The General Practitioner Conference and Exhibition Melbourne November 2007
 Jean and Ellen Reid spent three days at the conference, which was attended by about 1300 delegates.
The aim was to target GPs with the idea “THINK AMYLOID”, when you have a difficult patient.
We used posters under the heading “Amyloidosis Hiding in Plain Sight” made up of pictures from the Mayo Clinic’s brochure for diagnosing Amyloidosis, and the CAP TODAY article on Amyloidosis.
We also used enlarged slides from a presentation given by Dr Merlini from the Italian Amyloidosis Centre at the Myeloma Conference on the island of Kos in July 2007. http://myeloma.org/pdfs/Kos2007_Merlini.pdf
The pictures showed Macroglossia (enlarged tongue), Racoon Eyes, Amyloid Nails, Jugular Veins like pipes, Hair loss, Bruising, Subcutaneous Amyloid near the eyes, and Shoulder Pad Amyloid.
We found that a two minute “tutorial” with the doctors, nurses and students, and other exhibitors, went down very well. Many said that it was really practical for them.
We had a laptop showing a Powerpoint presentation by Dr. Hugh Goodman from New Zealand, but that was more complex than what these people needed, especially in the short time they had between seminars.
We distributed copies of the November 2007 Amyloidosis CD which contains more than a 1000 journal articles about Amyloidosis, together with a leaflet with the theme “THINK AMYLOID”. There were also journal articles about the latest treatments for the various forms of Amyloidosis.
We met several doctors who had patients who had died from Amyloidosis, which was sad, and only one who actually had a live patient.
The doctor was amazed when she saw the picture of the nails, as she has a patient who has all the nails on both hands looking like that and she had no idea that it could indicate a systemic disease. She’d tried all the antifungal treatments to no avail.
 Another doctor, in his 80’s said that he’d never had an Amyloidosis patient, but when he saw the picture of subcutaneous Amyloid around the eyes he said “I’ve got a patient like that now!”
An exhibitor from a Sleep Apnea booth was amazed when he saw the photos of Macroglossia. He said “We see enlarged tongues all the time and we had no idea that there might be a medical condition other than excess weight behind it!”
We also had a chat with a doctor who is involved in providing the computer prescribing system used by most doctors in Australia. His company has a display stand at the conference. Their software includes the “Prescribing Information” of all the products that are usually prescribed in Australia. When Ellen mentioned that Digoxin, Beta-blockers and Calcium Channel-blockers are all contraindicated in Amyloidosis he was confident that his system would have picked that up .Ellen went back to his stand with him, and he generated a “patient” with the condition Amyloidosis, and prescribed Digoxin for him: no warnings flashed up! So we’ve given him the AL Amyloidosis Guidelines from England (2004) and the article on Cardiac `Amyloidosis (2005) by Dr. Rodney Falk, and he’s going to follow up their references. He said that the drug companies should have included the Warning in their literature, and he suggested that those who are involved with the Amyloidosis world should be pushing the drug companies to do this.
We also found that quite a few doctors have patients who are Vietnam Veterans, so we explained how AL Amyloidosis is being suspected now as a result of exposure to Agent Orange. Only last week Ellen had spoken with the national President of the Vietnam Veterans Association about Amyloidosis. He said that an Australian veteran (58) had been unwell with heart problems for years, and had gone away on holiday last year. His wife awoke on the first morning and found that he’d died in his sleep. A post mortem exam (autopsy) had named AL Amyloidosis as the cause of his death. - The President knew nothing about Amyloidosis then, but now he’s helping with a claim for compensation, and we’ve provided him with information. An important link between Agent Orange and AL Amyloidosis is that Agent Orange can cause B-cell problems, and Dr. Ray Comenzo’s article from 2004 on Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma is being cited as proof that Amy can be associated this way. The fact that an Australian Vietnam Veteran has already died with AL Amyloidosis is a further proof, as there were only about 50,000 Australians who served in the war. This is higher the normal incidence of 1 in 100,000 population.
We have already made a booking for the GPCE in Sydney in May 2008, and again in Melbourne in November 2008.
http://www.gpce.com.au/melbourne-2008/about-us/
|