Medical Factoids

 

The postnatal period is the most critical and most neglected phase in the lives of mothers and babies; most maternal and newborn deaths occur during this period.

A study was done in 1992 with men who had never experienced infertility showed that the amount of sperm in semen had declined by 1% per year since 1938: other more recent studies confirm the decline in sperm count, sperm count, motility, morphology and seminal volume.

More children and adolescents in the US now die from firearm injuries, than from any other cause.

Blacks have a heightened sensitivity to sodium manifesting in hypertension.

Each year 48 million US individuals udergo surgical procedures and 5-9% of these patients may develop new persistent opioid use.

Estimated cost of myopia is roughly $6.6 billion make myopia a substantial financial burden to individuals and society.

The average age of menopause is approximately 51 years.

Natural menopause occurs within the ages of 45 years and 56 years in 90% of women.

In the US 1%-6% of the general population has latex allergy.

Currently more than 700,000 patients with end stage renal disease have Medicare coverage (2023).

The smallest skeletal muscle in the body is the stapedius.

Gastric cancer is the most common malignant disorder in the world with approximately 1.1 million new cases each year, contributing to nearly 800,000 deaths annually.

14-50% of the general population reports chronic neck pain.

20% of acute ischemic strokes involve the posterior vertebrobasilar circulation.

6-8% of patients of patients with unstable angina have a nonfatal myocardial infarction or die within the first year after diagnosis.

A 5.1 kg loss in body mass over a 10-year period decreases the odds of developing knee osteoarthritis by over 50%.

About 32% of US healthcare spending is on hospital care.

Adenocarcinomas account for approximately 30% of non-Small Cell Carcinoma of the Lung (NSCLC).

Adult male circumcision reduces the acquisition of HIV by 50-60%.


Anesthesia associated mortality 1 in 200,000 to 400,000 anesthesia procedures.

Annual mortality of congestive heart failure 10-11%.

Annual per capita healthcare expenditures are 2.3 times higher for people with diabetes compared with those without diabetes.

Approximately 30% of patients with pulmonary embolism die within the first year after diagnosis.

Approximately 500cc of Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF) made daily.

Approximately 6 million women in the US become pregnant every year, and 4 million have a live birth.

Approximately 70% of women are colonized by vaginal yeasts and C albicans is identified in 98% of those cases.

Approximately 800 women in the US die each year during pregnancy and within 42 days after delivery.

B12 deficiency can begin as early as 1 year after total gastrectomy.

Benign intracranial hypertension See ((Pseudotumor Cerebri))


Blood glucose concentrations on admission, during a postoperative period, or the mean glucose concentration in the hospitalized patient are directly related to adverse outcomes including prolonged hospital stay, readmission and mortality.


Bone pain is the most common type of nociceptive cancer pain.


Cafe au lait spots are usually the earliest manifestations of neurofibromatosis.


Cancers direct medical costs exceed $80 billion and indirect costs of premature mobility and mortality exceed $130 billion.


Canker sores (aphthous ulcers) are not contagious.


Carpal tunnel syndrome is the most common focal peripheral neuropathy, secondary to compression of the median nerve at the wrist.


Chromagranin A is a useful marker for following the course of illness in carcinoid and neuroendocrine tumors.


Chromosomal abnormalities occur in 1 in 160 live births.


Chronic pain contributes to a financial burden of $560 billion each year from costs of medical care, loss of productivity, and disability programs.


Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension occurs in 2-4% of patients after acute pulmonary embolism.


Coronary artery calcification – a marker of coronary atherosclerosis and can be used to predict cardiovascular disease events.


Coronary artery restenosis after stent placement may be as high as 50% in small coronary arteries suggesting an inverse relationship between vessel size and restenosis.

Cost of assessing dizziness in emergency rooms exceeds $4 billion per year.

Courvoisier’s sign is that of common bile duct obstruction in the presence of painless jaundice, with a palpable gallbladder highly suggestive of a malignant obstruction.

Cyclosporine a calcineurin inhibitor, blocks the process of T-cell activation through the T-cell receptor.

Drug-eluting coronary stents used in the majority of intracoronary stenting procedures.

During the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle the breast may increase in size by up to 15%.

Endemic mycoses most commonly cause pulmonary infection following inhalation of infectious material.

Epidural steroid injection studies have revealed that at 24 hours postinjection, at 3-6 months, or 1 year later have no impact on day to day function, need for surgery, or long term control of pain.

Estimated $117 billion in annual health care costs due to inadequate physical activity cause about 10% of premature mortality deaths.


Estimated 32 million people in the US have a documented penicillin allergy.


Estimated that nonadherence to medications are associated with 125,000 deaths, 10% of hospitalizations and $100 billion in healthcare services annually.


Every year since 2011 more hospitals have closed their doors than opened.


Fondaparinux (Arixtra) a synthetic antithrombotic agent with specific anti-factor Xa activity.


Ganglion cysts most common benign tumor of the hand, accounting for 60-70% of all hand nodules.


Gastroesophageal cancers make up 80% of esophageal cancers.


Heart failure contributes to 1 in 9 deaths


Heart Failure estimated annual cost of $31 billion in the US.


High-risk surgery involves operations in which postoperative complications are common or the risk of perioperative death is approximately 1% or greater.


Human parvovirus B19 causes transient aplastic crisis, hydrops fetalis, bone marrow suppression in immunocompromised hosts, purpuric vasculitis and both acute and chronic arthropathy in adults.


Hypertension accounts for an estimated $131 billion in associated national medical costs.


IL-6 augments cell growth, inhibits apoptosis, and enhances drug resistance in multiple myeloma.


Imatinib mesylate is a proteintyrosine kinase inhibitor with specificity for c-kit platelet-derived growth factor, and Bcr/Abl pathways.


In 2018, 32% of the 3.8 million births in the United States died by cesarean delivery.


In 2019 the number of people older than 65 years worldwide, surpassed that of children younger than five years for the first time in history.


In most cities the homeless people account for 1% of the population.


In the US motor vehicle crashes and fire-arm related injuries caused four times as many deaths in children and adolescents as does cancer.

Increased consumption of caffeinated coffee associated with a reduced risk of cholecystectomy.

Infections of a ventriculoperitoneal shunt can occur in up to 27% of patients, and may be associated with cognitive impairments and other neurologic problems, and rarely death.


Influenza Type A and B viruses express hemagglutinin (HA), and neuraminidase (NA) surface antigens.

Injury is the leading cause of death in the US in patients younger than 45 years.

Intravenous immune globulins a solution of human plasma derived immunoglobulin containing extensive range of immune antibodies that may protect against human pathogens or antigens.

Lactic acidosis is the most severe adverse affect of metformin and is associated with older age, cardiac disease, the compensated congestive heart failure, renal insufficiency, chronic pulmonary disease, and hypoperfusion.

Depressive disorders affect approximately 3% of the global population.

Medications make up 14% of total US healthcare spending, and is increasing substantially.

Megakaryocytes are the largest hematopoietic stem cells in the bone marrow.

More than $1 billion per year is spent in the US on mouthwash to treat halitosis.

 

Most people can tolerate a 3-4% decrease in total body water without difficulty or adverse health effects.

Multiple sclerosis is most frequent cause of disability in young adults, and the annual health care cost more than $10 billion in the US.

Nocturnal dialysis enables patients to undergo hemodialysis seven nights per week while sleeping and provides better clearance of uremic toxins than conventional hemodialysis.

 

Nosocomial infections affect approximately 10% of hospitalized patients.

Ovarian cysts although benign and often self-limited can cause significant pelvic pain and menstrual dysfunction and result in 200,000 hospitalizations annually in the U.S.

Parvovirus B19 is a single stranded DNA virus that causes erythema infectiosum (fifth disease).

Patients enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid have a higher annual all-cause mortality, all-cause hospitalizations, and hospitalization-related mortality compared with individuals enrolled only in Medicare.

Patients with chronic illness or twice as likely to experience mental health comorbidities, such as depression.

Physical inactivity estimated to account for 12% of all deaths.

Polypectomy can reduce the incidence of colorectal cancer by 76%-90%.

Premature deaths from cancer cost the U.S. economy more than $94 billion in annual lost earnings.

Prion protein is normally present in neurons and diseases occur when prion protein undergoes changes that confer resistance to proteases.

Proteomics refers to the analysis of all expressed proteins in a biological system.

Pseudomyxoma peritonei is a tumor of low biological aggressiveness and not associated with lymph node or liver metastases.

Rasburicase can reduce serum uric acid levels within 4 hours.

Rotator cuff tear is the most common clinical problem of the shoulder.

Scabies associated with generalized itching, which is particularly more intense at night.

Serum ferritin is the most common used estimate of body iron stores and reflects only 1% of the total iron storage pool.

Soy consumption inversely related to risk of breast cancer.

 

Spinal stenosis refers to the narrowing of the spinal canal with encroachment of the neural structures by surrounding bone and soft tissue.

The aim of cancer chemotherapy is to induce apoptosis by damaging DNA.

The Babinski reflex is normal in younger children, but abnormal after the age of 2.

The life expectancy of an individual with type 1 diabetes is 11 years less for men and 13 years less for women.

The macula is the central posterior portion of the retina and has the densest concentration of photoreceptors of the retina and is responsible for high-resolution visual acuity.

The spine is the most common site for bone metastases.

The spleen has the largest accumulation of lymphoid tissue in the body.

The tongue can distinguish only among five distinct qualities of taste, but the nose can distinguish among hundreds of substances, in minute quantities.

The vagus nerve is the longest cranial nerve.

The worldwide frequency of Rh-positive and Rh-negative blood types is approximately 94% and 6%, respectively.

 

There are nearly 75,000,000 US residents covered by Medicaid (2018).

 

There are over 36 million medical hospitalizations each year, with the majority being for acute medical illness.

 

There is an average six point decrease in intelligence quotient from childhood to adulthood comparing marijuana users with non-users.

Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death in the US.

 

 

Total economic cost to society of addiction is greater than that of all types of diabetes and all cancers combined.

Tricyclic antidepressant dose limiting effects include dry mouth, urine retention, sedation, weight gain, constipation and cardiac arrhythmias.

Triglyceride elevations in women are more significant than in men, as a cause of atherosclerosis.

Tuberculosis kills more people than any other infection.

Twin studies have estimated that approximately 20-30% the variation in human lifespan can be related to genetics, with the rest due to individual behaviors and environmental factors which can be modified.

Unnecessary diagnostic imaging remains a substantial problem with the United States occupying top usage ranks, with population rates of annual CT scans of 245 per 1000 people, and magnetic resonance imaging scans 118 per 1000 people that are five and three times higher than in those of other countries, respectively.

Untreated methanol poisonings associated with a 28% death rate.

Urolithiasis (nephrolithiasis) prevalence in approximately 2-3% of general population.

Worldwide, coffee is the most consumed beverage, 3 billion cups per day.

More than an estimated 8 million smoking attributed deaths occur globally each year, and approximately 34 million people in the US (14% of adults) currently smoke cigarettes.

Dementia is a global epidemic, with 50 million people affected and estimated economic cost of approximately $518 billion per year globally.

On any given day, about 1 in every 25 hospital patients contracts an infection.

Enrollment in clinical cancer trials as the first line of therapy is exceedingly low and about 0.1% of patients and favors young, healthy, white patients with metastatic disease and private insurance treated at academic medical centers: patients with cancer treated in clinical trials live substantially longer than those not treated in trials.

It is estimated that nearly 2,000,000 people with acute respiratory failure are hospitalized annually in the US at a cost exceeding $50 billion.

Recent national comparisons show that healthcare utilization per capita is not appreciably higher than other high income countries, but that there is a disproportionately high price per service accounting for the majority of cost differences.

 

Aproximately 800 women in the US die each year during pregnancy and within 42 days after delivery.

Estimated 32 million people in the US have documented penicillin allergy.

 

Major depressive disorder affects approximately 3% of the global population.

Estimated that nonadherence to medications associated with 125,000 deaths, 10% of hospitalizations and $100 billion in healthcare services annually.

((Influenza)) Type A and B viruses express hemagglutinin (HA), and neuraminidase (NA) surface antigens.

Resistant hypertension is defined as the inability to control office blood pressure despite optimal therapy with at least 3 antihypertensive drugs at full dosages.

IL-6 augments cell growth, inhibits apoptosis, and enhances drug resistance inmultiple myeloma.

20% of acute ischemic strokes nvolve the posterior vertebrobasilar circulation.

Megakaryocytes are the largest hematopoietic cells in the bone marrow.

Approximately 500cc of CSF made daily.

Spina bifida is the most common of congenital anomalies of the CNS that is compatible with life.

Coronary artery restenosis after stent placement may be as high as 50% in small coronary arteries suggesting an inverse relationship between vessel size and restenosis.

Annual mortality of congestive heart failure is 10-11%.

Pseudomyxoma peritonei a tumor of low biological aggressiveness and not associated with lymph node or liver metastases.

Imatinib mesylate is a protein-tyrosine kinase inhibitor with specificity for c-kit platelet-derived growth factor, and Bcr/Abl pathways.

Globally approximately 800,000 people died by suicide every year, counting to 1.5% of all deaths.

Cancer’s direct medical costs exceed $80 billion and indirect costs of premature mobility and mortality exceed $130 billion.

Estimated $117 billion in annual health care costs in about 10% of premature mortality are associated with inadequate physical activity.

Brand-name drug prices are on average approximately 2 to 4 times higher in the US than other comparable industrialized countries.

 

Fatal and non-fatal injuries caused the United States $4.2 trillion in 2019, including $327 billion in medical care, $69 billion in lost work, and 3.8 trillion in value of statistical life and quality of life losses.

The chances of infertility increase by 10% for every 20 additional pounds a man gains.

It is estimated at 72% of individuals with glaucoma remain undiagnosed.

Approximately 40% of body mass consists of muscle tissue.

A typical Western diet ingested by an adult in one day includes approximately 100 g of fat, 400 g of carbohydrate, 100 g of protein, 2 L of fluid, and the required sodium, potassium, chloride, calcium, vitamins, and other elements.

For more than 60 years motor vehicle accidents was the leading cause of injury related death among young people, however since 2017 firearm related injuries have become the most common cause of death from injury: increased firearm deaths with a reduction in death from motor vehicle crashes.

Coronary artery disease affects roughly 18.2 million adults and costs the healthcare system more than $21 billion annually.

Sepsis affects an estimated 30 million people with 6 million deaths worldwide, annually.