Johns Hopkins Medicine News Roundup

Topics: Overuse of Pap smears, masks for preventing flu, off pump bypass surgery, and masks for flu transmission prevention

Download MP3 (10:22min, 24MB)

Johns Hopkins PodBlog: Which Bypass Surgery is Best

Coronary artery bypass surgery, abbreviated CABG and pronounced like the vegetable, is necessary when someone's coronary arteries, those that supply the heart muscle itself with blood, become so extensively blocked that they must be replaced.

Johns Hopkins - News & Information Services

H1N1 (SWINE INFLUENZA) EXPERTS AT THE JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS

Johns Hopkins - News & Information Services

STUDY UNMASKS HOW OVARIAN TUMORS EVADE IMMUNE SYSTEM

Healthline Today: Women’s Health Center

Along with their bodies, women’s health interests are constantly evolving. Learn how to meet each change in order to be healthy, energetic, and fit.

Healthline Today: Influenza

Prepare yourself to fight the flu. Each year the flu hits millions, sometimes lingering for days, sometimes weeks. According to research or other evidence, the following self-care steps may be helpful:

Healthline Today: Peripheral Vascular Disease

Keep blood flowing freely through your legs and other parts of your body. According to research or other evidence, the following self-care steps may help you avert artery blockage:

Mayo Clinic Proceedings: Dr. Barbara Yawn Shingles Interview September 2009

Dr. Barbara Yawn, Director of Research at Olmsted Medical Center, provides an overview of her study on Health Care Utilization and the Cost Burden of Herpes Zoster, published in the September 2009 issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

Download MP3 (8:21min, 19MB)

Mayo Clinic - Mayo Clinic Proceedings Article Offers New Data About the Impact of the Shingles Virus on Healthy Adults

When a vaccine to prevent shingles was approved for use in 2006, the Food and Drug Administration recommended the vaccine for people age 60 and older who previously had chickenpox.

Mayo Clinic - Shingles

Shingles is a viral infection that causes a painful rash. Although shingles can occur anywhere on your body, it most often appears as a band of blisters that wraps from the middle of your back around one side of your chest to your breastbone.

Mayo Clinic - Shingles vaccine: Can I transmit the vaccine virus to others?

In rare instances, it may be possible for someone who develops a rash from the shingles vaccine to transmit the vaccine virus to another person.

Healthline Today - Herpes Simplex Virus Type 2

A variety of treatments offer relief from this common STD—find out what works best for your symptoms. According to research or other evidence, the following self-care steps may be helpful:

Healthline Today - Valacyclovir (Valtrex)

Valacyclovir is an antiviral drug used to treat herpes zoster, or shingles, as well as recurrent episodes of genital herpes.

Healthline Today - Shingles and Postherpetic Neuralgia

The virus that triggers chickenpox also causes shingles. Although no cure exists, treatments are available to relieve the rash and nerve pain. According to research or other evidence, the following self-care steps may be helpful:

Healthline Today - Homeopathic Remedies for Herpes Zoster (Shingles)

Herpes zoster (commonly known as shingles) is a viral infection that causes extremely painful blisterlike eruptions to break out along the course of nerves.

Disease Associations With MGUS–Mayo Clinic study published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings

Dr. S. Vincent Rajkumar, Mayo Clinic hematologist, discusses the first systematic study to determine association of Monoclonal Gammopathy of Undetermined Significance (MGUS) with all diseases in 17,398 patients, published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

Download MP3 (6:41min, 16MB)

Mayo Clinic - New Mayo Study Shows Higher Prevalence of MGUS, A Pre-Cancerous Blood Disorder, than Previously Suspected

Mayo Clinic researchers have determined that the occurrence rate for monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) — a known precursor condition for multiple myeloma and other related blood disorders

Mayo Clinic - Monoclonal Gammopathy

Each year, hematologists at Mayo Clinic diagnose and care for well over 1,000 patients who have this abnormal protein in their blood.

Mayo Clinic - MGUS: A Common But Typically Harmless Blood Disorder

Monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) is a blood disorder that occurs when there is overgrowth of identical plasma cells in bone marrow.

Mayo Clinic Proceedings: Common Blood Disorder May Not be Linked to as Many Serious Diseases, as Previously Thought

A symptomless blood disorder, monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance, known as MGUS, is not linked to as many serious diseases as previously thought. This finding may save patients from undergoing unnecessary workup and treatment according to

Healthline Today - Immune Function

The immune system is a complex network of tissues, organs, cells, and chemicals that protects the body from infection and illness. According to research or other evidence, the following self-care steps may help boost your built-in bodyguard:

Healthline Today - Medicines

Using Medicines—Look up a medicine and learn about dosage, side effects, drug interactions, and depletions.

Healthline Today - Herbal Remedies

Look up an herb by common name or botanical name, and learn about Ayurvedic or Chinese herbs.

Bartonella quintana in Homeless Persons

In this podcast, Dr. Marina Eremeeva discusses an article about Bartonella quintana in homeless populations in San Francisco. Bartonella quintana is a bacterium that is transmitted by human body lice. Findings by the article’s authors suggest that Bartonella quintana may be transmitted by head lice. This could mean that populations other than homeless populations, such as school children, might be at increased risk for Bartonella quintana.

Download MP3 (8:13min, 6MB)

CDC - Transcript

This podcast is presented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC — safer, healthier people.

CDC - Bartonella quintana in Body Lice and Head Lice from Homeless Persons, San Francisco, California, USA

Bartonella quintana is a bacterium that causes trench fever in humans

CDC - Emergence of Bartonella quintana Infection among Homeless Persons

Bartonella quintana has episodically emerged as a cause of infection among distinct and diverse populations during the 20th century. The organism was first identified as an important human pathogen during World War I when it caused epidemics of louse-born

CDC - Bartonella quintana in Domestic Cat

We recovered Bartonella quintana DNA from dental pulp of a domestic cat. This study, the first to detect B. quintana in a nonhuman mammal, changes our understanding of the epidemiology of this infection and proposes that cats may be an emerging source of

CDC - Bartonella quintana Endocarditis in Dogs

We provide the first evidence that Bartonella quintana can infect dogs and cause typical signs of endocarditis.

CDC - Bartonella quintana Characteristics and Clinical Management

The disease was described in 1915 on the basis of natural and experimental infections in soldiers. It is now recognized as a reemerging pathogen among homeless populations in cities in the United States and Europe and is responsible for a wide spectrum of

Investigation of Sylvatic Typhus at a Wilderness Camp

In this podcast, Dr. Greg Dasch discusses an outbreak of four cases of sylvatic typhus that occurred at a wilderness camp in Pennsylvania. Sylvatic typhus is very rare in the United States, with only 41 cases since it was discovered in the United States in 1975. Lab work at CDC and the discovery that all four camp counselors who became ill had slept in the same bunk at the camp between 2004 and 2006 ultimately led to confirmation that flying squirrels living in the wall of the cabin were to blame for the illnesses.

Download MP3 (7:37min, 5MB)

CDC - Transcript

This podcast is presented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC — safer, healthier people.

CDC - Emerging Infectious Diseases

Cluster of Sylvatic Epidemic Typhus Cases Associated with Flying Squirrels, 2004–2006

CDC - Cluster of Sylvatic Epidemic Typhus Cases Associated with Flying Squirrels, 2004–2006

MedscapeCME is pleased to provide online continuing medical education (CME) for this journal article, allowing clinicians the opportunity to earn CME credit.

CDC - Cluster of Sylvatic Epidemic Typhus Cases Associated with Flying Squirrels, 2004–2006

In February 2006, a diagnosis of sylvatic epidemic typhus in a counselor at a wilderness camp in Pennsylvania prompted a retrospective investigation.