Last Friday my roommate Erin and I went to visit our other roommate Dawn at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dawn is a med student, always looking to make some extra cash, even if that means she has to carry pee buckets around with her and collect her finger nail clippings in a bag for a week.Medical Studies Dawn has done so far:
1) HIV vaccine in 2007 with GWU
2) Gave blood which they compared her D-dimer level to people who are HIV positive. D-dimer is a coagulation product that gives information about clotting and inflammation.
3) A thyroid study where they stimulated her thyroid (gave her TRH or thyroid releasing hormone) and then drew blood for the next 3 hours to monitor her response. They were doing this to see how this correlated to her DNA sequence for her thyroid receptor.
4) MRS study: She did an MRI, but instead of for 20 minutes it was for 2.5 hours. They gave her a labeled glucose infusion so they could watch the metabolism in her brain. They were testing this new way of doing MRI on her.
5) She was screened but got rejected last week from any PMS studies (including the one where they give you a drug to put you into menopause for 3 months). Even so, she did track her level of anxiety, sadness, mood, and energy every evening for 2 months for them.
6) She did a virtual reality study for medical students. She was given an article to read on a medical subject and had to take a quiz on it. Then she saw a virtual patient with a related condition and had to interact with her. Then she answered more quiz questions on her perceptions of the disease and the patient.
7) She was screened last week for a study where they administer electric shocks to her wrists as she watches a screen with geometric shapes and tests her prediction of when the shocks will come (ie can she figure out which shapes come before the shocks?) and will test her cortisol level, a stress hormone.
8) She was also screened last week for a malaria vaccine at Johns Hopkins' office in DC.
9) She was also screened last week for a study comparing her to former and current smokers. They administer a long psychological questionnaire and collect her 24-hour urine, toenail clippings, blood, and a cheek swab.
My favorite rejection of Dawn's is a study where they would have injected her with a strand of the Ebola virus. Never a dull moment in apt 615...
