Exploratory study into the effect of abdominal mass loading on airways resistance and ventilatory failure.

Objective: We hypothesised that the airway resistance during tidal breathing would correlate with a particular pattern of increasing obesity, particularly when supine, and would differ between participants with and without ventilatory failure.

Methods: In our cross-sectional cohort study, 72 morbidly obese patients (40 males, 32 females, mean body mass index (BMI) 47.2) had measurements of both airways resistance (by impulse oscillometry (IOS)) and adiposity (by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA)).

The 2014 Varsity Medical Ethics Debate: should we allow genetic information to be patented?

The 2014 Varsity Medical Ethics debate convened upon the motion: "This house believes that genetic information should not be commoditised". This annual debate between students from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, now in its sixth year, provided the starting point for arguments on the subject. The present article brings together and extends many of the arguments put forward during the debate.

Cerebral venous system and anatomical predisposition to high-altitude headache.

Objective: As inspired oxygen availability falls with ascent to altitude, some individuals develop high-altitude headache (HAH). We postulated that HAH results when hypoxia-associated increases in cerebral blood flow occur in the context of restricted venous drainage, and is worsened when cerebral compliance is reduced. We explored this hypothesis in 3 studies.