Latest news with #StanfordSchoolofMedicine
USA Today
4 days ago
- Health
- USA Today
8 ways to treat deep vein thrombosis
When most of us think of a serious medical emergency, we usually think of sudden events such as heart attacks, strokes or serious injuries from a car crash. But some threats develop quietly, with subtle symptoms that can take time to develop into a life-threatening crisis. One such danger is deep vein thrombosis, a blood clot that forms deep within the body and can travel to the lungs, sometimes becoming fatal. And deep vein thrombosis doesn't discriminate. It can start in a young adult after a long flight just as easily as it can occur in someone in their 60s recovering from surgery. Understanding what this condition is, why it occurs and how it's treated can help you prevent it or at least recognize warning signs in yourself or someone you love. What is deep vein thrombosis? Deep vein thrombosis, or DVT, occurs when a blood clot forms in a deep vein – most often in the legs, though it can also happen in an arm, explains Dr. Lawrence Hofmann, a physician and professor of interventional radiology at Stanford School of Medicine. The clot, or thrombus, is made of fibrin, platelets, white blood cells and some red blood cells. When the clot remains in your limb, it can cause swelling, cramping, warmth, aching, skin discoloration and engorged surface veins, Hofmann says, "but when the blood clot moves from your legs to your lungs, it's called a pulmonary embolism and can be very dangerous and even life-threatening.' While DVT is more common in people 55 and older, it "affects around 900,000 people each year in the United States" across a wide range of ages, says Dr. Scott Cameron, section head of vascular medicine at Cleveland Clinic. Blood clotting is normal. But here's why some blood clots turn dangerous, experts say. What causes deep vein thrombosis? No single factor causes DVT. Rather, it usually results from a 'perfect storm' of three issues, Hofmann says. These include slowed blood flow (venous stasis), vessel wall injury (endothelial damage) and thickened blood (hypercoagulability). 'You don't have to have all three to get a blood clot, but the more you have, the higher the risk,' he explains. These issues can arise from many situations, including "genetic disorders that make a person's blood thick," says Dr. Anahita Dua, a vascular surgeon at the Mass General Brigham Heart & Vascular Institute; as well as extended hospital stays, trauma, long periods of immobility like on a long plane journey or car ride, a recent surgery or pregnancy. Lifestyle factors and medical conditions can also play a role. These include obesity, smoking, heart disease, inflammatory bowel disease and hormone therapies. 'Cancer is another major risk factor for DVT,' Cameron notes, because tumors and some cancer treatments can increase clotting activity in the blood. 'And once a patient has experienced a clot, their chances of recurrence remain elevated for up to 10 years,' Cameron adds. Aspirin is a blood thinner. Depending on your health condition, that can be good or bad. How is deep vein thrombosis usually treated? Though DVT can be intimidating and its complications sometimes life-threatening, early recognition and treatment greatly improve outcomes. Symptoms like swelling, pain or warmth in one leg can lead to a diagnostic ultrasound and prompt initiation of treatment, which allows many patients to recover safely. The cornerstone of treatment is anticoagulants, or blood thinners, which reduce the risk of new clots and help the body gradually break down the existing clot. 'The clot starts to dissolve based on enzymes produced by your vein wall,' Hofmann explains. For clots that persist and cause ongoing swelling, procedures like angioplasty and stenting help doctors physically open the vein or remove the obstruction. Minimally invasive catheter-based procedures are also sometimes recommended, Cameron says. Compression stockings, early mobilization and lifestyle interventions like weight management and avoiding smoking can also help treat or prevent DVT. Ultimately, Dua says, "the care a patient with DVT receives is determined by where the clot is, how extensive it is, what caused it and if they can take blood thinners safely."
Time of India
31-07-2025
- Health
- Time of India
Virtual labs with AI scientists produce promising result in Stanford study
Virtual scientists in a virtual lab at Stanford University are coming up with unorthodox ways to address clinical challenges, researchers reported on Tuesday in Nature. The virtual lab is modeled after a well-established Stanford School of Medicine research group, complete with a principal investigator and seasoned scientists, the report says. As in human-run research labs, the virtual lab has regular meetings during which agents generate ideas and engage in a conversational back-and-forth. They also have one-on-one meetings, allowing the virtual lab members to meet with the virtual principal investigator individually to discuss ideas. Unlike human meetings, the virtual gatherings take a few seconds or minutes. When humans tasked the virtual team with devising a better vaccine for the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19, they equipped the virtual scientists with tools and software to stimulate creative "thinking" skills. The virtual scientists even created their own wish list. "They would ask for access to certain tools, and we'd build it into the model to let them use it," study leader James Zou said in a statement. Instead of opting for the usual vaccine design using an antibody, the AI team came up with using a nanobody, an antibody fragment that's smaller and simpler. "From the beginning of their meetings, the AI scientists decided that nanobodies would be a more promising strategy," Zou said. "They said nanobodies are typically much smaller than antibodies, so that makes the machine learning scientist's job much easier," Zou said, "because when you computationally model proteins, working with smaller molecules means you can have more confidence in modeling and designing them." When humans created the AI researchers' nanobody in a real-world lab, they found it was stable and could attach itself to one of the COVID virus variants more tightly than existing antibodies - a key factor in determining vaccine effectiveness. Aside from the initial prompt, the main guideline consistently given to the AI lab members was budget-related. Zou estimates that he or his lab members intervene about 1% of the time. "I don't want to tell the AI scientists exactly how they should do their work. That really limits their creativity," Zou said. "I want them to come up with new solutions and ideas that are beyond what I would think about." SCIENTISTS FIND GENES THAT CAUSE STUTTERING A new study found a clear genetic basis for stuttering, the speech disorder that affects more than 400 million people worldwide. Overall, as reported in Nature Genetics, the researchers identified 57 distinct regions on 48 genes associated with stuttering. Some of the same genetic variants involved in stuttering can also contribute to autism, depression and musicality, they found. Stuttering, characterized by syllable and word repetitions, sound prolongations, and breaks between words, is the most common fluency disorder, the researchers said. "There have been hundreds of years of misconceptions about what causes stuttering, from ideas about left-handedness to childhood trauma to overbearing mothers," study leader Jennifer (Piper) Below of Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville said in a statement. "Rather than being caused by personal or familial failings or intelligence, our study shows that stuttering is influenced by our genes." Young people who stutter report increased bullying, decreased classroom participation, and a more negative educational experience, her team noted. Stuttering can also negatively impact employment opportunities and perceived job performance, as well as mental and social well-being. Dillon Pruett, a postdoctoral fellow at Vanderbilt and a co-author of the study, stutters. "As someone personally affected, I wanted to contribute to this body of research," he said. "Our study found that there are many genes that ultimately contribute to stuttering risk, and we hope to use this knowledge to dispel stigma related to stuttering and also to hopefully develop new therapeutic approaches in the future." AT THE SIGHT OF A SICK PERSON, THE BRAIN GOES ON ALERT At the mere sight of a possibly contagious person, the human brain launches its germ-fighting preparations, researchers say. In virtual reality experiments using Google's Oculus Rift headsets, 248 healthy young adults were approached by human-like avatars, some of which showed visible signs of infection, such as rashes or coughing. Other avatars appeared neutral or fearful. As the infectious avatars moved closer, noninvasive monitoring showed changes in brain regions involved in integrating awareness of the body's position, movement, and relationship to the surrounding environment, which was not seen in response to the approaching neutral or fearful faces, the researchers reported in Nature Neuroscience. Participants were more reactive to touch when the sick-looking avatars were nearby, the researchers also found. Blood samples showed that exposure to the infectious-appearing avatars triggered an increase in volunteers' innate lymphoid cell activity, a key component of the immune system, which is typically seen during responses to real infections or vaccines. The results illustrate the power of the brain "to predict what is going on (and) to select the proper response," study co-author Andrea Serino of University Hospital of Lausanne, Switzerland said in an accompanying news article in the journal.
Reuters
30-07-2025
- Health
- Reuters
Health Rounds: Virtual labs with AI scientists produce promising result in Stanford study
July 30 (Reuters) - (This is an excerpt of the Health Rounds newsletter, where we present latest medical studies on Tuesdays and Thursdays. To receive the full newsletter in your inbox for free sign up here.) Virtual scientists in a virtual lab at Stanford University are coming up with unorthodox ways to address clinical challenges, researchers reported on Tuesday in Nature, opens new tab. The virtual lab is modeled after a well-established Stanford School of Medicine research group, complete with a principal investigator and seasoned scientists, the report says. As in human-run research labs, the virtual lab has regular meetings during which agents generate ideas and engage in a conversational back-and-forth. They also have one-on-one meetings, allowing the virtual lab members to meet with the virtual principal investigator individually to discuss ideas. Unlike human meetings, the virtual gatherings take a few seconds or minutes. When humans tasked the virtual team with devising a better vaccine for the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19, they equipped the virtual scientists with tools and software to stimulate creative 'thinking' skills. The virtual scientists even created their own wish list. 'They would ask for access to certain tools, and we'd build it into the model to let them use it,' study leader James Zou said in a statement. Instead of opting for the usual vaccine design using an antibody, the AI team came up with using a nanobody, an antibody fragment that's smaller and simpler. 'From the beginning of their meetings, the AI scientists decided that nanobodies would be a more promising strategy,' Zou said. 'They said nanobodies are typically much smaller than antibodies, so that makes the machine learning scientist's job much easier," Zou said, "because when you computationally model proteins, working with smaller molecules means you can have more confidence in modeling and designing them.' When humans created the AI researchers' nanobody in a real-world lab, they found it was stable and could attach itself to one of the COVID virus variants more tightly than existing antibodies - a key factor in determining vaccine effectiveness. Aside from the initial prompt, the main guideline consistently given to the AI lab members was budget-related. Zou estimates that he or his lab members intervene about 1% of the time. 'I don't want to tell the AI scientists exactly how they should do their work. That really limits their creativity,' Zou said. 'I want them to come up with new solutions and ideas that are beyond what I would think about.' SCIENTISTS FIND GENES THAT CAUSE STUTTERING A new study found a clear genetic basis for stuttering, the speech disorder that affects more than 400 million people worldwide. Overall, as reported in Nature Genetics, opens new tab, the researchers identified 57 distinct regions on 48 genes associated with stuttering. Some of the same genetic variants involved in stuttering can also contribute to autism, depression and musicality, they found. Stuttering, characterized by syllable and word repetitions, sound prolongations, and breaks between words, is the most common fluency disorder, the researchers said. 'There have been hundreds of years of misconceptions about what causes stuttering, from ideas about left-handedness to childhood trauma to overbearing mothers,' study leader Jennifer (Piper) Below of Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville said in a statement. 'Rather than being caused by personal or familial failings or intelligence, our study shows that stuttering is influenced by our genes.' Young people who stutter report increased bullying, decreased classroom participation, and a more negative educational experience, her team noted. Stuttering can also negatively impact employment opportunities and perceived job performance, as well as mental and social well-being. Dillon Pruett, a postdoctoral fellow at Vanderbilt and a co-author of the study, stutters. 'As someone personally affected, I wanted to contribute to this body of research,' he said. 'Our study found that there are many genes that ultimately contribute to stuttering risk, and we hope to use this knowledge to dispel stigma related to stuttering and also to hopefully develop new therapeutic approaches in the future.' AT THE SIGHT OF A SICK PERSON, THE BRAIN GOES ON ALERT At the mere sight of a possibly contagious person, the human brain launches its germ-fighting preparations, researchers say. In virtual reality experiments using Google's Oculus Rift headsets, 248 healthy young adults were approached by human-like avatars, some of which showed visible signs of infection, such as rashes or coughing. Other avatars appeared neutral or fearful. As the infectious avatars moved closer, noninvasive monitoring showed changes in brain regions involved in integrating awareness of the body's position, movement, and relationship to the surrounding environment, which was not seen in response to the approaching neutral or fearful faces, the researchers reported in Nature Neuroscience, opens new tab. Participants were more reactive to touch when the sick-looking avatars were nearby, the researchers also found. Blood samples showed that exposure to the infectious-appearing avatars triggered an increase in volunteers' innate lymphoid cell activity, a key component of the immune system, which is typically seen during responses to real infections or vaccines. The results illustrate the power of the brain 'to predict what is going on (and) to select the proper response,' study co-author Andrea Serino of University Hospital of Lausanne, Switzerland said in an accompanying news article, opens new tab in the journal. The researchers said that someday, virtual reality might be employed to boost the efficacy of vaccines by boosting the brain's effect on immune responses. (To receive the full newsletter in your inbox for free sign up here)
Time of India
17-07-2025
- Health
- Time of India
Emergency care meet for docs begins
Lucknow: To improve emergency care in govt hospitals, a four-day training workshop, District Hospital Physician Training (DHPT), began in Lucknow on Thursday with participation of 26 doctors from different hospitals. Following instructions of principal health secretary Partha Sarthi Sen Sharma, the workshop is being conducted by EMRI Green Health Services, which runs the 108 and 102 ambulance services in UP. The training module has been created by EMRI and Stanford School of Medicine, USA. Dr. Kavita Arya, director of Balrampur Hospital, inaugurated the workshop. Doctors are being trained in emergency care during the critical "golden hour"—the time period of first medical intervention before patients are referred to bigger hospitals. TNN
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
RFK Jr. Caught Lying About New Surgeon General Nominee
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is lying about his pick for surgeon general's qualifications. During an appearance on Fox News Thursday night, Kennedy attempted to defend his choice of Casey Means, a wellness influencer and author who has no active medical license and never completed her physician residency. But, as is typical for the anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist, in lieu of evidence, Kennedy just made stuff up. 'She was the top of her med—the very top of her medical class at Stanford,' Kennedy said. 'She is in every—during her residency, she won every award that she could win. She walked away from traditional medicine because she was not curing patients. She couldn't get anybody within her profession to look at the nutrition contributions to illness,' Kennedy said. But it would've been impossible for Means to be at the top of her class at the Stanford School of Medicine, because students aren't actually ranked there. A spokesperson from the school told CNN's Daniel Dale that medical students are graded on a pass-fail system. Kennedy's claim that Means quit her residency to walk away from traditional medicine is also untrue. Dr. Paul Flint, a former chair of otolaryngology/head and neck surgery at Oregon Health and Science University who helped oversee Means during her residency program, provided a completely different explanation for why she had walked away from her five-year residency program after four and a half years. 'She wasn't even sure she wanted to be in medicine. She wanted to do something different. She wanted to resign,' Flint told The Los Angeles Times. Means was under so much anxiety that she was given three months paid time off. 'She did that, came back and decided she wanted to leave the program. She did not like that level of stress,' Flint said. Flint said there was 'a lot of anxiety around' being a surgeon. 'You become much more responsible the more senior you get,' he explained. Now, Means may become the surgeon general, the highest ranking doctor in the country. Or in her case, the highest ranking non-practicing 'doctor.' Kennedy argued in a post on X Thursday that Means's lack of qualifications were exactly what made her such a great fit with his Make America Healthy Again agenda. No, seriously. 'The attacks that Casey is unqualified because she left the medical system completely miss the point of what we are trying to accomplish with MAHA. Casey is the perfect choice for Surgeon General precisely because she left the traditional medical system—not in spite of it,' he wrote.
