By Anne Kokke No matter what your complaint is, Doctor Google can diagnose anything. Accurate? Debatable. Convenient? Definitely. After all, a diagnosis is free and always within reach. An accurate diagnosis without the interference of doctors might seem a little too futuristic for now, but recent developments suggest that it could very well happen one day. The amount of functions mobile devices and their apps can track is skyrocketing, allowing you to track your activity, heart rate, … [Lees meer...]
Mapping the brain
By Daan Viering “We are our brains.” If Dick Swaab is right, we can only discover who we are if we learn more about the complexities of our brain. From macroanatomy to microanatomy and back, scientists continuously invent new techniques to investigate how individual neurons work together to achieve the incredible performances of our brains. Recent advances in this field include methods to activate single neurons with ultrafast and extremely precise lasers (optogenetics) and mapping neuronal … [Lees meer...]
To fuse or not to fuse
By Sebastian Arts Lumbar stenosis is the narrowing of the spinal canal in the lumbar region, causing compression of the myelum. This results in lower back pain, neurogenic claudication and weakness and numbness in both legs. It is commonly caused by degeneration or osteoporosis and is associated with forward displacement of a vertebra called spondylolisthesis. Decompression through laminectomy is the first choice of treatment and is nowadays often supplemented with lumbar fusion (arthrodesis) … [Lees meer...]
The Enigmatic Zika Virus
By Cas van der Made For the past months, the Zika virus has been and is still a popular topic of interest among both the media and scientists. In February of this year, the World Health Organization declared the disease caused by the Zika virus as a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern” as it had supposedly already spread to twenty countries in the Americas. Until then, most people had never even known the virus existed. History tells us that the mosquito-borne flavivirus was … [Lees meer...]
Long live altruistic kidney donors
By David Wolthuis Dutch patients with end-stage renal disease who are on the waiting list for a donor kidney may experience the best of human kindness when an altruistic donor decides to give them theirs. However this altruistic act is illegitimate in a number of countries. For instance, people in Germany cannot altruistically donate their kidney. One of the reasons for this is to protect the future donor from unforeseen risks that kidney donation may bring. Although it is true that one is … [Lees meer...]