September — the New Issue

Has summer already gone?

The colors that are starting to highlight the leaves. and the football seasons (both soccer and gridiron) that are at full throttle, are two signals that, indeed, fall is nearly here.

And while the actual equinox does not occur for another week, we have the September CJSM — just published — to help you ease your way through this seasonal transition.

We publish six times a year, and these bimonthly events are always exciting.  A publication represents months, even years, of planning. For authors who are at last seeing their studies in print, it is especially gratifying.  The studies have been published ‘on-line first’ and listed on PubMed for months; but it’s still a wonderful thing to find your work within the glossy covers of the journal.

I’m one of those authors this month — I authored a Case Report on the most benign of clinical issues (bilateral knee pain in a runner), that took unexpected twists and turns, leading me to work up a young woman for a rare neuromuscular disorder.   As always, we have several interesting Case Reports, including one on premature physeal closure in the foot in a ballet dancer en pointe (that’s ‘not supposed to happen’!)

Dr. Gian Corrado, lead author of a study looking at screening echocardiography

The Original Research studies that are leading the charge this month are both potentially ‘game changers’ in important and controversial areas of sports medicine. They both are also currently free.The first looks at the role that point-of-care echocardiography may play in the screening of young athletes for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.  This work comes from Boston Children’s Hospital and Northeastern University, and is headed by a colleague who is someone I hold in great esteem:  Gianmichel Corrado.

The second study looks at the efficacy of radial extracorporeal shock wave therapy (rESWT) in the treatment of chronic distal biceps tendinopathy, a condition which, like many tendinous injuries, can be frustratingly difficult to treat, most especially in middle-aged weekend warriors (like me).  The investigator group was comprised of people from Europe and the U.S. They used a case-control study design with 12 month followup to demonstrate that this modality can be both safe and effective in middle-aged subjects (ages 30 – 64).

There is much, much more to be found within the covers of this new issue. Take a moment right now to click on the link and see what’s in store.