Safety-pin Induced Hemopericardium and Cardiac Tamponade in an Infant.

BACKGROUND: Safety-pin ingestion causing cardiovascular complications are very rare with high risk for mortality. CASE CHARACTERISTICS: A 10-month-old child who presented with persistent irritability and intermittent fever of 1 month duration. The child had tachypnea and mild subcostal retractions. OBSERVATION: Investigations revealed open safety-pin in lower esophagus, and pericardial effusion that later progressed to cardiac tamponade during handling of the safety pin by endoscope. MESSAGE: It may be safer to drain pericardial collection before handling sharp foreign bodies in lower end of esophagus as it can worsen cardiac complications.

Academic training in rheumatology in 2009: a UK trainee survey.

Significant changes to the structure and entry into specialist training continue to be implemented. This is likely to have had a long-term impact on rheumatology service provision and the proportion of trainees undertaking academic medicine. An online questionnaire was sent to all trainees on the Joint Royal Colleges Postgraduate Training Board (JRCPTB) database. Out of 211 trainees, 141 responded (66.8%). Of these, 33 (23%) were registered for, or had been awarded, an MD or PhD with a wide variety of funding sources. Mainstream funding sources included Arthritis Research UK, the Medical Research Council, the National Institute for Health Research and the Wellcome Trust, but a substantial number of trainees (n = 17, 51.5%) also utilised other sources of funding. The data from this study will be valuable in the planning of future rheumatology training and academic career pathways and provide useful comparative data for other medical specialties.