Musicogenic Epilepsy
This can often be referred to as music induced seizures. It is a form of reflexive epilepsy in which a seizure is triggered by music or specific frequencies. Sensitivity to music varies from person to person. Some people are sensitive to a particular tone from a voice or instrument. Others are sensitive to a particular musical style or rhythm. Still others are sensitive to a range of noises.
Extreme cases can result in any sort of music triggering a seizure, to even someone’s voice. What a strange nightmare.
Musicophilia
The books starts off with a strange symptom of Musicophilia. Often brought on by traumatic events, or in the books case a flash of lightning; musicophilia refers to a sudden strange connection and love for music.
Patients affected often hear music in their heads, have an urge to grab an instrument and play it, and write music. They do not have to come from a musical background, the music just comes to them.
This type of experience can be often traced back to cases of temporal lobe tumors. But it is still a mystery of how this exactly happens, and how a person can get so engrossed in music.
“Imagine what we look like to all the other primates.. they are probably thinking how do they do that with their spines? How are they standing upright? They’re such freaks and weirdos.” — natural history museum, behind the scenes.
One of the books I’ve been reading this summer is Dr. Oliver Sacks’ Musicophilia. So tune in for a bunch of musical wonders in the medical world.
DUKE: Bioengineered Blood Vessel Transplant.
The Duke team is not the first-ever to perform the operation as clinical trials for bioengineered veins began in Poland in December. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently agreed to allow a phase 1 trial involving 20 kidney dialysis patients in the United States. The concept of bioengineering veins came alive in 2011 when an East Carolina University team announced they successfully grew a bioengineered blood vessel.
The refined technique uses donated human tissue to seed the blood vessel matrix. The resulting vein is washed with a special solution to rinse out any cells that might trigger an immune response. “At the end of the process, we have a non-living, immunologically silent graft that can be stored on the shelf and used in patients whenever they need it,” Niklason said. “Unlike other synthetic replacements made of Teflon or Dacron, which tend to be stiff, our blood vessels mechanically match the arteries and veins they are being sewn to. We think this is an advantage.”
Engineers at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden developed a multi-purpose electronic device that can monitor a variety of electrophysiologic parameters simply by placing it on the relevant parts of the body. The Bio-patch, as it is called, can record ECG data when placed on the chest, while doing the same with EMG if stuck on skin over a muscle, and even EEG if it finds itself on a scalp. Moreover, the device has a thermometer built in for continuous body temperature monitoring.
The Bio-patch has been made small enough to be stuck on the body with comfort for hours at a time. This was possible in part thanks to an internal battery that’s about as thick as a sheet of paper and the fact that all the electronics were mounted on a flexible foil that improves comfort when the device is worn on the body.
Original article from medgadget, click through for it!
Nano Needles
In a world where everything is getting smaller and smaller, it was only a matter of time, where our medication would be nano-sized.
Researchers at Norwegian University of Science and Technology have been developing a bed of nano needles that can be used to inject chemicals directly into cells. The compounds to be tested are applied to the tips of the needles and cells are positioned on top. The technique still has a way to go since some of the cells are happy to be impaled and readily absorb the drugs being tested, while others tend to grow around the needles.
This technology can have amazing uses for very specific targeted disease treatments, and cancer therapies. I can’t wait for future studies being released!
Turner Syndrome
A 66-year-old apparently male patient made a stunning discovery when he sought treatment for swelling in his abdomen. The swelling was a cyst on his ovary and he was in fact a woman.
The condition was caused by a very rare combination of two genetic disorders. One, Turner syndrome, causes women to lack some female features, including the ability to get pregnant.
Sufferers usually look like women, but in this case the patient also had congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), which boosted the male hormones and made the patient look like a man.
The case was reported by doctors from Kwong Wah Hospital and Queen Elizabeth Hospital, who treated the patient. It was published in the Hong Kong Medical Journal yesterday.
The 66-year-old Vietnam-born Chinese man is an orphan. He has a beard, small penis and no testes. Just 1.37 metres tall, he has decided to continue perceiving himself as a male and may receive male hormone treatment, the report said.
A very strange case; something that we wouldn’t see too often today.
Something I am personally very interested in is the delivery system of medicine. The main things we think of are IV or pills, but beyond that there are so many unique methods being researched everyday.
Here is one that shows our technology at its finest. Most nanoparticle delivery systems in development that target tumors rely on using antibodies to bind specific receptors on cancer cells. This allows the therapeutic particles to both get to the tumor site and to stick to it.
A new technique in development at University of California, San Diego instead uses novel materials that change shape in response to the presence of enzymes commonly found in some cancers.
Novel Malaria Test Aids Elimination Efforts Worldwide
Currently, there are two widely used techniques implemented to detect malaria in those potentially infected: microscopy in developing countries and PCR at institutions that have more funds and trained personnel. However, microscopy is not the most accurate test.
Therefore, Dr. Heidi Hopkins and her team at the the Foundation For Innovative New Diagnostics in Switzerland, tested the accuracy of a new rapid test called the LAMP (Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification) Test which was developed by Eiken Chemicals in Japan. The results were promising.
“The sensitivity of both LAMP and single-well nested PCR was 90%; the microscopy sensitivity was 51%.
The best part is that a highly trained technician is not needed to perform the LAMP test, unlike qPCR. For the LAMP test, one needs only the following: a Blood Sample, Reactive Powder, and Heat. After an hour, if the solution glows, the presence of the Plasmodium Falciparum is confirmed. There just is not a test out there that is as simple and accurate and that can be implemented on a large scale with little to no training. For both PCR and microscopy require a technician able to either identify the Plasmodium Falciparum on a slide or perform an accurate qPCR.
Dr. Sutherland who also worked on the project had the following to say:
“Patterns of malaria disease in Africa and elsewhere across the tropics are becoming much less predictable, and control of malaria needs an appropriate test to identify infected individuals in the populations at risk. These people may not display any malaria symptoms. We have begun using LAMP as a new tool for identifying “hot spots” of malaria infections which can be mopped up quickly through a combination of drug treatment, house spraying and distribution of bed-nets.
“LAMP will potentially contribute to saving many families and communities from the blight of a disease that keeps children from succeeding at school, prevents adults from growing food or working, holds back regional economies and exacts an annual death toll in the hundreds of thousands.”
Innovation can save lives, and that is why I believe creativity should be more highly valued.