors say that you should only do brain scans with good cause, not just randomly go about doing them for no reason. Either side may be right in this argument.
Las Vegas Now
reported on this issue last week. They discussed the case of Judy Goatley who had an
MRI scan which revealed a life-threatening aneurysm. It is very likely that the scan saved her life. Additionally, they cite a recent study which showed that seven percent of brain scan patients were suffering from abnormalities (including aneurysms) without showing symptoms. This would suggest that brain scans are a good idea.
However, the article also points out that most people want a good reason to get a scan. Good reasons include dizziness, headaches, and even unexplained feelings of "not being well". If you feel completely healthy and are relatively young, you might not want to get a brain scan done just yet. But if you show symptoms, you should probably see what's going on. After all, isn't it better to be safe than sorry where your brain is concerned?
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Monday, November 05, 2007
Hate Hospitals? Get Your Body Scan at a Hotel.
Do you hate going to doctors? It's okay; we understand. Nobody really likes the process of going to the doctor but we do it anyway because we know it's important for our health. Besides, we like getting the information that the doctor can provide us with ... we just don't like the actual process.
Pennsylvania residents
recently got the chance to get some of the benefits of the doctor without having to go through the whole hospital / doctor's office issue. They were able to receive total
body scans at a local hotel! Kidneys, livers, thyroid and
heart conditions were all part of what was monitored in the scan for a total cost of only $500. Many people found the opportunity to find out what was going on inside their bodies a little too good to pass up.
Whatever gimmicks get people out and checking their bodies, it's a good thing. However, it's always recommended that you suck up that fear and go to a doctor's office to get the most accurate information about your health. A
doctor trained in preventive imaging will be able to give you the best and most accurate information and advice. And in the end, aren't you usually glad you went to the doctor?
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Friday, November 02, 2007
CT Scan for Cancer Patients
The
Mount Vernon Sun ran an article last week that speaks to the importance of preventive imaging. The story is about a woman named Christine Rodman who is currently engaged in a battle with breast cancer. She went through several months of wrong diagnoses before the cancer was found, by which time it had reached a level four stage and was spreading through her body. A
CT scan was done that revealed that the breast cancer had spread into her bones.
Rodman is working to battle the cancer through chemotherapy treatments. She has a double mastectomy planned and will continue as advised by her doctor in the hopes of beating the disease. With a husband and four young children who love her, she has good reason to give life a fighting chance. And she has the support of her community which is helping to raise money to pay for MRI scan costs and other related medical expenses.
But the fact of the matter is that it's hard to fight a disease that has spread so far.
Preventive imaging helps to catch problems in the body before they have reached such a detrimental level. Scans can prevent misdiagnosis of disease and provide valuable time to patients who need it to ward off health problems. Even after the diagnosis, a scan is important to showing the exact spread of a disease like cancer and helping to make decisions about treatment easier to make.
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Thursday, November 01, 2007
Brain Scan Study Reveals Damage in High Altitude Climbers
In a
study done recently at a Spanish hospital, it was found that high altitude mountain climbers may be causing brain damage with their passionate hobby. However, a report now indicates that these findings may have been premature or incomplete. The report showed that of 35 people who made high altitude climbs, only one returned to the ground with a normal
brain scan. However, what wasn't revealed at the time was that these people had abnormal brain scans prior to the climb. This brings up the question of whether or not the brain scans mean anything in this particular study.
Brain scans of high altitude climbers have shown these kind of climbs can cause damage to the frontal lobes of the brain as well as to the drainage functions of the brain. This causes a significant number of problems amongst climbers, particularly those who aren't experienced enough to take the proper precautions when doing this kind of climbing. It has been suggested that the abnormal MRI scans from this study indicate that damage was already done to these climbers before the climb in question. In other words, there's no way to tell right now if the brain scan means anything. Nevertheless, it's probably a good idea for regular high altitude climbers to consider getting a brain scan of their own to prevent problems down the line.
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