Hickey From Kissing Can Cause a Stroke (Rarely)

Image from stulala on WattPad Apparently, a lover's aggressive kissing on the neck leading to hickey formation can potentially also cause enough trauma to the underlying carotid artery that it can lead to stroke and even death. Hard to believe that something that normally would cause no more harm than some teasing from friends has potential life consequences. The first published report of a hickey leading to stroke was in 2010. In this case report , a 44 years old woman received a h…

8/30/2016 0

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Earlobe Crease Associated with Heart Attacks

Check out the Earlobe Crease in this bust of Roman Emperor Hadrian It is a factoid that all medical students memorize and is even tested on exams... at least I remember doing so sometime during my first 2 years of medical school. This findings is also known as "Frank's Sign" named after Dr. Sanders Frank based on a paper he authored in 1973 . This risk of heart attack associated with a diagonal earlobe crease has reported numerous times over the years.  In a 1989 study of 3…

7/14/2015 0

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Ibuprofen (and Other NSAIDS) Increases Risk of Heart Attack and Stroke

It seems that the longer we study a particular medication on larger numbers of people, the more risks we find associated with taking it. The FDA on 7/9/15 reported that NSAID medications like ibuprofen (but NOT aspirin) significantly increases the risk of heart attack and stroke. This risk of heart attack and stroke with NSAIDs, either of which can lead to death, was first published in 2005. However, this warning will now be strengthened with the following statements: The risk of heart …

7/10/2015 0

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Flushing Ears with Cold Water Can Treat Somatoparaphrenia

Somatoparaphrenia is a condition whereby a person denies that a limb or an entire side of the body belongs to them, even if provided with irrefutable proof. This condition usually is accompanied by left-sided paralysis and anosognosia (denial or lack of awareness) of the paralysis often due to a parietal stroke. What is interesting is that flushing the left ear with cold water (caloric vestibular stimulation) can temporarily treat/resolve somatoparaphrenia. Specifically, the protocol is fl…

3/03/2014 0

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Stroke vs Non-Stroke Facial Paralysis

Image by Patrick Lynch from Wikipedia A recent blog post about a ER doctor who was found negligent for not pursuing a stroke workup for an isolated facial paralysis did bring up an interesting medical phenomenon about what differentiates a facial paralysis due to stroke vs facial paralysis due to facial nerve inflammation. To begin, the facial nerve innervates the entire half of the face. The nerve itself exits from the skull behind the ear and sends finger-like branches to all the musc…

3/23/2013 0

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ER Doc Found Negligent in Bell's Palsy Case

This case is not quite what you might think... Here's the background... The Wisconsin State Supreme Court  found an ER physician negligent for failing to offer a carotid ultrasound for a patient who presented with an isolated facial paralysis  (patient did not exhibit paralysis anywhere else in the body) and upheld a $2 million jury award to the patient in 2008. Not only that, the Wisconsin Medical Board reprimanded the ER physician and fined her $300. [ link ] Hmmmm... After all, …

3/22/2013 6

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Snoring is Bad for the Heart? Not so fast...

This past week, media has both aired and published a story regarding new research that suggests snoring WITHOUT obstructive sleep apnea may lead to potential increased risk of heart disease as well as stroke. Apparently, researchers in Michigan examined the data of 913 patients between the ages of 18 and 50 who had undergone a sleep study between 2006 and 2012. None had been diagnosed with sleep apnea , but did have significant snoring . These patients underwent an ultrasound that mea…

1/27/2013 1

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Reporter Suffers Garbled Speech on Live TV

Many folks are already aware of a Los Angeles reporter, Serene Branson, who was covering on live TV the Grammy's when she suffered symptoms of garbled speech (dysarthria being the medical term). It was initially conjectured that she was in the middle of a stroke, TIA, seizure, or something else bad... but it finally was determined by her doctors that it was due to a migraine. This scary incident brings me to explain what a speech and what a vocal problem is. First some definitions. …

3/08/2011 0

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New Video of Phlegmy Throat

In this video , the patient suffered from a severe phlegmy throat after suffering from a stroke. His secretions did not pass down to his stomach, but rather collected in his throat causing constant throat-clearing and coughing up clear phlegm. As you can see in the video, there is a tremendous amount of mucus pooling present. Treatment was geared toward improving his swallowing function so that his secretions would not collect in his throat. If you are not sure what normal is supposed…

2/22/2011 1

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CNN: Obstructive Sleep Apnea Increases Risk of Stroke

CNN on April 8, 2010 aired a story on obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and the risk it poses to men who do not address it. Apparently, according to a new study out of the March 2010 issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine ("Obstructive Sleep Apnea Hypopnea and Incident Stroke: The Sleep Heart Health Study"), the risk of stroke increases by as much as 3X if left untreated in men with OSA. The risk of stroke increases even in men with MILD sleep apnea. …

4/08/2010 0

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Brains of People with OSA Similar to People Dying or Severe Stroke

Image From Gutenberg Encyclopedia in Wikipedia Sufferers of obstructive sleep apnea experience similar changes in brain biochemistry as people who have had a severe stroke or who are dying, research showed published in the May 2009 edition of Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism . Apparently, when oxygen desaturation >10% occurs, a significant and severe disorder occurs to the brain bioenergetics, even if transient. This research (determined by using MRI) does suggest that …

6/04/2009 0

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