Bone Marrow Donation

Bone Marrow Donation: When it comes to donating bone marrow, current law states that donors can not be compensated. However, a lawsuit can cause bone marrow donation profitable.
The Institute for Justice (IJ) filed a complaint against the Attorney General Eric Holder Jr., requesting that he be barred enforcement of federal criminal prohibition on compensating for bone marrow donors. The prohibition is contained in the National Law on Organ Transplantation (NOTE) 1984.

Other plaintiffs in the lawsuit include patients suffering from blood diseases like leukemia.

The plaintiffs argue that the prevention of patients who need bone marrow transplants offer compensation to donors that could make transplants possible, violates the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Bone marrow contains cells that are capable of becoming other types of blood cells. So it can be very beneficial and therapeutic for people with certain blood diseases.

A counter argument is that compensation for bone marrow donors could attract high-risk.
Source: examiner.com

Lambert’s cover controversy

Adam Lambert’s new album cover is sparking debate even among his most ardent fans.

Here is the original:
Lambert’s cover controversy

Today, GMA, Ellen

“Twilight” and “True Blood” are up for awards. Singer Monica tries to make a comeback. Bill and Jen want to have a baby.

Here is the original:
Today, GMA, Ellen

Seregon O Dassey, Saragon Vampire

Seregon O Dassey, Saragon Vampire: Seregon O’Dassey, a New York vampire-model-actress puts other multihyphenates to shame. This month, between attending bloodsucker bashes and filming horror flicks, she’s educating the public in the series Vampires Revealed on Comcast On Demand’s Paranormal TV Channel.
So. You actually drink blood.
Well, not on a regular basis. It really kinda depends on what I’m feeling at the moment. I would say maybe two, three times a month. It’s never public; it’s not like people think. I don’t have a craving and grab a random person. If my boyfriend cuts himself in the kitchen, or if I really want something, I’ll ask my boyfriend. Or I have a little blade so I can make little nicks in myself. Nothing bad, it’s completely safe, not even a permanent scar.

You don’t worry about health issues?
That’s why I only do it with myself, or my boyfriend. I always compare it to a sexual experience, for more than one reason; one of them’s safety. You have to know the person, trust the person.

What’s the Manhattan vampire scene like?
I can only really compare it against Philadelphia. Manhattan, it’s not really a tight-knit community. I would say it’s more segregated, in that you have more than one court, you have a myriad of houses or orders. And New Jersey is rather small, tight-knit.

The hierarchy of it is complicated, with houses and orders and courts.
I usually compare it to the government. You have people you report to. You go to your sire, if you have one. Then who’s in charge of your house or order. Or if you belong to a court, you go up to your chain of command until you get to your regent. It’s like the President with your legislative branches, and each state has a government, each city has a mayor.

Wow. Do vampires have their own governmental drama, intern scandals and stuff?
Oh, absolutely. Wow. Wow, the stories I could tell you. Yes. [Laughs] Very, very much so. It’s the reason I’m not in a court anymore is that someone hurt me, and there was absolutely nothing done about it.
What kind of hurt?
I can’t go into too much detail, but let’s just say that I was not allowed to model for almost a month. I couldn’t even leave the house, there were marks all over me.

Wow. You going to lead a splinter group? A revolution?
[Laughs] People keep asking me that. I could, I just don’t want to. I act as my career, and I haven’t the time, or the energy to do that kind of thing.

Is there a such thing as a hipster vampire?
You mean, like, trendy?

Yeah, with skinny jeans.
I guess you could call them that. I call them cyber goths, the younger generation or the next generation. They tend to be more punk, with those wire coils in their hair. And the older generation, or my generation—did I just call myself old?—we tend to be more elegant.

Kids today!
The younger generation isn’t as elegant or regal. They don’t wear the corsets as much, they wear those little ballerina skirts and those combat boots. I guess you could call them hipsters. They have their own new take on the old way of doing things.

So what about Twilight? Do “real” vampires hate it?
It’s a different thing. It just seemed very young for me, almost Sweet Valley High–ish. Which is okay, just not my cup of tea. But I’m a True Blood fan. What people need to remember is that they’re things to make money, to entertain people. It’s not meant to be a representative of this community. People can get the wrong idea; you should learn more about something before you become a part of it. Read a lot about psychology and energy and anything that has to do with the vampire culture, and filter it within yourself.

What does blood taste like?
It’s thick; it’s very rich. I wanna say dirty. But it’s not sweet, it’s not bitter. It’s almost like if you were to touch metal and then lick your finger. What a lot of people don’t know is that you shouldn’t ever have too much of it because it’s a natural laxative and it can make you sick. You’re taking in energy, and you don’t want to be greedy. It will overwhelm you. It teaches you control, in a way.
Source: newyork.timeout.com

Blood of The Father Heart of Steel

Blood of The Father Heart of Steel: “I love Hitler and Hitler loves me!” And with that, we’re off and running for the first episode of the fourth season of Venture Bros., “Blood of the Father, Heart of Steel.” Welcome to the new digs! Tonight, you won’t have to wade through my ill-advised and poorly structured comments on the entire Adult Swim line-up. Tonight, and for the rest of the show’s run, it’s Venture Bros and Venture Bros only. This means many things, but mostly, it means I get to write less, and go to bed at a semi-reasonable hour.

Anyway, the show. Awesome, right? Ever since season two, Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer have become increasingly comfortable with trusting their audience, both in terms of the amount of story they cram into each twenty minute episode, and the way that story is delivered. I’m hard pressed to think of an ep before tonight’s that was quite as unstuck-in-time, though; we’ve had flashbacks, and we’ve had cross-referencing storylines, but “Blood” at first seems like a bunch of scenes shuffled together with little respect for cause or continuity. That’s not true, of course. As it turns out, there’s a very specific structure here, hinted at by the occasional CGC Ratings that pop up in the top right of the screen (and weren’t really understandable until 21’s conversation with Doc Venture near the end). It’s the sort of thing that has me already excited to go back and re-watch the whole thing from the start. There wasn’t much of the bitter sincerity here, but what “Blood” really gets at, and beautifully well, is the tremendous sense of fun the show generates when it’s running on all cylinders. It’s like an open toolbox full of the coolest toys anyone has ever seen, arranged for our bemusement.

The plot, as much as I was able to unpack from just one viewing: Brock makes good on quitting his job as bodyguard at the Venture compound, leaving the boys in the hands of a socially adjusted Sgt. Hatred (who, if you ask me, isn’t that adjusted). Brock gets H.E.L.P. eR.’s head stuck in his chest by Speculative Human Engineering (S.H.E.D.), a branch of O.S.I., but is so fed up with the group that he ditches them, gets the Heart of Steel removed, and spends some time recuperating with Steve and Steve’s sasquatch lover.

Meanwhile, 21 comes to Dr. Venture, wanting him to clone 24. For this, he offers a mint condition Marvel Comics #1 (hence the CGC rating, which appears to be rising over the episode, but is actually dropping; we’re just seeing time moving backward from the point where Hank first removed the issue from its mylar sleeve, riiiight up until it’s final fate as Sgt. Hatred’s toilet paper), but Doc Venture isn’t convinced, and 21 storms off. He’ll later try and get Dr. Orpheus to resurrect 21, with similarly disappointing results. Other people looking for clones? Nazis, who want to create a clone of Hitler out of a bulldog that currently has Hitler’s blood. Dr. Venture refuses, Dean falls in love with the dog, and eventually, the Nazi’s charge the compound.

Brock has put on weight during all of this, and decides to get revenge on those who wrong him. First stop is Molotov Cocktease’s new office building, where he runs in to Hunter, his old boss, and, after getting shot by Molotov, eventually finds his to Hunter’s secret lair, where Hunter’s working with S.P.H.I.N.X., the sex change being a ruse. Brock signs on, for reasons I’m sure we’ll understand later in the season.
Source: avclub.com

Degos Disease, Dego Disease

This paper is mainly intended to inform patients. Medical terms are explained in brackets so that patients who wish to learn these concepts can do so, in order (for example) to understand doctors’ reports and scientific literature.
Introduction.
The Papulosis atrophicans maligna (Köhlmeier-Degos disease) is a very rare illness. It was described for the first time by Köhlmeier in 1941 and documented as a distinct illness by Degos in the same year. Since then about 130 cases have been written up in scientific literature.
Clinical picture

The characteristic skin changes of the Papulosis atrophicans maligna allow conclusive diagnosis. They begin as small erythematous (red) moles, commonly around the trunk and the upper extremities. After a few days the center of the lesion falls in, so older lesions show a porcelain-white atrophic (dead, sunk) centre with an erythematous (red) halo (outer ring). Characteristically it leaves the Palmae, Plantae, Capillitium and the Facies (face) untouched.
Age at which symptoms appear, family history

Symptoms normally appear between the age of 20 and 50. The illness usually occurs sporadically but on rare occasions it has affected several members of the same family.
Diagnostic criteria

Diagnosis of the Papulosis atrophicans maligna is usually decided clinically on the basis of the characteristic skin changes, and confirmed by histological (microscopic) examination. The laboratory tests are not by themselves conclusive, as coagulating disturbances may be present (see Etiology below).
Histology (Tissue Type)

Histologically the skin lesions typically show a wedge-shaped area of cutaneous ischaemie. The characteristic histological features with wedge-shaped tissue necrosis and thrombosis of the supplying blood vessels are not evident in all cases. In one case report, Harvell examined the histology of the lesions in connection with their duration and postulated that early lesions can more closely resemble a Lupus of erythematodes due to their extended Muzin (deposits) in the dermis, and superficial as well as deep perivascular inflammation. Older lesions, on the other hand, bore more similarities to a minimal variant of the Lichen sclerosus et atrophicans, with their papillaere dermal sklerosis with Atrophie and Hyperkeratose.
Etiology (Causes) of the illness:

The etiology (cause) of the illness is not yet known, and amongst other things genetic factors (transmission), auto-immunological processes (the immune system attacks its own body), an allergic vasculitis (blood vessel inflammation), an infectious agent (for example viruses or bacteria) and coagulopathiens (blood coagulation problems) have been proposed. There is a whole list of hypotheses, but none of them have yet been proven. A genetic predisposition has been suggested because cases of the Papulosis atrophicans maligna affecting several members of the same family are known. Within these families often members related in the first degree are affected, suggesting an autosomal dominant factor transmission.

Electron-microscopic evidence of intrazytoplasmatic paramyxovirus-similar inclusions has suggested an infectious etiology. Tests for paramyxovirus DNA from skin samples of patients with Papulosis atrophicans maligna by means of PCR gave negative results. The crucial question must be whether the obliteration of the blood vessels in the affected skin areas results from a thrombosis in the context of a primary coagulopathy or whether it occurs as a consequence of a primary vasculopathy e.g. by release of tissue-active factors within the range of endothelium defects. There are no conclusive laboratory findings regarding the Papulosis atrophicans maligna. However, there are a relatively large number of reports of cases of patients with defects of the blood clotting system.

Drucker reports on a patient with increased thrombozyten aggregation on Adenosindiphosphat, Epinephrin, kollagen, Serotonin and Thrombin. An increased thrombozyten aggregation has been recorded in other cases as well.

Patients with Papulosis atrophicans maligna can exhibit the anticardiolipin antibodies and Lupus anticoagulans antibodies that accompany an increased thrombosis tendancy/susceptability. Also a lowered Fibrinolyse could be a cause of the capillary thrombosis in the lesions of the Papulosis atrophicans maligna. Black and others observed a complete loss of the fibrinolytic activity in the centres of the skin lesions and a reduction of the fibrinolytic activity in the peripheral blood. With some patients an increased fibrinogen level was found. A degraded plasminogen level as well as increased activity of the plasminogen-activator inhibitors has also been documented in the context of the Papulosis atrophicans maligna. There is (to date) one report of Papulosis atrophicans maligna in an HIV-infected homosexual man.
Progression of the illness

The characteristic cutaneous (at the skin) efflorescences in most cases appear before the systemic (more than one organ is affected) effects of the disease occur. The illness can stay limited to the skin for many years, but if a systemic development occurs, close-knit medical control is needed, because serious problems can occur. Symptoms can result from ischemic complications (oxygen deficiency in the tissue caused by capillary blockages), where all organs can be affected, but the most serious aspects of the illness progression are above all intestinal (stomach and intestine) and central nervous system (brain) complications.

The malignancy of the illness is shown by the fact that even after many years of purely cutaneous infection a systemic development can occur. The systemic manifestation can in many cases lead to grave complications after just a few months.

The most frequent serious complications are, in descending order, Peritonitis (inflammation of the abdominal linings), ZNS complications, pleurisy (inflammation of the lung membrane) and/or pericarditis (heart inflammation). The intestinal complications mainly affect the small intestine, with peritonitis frequently following an intestine perforation (intestine tear). Symptoms can be absent or be non-specific with abdominal pain, digestion problems etc.. Neurological complications reported to date are consequences of cerebral vasculopathy (degeneration of the cerebral blood vessels) eg aspetic meningitis (non-bacterial inflammation of the brain membrane), enzephalitis (brain inflammation), radiculoneuritis (= nerve inflammation) and myelitis (backbone marrow inflammation). Implications for the eyes are rare, but can primarily involve the eyelids, the conjunctive (outer surface of the eye), retina and choroidea (blood vessel linings), and secondarily be neurological problems such as diplopy (double vision) and ophthalmoplegy (paralysis of the eye muscles).
Hypothesis: Do two forms of the illness exist? The malign and the benign forms?

Some patients may for many years, perhaps even lifelong, exhibit purely the cutaneous aspects of the disease. Many of these cases occur in families amongst relatives of the first degree. Cases of this at least in the long-term view “benign” effect are possibly not adequately documented, given that only lifelong observation of such patients can lead to a final evaluation of the seriousness of their illness. As a result it has not to date been clarified whether, alongside the serious “malignant” atrophic papulosis there is also a mild variant of the illness with purely cutaneous implications, and whether these two forms can clearly be differentiated from each other.
Treatment

There is as yet no proven-effective treatment of the Koehlmeier Degos disease. Immunosuppressive therapy trials with, for example, cyclosporin A, azathioprin, cyclophosphamide and steroids show no significant success. Treatments aimed at achieving anti-coagulative (restraining coagulation) and perfusion-promoting (improving blood circulation) effects have in some cases produced a lessening of the skin symptoms and/or had morbostatic effects (delaying the progression of the illness), and this applies particularly to acetylsalicylic acid (ASS), and also to Dipyridamol, Ticlopidin and Heparin.

Vicktor et al. report for the first time on the successful treatment of a patient with the cutaneous form of the illness with Pentoxyfyllin 1200 mg/die p.o. and ASS 100 mg/die p.o., producing an almost complete retreat of the skin lesions.
Source: degosdisease.com

Eric Heiden

MURRAY, Utah — The surgeon rubbed his thumb over the speedskater’s thigh, just above the knee and below a seven-inch wound sutured into an angry smile.  The speedskater’s white blood cell count was normal. No sign of infection. His red blood cell count was still low.

“As we expected with the blood loss,” the surgeon said.

On Sept. 12, J.R. Celski crashed in a 500-meter race at the national short-track championships in Marquette, Mich., his right skate slicing open his left thigh to the femur, blood pooling on the ice.

On Monday morning, Celski, 19, went through two hours of range-of-motion exercises at a clinic here south of Salt Lake City, continuing his recovery toward possibly competing at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver in February.

The orthopedic surgeon monitoring his rehabilitation is Eric Heiden.

“He’s a five-time gold medalist in the Olympics,” Celski said. “Who would you want taking care of you more than a former speedskater? He knows what he’s doing. He’s making sure I stay positive. Just the idea that he’s my doctor — his opinion matters more than an ordinary doctor.”

In February, 30 years will have passed since Heiden won gold medals in all five speedskating events at the 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid, N.Y. He whirred around an outdoor track at the high school along Main Street there, wearing skates two sizes too small, hoping the lighter weight would increase his speed, powering himself with thighs so massive he needed size 38 pants even though his waist measured only 32 inches.

“Now I can buy regular pants,” he said with a laugh.

Thirty years?

Heiden blushed and smiled. He is 51 now, the son of an orthopedic surgeon who became an orthopedic surgeon himself. His hair, once dark and wavy, is clipped and going gray. He wears glasses to read his charts.

Has it already been 30 years?

“Sobering,” he said. “Wow.”

His wife, Karen, is also an orthopedic surgeon. They have two children, Zoe, who is 8 and a soccer player, and Connor, who is 6 and hurtles from eight-foot ledges on his skateboard.

“My next patient,” Heiden said, laughing.

Now, as then, his relationship with skating remains complicated. He thrived on competition. He is immensely proud of his achievements, perhaps more now than he was even then. But he remains uncomfortable with celebrity.

He was a reluctant star in Lake Placid, turning down most endorsement opportunities, remaining nostalgic for the days when he was a nobody, grateful that skating was not so popular in the United States, so he could retain some degree of anonymity.

“It’s hard when every moment people are paying attention to what you are doing,” Heiden said. “I did not enjoy that. I still do not enjoy that.”

And yet, he quickly added, skating opened plenty of doors that might have remained closed: undergraduate school and medical school at Stanford. Training with renowned orthopedists like James Andrews. Becoming medical director for the United States speedskating and cycling teams.

“Having five gold medals, they’re going to look at your résumé twice before they say no,” Heiden said.

There are other perks, too. He still cannot pay for dinner in skating-mad countries like Norway and the Netherlands. Otherwise, much has changed about the Olympics since he competed. Amateurism is gone, along with the Soviet Union. Skating is now a profession.

“In a sense, I’m a little jealous,” Heiden said. “When I think of the financial potential I would have had, it was probably pretty vast. But I feel very lucky I never had to make that decision of sticking with the sport to make money. That option wasn’t there. I had to pursue an education.

“I’m very proud of what I did as a speedskater. As time goes by, I appreciate more of what I’ve done. But what I do now, taking care of guys like J. R., helping athletes attain their dreams and goals, that’s pretty rewarding.”

Reminded that he had said his greatest accomplishment was becoming a doctor, not an Olympic champion, Heiden paused for a moment and said, “But to win five gold medals, that’s pretty impressive.”

He also became an accomplished cyclist and competed in the 1986 Tour de France before crashing on a descent and sustaining a concussion.

During his skating days, Heiden once said that he would rather win something utilitarian, like a warm-up suit, than a gold medal, and that he might sell the medals if he ever needed the money. For years the medals remained scattered at his home and his parents’ home in Madison, Wis. Now all five sit on a bookshelf at his house outside Park City, Utah, where Heiden is chairman of surgery at a recently opened medical center.
Just how much the medals mean to him became evident at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City. He declined a chance to participate in the opening ceremony, believing he embodied the Olympic ideal and should have been chosen to light the Olympic caldron. The celebrated 1980 hockey team was chosen instead.

“I was probably just too stubborn,” Heiden said of shunning the ceremony. “I figured if they don’t appreciate what I did as a skater, if they don’t appreciate now what I am doing as a human being, I’d just as soon hang out with my buddies and watch it.

“I did not mean to slight the Olympic hockey team in any way. I grew up with a lot of those guys in Wisconsin.”

Though he has not worn speedskates in 10 years, Heiden gets out on a pond in hockey skates with his children. He helps to coach soccer. Once a week he goes for a run “trying to keep up with my 15-year-old dog.” He lifts weights in the garage and still rides his bike. His knees hurt, and so does his back, but he is only 15 pounds above his playing weight of 185.

His children are old enough to know about his accomplishments, Heiden said, but “they’re not old enough to appreciate that everybody’s dad does not have Olympic gold medals.”

He will travel to Vancouver in February as team doctor for the United States speedskating team. And he hopes that Celski, the short tracker, will be ready to compete in the 1,000 meters, the 1,500 meters and the relay.

“The next six weeks, I think, we’ll have a very good idea how close we can be to meeting our objectives,” Heiden said.

The original wound to Celski’s left thigh was gaping. He keeps a picture on his iPhone. “It looked like a shark attack,” said Nicole Detling Miller, a sports psychologist who works with Celski.

A fellow skater, Walter Rusk, rushed onto the ice and applied a tourniquet with his sweatshirt. A surgeon, Larry Lewis, closed the wound that night in Michigan. Heiden has monitored the rehab. J. R. was lucky, his father, Bob Celski, said. No major arteries or nerves were severed.

For now, Celski is restricted to range-of-motion exercises while on his stomach, flexing his knee while using his hamstring, not his quadriceps, which is held together by dozens of stitches.

Celski will continue his rehabilitation at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs until mid-November. By December, Heiden hopes to have Celski back on skates for six weeks of hard training. Still, he admonished the skater about the risk of trying to do too much before the soft tissue is healed.

“The skaters completely trust him,” Detling Miller said of Heiden. “He doesn’t blow smoke.”
Source: nytimes.com