A randomized trial of a family physician intervention for smoking cessation

We assessed the impact of three conditions on one-year smoking cessation rates. Physicians in 70 community general practices were randomly allocated by practice to one of three groups: In the usual care group, smoking patients were to receive the care they normally would receive. In the gum only group, physicians were asked to speak to patients about smoking cessation and offer nicotine gum. In the gum plus group, physicians were trained in the experimental intervention. This intervention involved advice to stop smoking, the setting of a quit date, the offer of nicotine gum, and four follow-up visits. Smoking cessation was measured by self-report after one year and validated using saliva cotinine measures. Using a criterion of at least three months of abstinence, 8.8% of the patients of the trained physicians had stopped smoking at the one-year follow-up compared with 4.4% and 6.1% of the patients in the usual care and gum only groups, respectively.     

Hb Las Palmas or alpha 2 beta 2(49)(CD8)Ser----Phe, a mildly unstable hemoglobin variant

A new hemoglobin variant with a Ser----Phe substitution at position beta 49(CD8) was discovered in two members of a family living in the Canary Islands, Spain. Detection was by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and by reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography. The variant, which constituted 43% and 45%, respectively, in the two heterozygotes, was slightly unstable. Its presence did not affect hematological values though there was a mild reticulocytosis.     

Prognostic implications of the proliferative potential of low-grade astrocytomas

The proliferative potential of low-grade astrocytomas was estimated in 47 patients. Each patient received an intravenous infusion of bromodeoxyuridine (BUdR), 150 to 200 mg/sq m, at the time of craniotomy to label cells in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) synthesis; the percentage of S-phase cells, or BUdR labeling index (LI), of each tumor was determined immunohistochemically. In 29 patients (60%), the tumors had BUdR LI's of less than 1%, indicating a slow growth rate; only three (10%) of these patients died of recurrent tumor during a follow-up period of up to 3 1/2 years. In contrast, of the 18 patients (40%) whose tumors had BUdR LI's of 1% or more, 12 (67%) had a recurrence and nine died during the same follow-up period. These results show that the proliferative potential, as reflected by the BUdR LI, is an important prognostic factor that separates low-grade astrocytomas into two groups and provides a more scientific rationale for selecting treatment for individual patients.     

Delayed repair and preoperative ECMO does not improve survival in high-risk congenital diaphragmatic hernia.

It has been suggested that delayed repair with preoperative stabilization might improve survival in high-risk (symptomatic within 6 hours of birth) congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH). This study compares the results of immediate operation versus delayed repair using extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) when necessary. Since we first used ECMO in 1984, 101 high-risk CDH infants have been treated. Prior to 1987, we used immediate repair and postoperative ECMO if necessary. Between 1987 and 1990 we combined delayed operation (24 to 36 hours) with preoperative ECMO as necessary. No infant in this series was excluded from ECMO therapy unless absolute contraindications existed (prematurity, intracranial hemorrhage, or other major anomalies). Fifty-five patients received immediate operation and 46 had delayed repair. The two groups were comparable populations based on gestational age, birth weight, age at onset of symptoms, Apgar scores, best postductal PO2 (BPDPO2), and frequency of antenatal diagnosis. There was no statistically significant difference in overall survival between the two groups. Differences in survival among subpopulations (BPDPO2 greater than 100 or less than 100, antenatal diagnosis, inborn v outborn) also are not significant. The requirement for ECMO was similar in both groups. Survivors in the delayed repair group were ventilated longer and on ECMO longer, but had fewer late deaths (greater than 21 days) and fewer pulmonary sequelae (O2 dependency at discharge) than infants in the immediate repair group (P less than .05).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

MR imaging of spinal cord hemangioblastoma associated with syringomyelia

A case of isolated spinal cord hemangioblastoma with associated extensive syringohydromyelia, which was evaluated by myelography, postmyelographic CT, magnetic resonance (MR), and angiography is presented. The specific preoperative and postoperative advantages of MR are given as well as a brief review of the literature.     

The total-contact cast for management of neuropathic plantar ulceration of the foot.

Seventy-one neuropathic ulcers of the foot in sixty-six patients were treated with the use of a total-contact cast. The ulcers had been present for an average of five months (range, one to twenty-nine months) and were graded according to the Wagner classification; only patients who had grade-I or grade-II lesions were treated with a total-contact cast. The diameter of the ulcer averaged 3.5 centimeters (range, 1.5 to 15.5 centimeters). Sixty-four (90 per cent) of seventy-one ulcers were healed at a mean of five and one-half weeks (range, one to fourteen weeks). A deep infection developed in two patients during treatment. Twenty-two ulcers (31 per cent) recurred within eighteen months after initial healing; nineteen (86 per cent) of them healed after an average of two weeks in a second cast. Recurrent ulceration was usually associated with an underlying fixed deformity or osseous prominence. The total-contact cast provided safe, reliable, and cost-effective treatment for patients who had neuropathic ulcers of the foot.     

Relative disease severity in siblings with myotonic dystrophy.

Myotonic dystrophy is an autosomal dominant disorder in which an early-onset form is characteristically inherited from the mother. We studied 17 affected sibling pairs from 15 families in which two or more affected children were born to mothers with myotonic dystrophy. Later-born affected children suffered more severe disease than their first-born siblings in 13 of 17 sibling pairs. Later-born affected siblings displayed significantly more neonatal feeding difficulties, later age when first sitting alone, later age when first walking alone, and a higher incidence of scoliosis. The overall difference in disease severity between affected siblings increased as the age difference between them increased, suggesting that increasing maternal age is a factor in the relative disease severity of affected children. These findings may have relevance for genetic counseling.     

Receptors for angiotensins I and II: their relevance to renal haemodynamics, blood pressure control and hind-limb blood flow.

The well established differential pulmonary handling of angiotensins I and II indicates the possibility that vascular receptors for the deca- and octa-peptides do not necessarily involve common sites in the renal vasculature either. Experimental findings involving haemodynamic changes within the kidney in anaesthetised and conscious sheep, with utilization of the angiotensins, and also of noradrenaline, are briefly presented; the implications of the intra-renal water and creatinine transfers are discussed, especially as they concern the possible location of angiotensin receptors in the renal blood vessels. Other aspects of the relationships between the peptides are also taken into account particularly with regard to a postulated angiotensin I [NaCl] dependent peritubular capillary antidiuretic action, angiotensin converting enzyme inhibition, Goldblatt clamp induced hypertension and blood flow through the hind-limbs.