Sunday, April 24, 2022

Managing Cough and Excessive Phlegm

 I have taken the liberty to split up the long virtual workshop on Managing Cough and Excessive Phlegm into several smaller video segments.  The segments contain information on how to perform home chest physiotherapy.  These videos are suitable for patients having chronic bronchitis, COPD, bronchiectasis, cystic fibrosis, lung infection etc.  







Sunday, April 17, 2022

The Passion of Christ and the Passion Fruit Flower


 

The Passion of Christ

This is a picture of the passion fruit flower. This flower is also known as the “flower of five wounds”. The purple flower is believed to resemble the wounds of Jesus Christ.

The Passion of Christ includes the time period from the night prior to the crucifixion of Jesus until his death upon the cross. Much emphasis has been placed on this time period to emphasize the sufferings of Jesus leading to his death and His ultimate sacrifice for sin. This time period is traditionally marked by His time in the Garden of Gethsemane, and includes His prayers, betrayal by Judas Iscariot, abandonment and denial by His disciples, arrest, trials, beatings, and period of time on the cross.

Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead on the third day. His resurrected body was witnessed by many people, including His disciples. Jesus is alive today.

Before Jesus ascension to heaven he spoke of His Great Commission to His disciples. Jesus said in Matthew 28: 18-20. “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age”.

Thursday, March 24, 2022

Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.



This is an interesting topic. The ejection fraction is a measurement of left heart function obtained during echocardiography. The question is how does the heart fail when the measured EF is normal? 

Heart failure is an important cause of shortness of breath which has to be differentiated from lung causes of shortness of breath.  Often the distinction between the two conditions is not obvious clinically without further investigations. Relevant investigations include ECG, NT proBNP (blood test), echocardiography, chest x-ray and coronary angiography.  

Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction is a type of heart failure with normal or near normal ejection fraction and objective evidence of diastolic dysfunction.  

More than half of heart failure patients have heart failure with a maintained ejection fraction. The illness primarily affects the elderly, accounting for 4.9 percent of the population over the age of 60. It appears to be more common in women, and it is projected to become more widespread as people live longer. 

Link to this interesting article which I have read:

Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction | Radiology Reference Article | Radiopaedia.org

Feger, J., Worsley, C. Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. Reference article, Radiopaedia.org. (accessed on 24 Mar 2022) https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-93980