Volume 179 - Issue 6
In Other Journals
Med J Aust 2003 || doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2003.tb05542.x
Published online: 15 September 2003
Published online: 15 September 2003
At risk of miscarriage
Taking NSAIDS, including aspirin, may increase the risk of miscarriage, according to a prospective cohort study conducted in California.
Over 1000 women in early pregnancy were interviewed about their use of NSAIDs, aspirin and paracetamol; later on, their pregnancy outcome at 20 weeks' gestation was sought. The use of NSAIDs during pregnancy was found to increase the risk of miscarriage, especially in two circumstances. One: if taken around conception, consistent with a hypothesis that prostaglandin inhibition by NSAIDs interferes with implantation. Two: if used for longer than one week, which indicated a dose-response relationship.
Taking paracetamol was not found to increase the risk of miscarriage.
BMJ 2003; 327: 368-371
Pools as a health tool
Australian researchers have reported that swimming pools in remote communities can have health as well as social benefits. Government-funded salt-water pools in two outback communities in Western Australia have led to at least a short-term drop in the prevalence of both pyoderma (known locally as "skin sores") and tympanic membrane perforations. School attendance also improved in one of the communities — thought to be a result of a "no school, no pool" policy. Fingers crossed, these gains will persist past the pools' early years.
BMJ 2003; 327: 415-419
Surgical mules
Body packing — the practice by which international drug smugglers use human beings to hide cargo in their bodies — is no longer confined to adults alone. Two cases of paediatric body packing occurring in boys, aged 12 and 16 years old, have been reported in the USA. One of the boys was found unresponsive on a city street a day after arriving from Europe; the other presented to hospital with rectal bleeding. Both recovered after medical management and passing over 50 packets of heroin each.
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2003; 157: 174-177
Virus via venison
Hepatitis virus E (HEV) is a zoonotic infection, directly transmitted from animals to humans, according to a Lancet research letter.
Japanese authors reported a case series of four people from two families who became infected with HEV by eating the raw meat — prepared sushi style — of a wild-caught Japanese deer (Sika deer). These patients' serum samples were positive for HEV RNA and for IgM and IgG antibodies to HEV. The HEV RNA nucleotide sequence in the meat of the infected deer was identical to that found in most of the patients' serum samples.
Direct HEV transmission from animals to humans had been previously suspected but not proven, especially in non-endemic areas.
Lancet 2003; 362: 371-373
Flight class-conscious?
Although now a part of popular mythology, there is no evidence that the economy class syndrome exists, say BEST study researchers.
Their prospective study — the Business class versus Economy class Syndrome as a cause of Thrombosis study — was designed to compare the incidence of venous thromboembolism in first and business class passengers with that in economy class passengers. They recruited 899 passengers, at low or intermediate risk of developing a deep vein thrombosis (DVT), who were boarding long haul flights from London to Johannesburg — study subjects were awarded 5 000 frequent flyer points for their participation.
Over 8% of the passengers had elevated D-dimer levels on arrival but this did not lead to DVT and was unrelated to flight class. None of the 434 study subjects who agreed to go on to venous duplex scanning of the lower limbs had ultrasonic evidence of a DVT.
The researchers said that raised D-dimer levels may have been the result of immobility rather than a cramped body position in-flight, as only 6% of passengers reported exercising during the flight.
S Afr Med J 2003; 93: 522-528
Marketing mayhem
Researchers from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA, have called for substantial reform in the regulation of Internet advertising for the dietary supplement ephedra. They reviewed 32 web sites that marketed weight-loss supplements containing ephedra, and systematically identified deviance from truth-in-advertising standards. Many of the sites failed to disclose potential adverse effects or contraindications; about a third of the sites also contained incorrect or misleading statements, some of which could lead to serious harm to consumers.
Mayo Clin Proc 2003; 78: 944-946
— Dr Ann Gregory, MJA