On-line teaching module now available

I am very happy to say that an on-line teaching module on CO poisoning is now available on the doctors.net.uk website. You need a GMC number to register on this site, but I'm hoping to make this module available on the medical student section of the site too.
When you log in, go to 'Education', then 'College of Emergency Medicine' (in the bar on the left) and the 'Carbon Monoxide Poisoning' module is listed there.

Delayed neurological symptoms are immune-mediated

This paper by Stephen Thom in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA postulates an immune-mediated mechanism for the phenomenon of delayed neuropsychiatric sequelae following non-fatal CO exposure.

DNS is not a new phenomenon

The delayed neuropsychiatric syndrome associated with CO exposure is in no way a newly-discovered phenomenon, as this paper from JAMA of 1912 illustrates.

EMJ supplement

I published an article in the EMJ (Emergency Medicine Journal) supplement of November 2007. You can download a copy for free by clicking here.

CO and cardio-toxicity

Reuters news agency have a story based on a paper in the journal Academic Emergency Medicine which looks at the cardio-toxicity of CO in rats.
Also mentioned is an earlier paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association which examines long term morbidity and mortality in those exposed non-lethally to carbon monoxide. You can get a free pdf file of this paper from the JAMA website by clicking here.

On-line module from the CEM

I have written an on-line teaching module on the presentation and treatment of carbon monoxide poisoning. This is under the auspices of the College of Emergency Medicine, and should be available through the doctors.net.uk website in the very near future - hopefully before the end of April.

Parliamentary news

The All Party Parliamentary Gas Safety Group meets at the House of Commons on April 23rd. I have been invited to inform them of efforts being made to ensure the highest possible level of awareness and education is being achieved and maintained among the medical community.

Another fatality...

Another probable CO-related death, in London, as reported this morning on the BBC News website.
The BBC call it a 'carbon monoxide leak', which is unusual terminology.