The National Summit on Preconception Care: A Summary of Concepts and Recommendations

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and 35 partner organizations have engaged in developing an agenda for Preconception Health. A summit was held in June 2005 to discuss the current state of knowledge regarding preconception care and convene a select panel to develop recommendations and action steps for improving the health of women, children, and families through advances in clinical care, public health, and community action. A Select Panel on Preconception Care, convened by CDC, deliberated critical related issues and created refined definition of preconception care. The panel also developed a strategic plan with goals, recommendations, and action steps for improving preconception health. The recommendations and action steps are specific to the implementation of health behavior, access, consumer demand, research, and surveillance activities for monitoring and improving the health of women, children and families. The outcome of the deliberations is the CDC publication of detailed recommendations and action steps in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report series, Recommendations and Reports.

     

Quality improvement projects related to pediculosis management.

Concern about student absenteeism related to repeated pediculosis infestations and the consequent risk for unsuccessful school achievement led to a quality improvement program comprised of 6 projects. The goal was to identify effective nursing interventions for children and families incurring repeated infestations. One project addressed the prevalence of infestation, frequency of school exclusion, and duration of consequential lost school days. Affirmed were low contagion in classrooms and multiple social and emotional challenges in students having chronic infestations. From other projects, the importance of establishing effective relationships with parents, students, and school staff to work toward effective management outcomes was apparent. Also identified was the need to better match hair texture with the selection of a lice comb for effective mechanical removal of lice and nits. There is a need to replicate these projects with larger numbers of students in different geographic locations. It is important to have evidence-based information about the communicability and management strategies for pediculosis to contribute to sound treatment and policy formation.     

“Panic-like” symptomatology in schizophrenic and schizoaffective patients with postpsychotic depression: Observations and implications

Approximately one quarter of a series of 45 schizophrenic and schizoaffective patients with operationally diagnosed episodes of postpsychotic depression were also found to have anxiety symptoms consistent with the panic-attack syndrome. The incidence of such attacks was distributed across all demographic groups. Heuristic and treatment implications of this observation are considered.     

Diagnosis of susceptibility to malignant hyperthermia using the in vitro contracture test

Though a malignant hyperthermia (MH) crisis is still a critical event during general anesthesia, recent developments in prophylaxis and treatment should help in avoiding fatal episodes. The best means to avoid MH episodes would be early recognition of MH susceptibility. Today the only reliable test to identify MH susceptibility is the in vitro contracture test. Thus, to diagnose MH susceptibility we performed this test on muscle biopsies from 26 individuals who: (1) had an event during general anesthesia that may have been indicative of MH (4 patients); (2) had a family member with a medical history of MH (20 patients); or (3) had unexplained elevated CK levels (1 patient). The criteria according to which patients were submitted to the testing are shown in detail in Table 1. We used the standardized version of the contracture test that has been proposed by the European Malignant Hyperpyrexia Group. Muscle biopsies (20-30 mm long, 8 mm diameter) were dissected into 8-10 small bundles (2-3 mm diameter) and tested within 3 h post-biopsy in four independent tissue baths with various concentrations of caffeine or halothane. According to the concentration of caffeine or halothane necessary to elicit contractures exceeding a predefined force threshold (20 mN), it was possible to classify the patients as MHS (MH-susceptible), MHE (equivocal), or MHN (negative). In addition to the in vitro test, clinical, laboratory, and neurophysiological data were collected from these patients and correlated with the individual test results (Table 2). Thirteen patients were classified as MHS, five were MHE, and seven patients MHN (Fig. 3).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Fibromyalgia syndrome: the beneficial effects of exercise.

This article highlights positive outcomes for a convenience sample of six women (49-64 years of age) with fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) who participated in an exercise program over 5 years. This group showed improvement with various FMS symptoms,fitness, and psychosocial factors early in the program, then showed further improvement as a result of adding new exercises to the protocol during the fourth and fifth years. Data suggest that certain people with FMS can improve their functional capacity with exercise over time, and move to even higher levels of physical function while aging and coping with FMS. Practical advice is provided for rehabilitation nurses regarding exercise and FMS.     

Treatment of fibromyalgia with tropisetron--dose and efficacy correlations.

Previous studies evaluating the efficacy and tolerance of tropisetron for the treatment of fibromyalgia (FM) used the drug either intravenously or orally, and at different dosage levels ranging from 2 mg to 15 mg daily. The shortest treatment was a single dose and the longest treatment period covered 28 days. A significant reduction of the pain intensity was achieved by using tropisetron 5 mg per day. Apart from the fact that treatment periods were different, the efficacy of oral and intravenous administration did not differ significantly. Tropisetron was well tolerated; but in the 15 mg group in one of the studies, the decrease in pain was less than in the placebo group, however, the frequency of constipation and other gastrointestinal symptoms increased. Furthermore, it was hypothesized that due to the impacts of CYP2D6 activities, a daily dose of tropisetron 2 mg may be efficacious in slow metabolizers only. Although tropisetron proved to be efficacious in a group of fibromyalgia patients, the dose-response curves cannot yet be explained in a fully satisfactory manner, which may encourage research focusing on possible subgroups of FM.     

Comparison of iodine-123 low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and indium-111 LDL binding to mononuclear cells of healthy normolipaemic controls and patients with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolaemia

The binding of radiolabelled lipoproteins, iodine-123-labelled low-density. lipoprotein (LDL) and indium-111-labelled LDL, to peripheral blood mononuclear cells (MNCs) was compared in normolipaemic subjects and in patients with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH). ¹²³I-LDL and ¹¹¹In-LDL binding to MNCs exhibited high-affinity, highly specific, time- and temperature-dependent binding reaching saturation at concentrations above 50 nM. The number of LDL binding sites (B_max) was significantly (P<0.01) lower in FH patients (P<0.001; ¹²³I-LDL: B_max 279±44 ng protein/10⁸MNCs; ¹¹¹In-LDL: B_max 309±43 ng protein/10⁸MNCs) as compared with controls (¹²³I-LDL: B_max 2874±246 ng protein/10⁸ MNCs; ¹¹¹In-LDL: B_max 3145±339 ng protein/10⁸ MNCs). The corresponding dissociation constants (K _d) were 16±8 nM for ¹²³I-LDL and 12±6 nM for ¹²³In-LDL in healthy volunteers (¹²³In-LDL vs ¹¹¹In-LDL, P<0.05). In FH patients, the K _d values were 20±8 nM for ¹²³I-LDL and 16±6 nM for ¹²³In-LDL (P<0.05 vs controls for both ¹²³I-LDL and ¹¹¹In-LDL). ¹¹¹In-LDL binding to MNCs was inhibited (IC₅₀) by 30±8 nM in healthy controls and 38±12 nM in FH patients (P<0.05). ¹²³In-LDL binding to MNCs was inhibited (IC₅₀) by 34±8 nM in healthy controls and 46±10 nM in FH patients (P<0.05). Taken together, these results suggest a reduced number of LDL receptors expressed on MNCs from FH patients. We conclude that ¹¹¹In-LDL and ¹²³I-LDL are equally well suited as a probe of receptor-mediated binding and uptake of LDL.