self-alienation:

Lobar haemorrhage from Cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA)

CAA is a frequent cause of parenchymal brain haemorrhage.
Insoluble 8-10nm-thick amyloid fibrils are deposited in the walls of leptomeningeal and cortical small arteries, arterioles and capillaries. Similar to small vessel disease, this process destroys normal vascular elements, makes vessels fragile, causes thickening, and impairs their permeability.

This pathology causes ischemic and haemorrhagic lesions.

(via fyeahmedlab)

ellulosa:

Superior half of diseased brain

(via theolduvaigorge)

How Does Cancer Kill?

I hear this question a lot, both in day to day life and online.

First off, not all cancers kill. Cancers such as those of the testicle, if caught early, have a survival rate of over 90%. Carcinomas in situ, or ‘pre cancers’, have a very high survival rate because they are usually removed before they can develop into malignant invasive cancers.

For the ones that do kill, there are numerous ways in which they do it. It is worthy to remember that cancer itself is not a ‘toxic’ disease; but rather the strain of the tumour and what this does to the surrounding tissues are the lethal components.

• Blockage of function: Some cancers block organs from performing their job. For example, lung cancer blocks off a large part of the lung and inhibits the amount of oxygen that can get to somatic tissues. Lung cancer also frequently causes collapsed lung, which is then open to usually lethal infection. If the tumour is in the digestive system, it can block the absorption of nutrients and cause malnutrition. Tumours of organs can eventually lead to organ failure.
• Biochemical imbalance: If the cancer is in the liver or the bone, it can upset the homeostatic balance of certain biomolecules. Eg, bone cancers cause a lot of calcium to be released, causing hypercalcaemia - leading to eventual unconsciousness and death. In addition, certain cancers release compounds which can also upset the homeostatic balance.
• Stress: Somewhat related to the first point, some tumours get so big and demand so much energy that the organ simply cannot cope with the demand and goes into failure.

Secondary tumours as a result of metastasis are the usual cause of death. Each different type of cancer has a secondary route, eg: breast cancers often spread to the axillary lymph nodes and brain, colon cancer to the liver. Only melanomas (dangerous skin cancers) seem to metastasise to the heart.

Picture: prostate cancer cells undergoing mitosis.

solfieri:

pishyposhy:

A Body Struck by Lightning

Lichtenberg figures (aka “lightning flowers”) appear on the skin of lightning strike victims. These are reddish, fern-like patterns that may persist for hours or days. They are also a useful indicator for medical examiners when determining the cause of death. Lichtenberg figures appearing on people are sometimes called lightning flowers, and they are thought to be caused by the rupture of small capillaries under the skin due to the passage of the lightning current or the shock wave from the lightning discharge as it flashes over the skin.

How beautiful the human body can be, even in bad situations such as this.

(via solfieri-deactivated20130403)

theoneaboutscience:

Helicobacter pylori (yellow), a common bacterium that lives in the stomach lining, increases the risk of stomach cancer (brown cells) and peptic ulcers. But over time H. pylori can reduce stomach acid and acid reflux, which may help fend off esophageal cancer. The microbe also appears to help protect us from allergies and asthma. Some scientists suspect that the dramatic increase in those conditions in the industrialized world could be related to the decreasing frequency of H. pylori in our stomachs, which is partly due to high doses of antibiotics in childhood.

Photograph by Martin Oeggerli, with support from School of Life Sciences, FHNW

(via Microbes: Small, Small World - Photo Gallery - Pictures, More From National Geographic Magazine)

(via fyeahmedlab)

thenoobyorker:

From jtotheizzoe:

How not to catch polio according to DC Comics

Enjoy these vintage comic book ads to go along with that pre-Salk reminder.

(via Scott Edelman)

I love the suggestion, “Don’t get chilled”.

How would I have avoided that if I’m cooler than a polar bears toe nail?

ascelbio:

Surveillance for Norovirus Outbreaks

“Noroviruses spread when people have contact with infected people, consume contaminated food or water, or touch contaminated objects. Outbreaks occur often and can happen to people of all ages in a variety of settings.”-CDC

Read on at: http://www.cdc.gov/features/dsNorovirus/

yogamaterial:

“According to the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society, people take an average of 10,000 steps a day. High heels shift the force of each of those steps so that the most pressure ends up on the ball of the foot and on the bones at the

 base of the toes. (If you wear flats, the entire foot would absorb this impact.) A 3-inch heel — most experts consider a heel “high” at 2 inches or more — creates three to six times more stress on the front of the foot than a shoe with a modest one-inch heel.

As a result, heels can lead to bunions, heel pain, toe deformities, shortened Achilles tendons, and trapped nerves. In fact, women account for about 90% of the nearly 800,000 operations each year for bunions, hammertoes (a permanent deformity of the toe joint in which the toe bends up slightly and then curls downward, resting on its tip), and trapped nerves, and most of these surgeries can be linked back to their high-heeled shoe choice.

The problems can travel upward, too. The ankle, knee, and hip joints can all suffer from your footwear preferences. When you walk in flats, the muscles of the leg and thigh have an opportunity to contract as well as to stretch out. However, when wearing your high-heeled shoes, the foot is held in a downward position as you walk. This keeps the knee, hip, and low back in a somewhat flexed position, which prevents the muscles that cross the backside of these joints to stretch out as they normally would. Over time, this can lead to stiffness, pain, and injury. High heels can also cause lower back strain, because the heel causes your body to pitch forward more than normal, putting excess pressure on the back.” (via Anatomy in Motion)

(via fyeahmedlab)

Skeletons in a mass grave from 1720–1721 in Martigues, France, yielded molecular evidence of the orientalis strain of Yersinia pestis, the organism responsible for bubonic plague. The second pandemic of bubonic plague was active in Europe from AD 1347, the beginning of the Black Death, until 1750.

A hand showing how acral gangrene of the fingers due to bubonic plague causes the skin and flesh to die and turn black.

(via alexalfredo)

biomedicalephemera:

Plaques of psoriasis vulgaris

Despite being known about and recorded all the way back to ancient Egypt, psoriasis is still not well-understood to this day. It’s known to be an immune-mediated condition, chronic (almost always life-long after the first outbreak), idiosyncratic (meaning that it improves and gets worse with no clear reason), and with a genetic link in a large number of cases.

Psoriasis in all its forms is non-contagious, and aside from being itchy and chafing easily during outbreaks, does not have serious physical effects on the patient. However, quality-of-life issues often arise, due to stigma and misunderstanding of the condition.

Treatments for psoriasis are not universally effective, or often, even effective on a large percentage of patients. Due to the unknown nature of the condition, treating it is like throwing darts in the dark, in the vague general direction of the dartboard. Corticosteroids are currently used in many people, but have serious side-effects over time, and can cause the condition to become worse once they’re stopped, due to rebound effects. Other creams and ointments are often used to soothe and help outbreaks heal more quickly, but until we pin down the exact causes of the condition, a drug to completely control it is not likely.

Ancient Cures: But hey, at least we live outside of ancient Egypt! Cat feces were the topical treatment of choice back then. In the Middle Ages in Europe, semen mixed with goose oil was the go-to “cure”, and in the Renaissance, dozens of recorded treatments have been found, including application of urine and salt to the plaques.

Diseases of the Skin. James Sequeira, 1919.

(via infectiousdiseases)

fuckyeahnarcotics:

Bone metastasis

What is bone metastasis?

Bones are a common place for spreading cancer cells to settle in and start growing, these bone metastasis (often called “bone mets”) can happen anywhere in the body, but they are mostly found in bones near the center of the body such as the spine, hips, ribs, and skull; bone metastasis are not the same as cancer that begins in the bones (primary bone cancer), bone mets and primary bone cancer are very different, primary bone cancer is much less common than bone mets, bone metastasis can only happen if you already have cancer somewhere else, once cancer has spread to several places in the body it can rarely be cured, but it can often be treated

(via theolduvaigorge)

prosthodontia:

Congenital syphilis, pre penicillin. 

(via infectiousdiseases)