The Silver Ink

Sunday, March 7, 2021
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A Rare nine-way kidney transplant has happened in San Francisco

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Kidney-transplantIn San Francisco, California a rare nine-way kidney transplant has happened.  While it might seem like something built out of medical testing and work of a study, it was born out of simple necessity.

The hospital where the kidney transplant took place were University of California San Francisco Medical Center, and California Pacific Medical Center.

Doctors said that there have been no complications measured and that it would appear as though the success is going to be continuing as the patients all recover.

Dr. Robert Osorio, the director of transplantation at California pacific Medical Center said, “The larger the denominator and choices you have potentially, the more transplants you can get done.” It is a simple matter of mathematics, and in this instance they were unable to find donors through traditional means, so some backdoor donating was used to put this nine way transplant together.

It is incredible for lot reasons, but the way it came together organically, combined with what it can do for the medical science community as a whole with regards to kidney transplant is profound.

The original couple found that they were not compatible to give up a kidney for the other. In that instance, a woman was one of the 7,000 people on the kidney transplant list nationally, but there was another opportunity.

Another duo was found going through the identical situation at the second hospital. When the two pairs decided that they would give up their kidneys in an effort to put this entire transplant together, the list continues to grow. At the end, the chain consisted of nine transplants, and all were incredibly successful.

The learning experience here came as doctors learned to better understand what would lead to successful transplants, especially in larger scale. The team of professionals was able to receive a real life test sample, without actually conducting a laboratory experiment.

While it is early to determine the long term success, the medical teams with all patients believe that there is a very good reason to be excited and hopeful that what we’re seeing here could be duplicated anywhere as long as the network of resources at various hospitals is acknowledged.

It is simply a matter of understanding, where you are, what is available, and making the donor pool as large as possible.

Tsunami could hit Southern California

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tsunami (1)According to a new study, earthquake and tsunami risks are associated with seven major faults off the coast of Southern California.

The study suggests that the vertical fault zones have displaced the sea floor, upping the risk of 7.9 to 8.0 earthquakes and tsunami waves, this magnitude of disaster could damage cities such as Los Angeles and San Diego.

Mark Legg, geologist of Legg Geophysical in Huntington Beach, California said “We’re dealing with continental collision,” in reference to the cause of the offshore danger. “That’s fundamental. That’s why we have this mess of a complicated logjam.”

The logjam is created by blocks of Earth’s crust that are involved in a tectonic battle between the North America tectonic plate and the Pacific plate. As the pacific plate slides away from California, the blocks get moves and squeezed together.

To determine how many faults have slipped over time and whether it was causing the seafloor to pucker upwards, researchers have combined the seafloor data and digital seismic data.

The data has confirmed both the upward and sideways movement of the seafloor along the Santa Cruz-Catalina Ridge Fault. Regions around the Ferrelo Fault zone showed signs of thrust faulting, which is an upward movement on one side of the fault. This data suggests that the blocks of crust are being compressed and sliding horizontally in what is called as transpression.

The plate movement is building up seismic stress on San Andreas, Santa Cruz-Catalina Ridge, and Ferrelo Faults.

Christopher Sorlien, geologists of the University of California at Santa Barbara and the co-author of the study said, “Such large faults could even have the potential of a magnitude 8 quake. This continental shelf off California is not like other continental shelves – like in the Eastern U.S.”

The findings of the study are published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface.

California launches precision medicine initiative

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Precision medicineState of California and the University of California are collaborating to improve precise medicine.

The goal of the program is to integrate social data like economic status, genes and clinical data to develop personalized therapies.

The initiative taken by California will enable researchers from across the state to access data from the UC health care system and health care center and other state based academic medical centers.

The program will develop two demonstration projects in the disease area where UC and private partners have expertise.

The data and knowledge required to develop for precision medicine is obtained from the state’s public and private resources. There will be safe, secure and respectful exchange of data between experts from fields of medicine, technology, privacy, intellectual property, bioethics.

Keith Yamamoto, Ph.D., vice chancellor for research at UC San Francisco said, “The success of the California Initiative to Advance Precision Medicine depends upon finding ways to effectively collect and integrate diverse forms of data, from the very objective genomic and molecular to the more subjective environmental influences and life experiences.”

UCSF will host the initiative through UC Health, which includes all the five UC medical centers, by combining $3 billion in state funding with contributions from industry and academic partners.

Governor of California, Jerry Brown and lawmakers has agreed last summer to spend $3 billion for precise medicine from the $156.4 billion state budget that ends June 30.

Atul Butte, director of UCSF’s Institute for Computational Health Sciences, who will lead the program said, “If we can work with interested parties in biotech and Silicon Valley, we’ll have a wealth of resources to develop precision medicine.”

The California’s precise medicine initiative comes after the $215 million precise medicine initiative announced by President Barack Obama in January, which will create a volunteer bank of medical data and tissue samples from patients.

10 California deputies suspended after beating of fleeing horseman

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california beatingTen Sheriff deputies in Southern California are put on leave after the video which shows deputies punching and kicking a man following a 21/2 hour chase involving a stolen horse, went live.

The deputies were put on paid leave.

The video “disturbed and troubled” and showed extreme use of force, said San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon.

McMahon decision putting the deputies on leave came after the video went live.

The person is identified as Francis Pusok, 30 year old who has stolen a horse.

When the deputies were serving the search warrant for theft investigation Pusok first fled by car and then on the horse while the officer’s were chasing him on foot.

Pusok was falling from the horse and one of the deputy fired Taser which was not effective because of his loose clothing.

Pusok was faced down with his legs and arms outstretched and one deputy kicked him and the other kicked him in the crotch.

FBI said that they will start a civilian rights investigation.

“I’m asking for some patience while we complete a thorough and fair investigation, I am disturbed and troubled by what I see in the video. It does not appear to be in line with our policies and procedures. I assure you, if there is criminal doing on the part of any of our deputy sheriffs or any policy violations, we will take action,” McMahon said.

“He remembers being beat, and he remembers that he wasn’t resisting, that he laid still, he complied immediately. He says that he didn’t even move a muscle because he didn’t want to be continuously beat, yet it still happened,” attorney for pusok, Sharon Brunner said.

He said that after beating one deputy whispered in his ear, this isn’t over.

Ken Cooper, a New York-based use of force expert who trains police, said that officers should be disciplined, they should be retrained to deal with stress and this video should be used for teaching.

Pusok in held on suspicion of felony evading, possession of stolen property and theft of horse.

Cheap wine may contain arsenic

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wineAccording to a lawsuit filed by 4 California residents, certain brands of cheap wine contain high levels of arsenic.

The lawsuit is filed in Los Angeles Superior Court which lists 83 wines that have high levels of arsenic than what is considered safe for consumption. The suit names two dozen California wine producers.

Some of the brands are Sutter Home, Beringer, Fetzer, Korbel and the popular Two-Buck Chuck.

What is arsenic? It is a known carcinogen. Some researchers speculated that arsenic could have entered during filtration process which gives the beer and wine their sparkly look. Others believe pesticide is behind this.

This isn’t the first time how arsenic had ended up in wine but few years ago the arsenic wine connection was pointed out in a study where it revealed how arsenic ends ups in our system.

Statements were issued by the winemakers saying that they intend to challenge the allegations in response to the lawsuit.

“While we do not comment on pending litigation, we are investigating the matter with several of our wine-producing suppliers,” said Trader Joe’s Charles Shaw White Zinfandel popularly known as Two-Buck Chuck spokeswoman Rachel Broderick in a statement. “We will not offer any product we feel is unsafe. Ever. We have no reason to believe the wines we offer are unsafe, including Charles Shaw white zinfandel.”

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