Medium Yield

Prior to 1961 drugs were not stringently tested before being introduced to the Australian market. The prevailing view in obstetric care was that medications that were non-toxic to the mother were non-toxic to the developing fetus. This illusion was dramatically and irreversibly shattered in 1961 when Sydney obstetrician Dr William McBride raised the alarm that babies exposed to thalidomide were being born with significant birth defects. 

The thalidomide tragedy would go on to have seismic impacts. Thousands of children across the world were impacted, and dozens in Australia. It served as the impetus to tighten drug regulation in Australia, and the eventual formation of the TGA. For William McBride the legacy was mixed. Whilst he first rocketed to medical stardom and national acclaim, in his later career he was found guilty of fraud and struck from the medical register. Depending on your perspective, this may be a cautionary tale of the importance of diligence in medical research - or perhaps a warning as to the perils of fame as a doctor, and the risks that come with alienating large pharmaceutical companies.

References

Australian Government 2020 Australian Government response to the Senate Community Affairs References Committee report: Support for Australia’s thalidomide survivors

Australia, House of Representatives 2023 National Apology to all Australians impacted by the Thalidomide Tragedy 

Godden, Judith 2016 Crown Street Women’s Hospital: A history 1893-1983 Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest NSW

McBride, William 1961 “Thalidomide and congenital abnormalities” The Lancet 1961 Dec 16;278(7216):1358

McBride, William 1994 Killing the Messenger Eldorado, Cremorne NSW

McEwen, John 2007 A history of therapeutic goods regulation in Australia 

Senate Community Affairs Reference Committee 2019 Support for Australia’s thalidomide survivors

Stafford, Ned 2018 “William McBride: alerted the world to dangers of thalidomide in fetal development” BMJ 2018:362

Swan, Norman 1987 “The man who stopped thalidomide accused of fraud” Sydney Morning Herald 12 December 1987 pp 1,4

Swan, Norman 1994, “The thalidomide hero - in his own write: Killing the Messenger by William McBride” New Scientist

Swan, Norman 2018 “Dr William McBride: The flawed character credited with linking thalidomide to birth defects” ABC News

Swan, Norman 2018, “Breaking boundaries in medicine at DFTB17”, Don't Forget the Bubbles, 2018

You might not know the name, but you have heard it countless times - and you either love or loathe Opus Number 1

Opus Number 1 is copyright Tim Carleton and Darrick Deel. Parts reproduced here under fair dealing exceptions of the Copyright Act 1968.

References
6Sense "Cisco VoIP" accessed November 2024

Buckley, Sean 2018 "Cisco, Avaya retain dominant PBX market share, but segment drops 8% on delayed spending, cloud migration, says analyst" Fierce Network accessed November 2024

Corbett, Sara 2014 "Do you hear what I hear?" in This American Life episode 516

Mamykina, Lena, David K Vawdrey, George Hripcsak 2016 "How do residents spend their shift time? A time and motion study with a particular focus on the use of computers" Academic Medicine 91(6) 827-832

Westbrook, Johanna, Amanda Ampt, Leanne Kearney and Marilyn Rob 2008 "All in a day's work: an observational study to quantify how and with whom doctors on hospital wards spend their time" Medical Journal of Australia 188 (9) 506-509

Wikipedia "Music on Hold" accessed November 2024

Just like a fistful of black jellybeans from the chemist, "liquorice induced pseudohyperaldosteronism" is a challenging mouthful. Just how does liquorice cause high blood pressure and low potassium?

References
Allcock E, J Cowdery 2015 "Hypertension induced by liquorice tea" BMJ Case Reports

Martini N 2020 “Liquorice” Journal of Primary Health Care 12(4) 397-398

Mérillon, J-M & KG Ramawat 2018, “The Pharmacological Activities of Glycyrrhizinic Acid (“Glycyrrhizin”) and Glycyrrhetinic Acid” pp. 245-261 in Sweeteners, Springer

Quinkler M, PM Stewart 2003 “Hypertension and the Cortisol-Cortisone Shuttle” The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism Vol 88 Iss 6 pp 2384-2392

Schonwald S 2022 “Licorice poisoning treatment and management” Medscape

Varma R, CN Ross 2017 "Liquorice: a root cause of secondary hypertension" JSRM Open 8(2)

Wikipedia "Liquorice"

Carl Wunderlich's seminal 1868 work "The Course of Temperature in Disease" defined the average human body temperature as 37 degrees celsius, a number that is still frequently quoted today. But the question of the average body temperature is far from settled. Could it be that it is changing with time?

Music:
Variatio 3 a 1 Clav. Canone all Unisuono
Music by JS Bach, played by Kimiko Ishizaka for the Open Goldberg Variations project

References:
Ley C et al 2023 “Defining usual oral temperature ranges in outpatients using an unsupervised learning algorithm” JAMA https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2023.4291

Mackowiak, P & Woden, G 1994 “Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich and the Evolution of Clinical Thermometry” Clinical Infectious Diseases https://www.jstor.org/stable/4457716

Protsiv M et al 2020 “Decreasing human body temperature in the United States since the Industrial Revolution” eLife https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.49555

Speakman et al JR 2023 “Total daily energy expenditure has declined over the last 3 decades due to declining basal expenditure not reduced activity expenditure” Nature Metabolism https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10445668/

Sund-Levander et al 2002 “Normal oral, rectal, tympanic and axillary body temperature in adult men and women: a systematic literature review” Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1471-6712.2002.00069.x

Wikipedia “Doubly labeled water” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doubly_labeled_water

Wikipedia “Medical Thermometer” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_thermometer

Join me on a truly low yield romp through the history of measuring medical equipment, spanning three countries and three centuries.

References:
Iverson 1987 “J.-F.-B. Charriere: The Man Behind the ‘French’ Gauge’”, The Journal of Emergency Medicine Vol 5 pp. 545-548

Iverson 1987 "The origins of the gauge system for medical equipment", The Journal of Emergency Medicine Vol 5 pp. 45-48

Muffly, T et al. 2011 “The history and evolution of sutures in pelvic surgery” Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, v 104(3) pp 107-112

Pöll J.S 2002 "The story of the gauge" Anaesthesia Vol 54, Issue 6, pp. 519-623

Wikipedia:
Guillaume Dupuytren
History of the Metric System
Industrial Revolution
Surgical Suture

Music:
"La Marseillaise" composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle
Recorded by the United States Navy Band
Public Domain

"Rule, Britannia" composed by James Thomson (lyrics) and Thomas Anne (music). Sung by Albert Farrington 1914 for Edison Records

"Star Spangled Banner" composed by John Stafford Smith
Recorded by the United States Navy Band
Public Domain

Christmas Island, in the Indian Ocean, is remote and difficult to access by sea. The discovery of phosphate in the late 19th century changed its fortunes. In 1899 workers arrived to tame the island. Soon after they arrived, an ancient disease with an unknown cause and no known cure joined them - beriberi.

References:
Arts, Nicolass JM et al 2017 “Korsakoff’s syndrome: a critical review” Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment  vol 13 pp 2875-2890
https://doi.org/10.2147/NDT.S130078

Blevins, Melissa 2014 “Why are vitamins labeled A, B (and all the sub B’s), C, etc.?”, Today I Found Out, http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2014/04/vitamins-labeled-b-sub-bs-c-etc/

Carpenter, Kenneth J. 2005 "Beriberi, White Rice, and Vitamin B: A Disease, a Cause, and a Cure", University of California Press

Hunt, John 2011 "Suffering through strength: The men who made Christmas Island", Blue Star Print ACT

McCutechon, Peter 24 June 2021 "Christmas Island future uncertain as phosphate mine starts to wind down", ABC News, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-24/christmas-island-future-uncertain-as-phosphate-mine-winds-down/100231824

Mozaffarian, Dariush et al 2018 “History of modern nutrition science—implications for current research, dietary guidelines, and food policy” BMJ https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.k2392

Sinha, Shirshendu et al 2019 “Wernicke Encephalopathy - Clinical Pearls” Mayo Clinical Proceedings Vol 94 Iss 6
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2019.02.018

Wikipedia "Christmas Island" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_Island#Demographics

Wilson, Robert Beaumont 2020 “Pathophysiology, prevention and treatment of beriberi after gastric surgery” Nutrition Reviews, Volume 78, Issue 12, pp 1015-1029 https://doi.org/10.1093/nutrit/nuaa004

Yeoh, Fran "The old hospital and the scourge of beriberi", Christmas Island Archives, https://christmasislandarchives.com/old-hospital/

The twisty history of the Rod of Asclepius and the Caduceus as symbols of medicine.

References:
Wikipedia. Truly so much Wikipedia. Particularly:

Asclepius https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asclepius
Aesculapian Snake https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesculapian_snake
Caduceus as a symbol of medicine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caduceus_as_a_symbol_of_medicine
Greek Mythology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_mythology
Hermes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermes
Imhotep https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imhotep
Panacea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panacea
Rod of Asclepius https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_of_Asclepius

RAAF Medical Uniforms: http://australianmilitarymedicalcollective.weebly.com/raaf-uniform-development.html
RAAMC Customs https://www.raamc.org.au/web/index.php?History:Customs
Westphalen, Neil 2018, “A History of Australian Navy Health Sailor Uniforms and Ranks (part 3)” Journal of Military and Veteran's Health Vol 26 No 4 https://jmvh.org/article/a-history-of-australian-navy-health-sailor-uniforms-and-ranks-part-3/

By far the most easily remembered cause of pancreatitis is scorpion stings. But how likely are you to see sting induced pancreatitis in Australia?

References:
Albuquerue et al 2018 "Acute kidney injury and pancreatitis due to scorpion sting: case report and literature review", Rev Inst Med Trop Sau Pauloa

Carter, Murray 2020, "Marbled Scorpion", Australian Museum Webpage

Emergency Care Institute NSW 2023 "Bites and Stings"

Fletcher et al 2010 "Vesicle-associated Membrane Protein (VAMP) Cleavage by a New Metalloprotease from the Brazilian Scorpion Tityus serrulatus", Journal of Biological Chemistry

Kallel et al 2016, "Acute Necrotizing Pancreatitis after Tityus obscurus Scorpion Envenomation in French Guiana", Journal of Clinical Toxicology

Nesvaderani et al 2015, "Acute pancreatitis: update on management", Medical Journal of Australia

Nesvaderani et al 2015, "Epidemiology, aetiology and outcomes of acute pancreatitis: A retrospective cohort study", International Journal of Surgery

Sofer et al 1991 "Acute pancreatitis in children following envenomation by the yellow scorpion Leiurus quinquestriatus", Toxicon