Mayo Clinic Health Matters

At least 16 countries and 10 U.S. states have identified unusual hepatitis cases in children. Experts advise that cases are extremely rare, with about 200 children affected worldwide.  Hepatitis is inflammation of the liver. It is most commonly caused by a viral infection, although there are other potential causes. A common adenovirus is being investigated as a potential cause for this hepatitis o...

Endoscopy is a nonsurgical procedure used to visually examine the digestive system with a tiny camera on the end of a long, flexible tube. An upper endoscopy examines the stomach, esophagus and small intestines. A colonoscopy, which is another type of endoscopy, is used to examine the rectum, large intestine and colon. In children, endoscopy can be used to look for causes of unexplained abdominal...

An estimated 3 out of 4 U.S. children and more than half of all adults have been infected with COVID-19, according to a report released on Tuesday, April 26 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But a Mayo Clinic expert says more information is needed to get the complete picture.  "This was a convenient sample. In other words, people who were having blood drawn for other reasons were...

Oral cancer refers to cancers that originate in the mouth, tongue and back of the throat. Treatment options, which can vary based on the cancer's location and stage, include surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. The use of anatomic modeling and 3D printing have led to advances in surgical treatments for oral cancer. "One of the advances that we've seen in the last 20 or 30 years in the treatment of...

The Department of Medicine, which is the largest department at Mayo Clinic, is helping lead the transformation of health care. Important innovations include moving to digital and virtual care to meet patients where they are, and addressing health equity, all while keeping patients front and center. "Patients are our North Star," says Dr. Vijay Shah, chair of the Department of Medicine at Mayo Clin...

A cancer diagnosis can be overwhelming, and patients often have many questions about what their cancer journey will entail. At Mayo Clinic Cancer Center, patient navigators help guide patients through the health care system. Patient navigators are active members of the health care team, assessing and addressing a patient's immediate needs and identifying obstacles that might prevent them from gett...

From allergies and asthma to infectious diseases and even malnutrition, the indirect effects of climate change are taking a toll on our most valuable resource, kids! On the Mayo Clinic Q&A podcast, Ask the Mayo Mom host Dr. Angela Mattke, a Mayo Clinic pediatrician, is joined by Dr. Molly Herr, a pediatric anesthesiologist at Mayo Clinic Children’s Center to discuss climate change and its effects...

The World Health Organization reports that the number of people with diabetes has risen from 108 million in 1980 to 422 million by 2014. And that number is estimated to reach 552 million by 2030. One big concern for people with diabetes is the connection between diabetes and cardiovascular disease. People with diabetes are more likely to develop heart disease and are at higher risk of premature de...

Fifty-seven-year-old Ted Garding is Mayo Clinic’s first altruistic living liver donor. The living liver donation program allows a healthy person to donate a portion of his or her liver, which then regenerates over time. What makes Ted’s story even better? He's a two-time altruistic organ donor, having previously donated a kidney back in 2010.  An altruistic, or nondirected living donor, is a perso...

While some adolescent and young adult (AYA) patients with cancer receive care in pediatrics, the majority are cared for in adult cancer systems. One of the challenges is that people in the AYA group don't fit well with either patient population.  "If you think about the kinds of things that people in this age group are going through, there's a lot of life transition happening there," explains Dr....

When it comes to knee replacement surgery, orthopedic surgeons now have a new tool for the operating room: augmented reality knee replacement. This technology enables a surgeon to view important data using special smart glasses or a helmet-based visor while maintaining their view of the surgical site. In that way, augmented reality differs from virtual reality. "Think of a fighter pilot in a jet t...

Hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19 continue to decline, leading to some optimism about the way forward from pandemic to endemic. But experts still urge caution as the omicron subvariant, named BA.2, has quickly become the dominant strain in the U.S. "When you look around the nation, all of the metrics, with the exception of BA.2, have fallen precipitously," explains Dr. Gregory Poland, he...

Precision medicine aims to customize health care by tailoring medications and treatments to each patient. An important step in being able to personalize treatments is diagnostic testing. Mayo Clinic BioPharma Diagnostics collaborates with biopharmaceutical, diagnostic, and other biotech companies to enable precision medicine through advanced diagnostics. Diagnostic testing can help find the right...

Children with cerebral palsy may require lifelong care from a medical care team, but early intervention and treatments can improve function.  Cerebral palsy is a group of disorders that affect movement and muscle tone or posture. It's caused by damage that occurs to the immature, developing brain, most often before birth. Signs and symptoms appear during infancy or preschool years. In general, cer...

Every March, Mayo Clinic joins the effort to raise awareness of colorectal cancer, which are cancers that develop in the colon and the rectum. While regular colonoscopies and lower rates of smoking have reduced colorectal cancer rates in older adults, cancers of the colon and rectum are now a leading cause of cancer death among people under 50 in the U.S., according to the National Cancer Institut...

Sickle cell disease is a group of inherited red blood cell disorders. Red blood cells are usually round and flexible, so they move easily through blood vessels. With sickle cell disease, some red blood cells are shaped like sickles or crescent moons, become rigid and sticky. These sickle-cell shaped cells can slow or block blood flow. The most common type of sickle cell disease is sickle cell anem...

Last week marked two years since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 to be a pandemic. While infection rates and hospitalizations in the U.S. continue to decline, there are some areas of concern globally.  "China, Hong Kong, Ireland, the U.K. and Denmark are seeing surges back up again," explains Dr. Gregory Poland, head of Mayo Clinic's Vaccine Research Group. "These countries, many o...

Multiple myeloma is a cancer that forms in a type of white blood cell called a plasma cell.  Healthy plasma cells help the body fight infections by making antibodies that recognize and attack germs. In multiple myeloma, cancerous plasma cells accumulate in the bone marrow and crowd out healthy blood cells. Rather than produce helpful antibodies, the cancer cells produce abnormal proteins that can...

Mayo Clinic living donor Mike Peshut is one of 22 kidney donors who will climb Mount Kilimanjaro with a group called Kidney Donor Athletes. The goal of the One Kidney Climb is to reach the summit on World Kidney Day, which is Thursday, March 10.  Peshut donated a kidney on behalf of his wife, Annie, in February 2019. Peshut tried to be a direct donor, but he was not a match for his wife. Through p...

A recent study found that people who were infected with COVID-19 are at increased risk of heart disease, even a year after their recovery from infection. The study, published in Nature Medicine, reviewed the health records of more than 150,000 U.S. veterans, and found that people with prior COVID-19 infections were 60% more likely to develop cardiac issues. "There is a large spectrum of disease,"...

Parents and caregivers play an important role in helping children feel comfortable with medical care. When possible, sharing age-appropriate information with children before a medical appointment can help ease their fear and anxiety.  To help children prepare for a visit with their health care team, it is important that parents and caregivers understand the reason for the visit and what tests or p...

New cases of COVID-19 are down 90% from the peak, with under 75,000 new cases reported last week across the U.S.  "What we're observing is a pretty dramatic suppression of cases," explains Dr. Gregory Poland, head of Mayo Clinic's Vaccine Research Group. "This is good news, but we need to be cautious." Dr. Poland warns that there are still people who are vulnerable to COVID-19 infection, including...

When it comes to the heart, it can be scary to seek care when you think you might be having a problem. Tests may be necessary to evaluate your heart, and the unfamiliar terminology associated with these tests can be confusing and intimidating.  Understanding terms like EKG, echocardiogram, coronary angiogram or stress test may help alleviate the fear. "Whenever we order these tests, we don't want...

Skin cancer — the abnormal growth of skin cells — most often develops on skin exposed to the sun, but it also can occur on areas of skin not ordinarily exposed to sunlight. Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the U.S. "And the incidence of skin cancer is rising," says Dr. Dawn Davis, a Mayo Clinic dermatologist. The three major types of skin cancer are basal cell carcinoma, squamous c...

For heart surgery patients, a cardiac reoperation or reintervention is sometimes needed. A reoperation is a second or subsequent surgery needed due to complications that develop over time. People who require a second or even third heart surgery often fall in to three groups:  Patients with aortic dissections For patients with aortic dissections, emergency lifesaving surgery is performed initially....