A 62 kDa protein is photoaffinity labelled by [3H]felodipine in vascular smooth muscle, but not in cardiac and skeletal muscle

Irradiation of a cytosolic fraction from vascular smooth muscle in the presence of [3H]felodipine resulted in the labelling of a protein with an apparent molecular weight of 62 kDa. The labelling was seen on UV-irradiation at 360 nm, but not at 254, 278 or at wavelengths above 410 nm. The photolabelling was enhanced in the absence of oxygen. In cytosolic fractions prepared from porcine liver, cardiac and skeletal muscle no photoaffinity labelling of proteins between 90 and 45 kDa could be demonstrated. The results suggest that felodipine is a photoaffinity ligand and that felodipine binds to a soluble protein present in vascular smooth muscle but not in the other tissues tested.     

Sonography in congenital dislocation of the hip

A new technique for ultrasonic examination of the hip joint was evaluated in neonatals and infants. An anterior approach was used with the sound sector centered over the femoral head and parallel to the femoral neck. The ultrasonograms corresponded to lateral radiographs of the joint with the leg in Lorenz' first position. It was possible to evaluate the size and depth of the acetabulum and the size and position of the femoral head. The projection also permitted a dynamic examination for determination of hip instability. Thus, the technique provided a method for an objective diagnosis in congenital dislocation of the hip (CDH). In 216 hips, the results of clinical evaluation for CDH were correlated with the degree of instability demonstrated by ultrasound. The comparison showed the clinical diagnosis to be highly inaccurate.     

Organisational justice and employee perceptions on hospital management.

PURPOSE: The purpose to clarify what kind of managerial challenges employees experience regarding organisational justice in hospitals. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: This exploratory study of 8,971 employees working in 14 hospitals and examines the concept of organisational justice in management with qualitative and quantitative methods. FINDINGS: An inductive content analysis of the comments revealed five integrative frames describing challenges in hospital management at respondents' workplaces. These frames should be regarded as major managerial challenges in hospitals. These findings illustrate important antecedents of organisational justice and suggest that work units tend to share the same perceptions of justice. They also reveal that individually produced comments reflect collective experiences in organisational justice. Further, the results indicate that problems in management and policies are often experienced in a complex way, and people making justice judgements do not separate procedural and interactional factors. RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS: Although the commentators producing qualitative data represented many organisational hierarchy levels, the results should not be generalised to apply to horizontal, informal social relationships. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: This paper gives useful information regarding challenges in human resources management in hospitals. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: The paper suggests that people making fairness judgements do not make a distinction between procedural and interpersonal factors. Instead, they use any information available to judge the righteousness of the management events. This paper serves to guide hospital managers towards a better understanding of the importance of organisational justice and its collective nature.     

Why is the age-standardized incidence of low-trauma fractures rising in many elderly populations?

Low-trauma fractures of elderly people are a major public health burden worldwide, and as the number and mean age of older adults in the population continue to increase, the number of fractures is also likely to increase. Epidemiologically, however, an additional concern is that, for unknown reasons, the age-standardized incidence (average individual risk) of fracture has also risen in many populations during the recent decades. Possible reasons for this rise include a birth cohort effect, deterioration in the average bone strength by time, and increased average risk of (serious) falls. Literature provides evidence that the rise is not due to a birth cohort effect, whereas no study shows whether bone fragility has increased during this relatively short period of time. This osteoporosis hypothesis could, however, be tested if researchers would now repeat the population measurements of bone mass and density that were made in the late 1980s and the 1990s. If such studies proved that women's and men's age-standardized mean values of bone mass and density have declined over time, the osteoporosis hypothesis would receive scientific support. The third explanation is based on the hypothesis that the number and/or severity of falls has risen in elderly populations during the recent decades. Although no study has directly tested this hypothesis, a great deal of indirect epidemiologic evidence supports this contention. For example, the age-standardized incidence of fall-induced severe head injuries, bruises and contusions, and joint distortions and dislocations has increased among elderly people similarly to the low-trauma fractures. The fall hypothesis could also be tested in the coming years because the 1990s saw many research teams reporting age- and sex-specific incidences of falling for elderly populations, and the same could be done now to provide data comparing the current incidence rates of falls with the earlier ones.     

Non-target visual event-related potentials in evaluation of children with minor head trauma

In 50 children, 4 months to 12 years of age, with minor head trauma non-target visual event-related potentials were performed and compared to a second registration of the potentials some months later. On following-up there was a clear tendency for a relative improvement of the latencies of the endogenous potentials. In this way non-target visual event-related potentials proved to be of value in the investigation of mental impairment in early childhood.     

Extracellular pH in the brain during ischemia: relationship to the severity of lactic acidosis

On the basis of data showing a bimodal distribution of values for extracellular pH (pHe), and a discontinuous delta PCO2/delta lactate relationship, Kraig et al. (1986) proposed that H+ is grossly compartmentalized between neurons and glia in the ischemic brain. We measured delta pHe during ischemia, varying ischemic lactate contents between 9 and 38 mmol kg-1. No bimodal distribution was found, but delta pHe varied linearly with lactate content. Because we have also failed to record a discontinuous delta PCO2/delta lactate relationship, we conclude that major compartmentation of H+ does not occur during ischemia.