Wernicke’s encephalopathy (WE) is typically associated with emergency department patients who abuse alcohol. Early diagnosis and treatment are essential, as WE can be fatal if mis-diagnosed or not treated. The symptoms of WE can include lack of muscle control,...
Peripheral artery disease: what it is, how to diagnose it
Peripheral artery disease may not be well-known, but it affects about 5% of people over the age of 50 in T,exas and across the U.S. That comes to between 8 and 12 million people. If left untreated, it can lead to a heart attack, a stroke or the need for a foot or leg...
Diagnosis and misdiagnosis of testicular cancer
Many Texas men may be concerned about the dangers posed by testicular cancer. Like other forms of cancer, it is a progressive disease. It can become worse and spread throughout the body, making treatment more difficult, when a diagnosis is delayed or missed. In most...
Misdiagnosis may put patients at risk
In Texas and across the country, medical misdiagnosis may be a largely unrecognized crisis. Every year, roughly 12 million people are affected by some kind of medical diagnostic error. While many of these situations are quickly resolved and do little long-term harm,...
Overcrowding in ERs puts patients at risk for errors and delays
More and more people in Texas and across the U.S. are visiting the emergency room for primary care. In 2015, the U.S. saw a 10-year high in the number of ER visits, and in 2016, the number of such visits exceeded 145 million. At the same time, overcrowding in ERs has...
New technology may help in early PD, MSA diagnosis
Texas residents battling neurodegenerative disorders may be interested in new technology that could help doctors distinguish better between two progressive forms of the disease. Both Parkinson's disease and multiple system atrophy (MSA) present similar early symptoms,...
How technology may help prevent medical errors
Although it has been 20 years since a shocking government report about the frequency of medical errors revealed how common they were, they continue to happen. That report attributed around 98,000 annual deaths to medical errors. Studies since then have found the...
Misdiagnosis linked to up to 80,000 deaths each year
As many as 80,000 people die in Texas and around the country each year and up to 160,000 more suffer harm because of a missed or late health care diagnosis. This was the conclusion reached by researchers from Johns Hopkins Medicine after they studied 11,000 medical...
A common women’s health problem that is not well-known
Texas residents are familiar with some common conditions that affect a woman's reproductive system, including polycystic ovary syndrome and endometriosis. However, few people have heard about adenomyosis, which is also referred to as endometriosis of the uterus...
Military members and the new right to file malpractice claims
A previous post discussed a new federal law that was awaiting the President's signature. Now that the law has been signed, active service members who receive treatment at military facilities will be able to file medical malpractice claims against those facilities in...
