The American Society of Hematology (ASH), the world’s largest professional society concerned with the causes and treatment of blood disorders, has issued a policy statement* opposing mandatory screening of athletes for sickle cell trait as a prerequisite to athletic participation and urging athletics programs to adopt universal preventive interventions in their training program…

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In response to a lawsuit after a college football player died from complications due to sickle cell trait (SCT) during a workout, the NCAA implemented mandatory SCT screening of all Division I student-athletes. A new study evaluated the impact of that policy and found that testing alone will help identify more than 2,000 athletes with SCT, but warns that screening alone will not prevent death…

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Peter Weller, MD, Chief of both the Division of Allergy and Inflammation and the Division of Infectious Diseases at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), is the recipient of an NIH MERIT award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases…

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Peter Weller, MD, Chief of both the Division of Allergy and Inflammation and the Division of Infectious Diseases at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), is the recipient of an NIH MERIT award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases…

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“Catastrophic muscle breakdown in African American men with sickle cell trait is the leading cause of death in NCAA football players in the last decade,” said John Wood, MD, PhD, researcher at The Saban Research Institute of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and associate professor at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. Dr…

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The Johns Hopkins Children’s Center top pediatrician is urging a “rethink” of a new sickle cell screening program, calling it an enlightened but somewhat rushed step toward improving the health of young people who carry the sickle cell mutation. Beginning this fall, all Division I college athletes will undergo mandatory screening for the sickle cell trait…

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An electrolyte is “any compound that, in solution or in molten form, conducts electricity and is decomposed (electrolyzed) by it. It is an ionizable substance in solution” (Medilexicon’s medical dictionary). An electrolyte is any substance that contains free ions that behaves as an electrically conductive medium (conducts electricity).

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The lowest ever levels of oxygen in humans have been reported in climbers on an expedition led by UCL (University College London) doctors. The world-first measurements of blood oxygen levels in climbers near the top of Mount Everest, published in this week's New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), could eventually help critical care doctors to re-evaluate treatment strategies in some long-term patients with similarly low levels of blood oxygen.
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A study published ahead of print in the British Journal of Sports Medicine finds that fatness increases the level of inflammatory activity in the body as measured by white blood cell counts. Researchers also found that levels of inflammatory activity are lower in people who are more physically fit. Neil M.
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