BUILDING THE FOUNDATION OF EXCELLENCE IN HEART FAILURE NURSING

This column contains the presidential address presented during the Third Annual Meeting of the American Association of Heart Failure Nurses on June 28, 2007, in San Diego, California, titled "Building the Foundation of Excellence in Heart Failure Nursing."     

Late atrioventricular block after heart transplantation.

Bradyarrhythmia requiring permanent pacing after heart transplantation remains a common problem. Sinus node dysfunction is the most common indication, and late onset of atrioventricular (AV) block has rarely been reported. We report the case of a patient who developed advanced AV block at 41 months after transplantation. Right bundle branch block with progressive increase of QRS complex duration was noted in serial electrocardiograms. At the time of late AV block development, the patient did not have acute rejection and coronary angiogram was normal. The mechanism of late onset of AV block is unclear, but it may be caused by progressive conduction.     

Testing for familial aggregation of functional traits

In a genetic epidemiology study of a trait, prior to collecting genotype data the foremost task is to test for familial aggregation and examine heritability. Recently, functional traits have drawn attentions from investigators. Here, to test for familial aggregation of a functional trait in the family studies, a test constructed based on the leading functional principal component of heritability, which is a summary measure of temporal genetic variation in a functional trait, is proposed. The p‐value of the test can be approximated by a permutation procedure given the family structure. The asymptotic distribution of the test statistic is derived. Simulations are carried out to examine the size and the power of the test. The proposed methods are applied to the total cholesterol data in the Framingham Heart Study. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

补肾益气逐浊法治疗ABO溶血致习惯性流产的临床研究

目的观察补肾益气逐浊法治疗ABO溶血所致习惯性流产的临床疗效。方法将152例患者随机分为两组，治疗组98例，用补肾益气逐浊法，选用黄芪、菟丝子及蚕砂颗粒剂口服；对照组54例，口服胸腺肽肠溶胶囊等。结果在降低血清抗体效价方面，治疗组总有效率为95．9％，对照组为51．9％；在妊娠疗效方面，治疗组总有效率为95．9％，对照组为42．1％。治疗组疗效明显优于对照组（P〈0．01）。结论补肾益气浊法治疗ABO溶血所致的习惯性流产疗效显著。