Snapshot
Volume 202 - Issue 9
The trumpet's blown pupil
Authors: Chris Plummer and Adam Dangoor
Med J Aust 2015; 202 (9): 497. || doi: 10.5694/mja15.00150
Published online: 18 May 2015
Published online: 18 May 2015
A gardener experiences the power of an ancient alkaloid
On the advice of a neurologist friend (author C P), a 42-year-old man was rushed to hospital with a fixed dilated pupil (Figure, A). His condition was otherwise normal, as were the findings of urgent magnetic resonance imaging and angiography of the brain.
By Day 3, his mydriasis had resolved (as did the mystery) when the patient asked his “learned” friend how common eye injuries with whipper-snippers were. He mentioned, in passing, that on the morning of the incident he had cut back his beloved Angel's trumpet (Figure, B) — a member of the Solanaceae family, all parts of which are laced with anticholinergic alkaloids.
A detailed history, botanical or otherwise, will always trump the next best test.
Competing interests
No relevant disclosures.
Provenance: Not commissioned; not externally peer reviewed.
Motor Neuron Disease Mortality Trends in Australia From 1986 to 2023: A Population-Based Study
Carol M. Y. Lee, Rupendra N. Shrestha, Julian Gold, Mark Stevenson, Kelly L. Williams, Lyndal Henden, Sandrine K. K. Chan Moi Fat, Zoe Zussa, Amanda Wright, Martin Jude, Mark A. S. Laidlaw, Willem J. R. Fokkink, Dominic B. Rowe
Mild traumatic brain injury and concussion and persisting post‐concussion symptoms: new guidelines to support evidence‐based assessment and management in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand
Karen M Barlow, Jennie L Ponsford, Alice Theodom, Gill Cowen, Gavin A Davis, Vicki Anderson, Franz E Babl, David Cole, Jennifer Cullen, Stuart R Dalziel, Melinda Fitzgerald, Howard Flavell, Caroline Yates, Rebecca Kimble, John H Olver, Rhonda Orr, Mark Ralfe, Michael Rose, Nick Rushworth, Julia Treleaven, Gary Browne, Nathan Delang, Sarah Harris, Gary Mitchell, Sean Tweedy
The prevalence of and variation in indicators of the quality and safety of long term aged care in Australia, 2019: a cross‐sectional population‐based study
Tesfahun C Eshetie, Gillian E Caughey, Catherine Lang, Olivia Ryan, Renuka Visvanathan, Craig Whitehead, Keith Evans, Janet K Sluggett, Jyoti Khadka, Carolyn Dawkins, Helena Williams, Miranda Starke, Sara Blunt, Anne Liddell, Megan Corlis, Anna Sheppeard, Penelope Lello, Marilyn Thien, Steven L Wesselingh, Maria C Inacio
Health and economic benefits of improving pre‐hospital identification of stroke in Australian women: a modelling study
Thomas Gadsden, Lei Si, Emily R Atkins, Cheryl Carcel, Xia Wang, Stephen Jan, Mark Woodward, Laura E Downey
Symptom burden, quality of life, and diagnostic journey of people with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, Australia, 2021–24: a descriptive patient registry data study
Marie‐Claire Seeley, Gemma Wilson, Eric Ong, Amy Langdon, Jonathan Chieng, Danielle Bailey, Kristina Comacchio, Amanda Page, Dennis H Lau, Celine Gallagher
The intersection of rurality and dementia prevalence in Australia for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non‐Indigenous peoples
Antonia J Clarke, Marwan Ahmed, Judith M Katzenellenbogen, John Towney (Wiradjuri), Anna H Balabanski, Adrienne Withall (Dharawal Yuin), Kylie Radford, Amy Brodtmann