On last Thursday’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy (titled “Poker Face”), new mom Mary has a brain tumor called “butterfly tumor” (or Astrocytoma) and only 6 months left to live. Meredith thinks differently and tries to change the course of Mary’s disease.

Danger Level: High

What is it?

Astrocytoma is a type of brain tumor which tends to spread inside the brain ignoring anatomical borders. That causes it to be present on both sides of the brain (and sometimes look life a butterfly – hence the name).

Who gets it?

Astrocytomas are rare – in the United States, every year there are 5.4 new cases per 100,000 people. They are a little more common in men, and most cases appear around ages 20-45.

What causes it?

Astrocytes are star-shaped brain cells located between nerve cells (astro=star, cyte=cell). They are actually part of a larger group of cells in the brain called glia cells – which support the nerve cells and glue them together.

Photo by Neurorocker

When astrocytes start dividing without control, they create a tumor called astrocytoma. These tumors come in different grades (1 to 4) – low grade tumors are slow-growing while high-grade tumors can be very aggressive (on the Grey’s Anatomy episode, Mary had a grade-4 tumor which is the most aggressive type).

The reason for astrocytoma is unknown, but scientists have found that it can be related to radiation to the head at young age, and there are several genes that are also related to this tumor.

How does it feel?

The symptoms of astrocytoma are related to its location – almost any neurological symptom is possible, including changes in mental status, seizures, and movement or sensory problems. These symptoms appear because the tumor puts pressure on brain tissue or ruins it while growing. Symptoms like these are called focal neurological symptoms.

Besides that, astrocytoma (and any other brain tumor) can increase the pressure inside the skull (called intra-cranial pressure) – this causes symptoms like headaches, nausea and vomiting as well as decreased alertness.

How is it discovered?

When someone comes to the doctor with the symptoms described above, the doctor will order a scan – a CT or an MRI (MRI is the best option). Sometimes doctors can guess the type of the tumor according to the way it looks on MRI – but final diagnosis can be made only when checking the tumor under a microscope after it’s removed in surgery.

This is a part of a brain with a grade 4 astrocytoma which spread to both sides of the brain.

How is it treated?

Aggressive astyrocytomas are treated with surgery to remove the tumor, radiation and chemotherapy. Steroids sometimes help with the symptoms, and so do anti-epileptic drugs (for patients with seizures).

What happens after treatment?

Even with treatment, astrocytoma can be deadly. Patients with low-grade tumors can survive for an average of 6-8 years, but with high-grade aggressive disease, average survival is less that 1 year.

The story of Jodi Fenton who recovered from grade-3 astrocytoma

The bottom line – how do I avoid it

Unfortunately, there is no known way to avoid astrocytoma.

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1. As Seen on Grey’s Anatomy – Tay-Sachs Disease – Fat Accumulating in The Brain
2. Nesidioblastoma – A Tumor of the Pancreas That Can Secrete Hormones (As Seen on House MD)
3. As Seen on Grey’s Anatomy – Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (NPH)

After this fall’s allergy season (which is expected to be longer and stronger than usual), the winter will start and most of us will probably start spending more time at home. We expect the winter to be allergy-free, but those of us who are prone to allergies might continue sneezing and itching during the winter.

AllergyBeGone.com have created an infographic about the things indoors that can cause annoying allergy symptoms to continue during the winter, and how we can avoid them. For example:

It also explains in general about allergies:

You can see the entire infographic here:

Allergy Be Gone – 7 Allergens In Your Home That You Didn’t Know About

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A Disease A Day is mostly about diseases. Each disease can be discovered in different ways. Some only require the doctor to check you up, while others also entail taking images of your body through various machines. One of those is the MRI machine.

Almost anyone has at least heard the name of the machine. Some of you may have even been scanned by it. But knowing how it works? That’s a completely different story.

A new infographic was published that explains just that. For example, it explains what MRI can be used for:

For the more technical-minded, it also explains the inner workings of the machine:

You can see the entire infographic here:

Visualization in Medicine – How MRI Scans Work

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Even though most Americans (and most of the modern world) are vaccinated, there is an ongoing debate on whether vaccinations can do harm as well. Mind you, you won’t hear this debate in hospital corridors – most, if not all, doctors believe in the necessity of vaccines. Still, there are children who don’t get vaccinated – either because their parents believe it can lead to problems such as autism, or because they don’t have access to vaccines.

The folks at Medical Coding Career Guide have created an infographic summing up the debate, and basically all you ever wanted to know about vaccinations.

For example – Did you know that before vaccinations for pertussis started, 9000 people died of it each year?

Or that the original study that claimed that autism is linked to the MMR vaccine was actually retracted later by the very same journal that published it?

You can follow the link below for the rest of the infographic.

The Great Vaccination Debate [Medical Coding Career Guide]

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The FDA is on a roll – only a week after setting new rules for sunscreens, another announcement has arrived – this time it concerns all of you who have breast implants (or plan on having ones some day).

photo by FDA.gov

Breast implants are actually balloons made of silicone, which can be filled with saltwater (saline implant) or with silicone-gel. They come in different sizes and shapes. Implants can be used either for breast enlargement (also called breast augmentation) or for breast reconstruction (after removing one or to breasts surgically – for example in women with breast cancer).

The purpose of the announcement was mainly to remind women that breast implants are not eternal and might need to be replaced. Researches found that 20% of women who underwent breast enlargement and 50% of women who had their breast reconstructed with implants, had to remove the implant within 10 years from the implantation.

What’s the reason for the difference between breast enlargement and reconstruction? In an interviewed to CBS news, Dr. Jennifer Ashton explained that this difference is related to the fact that most reconstructions are done because of breast cancer – radiation treatments which is sometimes needed after surgery causes damage to the tissue around the implant; and if the cancer recurs, removal of the implant is necessary.

Another goal was to raise awareness to the possible complications:

• Capsular Contractures, which is hardening of the tissue around implants. This makes the breast firm, weird-looking and in severe cases – painful.  Contractures happen more if the woman had blood of fluid accumulated near the implant after the surgery. In serious cases this might require another surgery to remove the firm tissue.
• Rupture of the implant: This is a rupture in the outer part of the implant. In saline implants all the water leaks out from the implant, while in silicone-gel implants the inner part of the implant is pretty thick and may remain inside the ruptured implant. Rupture can happen for many reasons – trauma or excessive pressure, capsular contracture, damage during surgery in the area or just normal aging. After one implant ruptures, usually the doctors will remove both of them (and may and may replace them with others). The FDA also recommended having a routine MRI of the breasts to look for unnoticed rupture.
• Cosmetic problems such as wrinkling, asymmetry, scarring.
• Other local complications including pain, infection, irritation around the implant, death of the tissue around the implant and more.

photo by ONYXX86

All these complications become more common with time – and the FDA made it clear that women who get these implants should be ready to have more surgeries in the future. More information about complications can be found in a booklet created by the FDA.

The FDA’s Bottom Line: Despite all these scary complications, the bottom line of the announcement was that breast implants are generally safe – and have not been proved to cause breast cancer, fertility problems or autoimmune diseases, though more research in all these areas is still needed.

One problem which was not mentioned on this week’s announcement is the possible link between breast implants and a rare type of lymphoma (which is cancer in the immune system cells), which was brought up only last January. According to the FDA website, there were 60 cases identified until today, which is a very small fraction of the women with implants worldwide (around 5-10 million women) – and more research is needed to completely understand the subject.

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Coffee – good or bad for you? Seems that question may never get an honest answer, as every day another opinion or fact pops up. We recently compared coffee vs. tea, and even helped you discover how much caffeine you’re drinking. Now a new study mentioned on MSNBC claims that drinking too much coffee can make you… hear voices.

The Australian study had a group of 92 volunteers listen to white noise. They were told to press a button each time they heard Bing Crosby’s White Christmas. The catch? The song was never played. Yet those who regularly drank 5 or more cups per day were more likely to imagine they heard it.

If only these beans could talk. Wait a minute – did you hear something? Photo by Thomas Lieser

The researchers attributed the findings to high levels of stress. This goes to show you that the old adage that too much of a good thing can be bad may be true.

Too much coffee makes you hear voices, study suggests [MSNBC’s The Body Odd]

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What do cayenne pepper and puréed vegetables have in common? According to two new studies, mentioned on The New York Times, both are natural appetite suppressants.

The first study included a group of 25 diners, for whom just half a tea spoon of red pepper was added to the meals. When added to a bowl of tomato soup, for example, red pepper caused them to eat 60 calories less on their next meal compared with when they ate the same soup without red pepper. The spice also increased their metabolism, causing them to burn more calories without doing anything.

Photo by Susy Morris

In the other study, diners ate casseroles with varying amounts of purée. The addition made the dish more bulked up, meaning you can eat a bigger dish with fewer calories. On average, the purée helped them eat 200-350 fewer calories a meal.

Both methods don’t offer a great deal of weight loss, but they serve as easy to use techniques on your quest for dieting.

Adding Food and Subtracting Calories [The New York Times]

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This is part of our House MD Project series.

Click here to read the connection to the episode (spoiler alert!)


On episode 20 of season 7, named “Changes”, a lottery winner called Cyrus Harry collapses and his leg becomes paralyzed. In the hospital he experiences a seizure. Later tumors are found in various places in his body. After giving him growth factor, which is supposed to help tumors grow, they actually shrink. This doesn’t prevent him from having a multi-organ failure. The explanation for everything is a teratoma, against which the body created antibodies. The antibodies attacked his organs. Why? Read on to understand…

Photo by Fox

Danger level: Medium

What is it?

A teratoma (coming from the Greek word “teraton”, which means “monster”) is a tumor that contains tissues of other body organs in it.

Who gets it?

Teratomas can come in many forms: some can form in the testicle or ovary, while others may occur somewhere else in the body. This article deals with teratomas that are found outside the testicle and ovary, specifically in the mediastinum (the chest area).

They can occur in men or women. The typical age when they show up is 20-40.

What causes it?

When we are in the womb, still developing, our tissues and organs develop from entities called germ layers. All in all, there are 3 of them: the endoderm, mesoderm and ectoderm. Each of those gives rise to different parts of the body. For example, the mesoderm develops into our muscles, skeleton, skin, heart, and other things.

A teratoma is a tumor, which, unlike our normal organs, is derived from more than one of those germ layers (usually all 3). This means, basically, that it can contain all sorts of organs within it. Examples of tissues found inside a teratoma include hair, teeth, fat, skin, muscle, and others.

An example of a teratoma can be seen here (containing hair, a tooth, and some other icky stuff… warning: If you’re easily grossed out by graphic images, do not follow the link) – photo by Ed Uthman).

How does it feel?

Usually teratomas in the mediastinum are benign, and they are commonly not felt at all. If there are any symptoms, they have to do with the tumor pressing on organs inside the chest, causing things such as chest pain, cough, difficulty breathing, and the like. One symptom that’s unique to the condition is coughing up hair. All in all, due to the lack of symptoms, teratomas in the chest are usually discovered by chest x-rays when trying to find other things.

It’s important to note that teratomas in other places (like the testicle or ovary) behave differently and may be malignant (meaning they can spread within the body).

How is it discovered?

As mentioned above, teratomas are usually discovered by an image, either an x-ray, a CT, or an MRI. A biopsy (taking a piece of the tumor to look at under a microscope) may be needed to know that the tumor is indeed a teratoma and not something else.

How is it treated?

Usually treatment for teratomas in the chest is surgery.

What happens after treatment?

When the tumor is taken out completely, most people are cured and there is little chance of recurrence (again, this applies only to teratomas in the chest).

The bottom line – How do I avoid it?

Unfortunately, there is no known way to prevent a teratoma from appearing.

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Are you sitting now? You’d better stand. Studies have shown for a long time that prolonged sitting is bad for you. It may lead to fat gain, heart attacks, or even death.

A new infographic from Medical Billing & Coding shows graphically just how bad prolonged sitting is for you, and why.

For example, did you know that, when quantifying thing, sitting increases your risk of death by up to 40%?

The infographic also elaborates, in frightening detail, exactly what happens when you sit:

You can follow the link bellow to see the complete infographic. In the meantime, get up and start activating your body, before it’s too late…

Sitting is Killing You – The Truth About Sitting Down [Medical Billing & Coding]

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You’d think that staying up late (partying or otherwise) would waste more calories during the day and help you lose weight. Think again. According to a study mentioned on the Los Angeles Times, staying up late may cause you to gain 2 pounds a month.

The reason? People who stay up late eat more food and have worse diets. Other than that, sleeping enough and when needed helps to keep your metabolism in check.

Photo by Jeffrey Smith

The study mentioned in the article was conducted by Northwestern University scientists. They examined 52 adults. 56% of them were normal sleepers and 44% late sleepers. The late sleepers consumed more calories at dinner and after 8 p.m.. Interestingly enough, their diet was also lousier (containing more fast food, soft drinks, etc.), either because of a tendency or because healthier food is less available at night. They also ate less fruit and vegetables and ate less in the morning.

The bottom line? When your eating habits aren’t in line with your body’s internal clock, your metabolism suffers.

You can read the LA Times article by following the link below. In the mean time, we want to know: Are you a late sleeper/eater? Did it affect you at all?

People who stay up late eat more, eat worse, study finds [Los Angeles Times]

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