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…

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How Does Neuropathy Lead to Lump in Throat or Phlegmy Throat Sensation?

To preface, have you ever been to the dentist and received a novacaine injection prior to a dental procedure? Did you notice that where the injection is performed, it feels as if the area feels really swollen and also you feel like you are drooling... but than when you look in the mirror, there's no drooling and there's no swelling either? In this dental situation where novacaine got injected leading to a temporary induced neuropathy...  a similar phenomenon can also occur in the th…

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Customized Cancer Treatment Using Technique Similar to C&S for Infections

Imagine being 24 years old and having undergone 350 surgeries to remove growths from the throat... and expecting to undergo even more in the future. Well, this situation is not unheard of for patients who suffer from a condition called recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP). Although it is not rare for intermittent and sporadic warty growths called papillomas to occur in the mouth and throat due to the HPV virus, RRP is a much more severe condition where such papillomas start appearin…

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Noise Hyper-Sensitivity in Kids

Although we mainly see kids for hearing loss due to fluid in the ears, chronic ear infections , or eustachian tube dysfunction , every so often, a child will show up with the exact opposite problem. The child hears just fine, but suffers from noise hypersensitivity, also known as auditory hypersensitivity. Such children are overwhelmed from everyday noises whether doorbells, sirens, key clanking, etc; typically high-pitched sounds. The hands will go over the ears in an attempt to dampe…

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