Diagnosis

When Tamika Morgan developed red irritated eyes in the fall of 2010, she wasted no time heading to an optometrist at a local retail store who gave her drops for pink eye. Her eyes got worse over the next few days so she went to a local hospital to see an ophthalmologist, but a specialist wasn't available. A weekend passed and she landed in the office of a retina expert at another hospital, and by then she couldn't read the big E on the vision chart. She was legally blind. Dr. Lisa Schocket, the retina specialist at MedStar Union Memorial Hospital's Eye Center, suspected Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada syndrome, a rare disease that can turn a patient's hair and skin white in addition to hampering hearing and sight.

Here's a big question: When does old age begin? Will 30 years do it? Is being 50 and the holder of an AARP card with senior discounts enough? Both would be wrong guesses. Until recently, I hadn't thought much about it. Yet, I got the answer to this eminent question without asking. A while ago, I saw my physician for a semi-annual examination and health review. Near the end of our meeting, the doctor declared for the record that I had arrived at old age. Crash the cymbals and blare the trumpets!

Since she first entered politics, state Sen. Lisa A. Gladden has kept a secret. More than a decade later, she wants to share it on her own terms: Gladden has multiple sclerosis. It's not all that dramatic, she says. Except for a weak left eye, the 46-year-old Baltimore Democrat says she is symptom-free. So why is she going public now about a condition she has kept to herself, her family and a handful of friends since she was first diagnosed in 1995? Gladden says she's tired of keeping the diagnosis a secret — as if it were something to be embarrassed about.

A junior at Glen Burnie High School in Anne Arundel County died Tuesday after becoming ill the day before with symptoms associated with bacterial meningitis, school officials said Wednesday. A letter was sent home to students' parents Wednesday outlining the girl's death and providing facts about bacterial meningitis, which is less contagious than viral meningitis but still deadly, said Bob Mosier, a school system spokesman. The girl's illness has not been confirmed by doctors or a medical examiner to have been from meningitis, but the school system - in consultation with the county health department - decided to move proactively to alert the school community in case meningitis is confirmed, Mosier said.

When Florida Gov. Jeb Bush challenged the diagnosis of Terri Schiavo's condition yesterday, attention focused on her state of awareness. On one point there is no dispute: Being "minimally conscious" is not the same as being in a so-called persistent vegetative state. The difficulty is in the diagnosis. Two neurologists examining the same person could, theoretically, reach different conclusions about the significance of even the slightest movement. Dr. Howard Moses, associate professor of neurology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and consulting neurologist at St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson, said minimally conscious patients are generally unresponsive but can be aroused at times by physical stimuli or verbal commands.

NEW YORK -- Now that Deep Blue has bested mankind's chess champion, it may be time to revisit another far-fetched vision of the computer age: digital diagnosis. After all, if one machine's logic can muscle through 200 million chess moves a second to win a uniquely human game, why shouldn't another harness the power to synthesize signs and symptoms of disease?Computer-based diagnostic systems have been in development for more than 20 years. Not unlike mechanics' car-engine diagnostic systems, these programs typically incorporate artificial intelligence, or ''expert judgment,'' and one or more algorithms to come up with an assessment of clinical signs and symptoms leading to a list of diagnoses.

SHELKOVSKAYA, Russia -- It started just after the midafternoon recess. As they lined up to return to class, Zareta Chimiyeva saw a girl in front of her collapse and begin convulsing wildly. A few minutes later, Zareta was at her desk when she said she smelled "a bad smell," and started feeling ill. She rushed out of the classroom but made it only as far as the stairs. "Darkness surrounded me, and there was darkness in my eyes, and I fell," said the 12-year-old from this small town in eastern Chechnya.

I work for a large corporation that requires employees to bring in a doctor's note if we are out sick for three or more days. That's not the worst of it. The company also requires the note to include a diagnosis, prescribed medications for the illness and how long the employee was under a doctor's care. My physician refuses to include the diagnosis because he says it's illegal to publicize it. But the company will not compensate employees for sick leave unless the note includes a diagnosis.

Scientists at the Johns Hopkins University and the Shriners Hospital in Portland, Ore., have identified the gene responsible for Marfan syndrome, a discovery that has spawned a test capable of diagnosing the disorder before deadly symptoms appear.A cure might still be many years off, but the discovery could save lives, since it offers patients the chance of diagnosis early in life and treatment -- such as drugs or surgery -- to prevent or delay fatal complications.Within a year, scientists predict, a prospective parent whose family has been plagued by Marfan will be able to get a prenatal diagnosis.

The disease, if it is a disease, afflicts most middle-aged and elderly women, and a large segment of men. But it has no symptoms, it is not clear what patients should do about it and it is being diagnosed more often. The condition is osteopenia, or low bone density. Many doctors consider it to be a first step toward osteoporosis, a serious disorder that leaves bone density extremely low and makes bones porous and prone to shattering. But researchers say that while bone density predicts fracture risk, more is involved, including age, family history and a poorly understood factor known as bone quality.

Ravens tight end Ed Dickson only suffered a sprained right shoulder against the Atlanta Falcons and didn't incur any structural damage Thursday night as a magnetic resonance imaging exam confirmed the initial diagnosis, according to a source. With rest and rehabilitation, Dickson is projected to return in time for the Sept. 10 season opener against the Cincinnati Bengals at M&T Bank Stadium. Dickson is heading into his second season as the starter after catching 54 passes for 528 yards and five touchdowns last season.

The Supreme Court's ruling on President Barack Obama's health care initiative was a cause for great anticipation for Alicia Steinberg. In the parking lot of Brown Memorial Woodbrook Church on Thursday, the West Towson resident was waiting until the last possible moment to take her daughter Avey, 3, into her music class as she listened to the news. She heard the initial - and inaccurate - report across the radio that the individual mandate, a piece of the Obama package requiring people to purchase health care, had been struck down by the nation's highest court.

When Tamika Morgan developed red irritated eyes in the fall of 2010, she wasted no time heading to an optometrist at a local retail store who gave her drops for pink eye. Her eyes got worse over the next few days so she went to a local hospital to see an ophthalmologist, but a specialist wasn't available. A weekend passed and she landed in the office of a retina expert at another hospital, and by then she couldn't read the big E on the vision chart. She was legally blind. Dr. Lisa Schocket, the retina specialist at MedStar Union Memorial Hospital's Eye Center, suspected Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada syndrome, a rare disease that can turn a patient's hair and skin white in addition to hampering hearing and sight.

Minority toddlers have more language, communication and gross motor skill delays than white toddlers, according to a new study from Kennedy Krieger Institute . Previous research concluded that children of African American, Hispanic and Asian descent with autism are not getting the same early diagnosis as while children. “We found the toddlers in the minority group were significantly further behind than the non-minority group in development of language and motor skills and showed more severe autism symptoms in their communication abilities,” said Dr. Rebecca Landa, director of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders at Kennedy Krieger Institute, in a statement.

Growing up in Bethesda, Giuliana Rancic thought there was nothing more glamorous than the news women she saw on TV. First at the University of Maryland, College Park, then at graduate school in Washington, she trained to join their ranks, heading with mike and camera to the White House, Pentagon and Capitol Hill. But there was a problem. "I couldn't bring myself to report the news straight," Rancic remembers. "I liked asking senators not just, what do you think of a policy, but what do you do for fun, what's your favorite movie.

Celebrity chefs have become a big business in recent years. Rare are the kitchen products, from pots and pans to garlic presses, that do not carry an endorsement from some chef with a cable television show and a chain of restaurants. Paula Deen is just such a person and received considerable attention last week when it was revealed that she has had type 2 diabetes for the past three years. This would not be particularly notable - diabetes is on the rise in this country, with more than 25 million adults and children affected by it - except for one thing.

Nearly two centuries after King George III famously mistook a large tree for a Prussian king, produced red- and blue-tinged urine, and died blind, deaf and mad, scientists are still finalizing his diagnosis. In 1969, a mother-and-son team of psychiatrists with a penchant for diagnosing deranged, dead celebrities, suggested that the king suffered from a hereditary disorder called porphyria. The diagnosis stuck, and the British king's legacy brought fame to the rare metabolic disease -- though it remained hotly contested.

Late last fall, Dartmouth Medical School researchers reported in the journal Cancer that 100 percent of newly diagnosed breast cancer patients experienced at least some level of distress, and nearly half met the criteria for a significant psychiatric disorder such as major depression or post-traumatic stress disorder. Well, duh! Is it really news that a serious medical diagnosis can shake a person to the core? The only surprise, to me, is that a study like this is necessary. While some medical schools are adding classes in things such as how to deliver bad news, the medical establishment as a whole still isn't as good as it could be at helping people who go in a heartbeat from merely having a medical appointment to wondering how long they have to live.

NFL referee Tony Corrente's first encounter with Baltimore Ravens Matt Birk and Michael Oher this season floored him, literally. The Ravens were scuffling with a couple of Pittsburgh Steelers during the season opener on Sept. 11, and Corrente, trying to intervene, was knocked flat on his back by the churning mass of some 1,000 pounds of football player. His next encounter, coming when he worked the Ravens' final regular season game on New Year's Day, Corrente made sure to personally thank Birk and Oher.

About 20 years ago, I went to a urologist for a prostate exam and PSA test. When the blood work was in, he said the levels were virtually nil, and then he said something I've never forgotten: "Fate has something else in store for you. " I have ever since wondered from time to time what that something would turn out to be - and now I know. A week ago, as many of you know, I was diagnosed with inoperable, stage four pancreatic cancer. It's inoperable but treatable with chemotherapy.