TV show House helped doctors spot cobalt poisoning

The US television series House helped doctors in Germany diagnose cobalt intoxication from a hip replacement in a patient with severe heart failure.

A 55 year old man was referred to a clinic at Philipps-University Marburg in Germany after presenting with hypothyroidism, oesophagitis, fever of unknown origin, increasing deafness, and loss of sight and eventually severe heart failure. Heart catheterisation had ruled out coronary artery disease, said the case report in the Lancet.1

The doctors …