Auscast Medical

In  Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) Part 1 , we learned that CTE is a neurodegenerative disease caused by repetitive cumulative brain injury. Patients suffer from debilitating mental health symptoms and may even have suicidal thoughts or actions. Unfortunately, there is no treatment for this disease and it can only be official diagnosed at autopsy (after death). The only successful str...

In 2005, Dr Bennet Omalu would publish a report in the United States on the autopsy brain findings of a former professional footballer from the NFL. His conclusion was the former athlete suffered from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE); a disease caused by repeated brain injuries most likely due to sport. The response was swift and severe claiming that the findings were incorrect, the conclusi...

And that’s another year done. A huge thank you to all of our guest speakers who have been generous with their time and expertise. We would also like to thank our listeners and hope you enjoyed the episodes. This episode is a mini reflection on this year’s episodes, a link to one of Steve’s favourite podcasts, some TML clips, and an embarrassing memory lapse on my behalf…thanks for keeping that par...

During the mid-twentieth century, menopause was touted as a severe disease that destroyed women’s femininity and was a burden to their husbands. Thankfully, today we recognise menopause as a natural part of ageing and conversations about it are happening more and more. In this episode, we have four special guests: Niki Bezzant: award-winning writer, author, journalist and media personality from Ne...

In July 2020 in the midst of a global pandemic, we released our first episode called ‘What is pathology?’ with This Pathological Life podcast. We hoped to create something that would entertain and education the audiencem and shed light on to some of the amazing stories and characters in medicine. In creating these podcasts, I am always thankful and appreciative to our guests who willingly give the...

On the 1st of November 2023, the Australian Government will release new guidelines for screening prostate cancer with the Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) blood test. These guidelines are based upon the Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) published in 2016 with new items to be included in the Medicare schedule. These items are based upon the Prostate Cancer Foundation and the Cancer Council of Austr...

We continue the second episode of this two part series on breast screening and mammograms focusing on the future. In this episode, we talk about the importance of breast density as a new risk factor, personalised breast cancer risk assessment (iPrevent developed by Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre  https://www.petermac.org/iprevent ), and discuss a personal account with Dr Sandy Minck. Special guests...

A critical tool in the fight against breast cancer is population screening. Early detection, surgical intervention +/- further treatment has dramatically reduced advanced disease and mortality rates but it still remains the most common cancer worldwide. In this episode, we focus on the history of breast cancer, the development of mammograms and early detection with our understanding of the underly...

Our understanding of the world today is constantly changing. What was once considered truths and facts can, in hindsight, be seen as misguided or wrong. It may be challenging to accept but becomes evident over time that the things we learn today may become irrelevant or superseded in the future and this is particularly relevant to medicine. Scientometrics is the quantitative study of science and t...

Vitamin D has been a controversial topic in recent times with the debate continuing over appropriate testing, adequate levels, and the evidence for treatment. We discussed the appropriateness of testing and chemical pathology component with Professor Ken Sikaris (Episode 25), but what does the research tell us about diseases associated with Vitamin D and the utility of replacement? We discuss this...

Professor Peter Doherty trained as a veterinarian before venturing into immunology research. Professor Doherty travelled extensively throughout his career and has undertaken numerous research posts around the world. The achievement that he is most noted for is he was able to demonstrate how the body distinguished between virus-infected cells from non-infected cells and was awarded the Nobel Prize...

The double helix structure of DNA was the discovery of the century. However, the story about the discovery is mired in controversy as one of the major contributors, Rosalind Franklin, was conspicuously absent from acknowledgements and died (and subsequently not named) before the Nobel Prize was awarded. In 1968, James Watson wrote the book ‘The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of...

Essentially every culture, modern or ancient, understood that health and faeces are inherently linked. The Ancient Chinese practiced ‘copromancy’ which was the assessment of health based upon the shape, size and texture of faeces. Today we have the Bristol Stool Chart that helps us to classify faeces/poo into seven different groups. As disconcerting as it may be, the state of our poo can tell us a...

In 1891, Guido Werdnig documented two cases of brothers who had global progressive muscular weakness. In 1935, Dr Dorothy Anderson conducted an autopsy on a young child who had died from malnutrition due to suspected coeliac disease despite being on the upon treatment. In 1943, in inherited form of intellectual disability in boys was described by Martin and Bell. The diseases are Spinal Muscular A...

Seasonal influenza causes significant morbidity and mortality every year but can often fall into the underestimated category. Between 10-30% of the general population are infected each year with influenza that leads to an increase in hospital and intensive care unit admissions, the onus for prevention and early intervention has never been more important. Our special guest is Associate Professor Pa...

In 1998, a 6 page report published in the Lancet that would later be described as one of history’s great science frauds. The article was titled “Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and pervasive development disorder in children” but the news headlines ran with a much shorter version: the MMR vaccine causes autism. The article was written by Andrew Wakefield, a British gastroe...

In 1834, Robert Graves gave a lecture series on the ‘Newly observed affection of the thyroid gland in females’. He presented three women who had violent palpitations, enlarged thyroids, and an apparent enlargement of the eyeballs (later it would be called ‘exophthalmos’). In 1912, Hakaru Hashimoto reported a new disease in a German journal after examining microscopically the thyroid tissue from fo...

Since recorded history, heartburn has been a common complaint and the descriptions from ancient physicians are virtually indistinguishable from today’s accounts. However, one thing we do know that they did not is a small subset of patients whose long standing heartburn could predispose them to a precancerous condition known as Barrett oesophagitis. Barrett oesophagitis is caused by chronic gastro-...

Professor Ian Frazer pioneered the development of the first Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine which has seen a reduction of HPV infections in young women between 70-86% and the incidence of cervical cancer rates drop by 90%. Few doctors/scientists have had such a profound impact on the health of so many people. Today we talk to Professor Ian Frazer about his career, the events leading up to the...

In 1964, a young woman was murdered as she walked to her apartment in Queens, New York. Her screams were left unanswered. No one came to her help. Within the space of thirty minutes, the assailant would return two more times to stab her again and again. The woman died. The number of witnesses to this crime who did not help was: 38. Two psychologists posed a question: how could this happen in such...

In 1912, Merck Pharmaceuticals was searching for a blood clotting agent to compete with a competitor in the market. One of the agents, a chemical by-product (and not even named) was produced and patented without any significant testing. This was a drug that we would come to know as MDMA or Ecstasy. In the 1960s, this drug found it’s way into use by a Chilean psychiatrist for psychotherapy, Dr Clau...

The medicinal properties of aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) have been well-documented for hundreds of years. It seems even our ancient ancestors thousands of years ago had some insight into its healing properties even if the usage was misguided. We are still learning about aspirin and the best ways to use it. Our special guest is Professor Simon Dimmitt, a Physician in General and Cardiovascular Me...

This week I talk about a feasibility cohort study which sought to determine whether a larger cohort study addressing this question would be feasible. Listen to hear some interesting preliminary findings.  Merza, E.Y., Pearson, S.J., Mallows, A.J. and Malliaras, P., 2023. The relationship between psychological, cognitive, and contextual factors and rehabilitation outcomes in Achilles tendinopathy:...

We have known for a while that type of exercise intervention (e.g. intensity, frequency, etc) does not seem to influence self-reported outcomes such as pain. Maybe all the benefits from exercise are explained by non-specific effects, or maybe exercise has benefits that do not depend on the type of exercise. In this episode, I discuss 3 studies that look into (at least partly) other benefits that w...

A continuation of Episode 30. In this episode, we discuss the continued management of patients with Breast Cancer and the BRCA pathological variant. Our special guests: Associate Professor Nick Murray who is a Medical Oncologist and Director of the Medical Oncology Unit at the Royal Adelaide Hospital Cancer Services Dr Eryn Dow – Medical Oncologist and Clinical Cancer Geneticist It is important to...