Cervicocerebral arterial dissections are increasingly recognized as a cause of stroke, particularly in young people. The term “cervicocerebral arterial” refers to the arteries in the neck and brain, while the term “dissection” refers to a tear in the inner wall of a major artery. An arterial dissection leads to the intrusion of blood within the layers of the artery wall. Depending upon which layers blood collects, an arterial dissection can cause narrowing of the channel within the artery (termed stenosis), which restricts blood flow, or an aneurysmal dilation, meaning a localized, blood-filled bulge in the artery wall.
American Obesity Rate Levels Off
December 6, 2007 | by
The Washington Post published a story late last week about obesity in the United States. The story discussed the results of a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Here’s the article’s opening statement:
The obesity epidemic that has been spreading for more than a quarter-century in the United States has leveled off among women and may have hit a plateau for men …
I was surprised that they use the term “spreading”, since the article fails to mention any of the recent research pertaining to the spread of obesity through social networks.
Updated Rates of the Most Common Neurological Disorders
February 1, 2007 | by
An up-to-date review of the most common neurological disorders in the United States was published in the January 30th issue of Neurology [1]. Researchers reviewed nearly 500 articles published between 1990 and 2005 to determine the rates of prevalence (meaning the total number of cases of a disease in a given population at a specific time; does not convey information about risk) or incidence (meaning the rate of occurrence of new cases of a particular disease in a given population; measures the risk of a disease) for 12 neurological disorders.
