Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 199
Just when you thought your brain could unwind on a Friday, you realise that it would rather be challenged with some good old fashioned medical trivia FFFF, introducing the Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 199
Question 1
What does this pastry have in common with cardiology?
Reveal the funtabulous answer
This is a Chocolate Torsade
Torsade is the French for twist – hence Torsades de Pointes – twisting of the points. Just a bit of useless trivia for the next time you find yourself in France wanting to make a very bad medical joke.
Question 2
An RMO comes to you slightly perplexed. They have just given a patient a dose of gentamicin for pyelonephritis and the nurse reports the patient is weak. You suspect a neurological condition and find some neurology outpatient notes confirm your suspicion.
What medical condition does this patient have that the RMO missed?
Reveal the funtabulous answer
Myasthenia Gravis
Gentamicin “probably competitively restrains the release of acetylcholine from presynaptic membrane, impairing the depolarization of postsynaptic membrane, depressing the irritability of myocyte membrane around the end-plate membrane and consequently leading to the blockade of neuromuscular junction” [Reference]
And if gentamicin was not enough to remember, myaware has a longer list of drugs implicated in exacerbating Myasthenia Gravis
- Liu C, Hu F. Investigation on the mechanism of exacerbation of myasthenia gravis by aminoglycoside antibiotics in mouse model. J Huazhong Univ Sci Technolog Med Sci. 2005;25(3):294-6.
Question 3
So in 2015 we found out that males with kidney stones having sex 3-4 times a week could increase stone passage but what else could you do that involves theme parks (in particular Disney World) to help the stone pass?
Reveal the funtabulous answer
If 2015 didn’t provide a silver lining to having renal colic then maybe 2016 would.
A team of researchers in 2016 found that riding Walt Disney World’s Big Thunder Mountain Railroad ride helped to pass renal calculi, and that sitting in the back improved your odds. When the model was carried in the front seating of the roller coaster fewer kidney stones were passed (16.7%) than when sat in the rear seating (63.9%). Although this was all done in a model it was prompted by patient case reports of going on the ride and passing their stones.
- Mitchell MA, Wartinger DD. Validation of a Functional Pyelocalyceal Renal Model for the Evaluation of Renal Calculi Passage While Riding a Roller Coaster. J Am Osteopath Assoc. 2016 Oct 1;116(10):647-52.
Question 4
What is the Bazett formula used for? How many people were originally studied to formulate the formula?
Reveal the funtabulous answer
Correcting the Q-T interval for rate.
In the original study there were 23 men, 19 women and 5 children.
- Henry Cuthbert Bazett (1885 – 1950)
- Roguin A. Henry Cuthbert Bazett (1885-1950)–the man behind the QT interval correction formula. Pacing Clin Electrophysiol. 2011 Mar;34(3):384-8.
Question 5
Who said:
They know nothing of Natural Philosophy, these pin-heads.
Drunkards, sloths, their bellies filled with Mead and Ale. O that I might see them pimped!
Reveal the funtabulous answer
William Harvey (1578 – 1657)
William Harvey developed an accurate theory of how the heart and circulatory system operated. He published his theories in 1628 in his famous book “De Motu Cordis – On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals,” which made him notorious throughout Europe.
FFFF
Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five
Dr Neil Long BMBS FACEM FRCEM FRCPC. Emergency Physician at Kelowna hospital, British Columbia. Loves the misery of alpine climbing and working in austere environments (namely tertiary trauma centres). Supporter of FOAMed, lifelong education and trying to find that elusive peak performance.