Treatment of the neck in facial rejuvenation surgery using a simplified method of syringe assisted microlipoextraction

Twenty-seven patients underwent syringe-assisted liposuction of the neck, the amount of fat removed ranging from 20-110 ml. There were no complications except slight skin laxity (n = 1) and transient hypoaesthesia (n = 10). No patient required a second procedure, and all were satisfied with the results. Syringe-assisted microlipoextraction of cervical fat is a simple, safe, and rewarding procedure that has obvious advantages over open procedures or machine-assisted liposuction with large cannulas.     

The relationship of schools to emotional health and bullying

Objectives:  

To examine the extent to which school climate and school pressure could predict other aspects of adolescents’ lives, most particularly their emotional health and bullying. Furthermore, the study sought to investigate if these relationships were consistent across countries.     

Toxoplasma prevalence among pregnant women in Norway: a cross‐sectional study

Infection by Toxoplasma gondii may lead to complications in the foetus if the mother suffers from primary infection during pregnancy . Previously infected women have produced toxoplasma‐specific IgG antibodies. The most recent study on prevalence of toxoplasma IgG in the Norwegian pregnant population was conducted 20 years ago. The present study is part of a research programme initiated by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. We aimed to update the knowledge regarding the prevalence of toxoplasma IgG among pregnant women in Norway. In this cross‐sectional study, sera from 1922 pregnant women in Buskerud (992) and Sør‐Trøndelag counties (930) in Norway were collected consecutively. The presence of toxoplasma IgG was identified by values ≥8 IU/mL using an ELISA test. The overall prevalence of toxoplasma IgG seropositivity was 9.3% (95% CI 8.1–10.7); Sør‐Trøndelag 10.4% (95% CI 8.6–12.6) and Buskerud 8.3% (95% CI 6.7–10.2). There was no difference between the counties (p = 0.13), and the result did not differ from prevalences found in 1974 (12.1%) and 1994 (10.7%). We found a higher prevalence among women ≥40 years (OR 2.65, 95% CI 1.30–5.42). The prevalence of toxoplasma IgG among pregnant women in Norway is low and has been stable during the last decades.     

The application of a social cognition model in explaining fruit intake in Austrian, Norwegian and Spanish schoolchildren using structural equation modelling

Background  

The aim of this paper was to test the goodness of fit of the Attitude – Social influence – self-Efficacy (ASE) model in explaining schoolchildren's intentions to eat fruit and their actual fruit intake in Austria, Norway and Spain; to assess how well the model could explain the observed variance in intention to eat fruit and in reported fruit intake and to investigate whether the same model would fit data from all three countries.     

Human T-cell lymphotropic virus testing of blood donors in Norway: a cost-effect model

BACKGROUND: Human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I and II (HTLV-I and II) are human retroviruses that can be transmitted by transfusion of whole blood. An HTLV-I infection is associated with adult T-cell leukaemia (ATL) and with tropical spastic paraparesis (TSP). Antibody tests from 5.5 million European blood donors have shown that the HTLV prevalence is low, ranging from 0 to 0.02%. This paper examines costs and effects associated with the intervention of testing all new blood donors for HTLV. METHODS: A mathematical model was used to calculate the number of cases prevented by the intervention. For a given prevalence of HTLV in the blood donor population, the model calculates the number of recipients infected by transfusion, and the number of partners and offspring that will in turn be infected. The model then calculates the number of subjects with disease due to HTLV-I infection and the number of deaths from disease. From these numbers the measures of cost and effect are calculated. RESULTS: Testing all new blood donors for HTLV is calculated to cost US$ 9.2 million per life saved, or US$ 420,000 per quality adjusted life year gained by the intervention, when the HTLV prevalence among donors is 1 per 100,000. When the prevalence among donors is 10 per 100,000 the intervention will cost US$ 0.9 million per life saved, or US$ 41,000 per quality adjusted life year gained. The same analysis shows that testing blood donors for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) saves money when the HIV prevalence among donors is above 0.7 per 100,000. CONCLUSION: For Norway, studies suggest a willingness to pay to save a statistical life of approximately US$ 1.2 million. The costs fall under this value when the number of infected persons is > or = 8 per 100,000 donors. The results are uncertain because of the uncertainty in HTLV infection and disease parameters.     

A non-living nasal influenza vaccine can induce major humoral and cellular immune responses in humans without the need for adjuvants

Twenty-eight healthy adult volunteers were immunized intranasally with an inactivated whole-virus influenza vaccine based on the strain A/New Caledonia/20/99 (H1N1), either in saline or mixed with formaldehyde-inactivated Bordetella pertussis as a mucosal adjuvant, or in a thixotropic vehicle with mucoadhesive properties. After four doses, all groups of vaccinees developed significant IgG- and IgA-antibody responses, measured by ELISA, in respectively serum and nasal secretions. None of the volunteers had demonstrable hemagglutination inhibition (HAI) antibodies in serum before being immunized, whereas more than 80% of them reached HAI titers>or=40, considered protective, after immunizations. In addition, cellular immune responses, measured as significant increases in CD4+ T-cell proliferation and granzyme B-producing cytotoxic T-cells, were detected against the vaccine strain as well as against heterologous virus strains (H3N2). However, no additive effect on these responses could be demonstrated with use of B. pertussis or the thixotropic substance in the present vaccines. It appeared, actually, that the mucoadhesive vehicle containing the thixotropic substance was less efficient than were the two other formulations. An influenza vaccine made as a simple particulate formulation of inactivated virus, and given repeatedly onto the nasal mucosa, may thus be an attractive alternative to currently available vaccines.     

Benign symmetric lipomatosis of the neck treated by liposuction. Case report.

A patient with benign symmetrical lipomatosis of the neck (Madelung's disease) was successfully treated with liposuction rather than classic surgical lipectomy. To our knowledge this is only the second such patient treated in this way.