How good is your eye at judging spatial relations? Find out here.
Update from Diana: I got a score of 4.76. Beat that! (Really, I’m sure that some of you will. And when you do, you’re welcome to gloat.)
Update from Paul: 3.2 on my second try. I seem to have the most difficulty with the “bisect the angle” portion.
Here’s the original x-ray:
This patient has a partially collapsed right lung, also known as a spontaneous pneumothorax.
If you look closely, you can see that the branching blood vessels that go from the heart to the lungs have a normal pattern on his left side, starting off wide and becoming getting finer and finer as they move away from the heart until they reach the edge of the lung (and are no longer discernible).
On the abnormal right side, those branching blood vessels stop abruptly at a sharp thin vertical line, indicated by the multiple arrows. This is the edge of the collapsed lung, now pulled inwards. Note that no blood vessels extend past that vertical line on the right side.
Here are a few diagrams that explain this abnormality. The first diagram shows a normal pair of fully-expanded lungs:
The second diagram shows a partially collapsed right lung, just as in this patient. You can see the empty space (or “pneumothorax”) between the edge of the lung and the ribs:
The third diagram shows the proper treatment of a large pneumothorax — a chest tube is placed through the skin and into the pneumothorax cavity. The end of the tube outside of the patient is then attached to a suction device which removes the dead air and allows the lung to re-expand. That’s how this patient was treated:
Here’s lots more information on spontaneous pneumothorax.
Thank you all for playing!
What’s wrong with this picture? (This is a real-life case from my work from a few days ago.)
(Click on the image for a larger view.)
This is a chest x-ray from an otherwise healthy 25-year old man who came into the emergency room complaining of sudden onset of chest pain and shortness of breath. He hurts on his right side. There was no recent injury or unusual preceding event.
For non-physicians, the film is oriented as if the patient were looking at you. His right side is on the left side of the image and his left side is on the image right.
The heart is the whiter area in the center and the two lungs are the darker regions on either side.
The bones (such as the ribs and collar bones) are white. The backwards “L” in the upper right of the image is a film marker placed by the x-ray tech to indicate the patient’s left side (“L”).
This is classic teaching case for 3rd year medical students just starting their hospital rotations on medicine, surgery, or the ER — some might get it and some might not.
The average 1st-year radiology resident (i.e., someone who had finished 4 years of medical school and one year of internship) should make this diagnosis in about 2-3 seconds.
The radiologist’s next step would then be to call the ER physician ASAP to alert him to this diagnosis.
The answer will be posted on Monday.
…I really don’t want to be President! Don’t my supporters know that I’m still too young?!?
Today’s quiz is simple, but challenging: “The 100 Most Common English Words“.
“See how many of the 100 most common words in the English language you can guess in 5 minutes…”
I got 45/100. Diana didn’t do quite as well.
Our prediction is that a superstar like Eric Daniels will probably get 60/100 — no pressure, Eric!
(Via BBspot.)
Liriodendron recently posted the following video on her blog Spark A Synapse with the following note: “If you look closely in this car commercial, toward the end you can see a ghost as the car passes behind the trees. I’ve not a believer in the supernatural but this is rather interesting. Some see it, some don’t.”
I saw it. And it’s FREAKY!
Whew! I was still a bit depleted Monday, with my brain a little foggier than usual.
This past weekend, we decided to try out an annual mountain bike ride that veteran riders around us have been talking about: the Wild Rockies Boise-to-Idaho City Tour!
Here are the essential stats: we mountain biked about 90-95 miles over two days, climbing a total of about 14 thousand feet (maybe seven hours of riding each day). Tammy and I may be pretty solid riders, but we don’t usually do those kinds of numbers — my rear is still hurting!
We got to ride with about 100 people from around the valley, going from Boise to Idaho City (an old mining town) on Saturday, camping there overnight, and riding a different route back on Sunday.
Extra cool was how the ride was hosted: they transported our camping gear, and there were lunch and a few “snack break” stops along the way, dinner at the destination — oh, and there were showers at the high school in Idaho City! I’m pretty sure Tammy thought that improved things in the tent. :^)
Very satisfying to be able to hang with that kind of crowd! (And nice that there were no real injuries in such a large group.)
A deliciously evil puzzle game designed to suck the time out of your life: Untangle.
Don’t say that I didn’t warn you! I’m stuck on the last “evil” level.
HOORAY! The full version of Return to Dark Castle is now available for purchase. You can also download a free demo.
I have much dissertation work to do this weekend, so I might just have to wait to buy it until I put in my required hours for the week.
*sigh* My life is so hard! And unfair! Boo Hoo!
