Q&A: The Body's Response to Injuries and Infections (Innate Immunity)

Humans live in an environment teeming with micro-organisms and could not exist as a species without highly effective mechanisms of host defense. The innate immune system constitutes the first-line barrier, the rapid-response mechanism, to prevent microbial invasion. Its components are inherited from parent to child and directed against molecules expressed only by micro-organisms. These host defense components are evolutionarily ancient, found in all multicellular organisms, and expressed in humans as conserved elements (homologs) shared with other vertebrates and, in some form, with insects and plants.

Q&A: Clinical Conditions Associated With Aortic Stenosis

Aortic valve stenosis (AS) is the most common cause of left ventricular outflow obstruction in children and adults; less common causes are subvalvular or supravalvular disease. Surgical aortic valve replacement (AVR) and transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) are the only effective treatments for severe aortic stenosis. Recommendations for surgical valve replacement for AS are based upon comparisons of the natural history of patients with AS to outcomes after surgical AVR.

Bell's Palsy

Bell's palsy is facial weakness (paralysis) that occur due to dysfunction of the nerve fibres of the seventh cranial nerve, also called the facial nerve, resulting in inability to control the muscles of the face on the affected side. The 7th cranial nerve originates in the brain and controls the muscles of the face.

Alice in Wonderland Syndrome (AIWS)

Alice-in-Wonderland syndrome (AIWS, named after the novel written by Lewis Carroll), also known as Todd's syndrome or Lilliputian hallucinations, is a disorienting neurological condition that affects human perception [source: Wikipedia].

Q&A: Clinical Conditions Associated With Varicoceles

The spectrum of conditions that affect the scrotum and its contents ranges from incidental findings that require patient reassurance to acute pathologic events that necessitate expeditious diagnosis and treatment. The most common nonacute scrotal conditions include varicocele, hydrocele, epididymal cyst and spermatocele, testicular cancer, chronic epididymitis, and cryptorchidism.

Loss of TB control due to missed patients and drug resistance

The World Health Organization, WHO, issued a news release on 23 October 2013 in London/Geneva titled, "Gains in tuberculosis control at risk due to 3 million missed patients and drug resistance." The report painted a gloomy picture of risks posed by 3million missed patients and drug resistance in loosing current gains in TB control.

Directory of Medical Schools - Find Any Medical School in the World

Medical schools are tertiary educational institutions, or part of such an institution, that teach medicine. They confer medical degrees, and are regulated by countries. To find a particular medical school, follow the links below to search the available directories.

Q&A: Diagnosing Cause Of Persistent Abdominal Pain

Abdominal pain can be a challenging complaint for both primary care and specialist clinicians because it is frequently a benign complaint, but it can also herald serious acute pathology. Clinicians are responsible for trying to determine which patients can be safely observed or treated symptomatically and which require further investigation or specialist referral. This task is complicated by the fact that abdominal pain is often a nonspecific complaint that presents with other symptoms.