1. It may feel like collectors take a lot of blood when you have a blood test, don’t worry, 15 million blood cells are produced and destroyed in the human body every second!
2. Until the 1960s, pregnancy tests involved injecting a woman’s urine into a female African clawed frog!
3. The pap smear was developed by Georgios Papanicolaou. His wife, Mary, was his first subject – having a cervical smear every day for 21 years, all in the name of science!
4. Pathology is vital in the fight against antibiotic resistance as it tells doctors when to use antibiotics and which drug will be most effective. Milk from Tasmanian Devils could provide an effective antibiotic against superbugs. Peptides in the milk have been shown to kill the infamous ‘golden staph’ superbug. Go the Devils!
5. 17th Century Dutchman Antoni van Leeuwenhoek was the first to use a microscope to study tiny organisms. Widely known as ‘The Father of Microbiology’ he gave these organisms a name rarely used today, ‘animalcules’. This cute-sounding Latin name means ‘little animals’.
6. A technique developed in Queensland in 2014 uses venom from the Coastal Taipan or Eastern Brown Snakes to perform blood tests for patients on anticoagulant medications.
7. The average human body carries ten times more bacterial cells than human cells and scarily the strongest creatures on Earth are gonorrhoea bacteria. They can pull 100,000 times their own body weight.
8. Don’t worry though, most of the bacteria we carry are helpful. Bacteria produce chemicals that help us harness energy and nutrients from our food. Research has shown that germ-free rodents have to consume a third more calories than normal rodents to maintain body weight.
9. In Mesopotamia medical practitioners examined the livers of sacrificed sheep. At the time, the liver was thought to be the source of human blood. Clay models of sheep livers date back as far as 2050 B.C. Talk about medicine gone baaad!
10. In Medieval Europe, doctors often diagnosed their patients by observing the urine’s smell, consistency – and even its taste. Urine analysis was pioneered by Thomas Willis in the 1600s – he was the first to notice the characteristic sweet taste of urine from patients with diabetes.

What fantastic facts do you know about pathology? Post them at #IPD2016

The post Ten unusual facts from pathology past and present first appeared on Know Pathology Know Healthcare.

With an El Nino event forecast for summer 2015, it seems Australian pathology staff will be kept on their toes ensuring STIs are treated quickly.

A new study¹ released by the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre reviewed their clients over nine years and found seasonal variations in the rates of STIs – with the highest rates falling smack bang in summer.

The study also found that both male and female patients reported a greater number of partners during the spring and summer months.

The findings could help public health officials improve targeting of safe sex messages, and suggests that the onset of warmer weather signals the best time to launch campaigns.

But until prevention messages are heeded by all Australians, staff working in microbiology departments will be kept busy diagnosing and advising on treatment for STIs.

Microbiology is the study of infectious diseases, including STIs. Trained scientific staff diagnose these conditions from blood/fluid samples and swabs.

The wee beasties responsible for STIs are found using a variety of techniques – even genetic tests. For chlamydia and gonnorhoea for example, a common test involves ‘amplifying’ the DNA of the bacteria from a urine sample. ‘Amplifying’ simply means copying the bacteria’s DNA thousands or even millions of times so that there are so many copies it’s easily detectable on a machine. Using modern pathology techniques, this test can be done overnight.

HIV is a blood-borne virus that can be spread via unsafe sex among other risky behaviours. Rather than directly testing the virus’s DNA, the most common test for HIV measures the body’s response to the virus. If a blood sample is found to contain antibodies to the HIV virus, the sample must be positive for the virus. No antibodies, no virus.

Knowing which tests to use and how to perform them is all part of the extensive scientific training medical scientists, technicians and pathologists all undergo.

References:

1. Sex Transm Infect 2015

The post It’s getting hot in here…. first appeared on Know Pathology Know Healthcare.