SOP Bulletin No. 58

4 — th Floor AMP Place, 10 Eagle St Brisbane  3 — rd Floor Blackburn House, 199 Grenfell St Adelaide

Intranet site:  http://intranet/nat/comp/dp/Nop/dsu/dsudefault.htm

22 April 2002

THE FOLLOWING RMA SOPS ARE TO BE GAZETTED ON 24 April, 2002

IMPORTANT OPERATIONAL FEATURES

• This new SOP completes the coverage of malignancies of the gastrointestinal tract. 
• The condition is rare.
• Such cancers are predominantly squamous carcinomas.  They are not adenocarcinomas, making them easy to distinguish from adjacent cancers of the rectum.
• The SOP includes a smoking factor.
• Other factors are for HIV and papilloma virus infection and for immunosuppression following organ transplantation.

• There are new factors, in the RH SOP only, for osteomyelitis and bone infarction (both rare conditions).
• There is also new factor in both SOPs for inhaling plutonium — 239.  This exposure is only known to have occurred in certain Russian factory workers.
• The radium factor has been changed to require treatment with radium.  Previously this factor required occupational exposure.

• No operational changes.  The disease definition has been updated along with the ICD code.  The SOP format has been changed to that now used for SOPs that have only an “inability to obtain appropriate clinical management” factor (paragraphs 3 and 4 in the SOP).

• The definition and ICD codes have been updated, with no operational effect.
• A new factor has been included, in the RH SOP only, for exposure to specified insecticides (including DDT).
• A number of new and common drugs have been added to the specified drugs factor.  However, these drugs rarely cause parkinsonism.
• Definitions for both exposure to manganese and to carbon disulphide have been amended.

• Distinguishing Parkinson's disease from secondary parkinsonism and from parkinsonism associated with another disease (which is not covered by either SOP) may be difficult.  Medical advice should be sought if the correct diagnosis is not clear.  A new diagnostic protocol, containing further advice, will be included in the next CCPS research library release.

• The amendment removes the definition of diabetes mellitus.  This has no operational effect.  See SOP bulletin 57 for an explanation.

Remember! If you are having any problems with SOPs, or SOPs in CCPS, talk to us!