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A pneumothorax (noo-moe-THOR-aks) is a collapsed lung. A pneumothorax occurs when air leaks into the space between your lung and chest wall. This air pushes on the outside of your lung and makes it collapse. In most cases, only a portion of the lung collapses.
Your body has nerves that connect your brain to the rest of your organs and muscles, just like telephone wires connect homes all around the world. When you want your hand to move, your brain sends signals through your nerves to your hand telling the muscles to contract. But your nerves don’t just say “hand, move.” Instead your nerves send lots of electrical impulses (called action potentials) to different muscles in your hand, allowing you to move your hand with extreme precision.
Most cataracts are associated with the aging process and are common among older Americans. In fact, according to the National Eye Institute (NEI), 68.3 percent of Americans 80 and older had cataracts in 2010. And the prevalence of cataracts in the U.S. is expected to grow significantly in the years ahead, due in part to the aging of the population. In 2010, roughly 24.4 million Americans had cataracts, and that number is projected to grow to 50.2 million by the year 2050, according to NEI.
The goal of COPD management is to improve a patient’s functional status and quality of life by preserving optimal lung function, improving symptoms, and preventing the recurrence of exacerbations. Currently, no treatments aside from lung transplantation have been shown to significantly improve lung function or decrease mortality; however, oxygen therapy (when appropriate) and smoking cessation may reduce mortality. Once the diagnosis of COPD is established, it is important to educate the patient about the disease and to encourage his or her active participation in therapy.
Repairing a myelomeningocele in utero, rather than after birth, reduces the risk for fetal or neonatal death and the need for shunting by age 1 and substantially improves neurologic and motor outcomes. However, it is not without maternal and fetal risks. These are the findings, in a nutshell, of the long-awaited Management of Myelomeningocele Study (MOMS), which were published online February 9 in The New England Journal of Medicine.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease Email this page to a friend Print Facebook Twitter Google+ Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common lung disease. Having COPD makes it hard to breathe. There are two main forms of COPD: Chronic bronchitis, which involves a long-term cough with mucus Emphysema, which involves damage to the lungs over time Most people with COPD have a combination of both conditions. Causes Smoking is the main cause of COPD. The more a person smokes, the more likely that person will develop COPD. But some people smoke for years and never get COPD. In rare cases, nonsmokers who lack a protein called alpha-1 antitrypsin can develop emphysema. Emphysema Other risk factors for COPD are: Exposure to certain gases or fumes in the workplace Exposure to heavy amounts of secondhand smoke and pollution Frequent use of a cooking fire without proper ventilation Symptoms Symptoms may include any of the following: Cough, with or without mucous Fatigue Many respiratory infections Shortness of breath (dyspnea) that gets worse with mild activity Trouble catching one's breath Wheezing Because the symptoms develop slowly, some people may not know that they have COPD.
A visual prosthesis, often referred to as a bionic eye, is an experimental visual device intended to restore functional vision in those suffering from partial or total blindness. In 1983 Joao Lobo Antunes, a Portuguese doctor, implanted a bionic eye in a person born blind.
Mitosis is the process in which a eukaryotic cell nucleus splits in two, followed by division of the parent cell into two daughter cells. The word "mitosis" means "threads," and it refers to the threadlike appearance of chromosomes as the cell prepares to divide.