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MERRITT HERALD TUESDAY, JULY 1, 2014 • MERRITT NEWSPAPERS
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MUD-SLINGIN’ FUN The North West Mud Racing Association held its annual mud races in Merritt on the June 28-29 weekend. Cars, trucks and tractors in eight racing classes let the mud fly through a 200-foot-long pit at the music festival grounds. Hundreds of spectators, fans and racers gathered to take part in the non-profit organization’s family-friendly weekend. Above: Quesnel-based racer Tyler Lefebvre, 15, impressed the crowd as one of the youngest racers in his modified land cruiser “Rebel child.” Emily Wessel/Herald
Pros, cons to mobile ultrasound screening By Michael Potestio THE HERALD
reporter@merrittherald.com
Cardiovascular screenings done outside the traditional health-care system have pros and cons, says one Merritt physician. “I don’t think its a bad thing to have the information,” Doctor Duncan Ross said. North Dakota-based company Mobile Life Screening will be setting up shop in Merritt tomorrow offering stroke screening at the Ramada Inn.
The company offers such services as ultrasound-based screenings, and for $229, Merrittonians can have their carotid arteries, legs and abdomens screened for arterial stiffness, peripheral artery disease and aortic aneurysm. “The potential upside is that someone might be stimulated to really look after their health better, and potentially – in discussion with their doctor – might pursue medical treatment of the plaque buildup,” Ross said.
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“I guess the potential lottery winner would be a person who was found to have a very large aortic aneurism that could result in a potentially life-saving surgery, and that might not have otherwise been found routinely,” Ross said. He said another positive could result from patients taking the information to their doctors and possibly be prescribed any needed medication or lifestyle changes. “It generates discussion. It’s not all bad and I don’t think it’s a fly-by-night thing
– it’s not like snake oil,” Ross said of this type of service. He also said it’s possible that a person’s large aortic aneurysm – which a service like this might detect – could get missed upon a physical examination, particularly if the patient is overweight. Ross said doctors are taught to listen to the carotid artery for noises that would indicate a narrowing. However, nothing might be done about that narrowing unless a patient had a stroke
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or symptoms of a transient ischemic attack or ministroke. Ross said often nothing is done because it isn’t likely an asymptomatic person would undergo the subsequent procedures without showing symptoms. “Let’s say you go there and you get a screen and you have a narrowing in your carotid artery. Asymptotically, are you going to go and have someone operate on your artery, to open that up? Not typically,” Ross said. “Someone could
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do the same thing if they went for a coronary artery, CT scan or something. You see a narrowing there. Are you going to do anything? No, probably not because you’re not going to want to go through an angiogram and potentially a stenting procedure or a bypass when you haven’t even had any symptoms.” He said that if a person can feel their pulse and toes, their peripheral arteries are probably OK.
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