Breast cancer screening in England and the United States: a comparison of provision and utilisation.

Objectives: Comparing breast cancer screening across countries within the context of some of the benefits and harms offers the opportunity to improve effectiveness through mutual learning.

Methods: This paper describes the provision of breast cancer screening in England and the United States. The various recommendations for accessing breast cancer screening in the two countries are set out and the organisation of services including quality assurance, incentives and performance mechanisms considered.

High altitude, prolonged exercise, and the athlete biological passport.

The Athlete Biological Passport (ABP) detects blood doping in athletes through longitudinal monitoring of erythropoietic markers. Mathematical algorithms are used to define individual reference ranges for these markers for each athlete. It is unclear if altitude and exercise can affect the variables included in these calculations in a way that the changes might be mistaken for blood manipulation.

Intravenous iron supplementation in distance runners with low or suboptimal ferritin.

Purpose: Iron deficiency is prevalent in distance runners and may impair endurance performance. The current practice of oral supplementation is slow and often not well tolerated. The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of intravenous (IV) iron supplementation (ferric carboxymaltose) compared with oral supplementation (ferrous sulfate) on iron status, hemoglobin mass (Hbmass), and physiological indices of running performance in distance runners.

Lower running performance and exacerbated fatigue in soccer played at 1600 m.

Purpose: This study investigated the decrement in running performance of elite soccer players competing at low altitude and time course for abatement of these decrements.

Methods: Twenty elite youth soccer players had their activity profile, in a sea-level (SL) and 2 altitude (Alt, 1600 m, d 4, and d 6) matches, measured with a global positioning system. Measures expressed in meters per minute of match time were total distance, low- and high-velocity running (LoVR, 0.