Pink, Pearls and Pathogens

One of my study partners came up with this for our cardio exam. Since it was about 20% valvular disease, it saved my ass. 

As a brief explanation, A = Aortic valve, P = Pulmonary valve, M = Mitral valve, T = tricuspid valve. It pairs up if a murmur is systolic or diastolic and associated with stenosis or regurgitation of a particular valve.

Happens to work out that Aortic & Pulmonary stenosis are both Systolic Ejection murmurs, Mitral & Tricuspid Regurgitation are both Holosystolic murmurs and both Mitral & Tricuspid Stenosis both can occur as a result of Rheumatic Fever. 

Amy Schumer absolutely nailed what’s wrong with women’s health in America by literally putting Congressmen in charge of her body. But more than that she exposed the hypocrisy in how they treat her.

Some days you save people, you code them and bring them back from death. Sometimes you change your patients life, or hand them a brand new baby. Or let them know that they will die, and then help them say goodbye. Some days you are a superhero, a warrior in white, a steady hand and a calm voice.

And some days you have to educate a full grown adult on why applying Purell to a freshly shaved vagina is a terrible idea……

Study Reveals the Possibility of Curbing Synapse Loss in Alzheimer’s, New Potential Treatment Target

Researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital show how brain connections, or synapses, are lost early in Alzheimer’s disease and demonstrate that the process starts – and could potentially be halted –  before telltale plaques accumulate in the brain. Their work, published online by Science on March 31, suggests new therapeutic targets to preserve cognitive function early in Alzheimer’s disease.

Led by Beth Stevens, PhD, and Soyon Hong, PhD, of Boston Children’s F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Center, the researchers show in multiple mouse models of Alzheimer’s that mechanisms similar to those used to “prune” excess synapses in the healthy developing brain are wrongly activated later in life. By blocking these mechanisms, they were able to reduce synapse loss in the mice.

Currently, there are five FDA-approved drugs for Alzheimer’s, but these only boost cognition temporarily and do not address the root causes of cognitive impairment in Alzheimer’s. Many newer drugs in the pipeline seek to eliminate amyloid plaque deposits or reduce inflammation in the brain, but the new research from Boston Children’s suggests that Alzheimer’s could be targeted much earlier, before these pathologic changes occur.

Read more

Funding:  The study was funded by Edward R. and Anne G. Lefler Fellowship, Coins for Alzheimer’s Research Trust, Fidelity Biosciences Research Initiative (F-Prime), JPB Foundation and the National Institutes of Health (AG000222), NINDS-NIH R01NS083845 and the NIH National Institute on Aging (1RF1AG051496A).

Another day, another shrine in my honor, sigh.