HIV is spread only in certain body fluids from a person infected with HIV. These fluids are blood, semen, pre-seminal fluids, rectal fluids, vaginal fluids, and breast milk. In the United States, HIV is spread mainly by having sex or sharing injection drug equipment, such as needles, with someone who has HIV. To reduce your risk of HIV infection, use condoms correctly every time you have vaginal, oral, or anal sex. Don’t inject drugs. If you do, use only sterile injection equipment and water and never share your equipment with others. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is an HIV prevention option for people who don’t have HIV but who are at high risk of becoming infected with HIV. PrEP involves taking a specific HIV medicine every day. PrEP should always be combined with other prevention options, such as condoms.

Calcium channel blockers prevent calcium from entering cells of the heart and blood vessel walls, resulting in lower blood pressure. Calcium channel blockers, also called calcium antagonists, relax and widen blood vessels by affecting the muscle cells in the arterial walls. Some calcium channel blockers have the added benefit of slowing your heart rate, which can further reduce blood pressure, relieve chest pain (angina) and control an irregular heartbeat. Examples of calcium channel blockers Some calcium channel blockers are available in short-acting and long-acting forms. Short-acting medications work quickly, but their effects last only a few hours. Long-acting medications are slowly released to provide a longer lasting effect. Several calcium channel blockers are available. Which one is best for you depends on your health and the condition being treated. Examples of calcium channel blockers include: Amlodipine (Norvasc) Diltiazem (Cardizem, Tiazac, others) Felodipine Isradipine Nicardipine Nifedipine (Adalat CC, Afeditab CR, Procardia) Nisoldipine (Sular) Verapamil (Calan, Verelan) In some cases, your doctor might prescribe a calcium channel blocker with other high blood pressure medications or with cholesterol-lowering drugs such as statins.

A leg ulcer is simply a break in the skin of the leg, which allows air and bacteria to get into the underlying tissue. This is usually caused by an injury, often a minor one that breaks the skin. In most people such an injury will heal up without difficulty within a week or two. However, when there is an underlying problem the skin does not heal and the area of breakdown can increase in size. This is a chronic leg ulcer.

The average time from symptom onset to diagnosis has been reported to be approximately 2 years. Despite recent attempts at increasing the awareness of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), especially associated PAH (APAH), this delay in diagnosis has not changed appreciably in recent years. Early symptoms are nonspecific. Often, neither the patient nor the physician recognizes the presence of the disease, which leads to delays in diagnosis. Complicating matters, idiopathic PAH (IPAH) requires an extensive workup in an attempt to elucidate an identifiable cause of the elevated pulmonary artery pressure. The most common symptoms and their frequency, reported in a national prospective study, are as follows: Dyspnea (60% of patients) Weakness (19%) Recurrent syncope (13%) Additional symptoms include fatigue, lethargy, anorexia, chest pain, and right upper quadrant pain. Cough, hemoptysis, and hoarseness are less common symptoms. Women are more likely to be symptomatic than men.

You may have recently found out that you are deficient or know someone who is. It's shocking for most people when they have never had a problem before and believe nothing has changed to make it a problem now. The truth is that a lot has changed, and vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency is now a global public-health problem affecting an estimated 1 billion people worldwide. The most well-known consequences to not having enough vitamin D are rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults. These are far from the only problems associated with a vitamin D deficiency.

Thoracic outlet syndrome is a disorders that occur when blood vessels or nerves in the space between your collarbone and your first rib (thoracic outlet) are compressed. This can cause pain in your shoulders and neck and numbness in your fingers. Common causes of thoracic outlet syndrome include physical trauma from a car accident, repetitive injuries from job- or sports-related activities, certain anatomical defects (such as having an extra rib), and pregnancy. Sometimes doctors can't determine the cause of thoracic outlet syndrome. Treatment for thoracic outlet syndrome usually involves physical therapy and pain relief measures. Most people improve with these approaches. In some cases, however, your doctor may recommend surgery.

Pulmonary function tests are a broad range of tests that measure how well the lungs take in and exhale air and how efficiently they transfer oxygen into the blood. Spirometry measures how well the lungs exhale.

Indications for intervention in patients with a renal artery aneurysm (RAA) include the following [20, 8, 13, 14] : Rupture Symptomatic RAA - Hypertension (from associated renal artery stenosis, refractory to medical management), pain, renal ischemia or infarction secondary to embolization from the aneurysm sac RAAs in females who are pregnant or are contemplating pregnancy Diameter greater than 2 cm Enlarging RAA RAA associated with acute dissection Currently, there is no consensus regarding the size at which an RAA should be repaired in an asymptomatic patient. Experts have recommended RAA repair at diameters ranging from 1.5 to 3 cm, [8] though most suggest 2 cm. Some reports have even suggest that larger asymptomatic saccular aneurysms may be managed expectantly. Note that aneurysm rupture at a diameter of 1.5 cm has been reported. Complete calcification of the wall of the aneurysm sac manifests in about 40% of patients. This was once believed to confer protection against rupture [21] ; however, this belief has since been questioned. [30] Asymptomatic, small (<2 cm in diameter) RAAs do not usually require treatment. One notable exception is an RAA in a woman who is pregnant or contemplating pregnancy. In view of the increased risk of rupture in such cases, even small asymptomatic aneurysms should be repaired in this population. For diagnosis and preinterventional planning, gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) and computed tomography (CT) angiography (CTA) with three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction have essentially replaced conventional arteriography. Regular follow-up examination with ultrasonography (US) or CT) is recommended in patients who are treated expectantly. Spontaneous cure by thrombosis of small aneurysms has been described. Further refinements in endovascular techniques may allow more RAAs to be treated in this manner. So far, excellent short- and intermediate-term results have been described in the literature [40] ; however, there remains a need for further long-term outcome data.

Overweight does not necessarily equal unhealthy. There are actually plenty of overweight people who are in excellent health (1). Conversely, many normal weight people have the metabolic problems associated with obesity (2). That’s because the fat under the skin is actually not that big of a problem (at least not from a health standpoint, it’s more of a cosmetic problem). It’s the fat in the abdominal cavity, the belly fat, that causes the biggest issues (3). If you have a lot of excess fat around your waistline, even if you’re not very heavy, then you should take some steps to get rid of it. Belly fat is usually estimated by measuring the circumference around your waist. This can easily be done at home with a simple tape measure. Anything above 40 inches (102 cm) in men and 35 inches (88 cm) in women, is known as abdominal obesity. There are actually a few proven strategies that have been shown to target the fat in the belly area more than other areas of the body.

This video: Tennis elbow or lateral epicondylitis is a condition in which the outer part of the elbow becomes sore and tender. The forearm muscles and tendons become damaged from overuse — repeating the same strenuous motions again and again.

A simple continuous stitch can be a useful technique for skin closure when speed is important, e.g. closing a scalp laceration on a screaming child. The simple running, or continuous suture, is begun in the same way as a simple interrupted suture.

A Brazilian butt lift (BBL) uses a person's own fat to enhance the size and shape of the buttocks. A plastic surgeon first performs liposuction to remove fat from other areas of the body (often the stomach, hips, and thighs), then injects that fat into the backside. Additional liposuction can be done around the butt to improve the appearance of lift and contour.

The most common position of the uterus is anteverted (cervix angles forward) and anteflexed (body is flexed forward). The position of the uterus in the adult is liable to considerable variation, depending chiefly on the condition of the bladder and rectum. Adnexa: In gynecology, the appendages of the uterus, namely the ovaries, the Fallopian tubes, and the ligaments that hold the uterus in place.

Upper gastrointestinal bleeding (sometimes upper GI, UGI bleed, Upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage, gastrorrhagia) refers to bleeding in the upper gastrointestinal tract, commonly defined as bleeding arising from the esophagus, stomach, or duodenum. In fact, the proportion of UGIB cases caused by peptic ulcer disease has declined, a phenomenon that is believed to be due to the use of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) and H pylori therapy. Duodenal ulcers are more common than gastric ulcers, but the incidence of bleeding is identical for both.

Neurogenic shock is a distributive type of shock resulting in low blood pressure, occasionally with a slowed heart rate, that is attributed to the disruption of the autonomic pathways within the spinal cord. It can occur after damage to the central nervous system such as spinal cord injury.

Osteoporosis, which literally means porous bone, is a disease in which the density and quality of bone are reduced. As bones become more porous and fragile, the risk of fracture is greatly increased. The loss of bone occurs silently and progressively. Often there are no symptoms until the first fracture occurs.

Surgery is the only way to treat parathyroid disease (hyperparathyroidism). There are no medications or pills that work to cure or treat parathyroid problems or high calcium. The parathyroid tumor must be removed by a surgeon. As soon as the parathyroid tumor has been removed, you are cured! It is very likely this will change your life. If you have hyperparathyroidism you need to have parathyroid surgery. If you have an expert surgeon this operation should be very easy.

When foreign organisms such as bacteria enter the body, the immune system sends white blood cells to fight the infection. This causes swelling (inflammation) at the site of infection and the death of nearby tissue, creating a hole called a cavity, which fills with pus to form an abscess.

Portal hypertension is an increase in the blood pressure within a system of veins called the portal venous system. Veins coming from the stomach, intestine, spleen, and pancreas merge into the portal vein, which then branches into smaller vessels and travels through the liver.

Obstetrics is the field of medicine which encompasses the care of a woman during pregnancy and childbirth. In that way it is very unique, as when assessing these patients, your actually also assessing another the child.