Health lifestyles and self-direction in employment among American men: A test of the spillover effect

This paper examines whether American males with a high degree of control over their work situation pursue healthy lifestyles and rate their physical health more positively than those who score low on occupational self-direction. That is, are persons who control their work more likely to also try to control their health through living in a particularly healthy manner? We found that there was no support for a spillover effect from high occupational self-direction to enhanced participation in health lifestyles or more positive self-rated health. The findings suggest health lifestyles have spread throughout occupational work groups in the U.S. and support research that maintains such lifestyles have spread across social strata in America.     

Auer rod positive dysmyelopoietic syndrome

Twenty-five patients with refractory anemia with excess blasts (RAEB) were studied. Five of these patients showed Auer rods in their myeloblasts, but met other criteria for RAEB. Median survival of the Auer rod-positive group was 14 months (range 2–27) from diagnosis with survival of 7 months after Auer rods were first observed. Median survival for the Auer rod-negative group was 12 months. Two patients developed overt acute leukemia, both from the Auer rod-negative group. The clinical course of Auer rod-positive RAEB, like that of Auer rod-negative RAEB, was one of progressive bone marrow failure complicated by infection, serious bleeding and the development of absolute transfusion requirement. These findings suggest that Auer rod-positive RAEB is a morphologic variant dysmyelopoietic syndrome that may pursue a similar clinical course to Auer rod-negative disease. Formulation of a separate treatment approach for those RAEB patients who possess Auer rods would appear ill advised.     

Structural analysis of poly(3-alkylthiophene)s

Poly(3-hexylthiophene) (PT6), poly(3-octylthiophene) (PT8), poly(3-decylthiophene) (PT10) and poly(3-dodecylthiophene) (PT12) were synthesized by electrochemical and chemical polymerization. Investigation of these polymers by means of gel permeation chromatography indicates that the polymers prepared from the different monomers under similar conditions do not differ substantially considering molecular weight and molecular weight distribution. Bimodal distributions were found for electropolymerized polymers, and with increasing polymerization time, the high-molecular-weight and probably highly branched fraction increased relatively to the low-molecular-weight fraction. The microstructure of the polymers was investigated by nuclear magnetic resonance, and it has been found that the polymers exhibit more types of structural units than expected from a simple coupling of adjacent thiophene moieties in 2,5′-positions. Chemical oxidation with iron trichloride in chloroform gave soluble, high-molecular-weight poly(3-alkyl-thiophene)s with a rather low amount of irregular couplings, and these more regular polymers exhibited a higher degree of crytallinity. Room temperature conductivities of the oxidized polymers were between 0,1 and 30 S/cm depending on the polymerization conditions, but these values were rather independent of the length of the alkyl substituent.     

HLA-DR7 predicts the response to alkylating agents in steroid-sensitive nephrotic syndrome

There is a lack of reliable predictors of the response to alkylating agents in children with idiopathic nephrotic syndrome (NS). HLA-DR7 is strongly associated with the frequency of relapses in steroid-sensitive NS before cytostatic therapy. We therefore examined retrospectively the time to the first relapse and the incidence of subsequent relapses in 54 HLA-typed children with frequently relapsing NS, after treatment with cyclophosphamide (n = 49) or chlorambucil (n = 5) for 8 or 12 weeks; 38 patients were HLA-DR7 positive and 16 negative with 80% in both groups being steroid dependent. HLA typing was performed using serological or DNA typing methods. Renal biopsy showed minimal glomerular changes. A lower proportion of HLA-DR7 positive than negative patients remained in remission after 3 years (36% vs. 81%, P<0.02) and 5 years (36% vs. 72%, P<0.03). In the first 3 years after cytostatic therapy the mean number of prednisone-treated relapses was 1.3/patient per year in HLA-DR7-positive patients compared with 0.4 in negative patients (P<0.025). There was no statistically significant difference in the proportion of relapse-free patients with and without steroid dependency. The HLA status predicts the response of NS patients to alkylating agents better than the rate of previous relapses. Received September 19, 1995; received in revised form and accepted April 16, 1996     

Gd-DTPA-cascade-polymer: Potential blood pool contrast agent for MR imaging

Gadolinium-DTPA (diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid)-cascade-polymer, a potential new blood pool contrast agent for magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, was compared with a known blood pool agent, Gd-DTPA-polylysine, in an animal model. The relative signal intensities of liver, renal cortex, pancreas, and trunk muscle were assessed in 12 pigs between 4 seconds and 120 minutes after injection of a 20 μmol/kg dose of each contrast agent, by using a FLASH (fast low-angle shot) sequence. Except for muscle, all tissues showed visible enhancement after injection of either contrast agent. After injection of Gd-DTPA-polymer, enhancement patterns in the liver, renal cortex, and pancreas were similar to those seen after injection of Gd-DTPA-polylysine. No statistically significant differences in enhancement between the two contrast agents were found at any time point. The authors conclude that the contrast kinetics of Gd-DTPA-cascade-polymer are similar to those of Gd-DTPA-polylysine and that this agent may also be used as a blood pool contrast agent for MR imaging.     

Recall of medication during pregnancy: Validity and accuracy of an adjusted questionnaire

Objective — To study the validity and accuracy of an adjusted questionnaire on medical drug use during pregnancy eight years after the pregnancy. Methods — The ability of a questionnaire on medication during pregnancy to detect actual use (= sensitivity) was tested against information collected 8 years previously (in 1983–1984) from 473 women with high-risk pregnancies who delivered at the University Hospital Nijmegen, the Netherlands. Results — For separate drug groups, the sensitivity varied between 5% and 91%. The timing of use was recalled moderately well. Although specific questions on drug groups did improve the sensitivity as compared to an earlier questionnaire, the improvement was not enough to make the questionnaire valid. High maternal education, low birth weight, low gestational age and a low 5-min Apgar score were related to better recall. The sensitivity of the questionnaire depended on the behavioural score of the child, implying recall bias. Conclusion — Questionnaire data on drug use during pregnancy obtained eight years after delivery are not a valid source of information.     

Prevalence of persistent vegetative state/apallic syndrome in Vienna

The aim of the project was to survey the hospital prevalence of apallic syndrome in a federal state in Austria at an exact point in time. To achieve this, a point prevalence study was carried out on 28 November 2001 in the Vienna region. The central element was a questionnaire, which provided an exact recording of the patients' condition. An additional preliminary task was to check all the discharge diagnoses in the hospitals of the Vienna Hospital Association (Wiener Krankenanstalten Verbund) between 1996 and 2000 according to the ICD-9 diagnoses for apallic syndrome. These data should serve to cross-check the recorded results. All hospitals (n = 48) and nursing facilities (n = 44) in Vienna were included in this investigation. As the aim of the study was to record the prevalence of apallic syndrome in the population of Vienna, four patients of the group with full-stage apallic syndrome (n = 36) were excluded as they were from other federal states. In total, 32 hospital patients who met the clinical criteria for apallic syndrome (full-stage) were recorded. The point prevalence of apallic syndrome was 1.9/100,000 inhabitants. As a result of this study, the exact survey of hospital prevalence of apallic syndrome could be found. As a consequence, the Viennese government has developed a rehabilitation concept for patients with apallic syndrome in Vienna.     

Predictors of violence in civilly committed acute psychiatric patients

The authors investigated the relationship between community violence and violence in the hospital for patients hospitalized through emergency civil commitment. The medical charts of 238 patients involuntarily admitted to a university-based acute inpatient unit were reviewed for evidence of violence during the 2 weeks before commitment and the first 72 hours of hospitalization. Patients who were violent in the community were more likely to be violent in the hospital. A discriminant function analysis was used to identify the combination of information concerning community violence and patient background characteristics that most efficiently predicted which patients were violent during emergency commitment.