Bombay Hospital Journal ContentsHomeArchivesSearchBooksFeedback


Home > Table of Contents > General Practitioner's Section
 
 
General Practitoner's Section
 
Thalidomide - A Come Back!!
OP Kapoor
 
 

An average intelligent person in the public will not believe and will possibly hate allopathic medicine or look at it with suspicion, if he comes to know that a sedative, thalidomide, discovered about 40 years back was later banned. It was banned because it was realised that when taken by pregnant women, children with musculo-skeletal deformities were born.

Nobody could have dreamt then, that such a drug will be passed by FDI and sold by chemists after so many years. Why not?

Today, thalidomide is shown to be one of the best drugs to treat cases of multiple myeloma. Not only that, it is found to be a very good immunomodulatory drug and soon it will be used in many other diseases.

Shouldn’t we appreciate the perseverance and guts of allopathic scientists, who continued working on this drug in laboratories years after the drug was banned in the market?
 
Ex. Hon. Physician, Jaslok Hospital and Bombay Hospital, Mumbai, Ex. Hon. Prof. of Medicine, Grant Medical College and JJ Hospital, Mumbai 400 008
 
 

MANAGING INFECTIVE ENDOCARDITIS : TAKE BLOOD CULTURES FIRST, TREAT LATER

Endocarditis remains an important clinical problem with the rise of intravenous drug misuse, degenerative valve disease, and nosocomial infection, and it should be managed by a multidisciplinary team, say Beynon and colleagues. This clinical review revisits the pathophysiology and symptoms of infective endocarditis; describes its investigation with blood cultures, echocardiography, and serological and histological testing; discusses diagnostic criteria; and explores antimicrobial and surgical treatment. Boxes list the Duke diagnostic criteria, criteria for tertiary care and surgery, and what general practitioners need to consider.

BMJ, 2006; 333 : 334.
 
Top