Letter received in December 2001:
"I am a colleague of Dr. Alison McGregor in the Department of Orthopaedic & Trauma Surgery at Imperial College and we are involved in a project investigating mechanisms underlying back pain in the general population and in rowers.
Briefly, the tests we use involve recording the activity of back muscles after stimulation of the nervous system with a small magnetic stimulus and ultrasound scanning of the lower back. These tests are painless and take approximately one hour each to complete (neurophysiology carried out here at Charing Cross and ultrasound scanning at Hammersmith hospital).
We hope that this research will aid us in reducing the incidence of back pain in rowers.
We would be very grateful if any of you could take part in this study. If you feel you would like to participate or have any questions could you please telephone me on 0208 846 7290 (24hr answer phone), email me (p.strutton@ic.ac.uk) or phone Alison on 0208 8467290 (24hr answer phone).
Alternatively you can speak to Rick Fulton.
Thanks in advance,
Dr. Paul Strutton."
Department of Sensorimotor Systems
Division of Neuroscience & Psychological Medicine
Faculty of Medicine
Imperial College of Science, Technology & Medicine
Charing Cross Campus
London W6 8RP, UK.