Drug and Alcohol Education from a Distance: a good reason for collaboration

Education by distance learning is a rapidly growing industry. The main attraction for learners is the flexibility to study when and where they like. There are other significant advantages too; by taking the course to the student, equity of access to education is improved and educational choices are widened. Yet education at a distance does have important limitations; it can impose considerable demands and constraints on the educational process that are all too rarely addressed in the literature. This paper examines the challenges faced by institutions offering distance-based courses. Specifically, the authors share their separate experiences of producing distance learning programmesfor drug and alcohol workers. There are special complexities inherent in the design, delivery and operation of drugs courses by distance learning and these are examined. Parochial perspectives on drugs issues assume less relevance as the target group for distance learning courses widens notably to include learners in other geographical areas and in other countries. The authors begin to explore the case for seeking national, and even international, consensus on what drug and alcohol education programmes should comprise. Collaboration between the educational institutions could be an effective way of identifying quality standards in drugs education in general and could assist course organizers in avoiding unnecessary replication of effort. Further flexibility for students could also be introduced in the form of a national credit accumulation and transfer scheme. Faced with an even greater choice of educational products, learners should benefit too from collaboration and the assurance that the courses they purchase have been designed and tested to meet their educational needs.     

CYTOPHAGIC PANNlCULITIS

Abstract A 60 year old woman developed generalised erythema nodosum-like lesions together with hectic fever, lymphadenopathy, and hepatitis. Biopsies revealed lobular panniculitis with a benign histiocytic infiltrate and prominent phagocytosis in subcutaneous sites, lymph nodes, and bone marrow. All immunological, serological, and culture studies were negative, apart from throat isolation of herpes simplex. The patient responded to high-dose corticosteroids. The case illustrates the differential diagnosis of lobular panniculitis, with histiocytic infiltrate and cytophagocytosis. These combined features are consistent with the recently described syndromes of cytophagic panniculitis and virus-associated hemophagocytic syndrome.     

A cytogenetic survey of a mentally retarded school-age population with special reference to fragile sites

ABSTRACT. A cytogenetic survey has been carried out among mentally retarded schoolchildren in the West Midlands Region, England. The conclusions are that the Fragile-X syndrome is second only to Down's syndrome as a cytogenetic entity contributing to mental handicap among children of school age.     

A comparison of the performance of 20 pulse oximeters under conditions of poor perfusion

The performance of 20 pulse oximeters with finger probes was evaluated by comparison of their readings with directly measured arterial blood oxygen saturations. The samples were taken from patients who had undergone cardiac surgery under hypothermic cardiopulmonary bypass and had poor peripheral perfusion. The mean difference (bias, accuracy), standard deviation (precision) and drop-out rate for each pulse oximeter was determined. An overall ranking of performance of each pulse oximeter was calculated using five criteria (accuracy, precision, number of readings within 3% of standard, percentage of readings given within 3% of standard, expected overread limit in 95% of cases). Two pulse oximeters achieved a combination of accuracy and precision such that 95% of measurements would be expected to be within 4% of the co-oximeter value; these two also had the lowest drop-out rate.     

Impact of Programmed Sensitivity Safety Factor on Atrial Sensing in Children

The relationship between the pacemaker sensitivity safety factor (PSSF) and atrial under- or oversensing as documented by 24-hour Holter monitoring was examined. Our study comprised 78 transvenous fixed atrial leads implanted between 1983–1995 in 71 children. Overall, 210 Holter reports identified 143 (68%) Holters with normal atrial sensing function, 31 (15%) with undersensing, 32 (15%) with oversensing, and 4 (2%) with both problems. From 161 Holter reports in which the PSSF was available, the incidence of undersensing at a PSSF of 2.0 (range 1.5–2.4) was 25% (14/57). There was a dramatic decline in undersensing when the PSSF was 3 (3%) compared to a FSSF < 3 (21 %) (P < 0.001). A PSSF cut-off point of 2.0 best predicted occurrence of undersensing with a sensitivity of 79% and a specificity of 67%. Other variable were also examined by multiple logistic regression analysis, but only PSSF remained highly associated with undersensing (odds ratio [OR] = 0.6, P = 0.03). In contrast, PSSF did not have a significant role in predicting oversensing, but presence of sick sinus syndrome (OR = 10.5) or unipolar lead (OR = 5.6) were significantly associated with oversensing (P = 0.0001). The majority of undersensing problems can be avoided by routinely allowing for at least a threefold or more programmed sensitivity margin. Other factors may increase the risk of oversensing, regardless of the PSSF.     

The quality and management of written information presented to women undergoing hysterectomy

• ? A study of a random sample of hospitals in England that provide information leaflets for women undergoing hysterectomy indicates a large variation in quality.
• ? In general, the findings reveal that written information for patients is given a relatively low priority.
• ? Production and dissemination of information for hysterectomy patients is somewhat ad hoc.
• ? It is not clear that any evaluation of the leaflets has been conducted to prove the efficacy of the available literature.
• ? While the majority of leaflets include information deemed essential by past hysterectomy patients, the presentation of the recovery process often implies no control for the patient, and conceives normality with a narrow perspective about what healthy behaviour means for women. The provision of a specific timetable for resumption of housework duties in 65% of the leaflets is a case in point.
• ? On the basis of the results of the survey, recommendations are made concerning the improvement of the standard of patient information leaflets.

     

Clinical Use of Permanent Pacemaker for Conversion of Intraatrial Reentry Tachycardia in Children

The use of the implanted atrial-based pacemaker to overdrive postsurgical intraatrial reentry tachycardia (IART) was evaluated in a large group of pediatric patients over a 14-year study period. The authors sought to determine the feasibility of this noninvasive technique in the management of this specialized population and to determine factors associated with successful conversion. They examined 128 manual overdrive attempts performed on 22 consecutive patients. There were 10 patients with post-Fontan repair, 7 with post-Mustard/Senning procedure, and 5 with miscellaneous lesion types. The number of IART episodes for overdrive pacing per patient ranged from 1 to 15. The first overdrive pacing attempt was successful in 63% (14/22) of the patients. The mean IART cycle length was 278 +/- 59 ms. The mean pacing rate for effective conversion of IART was 66 +/- 10% faster than the IART rate. By controlling for repeated measures for individual patients, three factors were found to be independently associated with a successful outcome: (1) lesion type other than Fontan surgery (P = 0.007), (2) lack of acceleration of IART with the overdrive attempt (P < 0.001), and (3) patient use of amiodarone with attempt (P = 0.005). There were three procedural complications: two inadvertent overdrive pacing episodes, and one episode of acceleration of IART cycle length and conduction resulting in need for cardioversion. Manual pacemaker overdrive conversion of IART is a useful adjunct in the management of postsurgical IART in the pediatric population and should be considered as an initial treatment option.