Medicine

Prof. Camillo O. DI CICCO, M.D. XIth Congress of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology, Prague. The first studies of the disease go back to 1846 by B.C. Brodie, which describes a picture of lipomatosis symmetrical disseminated with interest of the neck in the job " Clinical Lectures on Surgery, Delivered at St George's Hospital " Philadelphya, Lea and Blanchard (pub) 1846 Pp 201-210. Subsequently such picture was described from Huguier (1855)), Founder (1863) and Vermeuil (1888). In the same year Otto W. Madelung has accurately described the symptomatology in very 33 clinical…

Even though Brodie is said to have first described diffuse symmetrical lipomatosis with predilection for the neck already in the 1846 (Clinical Lectures on Surgery, Delivered at St. George's Hospital Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard pub. Pp 201-201. Brodie, B.C.) still unknown is today the pathogenesis of Launois Bensaude' Lipomatosis. Klopstock et Al. are found in muscle biopsy specimens ragged and red fibers, pathologic subsarcolemmal accumulations of mitochondria, suggesting a mitochondrial abnormality. Biochemical analysis of respiratory chains shows a decreased of cytochrome c oxidase…

Birthmarks have always been something of a mystery. Scientists know that a hemangioma is a benign tumor of cells that line blood vessels, appearing during the first few weeks of life as a large birthmark or lesion, but not much more. Now a study published in Pediatric Dermatology answers some remaining questions and reveals that a disturbance of oxygen depletion was found in placentas of babies who developed infantile hemangioma (IH). Researchers reviewed placental samples from 26 pregnancies with babies who weighed less than 3.5 pounds, 13 consisting of newborns who developed IH after…

About 10 years ago, a UC San Diego psychology professor named Ben Williams, who is in my area of psychology (animal learning), managed to successfully cure his own terminal cancer by self-experimentation. He wrote a book about it called Surviving Terminal Cancer. As this WSJ story shows, his approach — which can be summed up think for yourself — is spreading. Just as my dermatologist was irritated by my acne self-experimentation (”Why did you do that?” he asked), Ben’s oncologist, a University of Washington med school prof named Marc Chamberlain, was against what Ben did. Chamberlain now…

Levels of cholesterol in the membranes of hair cells in the inner ear can affect your hearing, said a consortium of researchers from Baylor College of Medicine, Rice University and Purdue University in a report in today’s print edition of The Journal of Biological Chemistry. Dr. William Brownell, professor of otolaryngology at BCM and his colleagues, said that the amount of cholesterol in the outer hair cell membrane found in the inner ear can affect hearing. “We’ve known for a long time that cholesterol is lower in the outer hair cell membranes than in the other cells of the body,” said…

Patricia Ford, MD, a hematologist/oncologist and Medical Director of the Center for Bloodless Medicine and Surgery at Pennsylvania Hospital, is one of the pioneers of bloodless surgery and has been teaching its technique to doctors around the world. One technique a bloodless surgery can employ is called “cell salvage” in which blood lost during surgery is siphoned from the body, passed through a filter for cleaning and returned to the body. It can also be used by the physician during surgery to limit blood loss and to avoid the need for transfusion of blood from sources other than the…

One way to alleviate the pain of banging your shin while on a hike is to encounter a grizzly bear—a well-known phenomenon called stress-induced analgesia. Now, researchers have elucidated a key mechanism by which the stress hormone noradrenaline — which floods the bloodstream during grizzly encounters and other stressful events — affects the brain’s pain-processing pathway to produce such analgesia. Pankaj Sah and colleagues published their findings in the December 6, 2007, issue of the journal Neuron, published by Cell Press. In an accompanying perspective article on the research, Harvard…

People with high blood pressure may find relief from Transcendental Meditation, a controversial alternative to medicine promoted by the Maharishi University of Management in Iowa, where some of the co-authors sell their techniques. Their meta-analysis was 107 published studies on stress reduction programs and high blood pressure and published in the December issue of Current Hypertension Reports. The meta-analysis reviewed randomized, controlled trials of all stress reduction and relaxation methods in participants with high blood pressure that have been published in journals and concluded…

Following a heart attack, part of the heart tissue dies. It is still not possible to restore the scar tissue arising as a result of this. The majority of stem cell researchers attempt to make new heart muscle cells from stem cells. Liesbeth Winter of the Leiden University Medical Center, however, was able to prove the concept of using the embryonic potential of adult human cells to train the heart: this cell therapy ensured that less tissue died and that the remaining heart cells functioned better. The PhD student used the 'Epicardium Derived Cell' or EPDC. This cell plays a crucial role…

Before you plop in front of the television for a day of football, pizza and beer, you might consider this: new research shows that in young adults, decades of hard-won progress in reducing the risk of heart disease appears to be stalling, as recent death rates from coronary disease remain almost unchanged in young men and may even be increasing in women. The research, conducted at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, appears in the November 27, 2007, issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC). The worrisome plateau in death rates comes at a time…