Dr. Josyann Abisaab

Diagnosing and Treating Lyme Disease: Dr. Josyann Abisaab

Lyme disease diagnosis can be very difficult, and emergency room doctors like Dr. Josyann Abisaab will often have to use their own discretion and skills to deem if Lyme disease testing is necessary.  Certainly, if a patient exhibits symptoms of Lyme disease, shows physical signs like the bulls-eye rash, or has a recent history of a tick bite, the doctor will do testing to see if it’s Lyme disease. The problem is that many patients don’t remember getting a tick bite and they don’t show symptoms that are easily recognizable as Lyme disease symptoms.

When Lyme disease testing is done, an ELISA (enzyme-linked immunoassay) or IFA (immunofluorescent assay) antibody test is usually done first. If one of these tests is positive, then a Western blot test for IgM and/or IgG Lyme disease antibodies is performed.

Treatment for Lyme disease usually includes antibiotics. The type of antibiotic and the length of treatment will depend on the length of time that patient has had Lyme disease and the severity of the situation.

Award for New York Presbyterian Hospital

 It’s great when a hospital is not only good medically but also offers good news for the environment.  That is what has happened with the New York Presbyterian Hospital recently when it was awarded the Gold designation from the US Green Building Hospital for its new Family Heart Center.  Taking care of people and their illnesses is great, but doing so in an environmentally-friendly environment gives the institution a great name as well.  Dr. Josyann Abisaab is an ER doctor at this hospital.

Good Healthy News for the Elderly

It seems like every day we hear another story of an elderly person fracturing a hip.  But today, it looks like this statistic is actually declining.  The study came from epidemiologists assessing a government survey of patients who had been hospitalized between 1990 and 2006.  The study found noteworthy decreases among men over 85 and women over 75.  This is extremely positive since what often happens with hip breaks is that the patient needs to be moved to a nursing home for at least a year to heal.  As well, such a fracture – if not cared for adequately – can result in many future visits to the ER. 

No one really knows what has caused this decline or if the trend is likely to continue in the future.  It could be the fact that there has been improved treatment for osteoporosis but that cannot be proved.  It could also be that since older people are generally in better shape, they are not falling as often. “Then there’s the cohort explanation. The older women who broke hips in the early 1990s — 1997 was the year that fracture rates peaked — were young during the Depression.” This might have been due to food shortages and malnutrition which meant they never developed sufficient bone density.  This news definitely takes off the pressure from doctors working in the ER like Dr. Josyann Abisaab who works at NY Presbyterian Hospital who can often be somewhat overwhelmed by individuals with breaks who need urgent care.

Diabetic Heat Issues: Dr. Josyann Abisaab

Emergency room doctors, like Dr. Josyann Abisaab, see an increased number of emergency room visits in the summer months from diabetics.  Researchers have found that diabetics show an increased frequency of emergency room visits, hospitalizations and even deaths due to heat illness during the hottest times of the year.  There are a number of reasons for this trend, many of which are addressed in this informative article.

Certainly, for anyone with diabetes, and for those treating them, it is essential to understand how heat influences and impacts diabetes.