The land below the wind

I will be flying off to Sandakan in less than 24 hours to do my month long elective attachment with the boys in Duchess of Kent Hospital, department of Internal Medicine. I am feeling quite excited as I've never been to that part of the world yet. 4 of us will be doing some travelling around Borneo as well so do wait up for pictures of proboscis monkeys, sea turtles and orang utans.

The SUN, SEA and SICK PEOPLE. The 3S of a successful elective posting. SANDAKAN here I come!

Wonderful Tonight

Classical love songs by 方大同

好听

TB

This is the chest X-ray I saw in the general medicine ward of a 30 year-old man who presented with the following complaints:

1) Chronic productive cough x 6/12 associated with

-Exertional dyspnoea

-Multiple episodes of hemoptysis worsened over the past one month

-Greenish sputum

2) On and off low grade fever associated with night sweats chills and rigors x1/12

3) Significant weight loss with decreased oral intake due to poor appetite

Physical examination revealed decreased chest expansion over the upper chest. Percussion over the chest revealed dullness over the right upper lobe with apical crepitation on auscultation. Several enlarged cervical lymph nodes were present as well.

Chest X-Ray of another patient with active PTB. Note the cavitation. consolidation and deviated trachea(mediastinum) due to scarring.

Yes, you are right, he was having active pulmonary tuberculosis.

Tuberculosis is one of the common topics that can be tested in an undergraduate exam (obviously not in Monash) and questions are commonly asked about the treatment and its side effects. The first line medications for TB and their associated adverse drug effects are as follow:

R.I.P.E.S

Rifampicin-cholestatic jaundice, orange urine, thrombocytopenia, enzyme inducer( OCP less effective)

Isoniazid-Peripheral neuropathy, hepatitis, pyridoxine deficiency, drug induced lupus!

Pyrazinamide-hepatitis, hyperuricemia (Gout)

Ethambutol-Optic neuritis

Streptomycin-ototoxicity and nephrotixicity

Zap those female anopheles!!

A few days ago, a close friend of mine who is also a final year engineering student approached me and asked: “I’m currently trying to come out with an idea for my final year project and I am thinking of integrating engineering into medicine. What do you think? Any ideas?”

Well, since it’s the end of year holidays now and I barely have anything intellectually stimulating to do, I decided to help him with some information gathering. Below are some interesting video clips that I have come across.

Nathan Myhrvold and team's latest inventions -- as brilliant as they are bold -- remind us that the world needs wild creativity to tackle big problems like malaria. And just as that idea sinks in, he rolls out a live demo of a new, mosquito-zapping gizmo you have to see to believe.

From designing a device that could prevent breaking the cold chain of vaccines to diagnosing malaria infection by just looking into your eyes/nail beds, if only more geeks would put their skills to use like this, the bright future that we long for is definitely not far away. Who needs to learn how to do a BFMP(Blood Film for Malaria parasite)? Diagnosing malaria is going to be a no brainer! And since this gadget could specifically exterminate the mosquitoes other than some other harmless insects with wings, I believe Dengue fever/DSS all can be put to a stop.

Next, how about using an I pad during a surgery to view high resolution CT/MRI scans? A team of surgeons in Kobe University Japan actually put this device into good use. The touch screen seems to be working fine although it is covered by a sheath of sterile plastic film and the surgeon has donned on his gloves.

kobe surgery [japanprobe]
Uploaded by jdx459. - See video of the biggest web video personalities.

Not a big fan of these products(I-phone/I-Pad) tho, just another over-rated, highly glorified mobile phones around. One of my housemates once told me:" The sole reason of me getting an I-phone 4 is just to impress the chicks, nothing else".

Anyhow, we all have to admit that advancement in the field of medical technology has certainly improved our quality of life and revolutionized how medicine is being practiced today.