Posts

Showing posts from November, 2023

Emerging Therapies in Heart Failure Management

Image
Heart failure is a significant global health challenge, affecting millions of people worldwide. It arises from various causes, including ischemic heart disease, hypertension, valvular abnormalities, and cardiomyopathies. The primary issue in heart failure is the heart's inability to efficiently pump blood, leading to debilitating symptoms and high mortality rates. Traditional management has focused on alleviating symptoms and enhancing cardiac function through medications and device-based interventions.  Despite the progress in conventional treatments, heart failure continues to be a clinical challenge due to complex underlying mechanisms such as neurohormonal activation, cardiac fibrosis, and cellular remodeling. Several emerging therapies could address these challenges.     Gene therapy , including gene-editing techniques like CRISPR-Cas9, for correcting genetic mutations contributing to heart failure, offers a promising avenue for addressing the root causes of this con...

AI and Acoustic Health

Image
Doctors have been listening to the sounds our bodies make for centuries. Before the invention of stethoscopes, they simply put their ears to their patients' chests or abdomens, to listen to the sounds produced by our body's internal workings. Today, the practice of auscultation, using a stethoscope to examine a patient, has evolved into a sophisticated diagnostic tool that provides valuable insights into various aspects of our health: lungs, heart, bowel, vocal cords, joints, arterial conditions, sleep quality and more. Moreover, by amalgamating biomarkers and clinical data with a myriad of acoustic cues like sneezes, breath patterns, speech, throat clearings, wheezes, and more, the healthcare decision-making process stands poised for remarkable enhancement.  Auscultation is a valuable diagnostic tool because it is safe and noninvasive. Doctors place their stethoscopes at various positions on the chest to listen to different heart valves. The sounds they hear include the closur...