SATRO CASE
STUDY
I currently
study biology, chemistry, maths with mechanics and physics at Esher College. My
particular interests are biology and chemistry, especially where they overlap
in terms of genetics and chemical processes in the body. I then found that
biochemistry was perfect for me, and I intend to study this at university.
Post-university I would like to do a PhD or perhaps complete a master’s degree,
in order to start out in a career in scientific research and truly gain a deep
understanding in a focused area of biochemistry.
I applied
for a SATRO placement in order to gain some experience of what it takes to have
career in research, and to make sure that it is the path I really want to go
down. I think that a month spent in the company of published researchers and
doctors is invaluable, and I was especially excited for the potential to help
them with their own research during my time there. I was placed in the
Cardiology department at St George’s hospital, working alongside the doctors
who also do research for the hospital’s attached university. They specialise in
sports cardiology; that is, the physiological adaptation of the heart in
response to athletic training (‘athlete’s heart’), and whether these
adaptations are beneficial or actually harmful to the athlete. Another
prominent area of research here is the diagnostic overlap between athletic
physiology and disease of the heart, and the detrimental effects of an
incorrect diagnosis for an individual. In my time here I have looked into
sudden death in athletes taking part in the London Marathon. I have explored
whether it is caused by an underlying heart condition, and how that may be
differentiated from athlete’s heart on diagnosis, or whether their death was
caused by their environment on the day of their event.
I have
found that in most cases, it is the former; either inherited conditions that
have not presented any symptoms prior to sudden death, or an accumulated
disease of the coronary arteries. It is often assumed that the extremely
healthy and active lifestyle of an athlete must act as a preventative for heart
disease, but this is not always the case. For example, anyone with an inherited
predisposition is at risk; their chances can be improved by a healthy diet and
exercise, but the risk does not go away.
However,
heat stroke was the condition that recurrently affected the most people during
the event and was even the cause of one of the fatalities. So I concluded that
while underlying disease is most likely to cause sudden death in an athlete,
the environment cannot be underestimated in its danger to even the most
experienced of marathoners.
From this
placement, I have learnt a great deal about working in a small research group.
I frequently had to seek advice and help from the other students on this project,
and I found that this aided me in working out what was important and what
needed changing in my report. Additionally, none of us had much background in
sports cardiology, so we initially had to work hard together to understand the
subject. I have enjoyed the write up process, trying to adhere to a professional
journal article style. I have also learnt that reading and analysis are
essential to research and making a balanced conclusion, and that this process
is not always easy or fast. However the doctors here have been really patient,
taking time out of their days to help us understand what we were looking at and
giving great suggestions for project perspectives and focuses.
- Sophie Russell
No comments:
Post a Comment