#hemodynamics

Sleeping Frogs

Clinging beneath leaves in the forests of South Mexico, glass frogs (Hyalinobatrachium fleischmanni) sleep soundly, hiding from predators with a clever trick – they’re almost completely transparent – but how? Here researchers use photoacoustic microscopy (PAM), a gentle technique where energy absorbed by tissues becomes sound that can be converted into pictures. While anaesthesia leaves the frog’s circulatory system visible (with blood cells deeper in the tissues shown in deeper shades of orange and red), PAM allowed the team to image naturally sleeping frogs, finding their blood cells had 'disappeared'. The team find the frog can 'hide' around 89% of its red blood cells in the liver – a feat of haemodynamics that would lead to massive clotting in other animals. Studying this process sheds new light on froggy camouflage but may also provide clues and strategies to human clotting disorders.

Written by John Ankers

Image from Dr. Junjie Yao’s lab at Duke University

Research from Dr. Junjie Yao’s lab by Carlos Taboada, Jesse Delia & Maomao Chen, and colleagues, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

Image copyright held by the original authors

Research published in Science, December 2022

3/2/2021

Today has been so low energy. Lotta random anxiety floating around in my brain which is really not helping my productivity.

Day 2: Zoomester studyblr challenge

If you've chosen a major, why did you decide on it? What field or major interests you the most?

I had 2 majors: Biology and Hispanic Studies.

I picked biology because I was interested in science (I hadn't yet decided to pursue medicine) and it was easier for me than chemistry. Honestly, it was okay but there were only a couple classes I absolutely loved (shout out to cancer cell biology seminar). I wish I'd had the opportunity to take anatomy & physiology in undergrad—it wasn't offered, but it would have been useful for medical school.

I picked Hispanic Studies because I have always enjoyed the humanities, and it was similar enough to an English major with the added zest of being in another language. Hispanic Studies allowed me to improve my Spanish (I'd taken it in middle school and high school but wasn't very good) while reading and discussing a lot of literature, historical and contemporary texts and events, and learning about different Spanish-speaking cultures. Conducting class in another language provided a new lens through which to view ideas and helped me be less shy. Writing an Honors thesis in Spanish was one of the highlights of my college experience.

Development of a statistical model for discrimination of rupture status in posterior communicating artery aneurysms

Acta Neurochirurgica (2018) 160:1643–1652

Intracranial aneurysms at the posterior communicating artery (PCOM) are known to have high rupture rates compared to other locations. We developed and internally validated a statistical model discriminating between ruptured and unruptured PCOM aneurysms based on hemodynamic and geometric parameters, angio-architectures, and patient age with the objective…

3/1/2021

I bought 5 lbs of grapefruit at the grocery store and that was easily the best decision I’ve made all week.

Eating lunch & studying hemodynamics—throwback to how much I disliked introductory physics back in undergrad. We are on Day 1 of Cardiology block and it’s already feeling like a chore.

Day 1: Zoomester studyblr challenge

My name is Emily. I’m studying medicine in the US (first year MD student). I’m interested in internal medicine, specifically oncology, but keeping an open mind about choosing a specialty. Pretty sure it won’t be cardiology lol.

Case Report

The patient is a 33 years old male who had a history of acute pulmonary embolism three and a half years back. He had received thrombolysis with alteplase and was subsequently on oral anticoagulants. After one year of the index episode, the patient started to experience progressive worsening of breathlessness. Further evaluation led to the diagnosis of chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH). Patient was offered pulmonary endarterectomy which he declined and preferred medical management. He did not show clinical improvement and eventually developed refractory heart failure. And patient presented to Emergency department (ED) with worsening of breathlessness. On presentation to the ED, patient was in distress with pulse of 110/min, BP of 100/60 with no evidence of pulsus paradoxus, Respiratory rate of 22/min and chest was revealing bilateral basal crepts and CVS examination revealed pansystolic mummer at left parasternal edge. JVP was elevated and showed only one prominent outward crest, which is a prominent CV wave and one dominant downward trough, a prominent Y descent, and there was a paradoxical rise in the JVP on inspiration (video 1) which is an important clinical sign in heart failure commonly known by the eponym Kussmaul’s sign. The prominent CV wave in this paitent reflected sever Tricuspid regurigitation (TR). On echo, patient had severe RV dysfunction with severe TR with Pulmonary hypertension. Patient was treated with intravenous diuretics, and pulmonary vasodilators and improved symptomatically and was referred for work up for heart-lung transplantation.

Discussion

Ontonix has published an article entitled “Quantitative Complexity Theory (QCT) in Integrative Analysis of Cardiovascular Hemodynamic Response to Posture Change” in Life as part of the Special Issue Mathematical Methods and Data Analysis in Health and Biomedical Sciences and is available online: Website: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/13/3/632 Life is an international, peer-reviewed, open…