Vocal Cord Changes Throughout the Menstrual Cycle

It is not unheard of that a fertile female singer experiences slight fluctuations in the quality of the voice throughout the menstrual cycle. In particular, in the immediate premenstrual period, up to 40% of female singers may note a deeper shift in the vocal range, tone inaccuracy, and/or tendency to develop vocal cord hemorrhage . Such vocal changes are hypothesized to be secondary to the affect of estrogen and progesterone on the vocal fold tissues, and especially any blood vessels that …

6/15/2017 0

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Liquid Biopsy for Head and Neck Cancer

Liquid biopsy is when a simple blood draw is performed in order to detect cancer cells (CTC) or mutated DNA fragments (ctDNA) free floating in the bloodstream that has been shed from the cancer's primary or secondary sites. This test has been heralded as an alternative way to make a diagnosis instead of an invasive surgical biopsy whether by needle or excision. Liquid biopsy has been developed mainly for detecting cancers of the breast, prostate, colon, ovarian, lung, and melanoma. Liqu…

6/05/2016 0

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Blood and Spit Test that Detects Cancer of the Head and Neck

Over the years, simple blood tests have been developed to detect specific types of cancer in the human body. We have PSA for prostate cancer; BRCA for breast cancer; CEA for colon cancer... and potentially in the very near future... a blood as well as spit test for head and neck cancer! Finally! Developed by researchers at Johns Hopkins, this new blood/spit test is able to detect squamous cell carcinoma with astounding accuracy using a combination of both DNA mutations and HPV markers.  …

6/26/2015 0

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Sam Smith Cancels Australian Tour Due To Vocal Cord Hemorrhage

Image by marcen27 of Wikipedia Media reported April 28, 2015 that Sam Smith suffered from vocal cord hemorrhage forcing him to cancel his Australian tour on doctor's orders due to potential risk of permanently damaging his voice. This is the same reason that Adele had to cancel her tour back in October 2011. He joins a number of other singers over the past few years who had to cancel their tours due to such vocal cord problems including: • Nathan Sykes - April 2013 • Nicki Mana…

4/29/2015 0

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Bleeding After Tonsillectomy (Pictures)

Bleeding after Tonsillectomy (circa 2010) 5 years old patient Bleeding after tonsillectomy is a very rare, but potentially life-threatening event. The often quoted probability of bleeding after this surgery is 1 in 1000 . Many surgeons have statistics much better than this. I like to consider myself in this "better" group. But... no matter how good you are, if enough tonsillectomies are performed, statistically, a significant bleed after tonsillectomy will occur at some point no…

3/06/2015 4

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How Accurate is Food Allergy Testing by Blood vs Skin Prick?

A great new allergy research paper came out in Jan 2014 comparing the accuracy of skin prick versus blood testing for food allergies. In summary, skin prick edges out blood testing in terms of accuracy, however mainly in terms of specificity. Sensitivity of both methods of testing is pretty comparable. However, blood testing tends to give more false-positives (test says you are allergic when you really aren't) compared to skin prick. Blood testing may be more convenient and may prov…

1/20/2015 0

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