Volume 193 - Issue 9
In Other Journals
Author: Ann T Gregory
Med J Aust 2010; 193 (9): 549. || doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2010.tb04044.x
Published online: 1 November 2010
Published online: 1 November 2010
Tracking falls at the races
Last year in the MJA, the first national study of horse-racing injuries in Australia revealed that jockeys are at substantial risk of injury or death from falls.1 Now, Hitchens and colleagues report factors associated with falls of thoroughbred-racing jockeys riding in flat races.2 Among a wide range of identified factors, faster speeds and tighter racing contributed to an increase in the incidence of falls, as did the relative inexperience of riders and horses. Among suggestions for reducing falls was the further investigation of the specific skills that experienced jockeys employ when riding inexperienced horses.
1 MJA 2009; 190: 83-862 Occup Environ Med 2010; 67: 693-698
Vodka and the heart
Just one vodka-drinking binge can cause reversible myocardial injury, according to German researchers. In a research letter, Zagrosek and colleagues reported that in a small group of young adults they conducted cardiac magnetic resonance imaging before and after a standardised (!) vodka-drinking binge. Although left ventricular volumes and systolic functions remained unchanged, there were other subtle signs of cardiac injury which resolved within 1 week. The researchers said the reversible injury is most likely due to an inflammatory reaction. They suggested that repeated exposure to excessive amounts of alcohol might prevent the myocardium from full recovery and lead to alcoholic cardiomyopathy by triggering chronic inflammation.
JAMA 2010; 304: 1328-1330
Sabotage in the lab
Although friends suggested she was paranoid, Heather Ames, a PhD student at the University of Michigan, was convinced that someone was “monkeying” with her experiments. Maher, Nature’s biology features editor, tells the tale of how a jealous postdoctoral colleague working in the same lab was eventually caught out (on camera) contaminating refrigerated media, and of the difficulties in obtaining adequate redress afterwards. Maher interviewed involved parties and others for this feature, reporting their stance. And, as he puts it, vindictive peer review, dishonest reference letters and withholding key aspects of protocols from colleagues or competitors could do just as much to derail a career or a research project as vandalising experiments.
Nature 2010; 467: 516-518
Desperately seeking livers
Waiting times and even deaths while on the liver transplant waiting list at the Australian National Liver Transplantation Unit, based in Sydney, are rising. Prakoso and colleagues1 reported a waiting time for adults of 23 days in 1985-1993 compared with a time of 120 days in 2001-2008; and a mortality of 23 adults in the earlier period compared with 122 in the later period. In a linked editorial,2 Chapman says the trend is due not only to increases in the prevalence of hepatitis C but also broadened indications — older patients have been accepted in recent years. It is also due to a drop in the number of donor livers; and now “marginal livers” — such as steatotic livers; livers with viral hepatitis and older donor livers — have been used in select patients.
1 Intern Med J 2010; 40: 619-625 2 Intern Med J 2010; 40: 609-610
Revisiting vertebroplasty
Earlier this year in the MJA, Clark and colleagues reported their experience observing dramatic pain relief when patients with severe pain caused by osteoporotic vertebral fractures less than 6 weeks old were managed with vertebroplasty.1 Their opinion about the benefit of vertebroplasty in the acute clinical setting is supported by evidence, now published, from the VERTOS II (Vertebroplasty Versus Conservative Treatment in Acute Osteoporotic Vertebral Compression Fractures) trial.2 An open-label randomised trial involving more than 200 patients in the Netherlands and Belgium with acute osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures and persistent pain, VERTOS II, found that vertebroplasty resulted in greater pain relief than conservative treatment. The procedure was not only effective — the pain relief was immediate and sustained for at least one year — it was also safe. In a linked editorial,3 European experts commented that the VERTOS II findings contrasted with those of Kallmes and colleagues and Buchbinder and colleagues published in the New England Journal of Medicine last year, which did not show a significant difference between vertebroplasty and sham treatment.
1 MJA 2010; 192: 334-337 2 Lancet 2010; 376: 1085-1092 3 Lancet 2010; 376: 1031-1032