The Medic's BlogExclusive Solutions For Health Improvement

Acute low back pain is a very common symptom and reason for many medical consultations. In some unusual circumstances it could be linked to a rare aetiology.

We report a 70-year-old man with an 8-month history of left posterior thigh and leg pain who had sudden confusion after a fall from standing. It was due to cerebral fat embolism suspected by computed tomography scan, later confirmed by brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). A spinal MRI scan was then performed and revealed a sacral fracture which drained into an unknown perineurial cyst (Tarlov cyst). Under medical observation the patient fully recovered within three weeks.

Sacral perineurial cysts are rare, however they remain a potential cause of lumbosacral radiculopathy.

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Between work, school, games, and social networking, people spend huge chunks of their day staring at computer screens.

While extended computer use may be the culprit for some health problems, degenerative eyesight is not one of them, according to Duke ophthalmologist Jill Koury, MD.

According to Koury, computers and televisions do not emit radiation that can harm your eyes.

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TUESDAY, August 10 () — Popular bone drugs taken by millions of older people to prevent osteoporosis do not appear to raise the risk of cancer in the esophagus, as some doctors and patients have feared.

A study of more than 80,000 people, published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found no measurable difference in the rates of esophageal cancer in people who did and did not take oral bisphosphonates, a class of drugs that fight age-related bone loss.

Oral bisphosphonates—which include drugs such as Fosamax and Boniva—can upset the stomach and cause acid reflux, although it helps to take the medication as directed. Chron

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We evaluated prenatal substance use in a cohort of 480 HIV-infected women and their uninfected children. Substance use was reported by 29%; the most common substances reported were tobacco (18%), alcohol (10%), and marijuana (7.2%). Fewer than 4% of women reported cocaine or opiate use. Substance use was more common in the first trimester (25%) than the second (17%) and third (15%) (trend p-value <0.01), and was associated with race/ethnicity, education, birthplace, age and marital status. For 264 mother/infant pairs with meconium results, sensitivity of self-report was 86% for tobacco, 80% for marijuana and 67% for cocaine. Higher discordance between self-report and urine/blood toxicology was observed for cocaine, marijuana and opiates in a non-random subset of mothers/infants with these tests. Read more…