Lyme Disease

Ear

Head Lice

Head lice (Pediculus humanus capitis) are insects living and feeding on blood usually from children heads.

Signs of head lice are itchiness due to an allergy to lice saliva which is inserted to the blood. Also, the insects shown below can be found on children scalps.

Nits -empty lice eggs- can be also found in the head. They are white and usually look like dandruff or head dermatitis, but in constrast to dandruff they are firmly stuck on hair.

Diabetes and monitoring

Monitoring in Diabetes is essential and it is fundamental that the patients know how to use the monitor devices to check their blood glucose levels. This is particularly important to indirectly measure the effect of insulin, hypoglyceamic drugs, illnesses, exercise, dietary and other lifestyle changes.

Diabetes

Pancreas is the key organ for metabolism as it can be seen by the following diagram.
β-cells release insulin, stimulating glucose utilization and uptake and α-cells release glucagon, increasing the breakdown of glycogen and glucose release.

Normal blood glucose levels are 3.3-6.0mmol/L when fasting and less than 11.1mmol/L when non-fasting. Glucose levels being above 7.0mmol/L is an indication of hypoglyceamia and possibly diabetes mellitus.
There are quite a few types of diabetes. The most common ones are Type 1 - also known as insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM)- and Type 2- also known as insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (ΝIDDM). Type 1 is characterised by the destruction of β-cells responsible for producing insulin in the pancreas. It is divided into Type 1A- Autoimmune T cells are responsible for destroying β-cells and Type1B, which is idiopathic. Type 2 is caused by a relative insulin deficiency and/or insulin resistance. Other types of diabetes include genetic defects of β-cell function, genetic defects in insulin action, diseases of the exocrine pancreas, endocrinopathies, drug or chemical induced (e.g. nicotinic acid, glucocorticoids, high dose thiazides, pentamidine, interferon-α), infections, uncommon forms of immune-mediated diabetes, other genetic syndromes sometimes associated with diabetes and gestational diabetes.

The main symptoms of diabetes are polyuria, nocturia and polydipsia due to osmotic diuresis, fatigue due to inability to use glucose, weight loss due to breakdown of protein and fat instead of glucose and blurred vision. Hypoglyceamia, ketoacidosis and hyperosmolar hyperglycaemia are diabetic emergencies, whereas cardiovascular disease, hypertension, peripheral vascular disease, retinopathy, nephropathy, peripheral neuropathy and diabetic foot are complications often associated with diabetes.

Treatment involves diet, exercise, weight control as well as a drug therapy.

Why do we need to bother about Pharmacology?

News on Migraine

I had a group presentation to do on migraines as part of my course. I was responsible for explaining how triptans work and why rizatriptan works better than other triptans. It was due to this presentation that I learned about all the different theories of the causes and triggers of migraine. One cause that we never found information about was patent foramen ovale (PFO).
PFO is a hole in the heart that embryos have and once they are fully developed it closes. In some people though, the hole doesn't close before their birth. Usually, this hole is not problematic, but it is lately believed that it could be the reason for some people's migraines associated with auras and if the hole is closed through surgery then the migraine frequency can be reduced significantly.
Though, due to the risk of this surgery, it is suggested that it should be performed only if any other treatment has not worked.
Studies to investigate if PFO is associated with migraine, if the surgery will help and to determine the risk-benefit ratio are recently taking place.