The elective is the highlight of a medical student’s time at medical school. As keen trekkers, we decided to conduct a project in Nepal on the effects of altitude on the hormone hepcidin. The project involved following trekkers ascending to Mount Everest base camp, collecting urine samples, freezing them, and then transporting them back to […]
Tag: research
Richard Lehman’s journal review – 11 April 2011
JAMA 6 Apr 2011 Vol 305 1305 Postmenopausal oestrogen protects against breast cancer. Now there’s a headline I never thought I would write; and yet it’s the clear conclusion of this follow-up study of the women in the Women’s Health Initiative Estrogen-Alone Trial. In this unique double-blinded RCT, over 10,000 women aged between 50 and […]
Research highlights – 1 April 2011
“Research highlights” is a weekly round-up of research papers appearing in the print BMJ. We start off with this week’s research questions, before providing more detail on some individual research papers and accompanying articles. Does an epidural block improve cancer-free survival after major abdominal surgery for cancer? How did a reduction in working hours of […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review – 28 March 2011
JAMA 23-30 Mar 2011 Vol 305 1165 In 1941, there was a rumour that the Germans were buying up large quantities of bovine adrenal glands from Argentina so as to produce a substance that boosted the flying powers of Luftwaffe pilots. Intense efforts to isolate this substance followed, but the war was long over by […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review – 21 March 2011
JAMA 16 Mar 2011 Vol 305 1119 “Chronic kidney disease is one of the most rapidly increasing chronic diseases in the United States. More than 20 million US adults have an estimated glomerular filtration rate of less than 60 mL/min/1.73m2, which represents loss of more than half of normal kidney function.” So begins the editorial […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review – 14 March 2011
NEJM 10 Mar 2011 Vol 364 907 “Microalbuminuria is an early predictor of diabetic nephropathy and premature cardiovascular disease.” That’s the opening message of the ROADMAP trial, and it will just about do. What it does not mean is that any agent that reduces the appearance of tiny amounts of albumin in the urine will […]
Research highlights – 11 March 2011
“Research highlights” is a weekly round-up of research papers appearing in the print BMJ. We start off with this week’s research questions, before providing more detail on some individual research papers and accompanying articles. Is ethnicity related to academic performance in doctors and medical students trained in the UK? Does weekly ultrasound treatment improve hard […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review – 7 March 2011
JAMA 2 Mar 2011 Vol 305 913 A friend recently began a piece on outcomes research with Bishop Joseph Butler’s maxim, “Every thing is what it is, and not some other thing.” If a trial like SOLVD is designed to measure the effect of a particular ACE inhibitor on survival in people with symptomatic left […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review, 21 February 2011
JAMA 16 Feb 2011 Vol 305 I like to hold a torch for JAMA, and once even suggested to the BMJ that it should try to become more like this decently old-fashioned American weekly, provoking dismay and perhaps even derision from my progressive friends there. Anyway, the BMJ has gone its own way, and JAMA […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review – 14 February 2011
JAMA 9 Feb 2011 Vol 305 569 If I were a woman, the things I would most fear from breast cancer surgery would be arm lymphoedema and recurrence of the cancer. Does one have to be balanced against the other? Common sense would suggest that the more axillary lymph nodes you dissect, the less likely […]