Hormone Therapy After Menopause Increases Risk of Cancer in Women (hrt hormone ; menopause drugs)

As the advancing of medicine, and the ability of human to extract estrogen from many other sources or make their own synthetic Estrogen-Progesterone hormone, many doctors start recommending their women patient who is going to menopause to take Estrogen only pill or Estrogen plus Progesterone pill to decrease their menopausal symptoms such as emotional changes, hot flush at night which causing patient unable to fall sleep, easily irritable, vaginal dryness causes patient experience pain during sexual intercourse, dry skin symptom, night sweating and many others. All this symptoms are very individualistic. Some women may experience more menopausal symptoms but some only have slight or insignificant menopausal symptoms.

In most cases, when patients come to doctors and complain of pre-menopausal or menopausal symptoms, most doctors (even specialists of Gyneacology & Obstetrics) will recommend hormonal therapy. In fact, hormonal therapy does alleviate the pre-menopausal and menopausal symptoms (it decrease the hot flush, night sweat, moist-up the skin).

Unfortunately, there are many side effects come from the long term use of hormonal therapy. From a study carried out shown there is increased risks of ovarian cancer, epithelial endometrial cancer, and breast cancer in women who use hormonal pills to alleviate their menopausal symptoms for more than 5 years. This study also review women who take hormone therapy for shorter period and lower dosage do not show the predisposition to above mention cancer!Nevertheless, doctors to recommend their patient to use hormone pill in menopause women for less than 4 years and in a lower dosage to decrease the cancer risks.

Why Depression can cause Heart Failure in Elderly patient (causes of heart failure ; depression patients)

Dear readers,

How many us know what depression is? And how many of us know what are the adverse effects that will probably jeopardise our health if we ignore it!

Indeed, "Depression" is the silent killer to everyone of us no matter who you are, what social status you are, and in what age category you are! Depression is actually a mood disorder according to Psychiatry. Part of the reason of development of this depresion is due to neurological disorder in patient. As what doctors alway say....almost every health problem of mankind is started from Central Nervous System....that is our brain and our spinal cord. For example, when people is under stress they may have headache, migraine, and if this stress persisit for long time people may develop chronic diseases such as hypertension, peptic ulcer and etc. When someone is over-worred about something they may develop schizophrenia and neurosis too. Thus, undoubtly, Central Nervous System is the number one culprit of some kind of diseases.

Here, in the case of depression, there would be activation of sympathetic nervous system in our body. Thus, causing elevation of systemic blood pressure and increase cardiac ejection fraction due to increase sympathetic nervous system. All this effects will cause overload of heart work and finally leads to heart failure. Besides this, depression can also lead to emotional instability in most people and indirectly increase the suicidal cases in our society.

Nevertheless, do not overlook the adverse effect of depression. Let's pay more attention to your family members who has it or who has the symptoms of depression. Please remember, depression most frequently occurs in elderly people and always come together with cardiovascular and neurological diseases!

Good luck!

Patient's Own Muscle Cells From Thigh Help Improve His Condition After Myocardial Infaction(myocardial infarction treatment;myocardial infarction ppt)

The ischemic anterior cardiac wall before myoblast transplant, at left, is slightly thicker 1 week after myoblast transplant
Millions of people die of Myocardial Infaction and Ischemic heart disease each year. Some of those who survive after myocardial infaction (usually those who has only localized infacted area of heart muscle) also suffered from Chronic Heart Insufficiency. What is Heart Insufficiency? It is a decrease of pumping capability and pumping power of the heart after the heart muscles had dead from ischemia. These people (who has heart insufficiency) have to be continuously treated with drugs such as Diuretics (Furosemide) and ACEI (Enalapril) to decrease the workload of the heart and slow down the exacerbation of the heart failure. But these medical treatment doesn't work for long and finally will fail to maintain the patient's heart pumping power.Furthermore, in patient with large area of heart muscle damage, these medication doesn't provide good effect on patient, their cardiac ejection fraction still remain low.

Thus, there was a new method of treatment start in America which they try to extract some myoblast from patient own thigh muscle tissues and then culture the muscle tissue in lab follow by injection of those cultured muscle tissue into patient's infacted region of heart. No adverse events have been encountered in the first American trial of autologous myoblast injections into the myocardia of patients whose hearts have been severely damaged by myocardial infarctions or congestive heart failure, it was reported at an international congress on endovascular interventions sponsored by the Arizona Heart Institute.

Although the small trial was not designed to prove efficacy, clear evidence demonstrates that a portion of the skeletal muscle–derived myoblasts survive and grow in the heart, offering the promise of building functional regenerated tissue in patients facing the prospect of death without a heart transplant.

Thus far, researchers have documented an average 10% improvement in patients' ejection fractions and a measurable increase in viable cardiac tissue following autologous myoblast transplantation.

Dr. Nabil Dib, interventional cardiology chief of cardiovascular research at the Arizona Heart Institute in Phoenix, said that no complications or unexpected sequelae have been encountered during or after myoblast transplantation in 10 patients treated at five U.S. sites since August 2000, even though some patients have received as many as 300 million myoblasts during the procedure.

An 11th patient, a 75-year-old man who had suffered an MI 3 months previously, received an autologous myoblast transplant in conjunction with coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery during a live session at the congress. A PET scan revealed that his anterior wall was completely dead, and that he had a diseased anterior descending artery and left ventricle. A huge region of the septum was failing to contract, Dr. Dib said.

Dr. Edward B. Diethrich, medical director of the Arizona Heart Institute, said that revascularization would be of some help to this patient but would not be sufficient to prolong his life or improve his quality of life to a meaningful degree.

Skeletal muscle cells were obtained from the patient's thigh several weeks prior to the surgery and cultured by Diacrin Inc., a Massachusetts company that specializes in processing of cells for transplantation. The resulting myoblasts were warmed in the operating room before Dr. Diethrich injected 100 million cells in evenly distributed portions to 10 locations throughout the portion of the heart damaged by the MI.

A precise map, used to guide placement of the cells, was created using the Biosense Corp.'s NOGA electromechanical voltage navigational system. This is a key factor in the transplantation process since it can highlight the most damaged regions of the patient's heart. The procedure went well, with no complications.

According to the protocol, 12 patients will receive from 10 million to 300 million autologous cells in conjunction with CABG or a left ventricular assist device. Along with the Arizona Heart Institute, study participants include the University of California, Los Angeles; Temple University, Philadelphia; the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; and the Cleveland Clinic.
Eventually, plans call for development of an internally placed catheter to deliver the autologous cells directly to the heart from a site within a patient's skeletal muscle, as opposed to obtaining and delivering cells through open surgery.

A European trial of 10 patients who received from 0.5 billion to 1 billion cells in conjunction with CABG was not as problem free as the American trial. A mean 15% reduction in ejection fraction was offset by four cases of supraventricular tachycardia. Dr. Dib and Dr. Diethrich said it remains unknown why this complication occurred and has not surfaced in the American trial.
The budding technology, combined with impressive success in animal models and now early clinical trials, make myoblast transplantation one of the most exciting advances in cardiology today, capable perhaps of alleviating the desperate shortage and great need for donor hearts.
“All of this [research] is embryonic, but it is kind of embryonic with a jet behind it. It is moving very, very rapidly, he said.

Just 2,000 donor hearts are available for transplantation per year, but hundreds of thousands of patients are potential recipients, having suffered an MI or irreversible damage from congestive heart failure.

The New Invention of 80-leads ECG Shows Good Diagnosis of Myocardial Infaction compares with 12-leads ECG (ecg electrocardiogram ; cardiac ecg)

In this ECG-constructed map of the torso, a red region above the heart is normal.

The world of medicine is changing and upgrading together with new inventions in Science and Technology. The following blog article is summarized based on the true news reported in Medical news journal. All the doctors should read this and don't miss it!

As we had learnt in our medical school "the 12-leads ECG" by hard, is now no longer practical and full of errors. This 12 leads ECG only contains 6 cheast leads and 3 standard leads and 3 limbs leads....altogether are 12 leads only. Unfortunately, with this 12 leads only ECG, the doctors miss up many hidden diagnosis of Myocardial Infactions, Anginal Pectoris and so on. The reason is this 12 leads ECG didn't cover completely the chest region to make a complete-full image of our human heart! Thus, with this 12 leads ECG, the doctors alway miss up the emergency pathology of posterior wall of heart, right ventricular wall of the heart, upper lateral wall of the heart and inferior wall of the heart.

The 80-lead electrocardiogram is one of the developments that adds a degree of safety to in-the-field triage. The device generates a three-dimensional color-coded image of heart function and detects most of the acute ST elevation MIs that are missed by a standard 12-lead ECG, Dr. Ornato said at the conference, also sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Heart Association.

In a study conducted by Dr. Ornato and his associates, the PRIME-ECG body map system, which was recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration, was 100% sensitive for detecting MIs defined by elevated creatinine kinase MB, and 93% sensitive for detecting MIs as defined by elevated troponin levels. Specificity was comparable for the 12-lead and the 80-lead systems

Among 647 adults with chest pain assessed by 12- and 80-lead ECG systems, the 80-lead system identified 28 MIs missed by the 12-lead system: 4 septal, 21 posterior, and 3 inferior MIs. The incidence of extensive right ventricular involvement diagnosable only with the 80-lead system was 22%.

At least 20,000-40,000 hard-to-diagnose MIs (1%-5% of all heart attacks) are missed in the emergency department each year; about 20% of them are fatal. The 80-lead system picks up these hard-to-see MIs in the lateral and posterior walls better than a 12-lead system, Dr. Ornato said.

“We're looking at the same ECG signals, but we have 80 of them instead of just 12, and we have them distributed over the entire chest, including the right side and the back. Computer technology has progressed now to the point where it can process data from 80 leads simultaneously. That wasn't possible 5 years ago.”

The PRIME body map ECG system, marketed in the United States by Meridian Medical Technologies of Columbia, Md., generates color-coded images as either a flat body map showing “unfolded” views of the front and back of the torso, or a three-dimensional rotating torso. Conventional analog tracings are also available for either 80-lead or 12-lead readings.
The images display positive ST segment deviations in red, negative ST segment deviations in blue, and neutral values in green.

Easily recognizable patterns are associated with each kind of heart attack. For instance, a lateral wall MI shows up as a bright red area under the left arm. A posterior wall MI shows up over the back and a right ventricular MI shows up under the right arm and over the right chest.

Hopefully, this new technology will start operating soon in every corner of the world!

Why Exercise Is Good For Diabetic Patients (diabetes type 2 exercise ; diabetics exercise ; exercise for diabetes)

There are 2 types of Diabetes melitus. The first one is IDDM (Insulin Dependent Diabetes Melitus). The secondone is NIDDM (Non-Insulin Dependent Diabetes Melitus).

The causes of IDDM is usually autoimmune disease which attacking the pancreas, viral infection of the pancreas causing pancreatic necrosis, ischemic necrosis of pancreas, post-pancreatic resection pancreatic insufficiency or unknown reason. This IDDM is usually due to insufficiency of pancreatic secretion of insulin hormone. There is nothing to do with the sensitivity of the insulin receptor toward the insulin hormone. Thus, it is commonly happen in young-age patient. In this patient, only insulin hormone injection is required to maintain patient well being.

Whereas, the causes of NIDDM is usually due to obesity, inadequate physical activity of patient, stressful life, and others. This NIDDM is usually due to decreased sensitivity of insulin receptor to insulin hormone, and causing insulin resistence in the patient. Initially, the insulin secretion is slightly increasing to compensate the decrement of sensitivity of insulin receptors to insulin hormone. In this stage, patient needs only medicine that can increase sensitivity of insulin receptor to insulin hormone to maintain his normal life. As time goes by, the insulin secretion Beta-cells in the pancreas will be exhausted and run out of its secreting function. Thus, in the late stage of the NIDDM, both pathologies occur in the patient, they are decrease sensitivity of insulin receptor to insulin hormone and decrease secretion of insulin hormone! Unfortunately, patients in this stage need both insulin hormone and medicine to increase insulin receptor sensitivity to maintain his plasma glucose level throughout his life.

After explain briefly about IDDM and NIDDM, I think everyone who read this blog article already has some ideas about Diabetes Melitus. Here, I wish to further explain why we need insulin and which organs in our body do not need insulin. Insulin is the hormone flow in the blood stream that our body need it to transport the glucose from blood stream into the cells of our body, and our body cells need glucose to generate energy. This is so simple! But, amazingly our Mighty God invented us with some powerful systems that make some our important organs and cells do not depend on this insulin hormone to transport the fuel (glucose) from blood stream into the cells. These organs are Brain, Liver, Red Blood Cells and Cornea of our Eyes. This is so amazing isn't it. Try to imaging now, if diabetic patient without insulin, how can they maintain their brain function? If our brain need insulin, what I can say now is all the diabetic patients were in comatous stage in their early stage of disease. Now Red Blood cells, if RBC need insulin to transport glucose from blood stream into the RBCs, diabetic patient's body already devoid of oxygen and die of hypoxia in their early stage of their diseases. For Cornea of our eyes, diabetic patient would probably be blind in early stage of diabetes. Thus, we should thank God here to give us a amazing body!

Some Good news here too for all the diabetic patient, exercise could help to reduce the blood glucose level and decrease the use of medicine in NIDDM patient who has resistence to insulin. As we know, our skeletal muscles do not have the ability to transport glucose without the help of insulin. Thus, in the case of IDDM and NIDDM, the patient's muscles will be in total weakness. Fortunately, the exercise programe can help to transport the glucose from blood stream into the skeletal muscle cells. It can stimulate tranporting protein of the muscular cells to transport glucose without the presence of insulin in the blood stream or in the patient with insulin resistence! Thus, many doctors advise diabetic patient to have regular, non-intensive scheduled exercise programme to control their diabetes melitus besides depending on the medicine and insulin.

Let's start your exercise programme to all diabetic patient!

The H1N1 Swine Flu Pandemic tragedy (swine flu human ; swine flu global ; swine flu transmission)

Since the start of H1N1 pandemic, the disease is spreading worldwide which infected about 100'ooo persons and around 500 persons death according to the reproted data today. It just take one month since the annouchment of the H1N1 as a pandemic disease! How amazing within one month the reported casesof H1N1 became 100'000 cases. There are some authority saying that he unreported cases are actually over a million.

How many of us knowing what is actually H1N1 virus? Why there are so many viruses around us and causing disease in human being everyday but why the H1N1 is the one which so disastrous? How can it causes pandemic which infecting million of human being?

From the history of this virus. I will briefly explain about this virus. It is actually an Influenza virus which causing bird flu initially in human. But miracably, this is one of the viral species which is so mutatable and it able to change its genetic codes due to the environment factors and became another species of virus. From here we can see, this virus initially can be transmitted through birds and then from the birds to humans. Actually this Influenza virus which causing bird flu pandemic had mutated a few times and brought pandemic influenza disease to human every few years intermittently! Nowadays, this influenza virus again mutated and transmit the disease through the swine to humans! From the mutatability of the virus, we can understand why it is hard for the scientists and doctors to find a specific drug or medicine to cure the disease. The only thing the doctor can do is give symptomatic treatment to patients and let the patient's own immune system to fight with the disease!

Good luck to All the human being!