Re: Current Issue of BMJ - JUNK

["Howard Long" <hflong@pacbell.net>]

More radiation was given for more disease!  Junk!



": CONCLUSIONS: Low doses of ionising radiation to the

brain in infancy influence cognitive abilities in

adulthood. ." is not supported by comparing groups so different in respects

other than the subject (radiation, here.). BMJ, JAMA and NEJM do this all

the time, so should not presume to set standards or guidelines, as they do.



Howard Long MD MPH



----- Original Message ----- 

From: "John Jacobus" <crispy_bird@YAHOO.COM>

To: <alstonchris@netscape.net>; <radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu>

Sent: Friday, March 12, 2004 11:32 AM

Subject: RE: Current Issue of BMJ





>From the paper:



BMJ  2004;328:19 (3 January),

"Effect of low doses of ionising radiation in infancy

on cognitive function in adulthood: Swedish population

based cohort study,"



Per Hall, Hans-Olov Adami, Dimitrios Trichopoulos,

Nancy L Pedersen, Pagona Lagiou, Anders Ekbom,

professor1, Martin Ingvar, Marie Lundell, and Fredrik

Granath



RESULTS: The proportion of boys who attended high

school decreased with increasing doses of radiation to

both the frontal and the posterior parts of the brain

from about 32% among those not exposed to around 17%

in those who received > 250 mGy. For the frontal dose,

the multivariate odds ratio was 0.47 (95% confidence

interval 0.26 to 0.85, P for trend 0.0003) and for the

posterior dose it was 0.59 (0.23 to 1.47, 0.0005). A

negative dose-response relation was also evident for

the three cognitive tests for learning ability and

logical reasoning but not for the test of spatial

recognition.



CONCLUSIONS: Low doses of ionising radiation to the

brain in infancy influence cognitive abilities in

adulthood.



--- alstonchris@netscape.net wrote:

> My original note was misleading. The doses to the

> brain in the study cited were secondary to

> radiotherapy for cutaneous hemangioma, not from

> cranial CT. Also, the original article is actually

> in the BMJ of 3 January. The issue of 3 March

> contains responses to that paper, and you can easily

> hyperlink to it from those letters. That, and my

> careless scanning of the various texts, was why I

> got lost.

>

> Mea culpa

> cja

>

>

>

> alstonchris wrote:

> >Folks

> >You might be interested in the issue of 6 March.

> There are articles, and notes, on topics like

> doctors' response to radiation incidents, and a

> possible link between childhood cranial CT and adult

> cognitive impairment. Is it my imagination, or do

> the Brits publish these kinds of pieces more often

> than USA journals? Go to: bmj.bmjjournals.com.

>

. . .



=====

+++++++++++++++++++

""A fanatic is one who cannot change his mind and won't change the subject."

Winston Churchill



-- John

John Jacobus, MS

Certified Health Physicist

e-mail:  crispy_bird@yahoo.com



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