A new ecologically valid method to assess body size estimation and body size dissatisfaction

OBJECTIVE: The primary aim of the present study was to develop an ecologically valid method for assessing the perception of body size (as opposed to the memory of body size). METHOD: Women with clinical eating disorders (N = 14) and no eating disorder (N = 24) estimated their actual and desired body size while looking in a mirror. Estimations were made using projected images that were the same height as the participants' reflections in the mirror. RESULTS: This new method assessed the perception of body size under conditions that resembled the real-life situation of viewing oneself in a mirror. Participants with eating disorders significantly overestimated their body size relative to controls (p <.05) and tended to be more dissatisfied with their body size (p =.07). DISCUSSION: It is argued that the new method assesses the perception of body size, is ecologically valid, and is the most clinically relevant of the methods developed to date.     

Malnutrition,body size and proportion

A number of published and unpublished collections of data on stature, weight, and sitting height are compared with the data collected in Heliconia, Colombia, an area of known protein deficiency. The degree of sexual dimorphism for body size within populations is compared across populations. The relative proportion of sitting height to stature is compared for the Heliconia, U.S., and Nuñoa, Peru populations. In these comparisons, it is found that body proportions and sexual dimorphism are relatively constant in various parts of the world, but that this constancy is maintained by differential growth rates in males and females, with males growing more slowly but for a longer period of time under stress. The probable influence of other factors, including sociological and psychological ones is pointed out, as is the possible role of selection producing some genetic differences in body size.     

Patient involvement in a professional body: reflections and commentary

PURPOSE: The purpose of this paper is to consider the issues which emerge when an autonomous, professional, member-led organisation attempts to demonstrate its accountability to patients through lay involvement in its standard-setting processes. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: The paper reports a project, which is still in progress and could be described as action research. Data were collected through participant observation in a series of discussions and working groups. A limited literature search was carried out at the start of the initiative but found little which relates to lay involvement in professional bodies. FINDINGS: The paper finds that patient involvement in a professional body is unlikely by itself to be a useful mechanism for delivering greater professional accountability. RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS: The paper is a single case study and can only suggest hypotheses for further research. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The paper shows that professional bodies of various types are increasingly being asked to demonstrate public involvement in their decision making. It is important to identify the most effective mechanisms for this and the limitations inherent in the structures of organisations, which are accountable primarily to their members. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: The paper shows that individual doctors are held to account through a number of mechanisms, but little attention has been given to how medical professional bodies can be made more accountable for the collective power they hold. Patient involvement is interpreted within a consumerist model, which focuses on the doctor-patient relationship and ignores the considerable strategic influence which medical royal colleges exercise within the health service.     

Generalization of body size distortion

Thirty-four asymptomatic, normal weight college females were assessed for levels of body size overestimation for self-relevant body areas and corresponding sites on a normal-sized department store mannequin. An adjustable light beam procedure was used for all measures. Minimal differences between black and white subjects eventuated. A consistent pattern emerged indicating greater overestimation for self than mannequin; however, this was not true for all body sites assessed. A greater number of significant correlations among self-estimates and mannequin scores were found than significant relationships between self and mannequin distortion quotients. The results are discussed with regard to the generalizability of body size overestimation.     

Subcutaneous adipocyte size and body fat distribution

BACKGROUND: Both body fat distribution and adipocyte size are associated with metabolic abnormalities. OBJECTIVE: We defined the extent to which subcutaneous adipocyte size is related to regional fat mass and to the sizes of adipocytes in other subcutaneous depots independent of adiposity, age, and sex. DESIGN: Data collected from 188 women and 133 men who were 18-50 y old and who had a body mass index (in kg/m2) of 18 to 50 were analyzed. The mean size of isolated subcutaneous abdominal, femoral, and gluteal adipocytes was measured by direct microscopy or by automated analysis of digital images. Visceral fat area was measured with computed tomography. Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry was used to calculate adiposity. RESULTS: Stepwise multiple regression analyses showed that abdominal adipocyte size was associated positively with visceral and subcutaneous abdominal fat areas and negatively with lower-body fat mass as a percentage of total-body fat, after control for sex and percentage body fat. Femoral adipocyte size was related to percentage body fat (P<0.0001), whereas gluteal adipocyte size was related to visceral fat area (P=0.002), which suggests that these 2 lower-body fat depots are distinct. Analyses of data from a subset of volunteers (n=99) for whom we had adipocyte size from all 3 depots showed that adipocyte size from 1 depot could be better predicted if adipocyte size from other depots were known. CONCLUSIONS: Abdominal adipocyte size is related to body fat distribution. Adipocyte size in a person seems to be globally regulated by factors independent of variations in body fat distribution.     

Patient doses in multi-slice CT and the importance of optimisation

Substantive surveys of patient doses arising from CT examinations have been conducted in our Hospital. In the first instance doses were measured on a single-slice Siemens Plus 4 scanner. A similar survey was conducted initially following commissioning of a Siemens multi-slice Sensation scanner and subsequently after some effort was made to optimise scanning protocols. Doses are reported in terms of dose-length products (DLPs) and as effective doses. The optimisation process on the multi-slice scanner resulted in a reduction in DLP values by between 14% and 58%. With two exceptions, significantly lower or comparable DLP values were obtained when meaningful comparisons were made with results previously obtained with the single-slice scanner. Specific results for the multi-slice scanner in terms of the median DLP in mGy.cm (and median effective dose in mSv) are: routine brain, 660 (1.5); routine chest, 195 (4.0); chest with portal liver phase, 370 (7.2); routine chest with high resolution component, 250 (5.1); chest/abdomen/pelvis with contrast, 560 (11.0); routine abdomen without contrast, 145 (2.4); routine abdomen with contrast 215 (3.6); routine abdomen/pelvis without contrast, 230 (4.4); routine abdomen/pelvis with contrast, 345 (6.3); abdomen/pelvis triple phase, 715 (13.3); renal scan, 260 (4.6); lumbar spine, 445 (7.2); cerebral angiography, 240 (0.58); pulmonary angiography, 165 (3.4); aortic angiography, 305 (5.7). Based on the survey findings possible values for CT examination local diagnostic reference levels (LDRLs) are suggested.     

Body image: Stability and sensitivity of body satisfaction and body size estimation

Body size estimation, body satisfaction, and feeling fat were assessed before and after meals on two occasions, in a repeated measures design, in 20 normal young women. A consistently negative self-appraisal was identified, including low satisfaction, feeling fat, and overestimation of body size. Body image was more negative in restrained than unrestrained eaters and became more negative after eating.     

The medicalization of body size and women's healthcare

In this article we explore the issue of what it means to be "fat" for women in Western (British/North American) society. Contemporary gendered biomedical discourse currently dominates attitudes toward body shapes and sizes (Bordo, 1995). Further, under the rhetoric of "health," a large body size has come to be symbolic of self-indulgence and moral failure. In this article we argue this may lead women to question both their sense of self and their rights to adequate health care. Our aims are threefold: first, to challenge rigid hegemonic biomedical perspectives on "fatness" and the oppressive unequal power relations they may create; second, to examine the process by which such perspectives come to be the only legitimate discourse; third, to consider the impact of pathological medicalised definitions of "obesity" on women's perceptions of their bodies and experiences of health services.     

机载千伏级锥形束CT扫描剂量测量

目的：在图像引导放射治疗中,利用机载千伏级锥型束CT（KV-CBCT）每次治疗前进行图像扫描可以很好的纠正摆位误差达到精确摆位的目的,但每次进行CBCT扫描同时和给病人带来了额外的照射剂量。本文的目的就是研究Elekta Synergy X线容积扫描系统（XVI）的扫描剂量。方法和材料：将粉末热释光（TLD）放置在拟人模体的体表和体中心及特定的感兴趣区域,采用XVI系统自带的扫描条件进行扫描。结果：胸部CBCT扫描条件下扫描剂量在0.8～1.43cGy,在机架角度转到270度的时候模体表面剂量比较大。锥形束CT扫描剂量和毫安秒（mAs）成线性正比关系。     

CT剂量表征量的选择

目前临床上对于CT剂量表征量的用法和解释有很多分歧,存在着患者剂量表征量使用不规范;与其他放射学检查做剂量对比时,无可比性等问题。本文就CTDI及其引申量的定义和使用等问题加以讨论,并提出统一测量方法,标准化剂量表征量的建议。     

CT技术发展中数据传输方式的探讨

医用CT技术的不断发展带来了扫描数据传输方式的革新。随着扫描速度的提高和扫描层数的增加,即时成像对数据传输的速度要求也在不断提高。每一种传输方式都代表了当时的技术创新,同时也存在着一定的缺陷。不同时期CT的数据传输方式有所不同,从早期的双绞线传输到现在现在广泛使用的光纤传输。通过分析不同传输方式的利弊、以及对CT数据采集的影响,为临床诊断和治疗提供了更加详尽的影像信息,更明确了对数据传输部分维护和保养的重要性。     

Relation between metabolic rate and body size in the ovine fetus

Objectives were to describe the relations between fetal oxygen consumption (VO2), vital organ weights and body weight in sheep during growth between mid gestation and term (about 147 d). Umbilical VO2 in conscious, single-pregnant ewes and fetal wet and dry body weights were measured at 73-97 d (n = 14) and at 119-141 d (n = 28) of gestation. Fetal wet and dry organ weights were related to body weights in an additional seven single-pregnant and eight twin-pregnant ewes at 73-140 d. Fetal VO2/kg wet weight decreased by 25% between mid and late gestation, whereas VO2/kg dry weight decreased by 56% and was paralleled by a similar decline in the relative aggregate weight of the vital organs (liver, kidneys, heart, brain). Log-log regression of VO2 on dry body weight, and of dry vital organ weight on dry body weight yielded coefficients of 0.73 +/- 0.02 and 0.66 +/- 0.01, respectively, suggesting that a decline in the relative growth of metabolically active organs explains much of the decline in weight-specific VO2 during fetal development.