Deformity of the breast and axilla observed in famous paintings is a fascinating field for the medico-artists. The attempt of a retrospective diagnosis of breast tumors is highly challenging. This paper deals with a Rubens painting portraying the heroine Judith with a visible but previously unreported left breast mass. Though speculative, the present medico-artistic diagnosis is of a tumor likely to be of benign nature. It is of interest that the present case is the sixth breast disease discovered in Rubens’s works.
Mechanical thrombectomy (MT) has revolutionized the treatment of large-vessel occlusion stroke and markedly improved patient outcomes. Unfortunately, there remains a large proportion of patients that do not benefit from this technology. This review takes a look at recent and upcoming technologies that may help to increase the number of MT-treated patients, thereby improving their outcomes. To that end, an overview of digital health solutions, innovative pharmacological treatment, and futuristic robotic endovascular interventions is provided.
We have carefully read and evaluated the letter writ¬ten by Drs Mungmunpuntipantip and Wiwanitkit regarding our article published in the July issue of Rambam Maimonides Medical Journal.
We would like to thank Professor Marshall Lichtman for his letter, his interesting proposal, and using this venue to promote discussion of the topic. Professor Lichtman proposed a numerical calculation for authorship based on the authors’ perceptions of their relative contribution to a scientific publication, an idea also suggested by Jozsef Kovacs. The only limitation imposed by this system is that the total of all authors’ fractional contributions to any one publication equals no more than one. Lichtman’s interesting proposal serves as a disincentive to offer gift authorship to colleagues whose contributions were minimal, if they contributed at all.
It has been the policy of Rambam Maimonides Medical Journal to limit the number of editorials published. However, silence and standing on the sidelines is not an option in light of the atrocities and inhumanity we witnessed on October 7. The savagery of the Hamas massacre was executed indiscriminately upon children, women, older people (some of whom are Holocaust survivors), infants, and even medical professionals caring for the casualties. Currently, there are about 230 women, men, children, and babies being held hostage by Hamas; among them are cancer patients and others with serious disorders, doctors, and other medical professionals. We cannot rest and must address the plight of our hostages who are being held by terrorists motivated by hatred and showing no respect for life, whether that of their enemies, their own people, or even themselves. ...
The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Italy, the first Western country hit by the pandemic, seriously impacted the Italian healthcare system and social and economic environment. This perspective piece focuses on the main challenges faced by Italian hospital managements: hospital overcrowding; the need for urgent reorganization of the country’s healthcare systems; the lack of data regarding COVID-19 diagnostics, clinical course, and effective treatment; individual and collective consequences of the crisis; and the importance of disease containment measures and early treatment strategies.
The COVID-19 pandemic is different from previous pandemic diseases in many ways. One of them relates to the literature. There is an exponential increase in the number of articles since April 2020. Also, and equally drastic, is how readily available they are to the general reader. It will be interesting to analyze (in the future) if advances in information age have played any significant role in the battle against our current pandemic.
The personal reflections of Peter Hotez regarding the triple threats of illness, antiscience, and anti-Semitism indicate a shocking state of affairs, reveal¬ing the dark and sinister element of antivaccine activism which must be surmounted. This letter addresses basic lessons on vaccination from India in a nutshell.
Dr. Thorakkal Shamim has written a very interesting letter and comment. It is important to hear details about vaccine hesitancy in different countries or regions. I’m especially watchful of our American style of antivaccine activism gaining a foothold abroad. Hence, we need more information about this in the searchable biomedical literature.
