Maria Joan Saary

• University of Toronto

Medical screening and health evaluations are key elements in ensuring successful manned space missions. The occurrence of a non-trauma-related medical event during space flight may be considered a failure of medical screening. Candidates for professional spaceflight duties are medically screened to be at low risk for medical conditions which might...

Commercial investment is bringing space tourism closer to reality. Marlene Grenon and colleagues outline what doctors will need to know Although perhaps unfamiliar with the specific physiological changes associated with commercial air travel, most physicians will have travelled by plane and many will have attended a passenger in need of medical ass...

In the coming decades, as we continue our path of space exploration beyond Earth's orbit, we will be required to provide sound medical and surgical care for the safety of space travellers and space flight participants. A few investigations have taken place in the field of surgery in space. In this paper, the authors review the present literature in...

The challenges associated with providing medical support to astronauts on long duration lunar or planetary missions are significant. Experience to date in space has included short duration missions to the lunar surface and both short and long duration stays on board spacecraft and space stations in low Earth orbit. Live actor, terrestrial analogue...

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Aerospace medicine training and research represents a dream for many and a challenge for most. In Canada, although some opportunities exist for the pursuit of education and research in the aerospace medicine field, they are limited despite the importance of this field for enabling safe human space exploration. In this commentary, we aim to identify...

Health care researchers have not taken full advantage of the potential to effectively convey meaning in their multivariate data through graphical presentation. The aim of this paper is to translate knowledge from the fields of analytical chemistry, toxicology, and marketing research to the field of medicine by introducing the radar plot, a useful g...

Contact dermatitis (CD) is a common occupational disease. There have been no systematic reviews of CD treatment or prevention. Multiple databases were systematically searched. Using independent double review and published quality review criteria, articles were rated as good, fair, or poor. Treatment benefit data were tabulated and conclusions were...

Long-duration space missions, as well as emerging civilian tourist space travel activities, prompted review and assessment of data available to date focusing on cardiovascular risk and available risk mitigation strategies. The goal was the creation of tools for risk priority assessments taking into account the probability of the occurrence of an ad...

Trimethyl tin chloride (TMTC) is a highly toxic organotin compound that affects four main target organs: the brain, liver, immune system and skin. Exposure can occur by inhalation, ingestion or direct skin absorption. Trimethyl tin is but one of many hazardous substances with potentially serious health consequences to which individuals working in r...

A high rate of sensitization and clinical allergy to natural rubber latex (NRL) gloves has been reported in dental students and staff members. The purpose of this study was to determine whether a change in glove use from high-protein/powdered to low-protein/powder-free latex gloves at a previously surveyed dental school reduced the prevalence of NR...

The significance of patent foramen ovale (PFO) in the pathophysiology of Type II decompression sickness (DCS) remains controversial. PFOs are common, occurring in approximately one quarter of the normal population, thus making right-to-left shunting of venous gas emboli (VGE) a theoretical concern in both hyper- and hypobaric situations. Despite th...

Exposure to wood dust and other chemicals used in particleboard manufacture may cause contact dermatitis. To assess the prevalence and nature of skin complaints in the refining and drying department of a particleboard manufacturing facility following introduction of a new process, workers were assessed by a physician, using a standardized questionn...

Keywords:white flower embrocation;allergic contact dermatitis;lavender;camphor;herbal remedies;medicaments;Chinese medicine

A patent foramen ovale (PFO) is a small opening between the right and left cardiac atria, a persisting remnant of a physiologic communication present in the fetal heart. This normally closes after birth, but remains patent through to adulthood in up to a third of normal adults. A patent PFO is a potential conduit for blood clot (resulting in a stro...

Illness-induced lifestyle disruption was hypothesized to compromise psychosocial well-being (PW) in multiple sclerosis (MS) by (1) interfering with continued involvements in valued activities and interests and (2) decreasing personal control over important life domains. Three categories of illness-related variables (IRVs) were hypothesized to contr...