Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 336

A London Bus

The Number 18 bus to be precise, and the height of the conversation peaked around Euston. Within 9 days they had enrolled their first patient. We’ve had many firsts within the pandemic but to set up such a massive trial in that time is unbelievable.

As you know Dexamethasone was shown to be of benefit to those requiring oxygen.

Four hours after the official announcement, treatment with dexamethasone became NHS policy and the rest of the world swiftly followed.

Recovery showed another drug, tocilizumab, also saves lives. But just as importantly it found the duds. The malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, the HIV combo lopinavir/ritonavir and the antibiotic azithromycin had all been hyped up, but ultimately shown to have no effect.

References

• Covid: The London bus trip that saved maybe a million lives – BBC accessed Oct 25, 2021
• Recovery Trial results

Ötzi the iceman

Ötzi also called the Iceman, lived some time between 3350 and 3105 BC, discovered in September 1991 in the Ötztal Alps (hence the nickname “Ötzi”) on the border between Austria and Italy.

He had a total of 61 tattoos which were geometrical creating the hypothesis that these tattoos were made along ‘healing’ lines and used to cure pains. Other tests revealed he liked a fine diet of Ibex meat and long walks in the hills suggesting he may have been a high altitude Shepard.

Prior to 2018,  Ötzi the Iceman held the title of world’s oldest tattooed individual. In 2018, a separate group of researchers found the world’s “oldest figurative tattoos” on 5,000-year-old (in other words, pre-pharaoh) Egyptian mummies. Infrared scans revealed the image of a bull and Barbary sheep on the shoulder of an 18- to 21-year-old male who was killed by a stab to the back. A series of “S” shapes was found on the upper shoulder of the female mummy. Both individuals had been housed in the British Museum’s mummy collection for more than 100 years by the time the tattoos were finally rediscovered.

The Egyptian tattoos were figurative rather than geometrical so technically Ötzi is still the winner of the question.

It’s likely the practice of tattooing extends much further back than either the Iceman or the Egyptian mummies. But finding a well-preserved human canvas older than these specimens will remain a challenge.

Reference:

• Friedman R et al. Natural mummies from Predynastic Egypt reveal the world’s earliest figural tattoos. Journal of Archaeological Science. 2018;92:116-125

Desmoid tumours (DTs)

FAP is a hereditary condition which is characterised by numbers adenomatous polyps in the colon. It accounts for 1% of colorectal cancer.

Desmoid tumours are bening neoplasms that occur in 10-20% of patients with FAP. They originate from facial or muscle-aponeurotic structures that foster fibroblast proliferation.

Although composed of benign fibromatous lesions, DTs display aggressive behavior. They are locally aggressive tumors with infiltrative growth in adjacent tissues. The outcome is unpredictable. In some circumstances, they remit spontaneously, whereas in most cases, they grow implacably, culminating in death. Seventy percent of all DTs are intra-abdominal. DTs also occur in the retroperitoneum, abdominal wall (incisions), inguinal region, and gluteus.

The presence of a palpable mass in patients with FAP should lead physicians to suspect a DT

Other extracolonic manifestations include, osteomalacia, pigmented lesions of the retina, adenomas of the upper GI tract and epidermoid cysts.

References

• Righetti AEM et al. Familial adenomatous polyposis and Desmond tumours. Clinics (Sao Paulo). 2011:66(10):1839-1842
• Slavu I et al. Primary Desmond tumor of the mesentery with invasion in the transverse colon: A case report.  https://doi.org/10.33695/mid.v3i2.76

They lost their classic conditioning after a stressful event.

Pavlov was studying dog digestion and noted that when the researchers entered with white lab coats the dogs started to drool. Curious he set up his famous experiment. Although, lets get the facts correct… there was no bell. He associated food with a buzzer, metronome, electrical shocks and light (see FFFF 192). Once the dogs learned to associate these stimuli with food they salivated at everything. Pavlov won the Nobel prize in 1904 for his paper on classical conditioning.

What is less known about was the dogs were kept in cages and during a flood in 1924 the laboratory filled with water. For hours the dogs struggled to keep themselves alive. Pavlov’s assistants came to help but in order to free the dogs they had to forcibly submerge them underwater and then make them swim another quarter of a mile to the main laboratory. Due to the trauma they suffered, they lost the conditioning effect and even in later experiments refused food. Pavlov starved the dogs but still they would not eat.

Pavlov had stubbled across a far more interesting observation that stress can lead animals to shut down. He then spent much of the remainder of his careers understanding how stress-induced trauma could be reversed.

Reference:

• Pavlov IP. Conditioned reflexes. An investigation of the physiological activity of the cerebral cortex. 1927
• Pant P. What most people do not know about Pavlov’s dogs 2019