Mardi Chapman

The gender gap is reducing in invasive procedure rates and mortality for Australian STEMI patients but the treatment and outcome advantage for males over females is still likely to persist for the next decade. The findings, published in The MJA [link here], put the profession on notice to find other strategies for accelerating progress towards […]

Haematologists have plenty to look forward to on the conference calendar in 2025, with a bumper crop of local and international meetings alongside must-see events from the limbic. Early in the year but overseas, the British Society for Haematology (BSH) has unveiled a preliminary program outlining key topics for its annual meeting in Glasgow at […]

Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) experts have delivered a local consensus practice statement, auspiced by the Australasian Lymphoma Alliance, to guide diagnosis and management of the rare B-cell lymphoproliferative neoplasm. The statement, published in the Internal Medicine Journal [link here] follows a systematic review of the evidence and an iterative consensus approach by haematologists with a […]

A final, extended follow-up analysis of the ALPINE study has confirmed that zanubrutinib remains more efficacious than ibrutinib out to 42.5 months in patients with relapsed/refractory CLL/SLL. The second-generation BTK inhibitor also exhibited an improved overall safety profile over the first-generation BTKi ibrutinib. The study, published in Blood [link here], reported that the 36-month PFS […]

Their numbers might be small but Australian residents with sickle cell disease (SCD) have high levels of healthcare usage including ED presentations, hospital admissions and outpatient blood transfusions. The burden of chronic complications accumulating in the adult SCD population has implications for the planning and delivery of health services, researchers say. The first national overview […]

The value of platelet transfusions and tranexamic acid to prevent bleeding in myelodysplastic syndromes-related thrombocytopenia has been called into question by Australian data. A retrospective Victorian study comprised 178 adults with MDS, chronic myelomonocytic leukaemia or other MDS/myeloproliferative overlap neoplasms admitted to Monash Health hospitals between 2016 and 2018. The study, published in the European […]

Moral injury, which has become part of the lexicon during the COVID-19 pandemic, is probably misclassified as burnout in some healthcare workers, an Australian specialist says. Dr Florian Honeyball, a medical oncologist at the Dubbo Base Hospital in regional NSW, argues that some of the methods of dealing with burnout, such as resilience development and […]

The COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT) associated with the AstraZeneca–Oxford vaccine, and changing advice around Australia’s vaccination program made a lasting impact on many clinicians in haematology. Writing in The Lancet Haematology, an Australian haematology registrar has reflected on the experience of working with “Science unfolding day-by-day”. “Being caught in the crossfires of […]

A simple microscopic technique for quantifying the alveolar crystal burden in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid will help differentiate patients with silicosis from those with other respiratory disorders, Australian researchers say. As well as the potential to improve the clinical management of silicosis, the test will be useful to advance understanding of the pathobiology of silica-related […]

Australia has recorded its second case of vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT) and clinicians will have a high index of suspicion for the new syndrome associated with the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. However the risk of VITT, also known as vaccine induced prothrombotic immune thrombocytopenia (VIPIT), remains extremely low and distinguishing it from other conditions has […]