Remain supine to increase chancee of being pregnat after artificial insemination

Image by futurowoman via Flickr

This is common sense that the lady should remain supine for some time, so that the sperm should not leak out after artificial insemination. Artificial insemination is done mainly in low sperm count of husband. Now-a-days lady some times chooses sperm of her ideal person to have an offspring of her choice. It is also practiced in infertility of uncertain origin. Sperm can be from her husband or from a donor. 

clipped from news.bbc.co.uk 'Lie still' for pregnancy boost Women undergoing fertility treatment with artificial insemination may boost their chances of pregnancy if they lie still afterwards, a study shows. Researchers found 27% of women who lay down for 15 minutes after the procedure went on to have a baby compared with 17% who got up and moved around. Writing in the British Medical Journal, the researchers said lying down may prevent "leakage" of sperm. Study leader Dr Inge Custers from the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam said the results had prompted clinics in the Netherlands to rearrange their clinics to allow women to remain laid down for quarter of an hour after their treatment.

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Turmeric.

It is long held in India that turmeric has much more healing power, starting from skin diseases to intestinal ailment. In the childhood, I have seen application of a paste of turmeric to our body. A paste of raw turmeric is also eaten to cure intestinal parasites. It is used in many cosmetics in India. Also, It is an essential ingredient of spices to be used in cooking.  

clipped from news.bbc.co.uk Curry spice 'kills cancer cells' An extract found in the bright yellow curry spice turmeric can kill off cancer cells, scientists have shown. The chemical - curcumin - has long been thought to have healing powers and is already being tested as a treatment for arthritis and even dementia. Now tests by a team at the Cork Cancer Research Centre show it can destroy gullet cancer cells in the lab. Cancer experts said the findings in the British Journal of Cancer could help doctors find new treatments. Dr Sharon McKenna and her team found that curcumin started to kill cancer cells within 24 hours. Dr Lesley Walker, director of cancer information at Cancer Research UK, said: "This is interesting research which opens up the possibility that natural chemicals found in turmeric could be developed into new treatments for oesophageal cancer.

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Lucid Interval In Head Injury

It was in the news; son of VIP returned from a party late in the night and found dead in the morning. Family smell foul play in it. In the long run it was found that the person was driving in a drunk state along with his friend after attending a party. He met an accident hitting his head, became unconscious for sometime to regained consciousness; and bought home by his friend. He slept in his room, the history of accident was not disclosed to the family members of the victim. The person was found dead in the morning. There was no external mark of injury on his body,as narrated. This is certainly a tragic incidence; but is a typical story of head injury with an extradural, intracranial haematoma. The period of consciousness preceded by brief unconsciousness is called lucid interval.

There occurs tear of venous sinuses inside the skull due to the acceleration and/or deceleration force  following the impact of trauma. Also there may be an external swelling in front and a little above the ear due to blood coming out through a fracture in the skull bone there. The initial unconsciousness is due to the sudden shock of trauma. The person recovers to respond but et the same time blood continues to  accumulate below the skull and above the outermost covering of brain, the dura. It gradually accumulates in sufficient quantity to compress the brain matter and the accompanying changes makes the victim unconscious. If left unsuspected during this period there is every possibility of loss of life. Again, if the person is drunk, the symptoms of further changes due to accumulating blood is masked or ignored; thinking it to be due to the effect of alcohol. Some times wandering persons with a smell of alcohol and some swelling in the head are restrained in the jail for alcoholism to be found dead in the morning next.
So, in these cases high degree of suspicion, observation in a hospital set up and a possible CT scan may save the life of a victim of accident.

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Gene Therapy In Eye Disease

This is something I call as "In the search of God". The broad basic is replacing a defective gene that causes a disease by a healthy gene through an innocent virus. The eye being more avascular, the less is the immune response to new particle. So, there is progress in gene therapy. Please read the original article in BBC or The Lancet.

clipped from news.bbc.co.uk Gene therapy can be particularly effective in treating inherited sight problems in children, fresh trials show. Treatment so far has focused on Leber's congenital amaurosis (LCA), a rare inherited disorder which causes gradual deterioration in vision and can lead to blindness by the time the patient is 20. There were measurable improvements, including an at least 100-fold increase in pupillary light response - when the pupils constrict in brightness. The genes are contained in a harmless virus which is unlikely to be attacked by the body as the immune system is not strong in the retina. Gene therapy has already been successfully deployed to treat children with X-SCID - a life-threatening immune deficiency also known as "boy in the bubble syndrome". But a lot more research was needed, she added, "to maximise the benefits of gene therapy techniques and understand how they can then be turned into effective treatments for a variety of more common degenerative eye conditions."

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New Biomarker Tests For Cool Diagnising Heart Attack

Image via Wikipedia

Copeptin a newer test for myocardial infarction alone is more sensitivity than the conventional troponin test ,and in combination the sensitivity rises to 99%, researchers found.

clipped from www.mims.com Testing for stress marker copeptin, meanwhile, can exclude MI with 99 percent certainty, thus saving many patients from unnecessary further testing. New biomarker tests could slash heart attack diagnosis time Professor Christian Müller, reviewing the data, said that the new tests could answer an unmet clinical need in the assessment of chest pain, since current troponin tests have an undetectable “blind interval” of 3-4 hours after the onset of MI. Even if patients follow recommendations and present within 2 hours of chest pain, the test will be negative and electrocardiography monitoring will be required for 6 to 8 hours. “The current-generation troponin tests are important but have important limitations in [making an] early diagnosis. There seem to be two approaches to solve this problem: either use troponin in combination with copeptin, or perhaps the approach now favored by many is the use of sensitive troponin assays,” said Müller, of the University Hospital Basel, Switzerland.

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Retention Of Urine In Boy

A 12 years old boy came crying along with his mother. On inquiry, the boy showed the swollen end of his penis and inability to pass urine for sometime. His mother told that the boy had faced similar problem since some months back, when the skin of penis was opened, which enabled him to pass urine. He was also advised surgery in the coming winter. Why in winer I do not understand. Somehow people here prefer winter season to undergo surgery. The opening in the prepuce, penile foreskin was not visible and the prepuce seen distended with fluid inside it. It was painful to touch. The opening was seen closed with a flimsy adhesion, after clearing it, collected urine from the under the prepuce came out and the boy got relief. He further was able to pass urine comfortably. A small nodule was felt inside the prepuce. After some blood test the boy was advised a surgery, when the prepuce would be excised, a circumcision. My concern was the nodule inside the prepuce, because the carcinoma penis grows under cover of prepuce. The age factor was going against the diagnosis. So, I thought there could be a papilloma at least.




A circumcision was performed next day under local anesthesia. It was uneventful. It was noticed that there was a rough area in the inner side of the foreskin and it was reddish. It seems due to an inflammatory process following irritation. However the excised specimen was sent for histopathological study. The boy was sent home. I am waiting for the biopsy report. In India people till now, have not accepted circumcision as an aesthetic measure. Muslims take up it as a custom. Now it was in news that a Human Papilloma virus Vaccine has got FDA node for administration in boys. But it has been well documented that a circumcision in the early childhood prevents cancer of penis, as seen in Jews.

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Genital Warts on male.

Human papilloma virus is linked to the cancer of cervix in female. Vaccination against it may be an attempt to make the male free from the disease which may also prevent its spread to female partner. Also it will prevent the papilloma in male.

clipped from www.medpagetoday.com FDA Approves HPV Vaccine for Men and Boys WASHINGTON -- The FDA approved Merck's Gardasil vaccine against human papillomavirus (HPV) for boys and men, the same day that it okayed a competing vaccine for use in females. Gardasil was approved for males ages 9 to 26 for prevention of genital warts. The approval did not address claims that the vaccine in this population may help prevent transmission to girls and women. The new indication for Gardasil was based on two trials: a randomized trial in 4,055 males ages 16 through 26 testing the vaccine's effectiveness in preventing genital warts, and a study in boys ages 9 to 15 that measured immune responses. The second trial showed that the immune response was as good as that found in the older age group, indicating that the vaccine should have similar effectiveness, the FDA said.

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How to Create A Broadcast In Blogcatalog

I have many mutual friends in The Blogcatalog, but unable to listen from many of them. When viewed directly their site, I often found newer postings. It may so happen that, they are not using a service in Blogcatalog called Broadcast. And, without broadcast it may not be possible to visit blogs of all the friends. Sometimes back, I wrote about broadcast and one of my friends wanted that a full story with snap shots will be much appreciated. The result is this post.
First one has to write a post in the web site and publish. Then open the Blogcatalog and log In.

2)One will see the page like below.

3)Click on Broadcast.

4)Click on Post A Broadcast to see a window to write.

5)Open a new tab from file in the left corner of the browser to be able to see your posting in your site.

6)Go to your site, say "From A Clician's Bioscope".

7)See the post you want to Broadcast. Select the first paragraph or some sentences you want to give as introduction in Blogcatalog and copy in the browser. Suppose, It is Deepabali In India.

8)Paste it in the message box in the Blogcatalog.Like below.

9)Again to to your site and right click on the post headline and copy the link location to be posted below the message. In this way.

10)Paste it below the message. It will look like this.

11)Again go to the post, select the title or headline in the browser and copy to paste it in the space for subject in The Blogcatalog. It will be like this.

12)If you want it to be bold add the HTML tag in the beginning of message and add the closing tag at the end. It will be like below.

13) Now you are done once you click on create Broadcast. It will look like this.

It is all over. All your friends will be intimated over their mail with a link. One may do it in his own way by writing everything. And, this post is not intended for experts. It is for people like me, who initially not aware of it. Thanks for the patient reading.

Image by jaredchapman via Flickr

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Deepabali In India, The Backgrounds.

Goddess Lakshmi

Deepabali, the festival of light is being celebrated in India to-day. Traditional oil lamps are lit and kept decorating the houses, firecrackers are exhibited, sweets distributed and offerings are given to the fore fathers. Now-a-days, more firecrackers are used and less the other things.
There are several stories in the background. One of them states that the mythological Ramachandra, an incarnation of God defeated the evil power Ravan, and returned on this day to his kingdom. His subjects kept the city lighted to greet Him.
Another interesting story relates to another incarnation of God, the Baaman, a dwarf. There are all total 10 incarnations of God, described in the Hindu mythology. In this incarnation, the God sent one of the kings of earth, Bali to exile, who was famous for his giving. The god came to him asked for three foot sized earth. The king promised to give thinking it to be a silly matter for him. But, to his surprise the god enlarged his foot and acquired the earth in one foot, the sky in another foot and put out a third foot from his umbilical area and asked for space. Now Bali could understand that the dwarf looking priest is not the ordinary one. He offered his head for the third foot of the God. God kept his third foot on his head and pushed him to the depth so that the king will not be visible. But the king famous for giving has earned enough virtue and was a favorite of God. He asked the god about the well being of his citizens. Seeing his concern, the God allowed him to surface on this day and himself look after the well being of the citizens. So, on this date people greet their loved king by keeping the path lighted.
In another story the ancestors come down from heaven to see the well-beings of their heirs on this day. And, to well come them, the path in the night kept lighted. Offerings are also given for them.
In yet another story, Goddess Lakshmi, the god of fortune visits house to house in this evening, so the houses are kept lighted to well come Her. Businessmen in India, prepare their balance sheet to-day.
I have listened to all these stories from my childhood. But the essence is, this is a festive occasion, a friendship day and a day to remember the contribution of our ancestors in making our lives comfortable..  

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Nails Can Speak Your Health

Good looking nails look nice in the fingers and attribute sexy look to hand. Nails can speak about diseases one is suffering from. Books on palmistry often describe diseases that one might be suffering from, depending on the character of nails. I have gone through such books in my adolescent days out of curiosity to predict the luck of people.
Nails can be studied basing on the shape, size, texture, color and strength etc..In disease states shape can be like

1. spoon
2. irregular towards ends
3. clubbed
4. ribbed

.Texture can be

1. bright
2. pale looking

. Color can be

1. Bluish
2. dark or black
3. yellow
4. small bleeding spots under nail

.It may be brittle.
Spoon shaped nail called Koilonychia, is the hallmark of anemia especially due vitamin B12 defiency. Nails also look pale in this condition. 
Irregular ends of nail indicate tooth bite, which in turn indicate personality disorders like a feeling of insecurity. 
Clubbing of fingers seen in

1. cyanotic heart diseases
2. pus forming lung diseases
3. chronic bronchitis
4. infective heart diseases
5. tuberculosis of lungs
6. cancer of lungs
7. liver diseases like cirrhosis and hepatoma
8. intestinal diseases like crohns disease

. Bluish coloration seen in

1. congenital cyanotic heart diseases
2. respiratory distress syndromes
3. heart and lungs failure

Yellow nails indicate jaundice from various causes. 
A dark nail may be due to fungal infection. 
Yellowish brittle nails are seen in psoriasis.
Splinter hemorrhages can be seen in cirrhosis of liver.
Brittle nails as such can be seen in calcium deficiency states. Ribbed nails are seen in malnutrition states. 
These are some of clues from nail to reach or suspect a disease. There can be many more, I might be missing.
Now, I say that our forefathers, actually have keenly observed the nails in different diseases and narrated in the books on palmistry, to predict fate of people. And, I hope those were scientific.

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Scalp, Nail Psoriasis Improve with TNF Inhibitor

Psoriasis of Back.

Psoriasis is a very bad skin disease and treatment is not that satisfactory. The clipped article highlights the role of tumor necrosis factor in its treatment.
I quote;

"The scalp severity score declined by more than 80% and the nail index by 36% after 16 weeks of treatment with the TNF inhibitor adalimumab (Humira) with or without concomitant topical treatment. "

Psoriasis of nail. clipped from www.medpagetoday.com By Charles Bankhead, Staff Writer, MedPage Today Published: October 09, 2009 Reviewed by Dina M. Began, MD; Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine (Dermatology), Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Dorothy Caputo, MA, RN, BC-ADM, CDE, Nurse Planner Action Points Explain to patients that a biological drug improved psoriasis of the skin and scalp, as well as skin lesions. Explain that the drug is not approved in the U.S. for treatment of psoriasis. Note that this study was published as an abstract and presented at a conference. These data and conclusions should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal. Scalp and nail involvement slowed the overall skin response to anti-TNF therapy but did significantly affect improvement rates at the end of the study, investigators reported here at the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology meeting.

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