articulo mortis

Victim of a shark attack

(Source: articulomortis)

Hitler as Seen by His Doctors, 1945 – 46

Military Intelligence Service Center, United States Army, European Theater

This is one of five known X-rays of Hitler’s head, part of his medical records compiled by American military intelligence after the German’s surrendered and declassified in 1958. The records also include doctor’s reports, diagrams of his teeth and nose and electrocardiograms.

(Source: articulomortis)

Right chest X-ray and dissected relevant lung area of mummified body with pneumonia. (a) The chest X-ray reveals irregular, radiodense areas surrounding a central radiolucent space. (b) Photograph of the corresponding part of the upper right chest interior reveals that the radiodensities are fibrous walls of a central area partly filled with powdery exudate-empyema 

(Source: articulomortis)

Shown above are eight naturally mummified bodies from a low valley archaeological site in northern Chile, dating between 350BCE - AD 500. Anatomic findings in six of the above bodies indicate evidence of lobar pneumonia from which they had recovered. However, in two of the bodies pneumonia was the cause of death. Their agricultural occupation in the naturally dusty air of this desert region contributed to the development of silicate pneumoconiosis.

(Source: articulomortis)

Symcat is a website focused around symptom based, computer generated diagnosis. It’s simple and easy to use, and quite detailed in the information it gives. You begin by entering a symptom you’re experiencing, and it continues with follow-up questions about the duration of time you’ve experienced the symptom, your age and sex, a few questions on medical history, and of course any other symptoms that may be related. 

It’s a good first step if you feel like you’ve caught a bug, but it’s also fun to play with. There are numerous links to good outside sources for more information on various illnesses, and it seemingly never provides you with only one answer.

Prosection of a cadaver - University of Saint Eustatius School of Medicine

Anatomy Lab (via flickr)

Is the pot you’re smoking rearranging your brain?

These brain scans above are from a 2005 study that compared the brain activity of 24 chronic marijuana users with that of 19 non-smokers during a series of visual attention tasks. In this study, participants were asked to to mentally track the movement of a ball on a screen as it drifted about, intermingling with other randomly moving balls.

The areas labeled in red correspond to regions of the brain that were less active in the chronic marijuana users than in non-drug users during the motion-tracking task. Interestingly, the majority of these areas correspond to parts of the brain associated with what is called the “visual-attention network,” which, as its name implies, is involved in various attention-requiring tasks. The areas labeled in blue and green, however, are regions outside the brain’s normal attention network where activity was actually higher in pot smokers than in non-drug users. According to the researchers, these altered patterns of brain activation, “suggest neuroadaptation in the attention network due to chronic marijuana exposure.” In other words, they show that heavy pot-smoking is actually associated with a reorganization in the way your brain handles tasks demanding of your attention.

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