Case report: Open water swimming as a possible treatment for asthma.

Asthma is a complex medical problem for which currently available treatment can be incompletely effective. This case report describes a 49 year old woman who had suffered from asthma since her teenage years that resolved after she took up regular open water swimming. After sharing this case report with an international open water swimming community on social media, over one hundred people with asthma commented that their symptoms had also improved after taking up this activity.

Current practice with regard to 'seeing adolescents on their own' during outpatient consultations.

Unlabelled: Adolescence is a time of many changes with growing independence, emotional and physical changes. It is essential that we as health care professionals are proactive in ensuring good communication and confidentiality in adolescent consultations.

Objective: To understand our practice in this area of communication and confidentiality with adolescents.

Wound healing assessment using 20 MHz ultrasound and photography.

Background/aims: To compare two non-invasive techniques of assessing wound healing, photography and high resolution ultrasound (HRUS) scanning, in experimentally induced full-thickness human skin wounds.

Methods: Punch biopsy wounds, 4 mm in diameter, were made aseptically through locally anaesthetised skin on the anterior (volar) surface of the non-dominant forearm, 3 cm below the base of the cubital fossa, of 20 human participants. The wounds were treated with a topical antibiotic and covered for 3 days with Mepore sterile dressings.