THE CREATIVE SPARK

 Depression is a prevalent and often debilitating psychiatric disorder with a 6-month prevalence of approximately 5%. In the United States alone, approximately 20 million people have been diagnosed with depression at some point in their lives. Depression accounts for the greatest number of missed work days due to illness, with an estimated economic burden of approximately $40 billion per year. When diagnosing depression, a distinction must be made between major depressive disorder (MDD) and major depressive episode (MDE). For the diagnosis of MDE, patients must present at least five of the following symptoms for a minimum of 2 weeks: depressed mood; markedly diminished interest or pleasure or significant apathy; significant change in appetite or weight; insomnia or hypersomnia; psychomotor agitation or retardation; fatigue or loss of energy; feelings of worthlessness, excessive or inappropriate guilt, or loss of self-esteem; indecisiveness or diminished ability to think or concentr...

 An AVM is Arteriovenous Malformation, where there is tangling of the arteries and veins.   The arteries are responsible for carrying out oxygenated blood to various parts of the body from the heart. The Arteries carry blood with high pressure, this is supported by the thick elastic wall present in them which helps to sustain the blood pressure. Whereas veins carry deoxygenated blood back to heart from the body. This is in contrast to the fact that veins don't have to carry blood with pressure, thus the blood flow is sluggish as compared to arterial flow. To support this sluggish blood flow, there are valves present inside veins which prevent backflow of blood. Thus any intertwining of these two blood vessels is problematic. This can occur anywhere in the body, these are very rare in the brain and occur as a result of developmental abnormality majority of the times. A Brain AVM may or may not cause any signs and symptoms. But the signs and symptoms arise when there is rup...

 Cancer is a disease that has crippled people for centuries. Be it mentally, physically or emotionally. Hearing someone being diagnosed with Cancer is itself more tragic than the disease itself; the whole family is suffers from cancer and its effects. Especially those who have seen neurological cancers; their whole life is centred around that person.  Early diagnosed cancers are a blessing because they can be treated surgically or by drugs, but those that are asymptomatic for a long period of time and then occur suddenly with clinical presentation, are most problematic as people tend to lose the functionality of the part where it occurs, or they either die because of the severity, but a few survive by battling it, and pediatric age group is most important age group where a cancer can mean life and death situation. Pediatric cancers generally occur in bone, blood or CNS. Majority of them occur in form of leukaemia, lymphoma, or Bone marrow pathology, sometimes osteosarcoma may ...

 Ever wondered what could be the life of people who have their sense of movement and perception, but still can't move? Or what will be their life in these situations? You have your limbs but you cannot use them! What a tragedy! There are millions of people world wide being in such situation where they cannot use their limb(s) even if they want to. These patients come under the category of plegics; where they are unable to move either one or both of their limbs, be it upper or lower; and life is tragic for such people. So an establishment called as NeuroLife came up with a solution. NeuroLife is an establishment developed by Battelle and Ohio State University, that aims to provide a full neuronal control of the limb that has lost its function. UNDERSTANDING BASIC NEUROMUSCULAR PHYSIOLOGY -  We all know how easily the hand raises to give a high five or to punch/slap someone in adverse cases. But the movement of the hand has various activities going on. The receptors at the tip o...

  Ever wondered what is this pattern? Some of have seen this pattern get zoom into and then repeating itself from the small outgrowths present and it continues as if there is no end to this.. This is called as the MANDELBROT Set. This set is characterised by a set of complex numbers that come in the equation of  , which does not diverge if z=0, i.e. for the function f(0) and so on. For each value of c the set becomes more stable. and thus sometimes cannot remain stable. There is something common between the reproduction of the population, a leaking tap water, and the human heart beats and neuronal transmission. The amount of times a population can grow is just a multiplication factor, for instance if u know that the population of rabbits double every year then u can easily predict the population next year. If u plot the graph of population of this year and next year, u get an inverted parabola (something similar to shown in graph below). Now if u know the growth factor u can a...

 Telovelar approach is carried out for the removal of any pathology that is present inside the 4th ventricle or the rhomboid fossa of the brain. The Space seen here behind the cerebellum is the rhomboid fossa (Fossa is just a trench or a channel). This rhomboid fossa forms a part of the 4th ventricle, which is connected to the third ventricle above by cerebral aqueduct and then runs downwards into the spinal cord as the central canal of the spinal cord, carrying the CSF (CerebroSpinal Fluid). The part behind the PONS and between the white core of cerebellum is called as the 4th ventricle. {For more information on anatomy of brain, please refer to our another blog on BRAIN}

 Have you ever wondered to be in a place where you are superior! Or a place where there is no other person equivalent to you because of the Superpowers you have? Well, there are certain medical conditions which present with these manifestations and are thus very interesting to study, yet bizarre and rare that few cases exist. Werner's Syndrome -   Named after the German Scientist - Otto Werner. He observed 4 children with premature aging and thus noted this down in 1904. It is one of the rare diseases with global rate of 1 in 100,000 live births. Although this is common in countries like Japan with expected incidence rate of 1 in 20,000 - 45,000. The average life expectancy can be estimated up to 45-50 years and death may be occurring in average age of 50-54 years of life. This means that the maximum a person can live is up to 50 years and above. Since aging is accelerated, the main cause of death is either cardiovascular compromise or any type of malignancy (cancer). ...

Parkinson's is the second most common neurodegenerative disease. It is named after an English physician who first recorded it in with a detailed description in 1817, named James Parkinson. The risk factors for Parkinson's - Age, Genetic history, Male gender, shyness, depression, any environmental exposure like herbicides, or magnesium and iron exposure, etc. Classification of Parkinson's -  1. Classical - Genetic, sporadic, Lewy body with dementia 2. Atypical - Multiple system atrophy, Cerebellar type,  corticobasal ganglionic degeneration, frontotemporal dementia 3. Secondary Parkinson - Drug induced, tumor associated, liver failure, Normal pressure hydrocephalus, toxins like Carbon monoxide poisoning, cyanide poisoning, etc. How it is caused? Parkinson is a disease which is mainly involved with the BASAL GANGLIA of the brain. Basal Ganglia consist of - Globus pallidus - external and internal Thalamus Subthalamic nuclei Caudate nucleus Putamen Substantia nigra These struct...