Epidermodysplasia Verruciformis,or “Tree Man Syndrome”

There is a rare condition that affects a small percentage of individuals in the world known as “Tree Man Syndrome.” However. what appears to be tree bark growing out of someone’s skin may actually be Epidermodysplasia verruciformis. Of course, it isn’t really bark. These growths are actually warts that can be triggered by exposure to sunlight. While these warts may be benign early in life, they can become malignant later in one’s lifetime. These warts are caused by a rare mutation of the EVER1/EVER2 genes. Though the function of the genes not well-understood at this point, the mutations cause the skin to be extremely susceptible to human papillomaviruses 5 and 8, which typically don’t cause disease. While there are some treatment options available to mitigate the symptoms, there is no cure.

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1131981-clinical 

Music Triggers Woman’s Seizures

A woman named Stacey Gayle was known for her love of dance hall reggae artist Sean Paul’s music, but it turned out one of his popular songs was also triggering her epileptic seizures.”It was terrible,” said Gayle, a 24-year-old New Yorker. “It didn’t even have to be that loud.”The seizures were so bad that Gayle recently had part of her brain surgically removed in an effort to control her problem.Gayle began noticing the connection between the seizures and the music in 2006, when one of Sean Paul’s tracks, “Temperature,” was popular. One of the first music-induced seizures happened at a cookout where the song was being played, “then it happened at a restaurant,” said Gayle. “She realized her life was going out of control with these seizures happening,” said Dr. Ashesh Mehta, the director of epilepsy surgery at Long Island Jewish Medical Center. Mehta recalled meeting Gayle last February to discuss her condition. When Gayle’s mother played ‘”Temperature” on an mp3 player for her daughter to hear, a music-induced seizure followed. “It was amazing to me,” said Mehta. “We got a seizure when we put her music on.”

More than 3 million people in the United States are affected by seizures and epilepsy — a diagnosis that typically comes when someone has a pattern of repeated seizures. A number of different sensations can trigger an epileptic seizure, including certain odors, loud noises, touching and flashes of light.  But musicogenic, or music-triggered, seizures are far less common.

See more about how seizures affect the brain at the link below.

Woman with Pencil Stuck in Head

A German woman named Margaret Wegner suffered from numerous headaches and nosebleeds for 55 years. She finally underwent surgery in August of 2007. This surgery was to remove a three-inch pencil that was lodged in her head after a childhood accident when she was four. When Wegner saw the bran scan picture of the pencil, snapped in two places, she suddenly recalled a childhood accident when she was just a four-year-old in her home town of Dessau. “I remember tripping over and the pencil I was holding disappeared.”I had a pain in my head. The pencil, it seems, went right through my skin – and bored straight into my skull,” Wegner said.

Due to the lack of technology and fear of irreversibly damaging Wegner’s head, doctors delayed the removal of the pencil for more than five decades until the doctors found the exact location of the pencil in her head and safely took most of it out. “This was something unique because the trauma was so old,” said Dr. Hans Behrbohm, an ear, nose and throat specialist at Berlin’s Park-Klinik Weissensee, who pinpointed the location of the pencil. “She shouldn’t suffer any longer,” he said.   

Doctors Find Teeth In Baby’s Brain Tumor

In 2102, a 4 month-old infant started to grow teeth. However, these teeth were found in the most unusual and unexpected place in his body. They were growing inside of a brain tumor. The boy, who underwent brain surgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center, was diagnosed with craniopharyngioma. This brain tumor most commonly occurs in children but can also be found in adult men and women. The benign tumor develops near the pituitary gland, which is a small endocrine gland at the base of the brain.

Upon removing the tumor, Drs. Narlin Beaty and Edward Ahn, physicians at University of Maryland Medical Center and Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, found multiple teeth forming inside the brain, according to the case report published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Despite its unusual occurrence, this isn’t the first time teeth have been found in a human brain. They’ve appeared in teratoma tumors. The boy’s teeth were sent to a lab for further examination.

Electric Shock Causes Bizarre Star Pattern To Form On Man’s Eyes

A 42-year-old electrician became starry-eyed after being shocked by 14,000 volts of electricity while he was on the job. Even though this is a common idiom, his eyes literally became starry. An electrical current went through the man’s entire body after coming into contact with his left shoulder.  The electric current struck the optic nerve of the individual and caused star-shaped cataracts to become evident in both of his eyes. Four weeks later, the man went to the ophthalmologist complaining of impaired vision. He was treated after he was seen by Dr. Bobby Korn, an associate professor of clinical ophthalmology at the University of California, San Diego. While Dr. Korn was able to diagnose these cataracts, he still cannot explain what phenomenon left them to take on this star shape. Three months after, the electrician had surgery to remove these starry cataracts from his eyes and implant a new lens. The man’s vision is still impaired after 10 years, however he still leads a normal life.

Twin Study Images

Twin Studies On Smoking

Did you know that you’re more likely to get bags under your eyes sooner and more wrinkles around your lips if you smoke?

Recently, researchers in Ohio studied the physical differences between the faces of nonsmokers and their twins who smoked and found confirmation of a belief: Smoking does indeed age you.

The study, completed by researchers at the Department of Plastic Surgery at Case Western Reserve University, looked at 79 sets of twins between the ages of 18 and 78 at the annual August gathering of twins in Twinsburg, Ohio. (Yes, it’s a real place)  Each person had his or her picture taken by a professional photographer.

The photos were divided into two categories. The first group was 45 sets of twins in which one smoked and the other didn’t. The other group was made up of smokers, but in each set, one twin had smoked at least five years longer than the other.

With the first group, the judges said the smoking twin appeared older 57% of the time.

For the second set, the longer-smoking twin looked older more than 63% of the time, meaning the aging differences could set in after just five years.

“This study confirms some of what was believed in the most scientific way possible,” said Dr. Bahman Guyuron, who headed the research. “With longer follow-up, we believe that every smoking twin might have exhibited a difference in aging.”

The study, however, also looked at other aging factors such as alcohol consumption, stress and sunscreen use, and later found they were similar in these sets of twins. It didn’t address changes in the twins’ living environment or diet.

How does smoking even age a person?

“Smoking reduces the collagen formation, results in collagen degradation and reduces the skin circulation,” Guyuron said. “Additionally, nicotine reduces the skin thickness. All of these reduce skin elasticity and (cause) premature aging.”

Hope you enjoyed this week’s medical diary!

Like for more cases on twin studies!