Mobile Digital Health

~ by Josh Libroan

Sonography is a popular new form of diagnosis because of its safe, non-invasive procedure. Borrowed from bats, sonagraphy utilizes the technology of sonar, which bounces sound waves off of objects to create dynamic pictures of them. Sonographers send and receive sound waves through a transducer, a thick baton that they run over the patient’s skin to sense what is underneath. Sonography is used to take a look at the heart, liver, kidneys, bloodstream, and most famously, unborn babies. It can be used to diagnose and treat heart disease, heart attack, and vascular disease that can lead to stroke. It is also used to guide probes and needles in surgery.

When you need a sonogram for diagnostic purposes, you don’t want to wait all day for it. That’s why Mobile DH provides rapid sonography service at your bedside, for hemologists, cardiologists, internists and other medical specialists, as well as homecare patients, nursing homes, and assisted living facilities.

A full physical exam and screening for heart risk are a necessary step prior to medicating a hyperactive child with a stimulant drug, but an electrocardiogram is not a must according to The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the American Heart Association (AHA). The AHA has taken a step back from their earlier recommendation in April where they advocated taking an ECG as an essential measure before embarking on stimulant therapy.

Research has shown that while stimulants used to treat ADHD are known to raise blood pressure and heart rate, serious heart complications appear rare in kids who take the drugs. Undergoing an ECG would be reasonable but in some cases the ECG might result in false-positive readings, indicating heart risk where there is none.

By Donna Lampa

The American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology released a joint statement urging research to be done to determine the link between sleep apnea and heart disease, following increasing evidence of just such a connection, as well as the widespread prevalence of sleep apnea and rising levels of obesity in the United States, especially among young people. Obesity is a major cause of sleep apnea

“We feel it is important to alert the cardiovascular community to the implications of this emerging area of research. It is possible that diagnosing and treating sleep apnea may prove to be an important opportunity to advance our efforts at preventing and treating heart disease,” said Dr. Virend K. Somers, a professor of medicine and cardiovascular diseases at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

“We need to more clearly define the cause and effect relationship between sleep apnea and cardiovascular diseases and risk factors,” he noted. “There is evidence that sleep apnea may be a cause of some cases of high blood pressure, but for other cardiovascular conditions, the evidence is largely circumstantial

By Fay Ashland

New research findings by the University of Arizona show a link between a woman’s high bone mineral density and a greater likelihood of developing breast cancer. This factor is independent of the risk level predicted by using the popular Gail model. The Gail model utilizes family history, age and other factors to estimate a woman’s risk of breast cancer over five years and over her lifetime, but it does not include data on bone mineral density, which is known to be a risk factor for breast cancer.

Recently other studies have linked bone health and  breast cancer risk in various ways. At the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting,  a study was presented that showed how Zometa (zoledronic acid), a drug used to treat osteoporosis, lowered the risk of breast cancer recurrence in premenopausal women.Other research revealed that women with breast cancer who are deficient in vitamin D  at the time of their diagnosis were more likely to have a recurrence or to die from their disease. Vitamin D is also vital to bone health.

Women with high bone density tend to be overweight or obese which does raise their risk of breast cancer.

According to Dr. Jay Brooks, Chairman of hematology/oncology at Ochsner Health System in Baton Rouge, “This is more information that shows a link in my opinion, between increasing weight, obesity and the development of breast cancer”.

~ by Damion Drilla

Dementia isn’t all about aging, studies show. Health in mid-life can have a marked effect on cognitive ability later on.

A British study of 10,308 people, mostly men, followed the subjects from roughly the ages of 35-55 (the study started in 1985) to about 60-75 years (the study ended in 2004).

Coronary heart disease in midlife was found to be linked to lower cognition in later years. In men, heart disease was linked to lower reason, vocabulary, and MMSE scores. In women, it corresponded additionally to lower phonemic and semantic fluency.

The longer the heart disease – meaning, the earlier it was contracted – the greater the drop in cognitive ability over the years. This suggests that heart disease creates an ongoing condition that continuously deteriorates mental function until dementia kicks in.

Medicare had proposed stopping coverage for CT scans used to diagnose heart disease, but after receiving complaints from many Medical Societies including the American College of Cardiology and the American College of Radiology, they reversed their decision.

According to the American College of Cardiology and the American College of Radiology  – the “policy would have a profoundly negative impact on Medicare beneficiaries by limiting needed access to this technology for clinically appropriate indications.”

High-tech scans are one of the fastest growing areas of health-care spending, and The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service is determined to cuts costs. But for now, the agency will let the Regional Medicare carriers make their  own decisions on this and they usually tend to cover the test.

Medicare paid for an estimated 70,000 of the heart scans in 2006, at a cost of $40 million to $50 million.

The scans can serve a purpose similar to conventional angiography, in which X-ray images of the coronary vessels heart are enhanced with a dye injected by a catheter. A set of guidelines, created by several medical societies, recommends using the scans only on certain patients who have some evidence of heart disease, such as those with chest pain and a hard-to-evaluate stress test.

Since CT scans are less invasive than angiography, there is some concern that they might be used for screening patients who don’t show symptoms of disea

Many patients who require pulmonary care for chronic breathing problems such Asthma, Bronchiectasis, Emphysema and Chronic Bronchitis, Pneumonia and Pulmonary Fibrosis as well as those who have undergone lung surgery are opting to be treated at home as opposed to languishing in a hospital or  nursing facility

“Many (clients) are sick people, but home is clearly what the majority of patients would prefer rather than going into a home,”says Dr. Benjamin Rossi, Medical Director of the Visiting Nurses Association’s Home Health Care program. “If you have a good organization, you can help people with quality of life and help manage their chronic disease so they can stay at their home.”

Advances in technology are making it easier for family members to manage the home care of their loved one. Mobile Digital Imaging is one area that can serve as a great asset to home care, helping to fill the gap between the hospital and home. Just one phone call brings a technician to the bedside of your mom or dad and  a full spectrum of test  can be done on the spot. X-rays, EKGs, Sonograms, and Echocardiograms are just some of what’s available and all imaging is done digitally so results aren’t long in coming. Radiologists on call 24/7 read and evaluate all tests immediately, so your physician can follow up with the appropriate treatment.

More and more people want their care provided at home so they can feel comfortable in their own bed. Now they can rest assured, knowing that when their doctor orders an x-ray  it doesnt require the hassle of a hospital trip. They can just stay put.

EKG - Electrocardiogram. Blame the ‘k’ on the Germans who coined the word first.

An EKG is an electrical test used to diagnose many heart conditions.

It’s a noninvasive test in which the patient lies flat on a table and has several electrodes attached to his or her extremities and chest. A bit of gel is applied to ensure complete surface contact between the electrodes and the body.

The heart pumps because of electrical pulses that originate in the sinoatrial node and travel through the heart, contracting it. The electrodes can sense the pulse. The different electrodes are placed in different locations around the heart to sense electrical activity in different sections of the heart.

The EKG produces a graph of the patient’s heart rhythm, which can be compared to a normal heart rhythm to detect weaknesses and abnormalities. It can measure heart rate, the orientation of the heart in the chest, sense if the heart muscle is thickening, sense damage to the heart, find evidence of impaired bloodflow to the heart, or sense abnormal electrical activity. Inflammation of the heart, irregular blood electrolytes, heart murmurs, and any adverse effects from heart or lung illnesses are others of the many conditions the EKG can diagnose. Any of the above could lead to cardiovascular illness, heart disease, or hypertension.

The EKG can sense if a heart attack has occurred, or if one is likely to occur, making it an essential diagnostic tool for those at risk of heart problems.

While EKG is rarely a time-critical test, scheduling and administering one is often a hassle, especially for care facilities such as nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and old age homes. For cardiologists, for whom a private facility is not an option, often have to wait an inconvenient amount of time to find out if their prognosis was correct.

Mobile DH changes that by bringing the EKG to the patient’s bedside or the doctor’s office. Instead of going through the paperwork and red tape to transport the patient to an EKG facility, just give Mobile DH a ring and have the EKG (ECG) brought to you.

~ by Cher Giovani

The study wasn’t about dementia: it was about blood pressure. A British group researching hypertension in the elderly followed a group of participants aged 80 and over to record the effects of drug therapy treatment for hypertension on the patients. Among the many variables measured was cognitive impairment.

The 3,336 subjects were randomly assigned to receive or not receive drug therapy for hypertension. At the beginning, they were all screened to have similar medical records, including no diagnosis of dementia.

The study found that treatment definitely reduced incidence of stroke, heart failure, and death. There were also 263 cases of dementia, including vascular dementia, Alzheimer’s, and ordinary cognitive decline. Treatment showed a small, but definite increase in cognitive decline among the untreated subjects.

Further study would be necessary to see if treating hypertension directly affects dementia, or if the reduced decline is tied to the form of treatment itself; the greatest reduction in dementia was found with the use of calcium channel blockers.

By Stan Readley

It’s long been known that beta amyloid, a disruptive plaque substance, forms on the brain as Alzheimer’s disease progresses. What is not known is if the plaque causes the disease, or is caused by it. Particularly confusing: some people have beta amyloid in their brain and no Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. Ganesh M. Shankar and Dr. Dennis J. Selkoe of Harvard Medical School led a study that collected beta amyloid samples from cadavers donated to science and injected them into the brains of mice. Surprisingly, not all the mice developed Alzheimers. Only the mice who received a particular strain of beta amyloid developed the neurological disease. The two-molecule, soluble beta-amyloid seems to clog the synapses and disrupt communication between sections of the brain.

The study seems to directly inculpate a single form of beta amyloid as the cause of Alzheimers. If further studies corroborate these findings, we could be on the way to discovering the cause and cure for the degenerative neurological disease.