6 ms·
I am a neurosurgeon, and am also skeptical. Here are some thoughts after looking at the actual paper in Med Gas Research. First, after looking at the MRI, I se
by throwaway7890 9y ago
I am a neurosurgeon, and am also skeptical. Here are some thoughts after looking at the actual paper in Med Gas Research.
First, after looking at the MRI, I see more evidence of cerebral edema than of infarction. The MRI sequence that would show the actual infarction, DWI is presented, but as a 3d volume(which I have never seen done before with DWI) and does not show the thalami where most of the FLAIR hyperintensity is.
Second, Unlike what the article would have you think, there is not massive cortical infarction. In fact the cortex looks not too bad. The main lesions appear to be bilateral thalamic edema. Note that thalamic dysfunction can present with severe neurological deficits often mimicking massive cortical dysfunction.
Third, measuring volumes in an MRI that is not taken at 1mm slices can be problematic. Thus where the authors talk about volume differences may just be slice variations between scans.
Fourth, I would have expected something this groundbreaking to be in NEJM, JAMA, BMJ, Lancet, Stroke, or Neurology. Medical Gas Research is a very obscure journal.
Fifth, Paul Harch is way outside the medical mainstream. During the Terry Schiavo case in Florida he was one of the people arguing that she was not in a permanent persistent vegetative state. It seems like he pushes hyperbaric oxygen to treat a host of brain disorders such as cerebral palsy, autism, stroke, traumatic brain injury. There is very little actual scientific studies backing up these assertions.
So overall, I am very skeptical about this article. In addition, usually when groundbreaking science is presented by the press, you often have an expert in the field who was not involved with the study, talk about methodology, background, and implications. This article did not do so, making it all the more suspect. I think, ultimately this is another Newsweek poorly researched click bait article.
- piker 9y agoThank you both for taking the time to create accounts and respond. Both of these responses are amazing, and it's lurkers/posters like you that make this site great. One question: some of your responses attack only the credibility of the speaker (OP's 1st, 4th and your 4th, 5th points). Is this typical in scientific discourse? They seem to detract from your analysis to me.
- dvt 9y agoContrary to popular belief (and internet logical fallacy experts), attacking the credibility of the speaker is a perfectly fine thing to do. The quality of the speaker is often times a pretty good indicator of the quality of the message.
- otterley 9y agoIndeed. Just because a conclusion is based on logically fallacious arguments doesn't mean it's untrue, or that the arguments should have no persuasive power whatsoever. (Taken to its logical extreme, even a stopped clock is right twice a day.)
- tptacek 9y agoAttacking the arguer's credibility isn't fallacious if their argument depends in any way on their credibility, as it clearly does in this Newsweek story.
- otterley 9y agoI'm not familiar with that exception in logical thinking. What argument is logically dependent on someone's credibility?
- tptacek 9y agoFor instance, this Newsweek article and the claims made by the doctor in it depend on the doctor's own reports of their interpretations of MRI scans. Observing that the doctor making those interpretations is disreputable is an important and logically meaningful point. Really what you're observing is that the argument in Newsweek sidesteps logic and appeals implicitly to the authority of that doctor. Presented with the argument that the subject of the article is credible enough to be believed on their own terms, we're left with a debate about that subject's credibility. The weird idea embedded in this meta-debate is that alone among all the innumerable topics we can address with logical argument, from rankings of Led Zeppelin songs to the proper distribution of ownership of the means of production between capital and labor, the credibility of a human being on any particular subject is exempt from scrutiny, lest we fall into the trap of "ad hominem".
- WhitneyLand 9y agoWords I didn't know, in case it saves others a couple minutes... Infarction - Tissue death due to inadequate blood supply Edema - Abnormal build up up fluid within the body Cortex - Wrinkly, outermost layer of the brain. Thalamus - Part of the brain relating to sensory and motor signals. DWI - Form of MRI. Measures Brownian motion of water molecules. Does not necessarily involve driving while intoxicated
- hornbaker 9y agoCortical, in this context, refers to the cortex of the brain (the wrinkly, outermost layer).
- WhitneyLand 9y agoThank you, updated.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]