Top videos
St. John's wort (Hypericum perforatum) is an over-the-counter herbal supplement used for its antidepressant, anti-inflammatory, and wound-healing properties. Although it has been prescribed in Europe for mild to moderate depression, negative clinical trials and multiple reports of adverse drug interactions have raised concern about its use. St. John's wort induces various P450 isozymes (CYP 1A2, 2C19, 2C9, and 3A4) and P-glycoprotein systems. Drug interactions with the herbal product can lead to treatment failures with many medications, including hormonal contraceptives, antiretrovirals, immunosuppressive agents, narcotics, anticoagulants, and antifungals. There is also a risk for serotonin syndrome when St. John's wort is used in combination with other serotonergic antidepressants. The lack of strict regulation of herbal products that results in variable quality and content (unknown toxic ingredients or inactive ingredients) is also a concern.
Bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness, is a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels, and the ability to carry out day-to-day tasks. There are four basic types of bipolar disorder; all of them involve clear changes in mood, energy, and activity levels.
Pediatric orthopedic surgeons at Columbia are using a new device with magnetic technology that avoids the need for multiple spine-lengthening surgeries to correct early-onset scoliosis, a severe curvature of the spine in young children. In April 2014, Michael Vitale, MD, the Ana Lucia Professor of Pediatric Orthopedic Surgery at CUMC and 1995 graduate of P&S, performed the first procedure in the New York area, using the device to treat a 5-year-old boy. When braces and casts cannot control scoliosis in young children, surgeons turn to growing rods, which help correct the curve while allowing the spine to grow. When spinal maturity is near, the rods are removed and a spinal fusion can be performed. But during years of treatment with growing rods, patients must undergo surgery every six months to lengthen the rods to keep up with the patients’ growth. A patient may undergo eight to 10 procedures, which are costly and result in lost time for parents at work and children at school. The new device—MAGEC (MAGnetic Expansion Control) rods—contains a mechanism inside the growing rods that allows surgeons to lengthen the rods with a handheld external magnet, without surgery.
Gastroschisis is a birth defect that develops in a baby while a woman is pregnant. This condition occurs when an opening forms in the baby's abdominal wall. The baby's bowel pushes through this hole. It then develops outside of the baby's body in the amniotic fluid.
hemothorax is most often defined as rapid accumulation of ≥ 1000 mL of blood. Shock is common. Patients with large hemorrhage volume are often dyspneic and have decreased breath sounds and dullness to percussion (often difficult to appreciate during initial evaluation of patients with multiple injuries).
ADC was first identified early in the AIDS epidemic as a common and novel CNS syndrome.(4,5) The three components of the term, AIDS dementia complex embody central features of the condition. AIDS emphasizes its morbidity and poor prognosis, particularly when its severity is at stage 2 or greater (see Table 1), a severity comparable to other clinical AIDS-defining complications of HIV-1 infection. Dementia designates the acquired and persistent cognitive decline with preserved alertness that usually dominates the clinical presentation and determines its principal disability. Complex emphasizes that this disease not only impairs the intellect, but also concomitantly alters motor performance and, at times, behavior. This involvement of the nervous system beyond cognition is evidence of a wider involvement of the CNS than occurs in some other types of dementia such as Alzheimer's disease. Additionally, myelopathy may be an important, indeed predominating, aspect of ADC, and organic psychosis may also be a feature in a subset of patients (see Rheumatologic and Musculoskeletal Manifestations of HIV). These manifestations are therefore also encompassed within this term. By contrast, neither neuropathy nor functional psychiatric disturbance are included in ADC.