Guest Editorial: A brief history of trichromacy

2007 is the bicentenary year of the publication of Thomas Young's theory of colour vision. Ideas on trichromacy are traced here from the seventeenth to the twentieth century, and some of the chief protagonists (and antagonists) involved are mentioned. Reference is made to an early (1613) trichromatically-generated grey. Attention is paid also to the international dimension of the subject.     

Preventing the airborne spread of Staphylococcus aureus by persons with the common cold: effect of surgical scrubs, gowns, and masks.

OBJECTIVE: Transmission of Staphylococcus aureus via air may play an important role in healthcare settings. This study investigates the impact of barrier precautions on the spread of airborne S. aureus by volunteers with experimentally induced rhinovirus infection (ie, the common cold). DESIGN: Prospective nonrandomized study. SETTING: Wake Forest University School of Medicine (Winston-Salem, NC).Participants. A convenience sample of 10 individuals with nasal S. aureus carriage selected from 593 students screened for carriage. INTERVENTION: Airborne S. aureus dispersal was studied in the 10 participants under the following clothing conditions: street clothes, surgical scrubs, surgical scrubs and a gown, and the latter plus a face mask. After a 4-day baseline period, volunteers were exposed to a rhinovirus, and their clinical course was followed for 12 days. Daily swabs of nasal specimens, pharynx specimens, and skin specimens were obtained for quantitative culture, and cold symptoms were documented. Data were analyzed by random-effects negative binomial models. RESULTS: All participants developed a common cold. Incidence rate ratios (IRRs) indicated that, compared with airborne levels of S. aureus during sessions in which street clothes were worn, airborne levels decreased by 75% when surgical scrubs were worn (P<.001), by 80% when scrubs and a surgical gown were worn (P<.001), and by 82% when scrubs, a gown, and a face mask were worn (P<.001). The addition of a mask to the surgical scrubs and gown did not reduce the airborne dispersal significantly (IRR, 0.92; P>.05). Male volunteers shed twice as much S. aureus as females (incidence rate ratio, 2.04; P=.013). The cold did not alter the efficacy of the barrier precautions. CONCLUSIONS: Scrubs reduced the spread of airborne S. aureus, independent of the presence of a rhinovirus-induced cold. Airborne dispersal of S. aureus during sessions in which participants wore surgical scrubs was not significantly different from that during sessions in which gowns and gowns plus masks were also worn.     

解决诊所面临的难题

医生的职责是每天解决人们的健康问题.而与此同时,他们经常怀着绝望地希望有人能解决他们在诊所管理上面临的问题. 当代医疗行业的发展中遇到的问题包括:与健康组织和保险公司之间的纷争不断、工作过于忙碌、会议冗长乏味、诊所盈利不足等等.为了帮助你的诊所解决这些问题,<医药经济>杂志社在Nashville市召开了年会,该协会的资深委员们还为此召开了一个圆桌会议.每个委员都针对医生提出的某个具体问题或抱怨阐述了自己的见解,并给出一个治疗计划.本文是这次圆桌会议的实录,你可以从中找到对自己有用的材料和解决方案.     

Acute renal failure: Update

Canadian Journal of Anesthesia/Journal canadien d'anesthésie -