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 seismi...

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, Sa...

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 ...

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 temperatur...

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...

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 Blev...

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.or...

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) Cl...