Israeli men in nursing: social and personal motives

AIM: This paper intends to explore what leads Israeli men to choose nursing as their profession. BACKGROUND: In the early years of nursing education in Israel, like in other western societies, men were excluded from the profession. Shortage in nursing personnel and urgent needs led to recruitment of men into the profession for a short period of time. Only since the early 1990s the nursing profession is experiencing a gradual but steady influx of men. Yet, nursing is generally perceived as women's work, and men have to cope with the stereotypes attributed to them as a prominent minority in a profession primarily occupied by women. Currently, no study had examined who are the Israeli men who are willing to enter the profession and why. METHODS: A 52-item questionnaire was distributed among all registered female and male nurses in three general and three psychiatric hospitals during 1997-98. The questionnaire covered sociodemographic characteristics, exposure to the profession and reasons for choosing the profession. The response rate of 74% included 123 male and 137 female registered nurses. CONCLUSIONS: Early exposure to the profession and the fact that the majority of male nurses belong to ethnic minorities and recent immigrants to the Israeli society were the most prominent factors in the selection of the nursing profession by these men. Surprisingly, economic considerations did not constitute a compelling motive in this population.     

Hypertension and cognitive functioning among the elderly: an overview

This paper reviews the longitudinal studies in which the association between hypertension and cognitive functioning has been explored. The findings of these studies are far from being consistent: positive, adverse, or no relationships between cognitive performance and blood pressure have been reported. In some studies, cognitive functioning was related only to systolic blood pressure, whereas in others, it was related to diastolic blood pressure alone. Most probably, the inconsistency is due to the variability in research design, the measures employed, and data management. Some of the main methodological issues are the wide range in the age of the subjects and the variability in hypertension at baseline. Length of exposure to hypertension was rarely considered, and the search for the possible effects of the different antihypertensive treatments on cognitive ability is in its infancy. Many studies seek to identify cognitively impaired elderly and do not distinguish between the different types of dementia or the different cognitive domains. Thus, the possibility that hypertension affects specific cognitive functions has not been explored. The use of subdivisions of blood pressure values may have obscured nonlinear relationship. Nevertheless, the pattern that emerges is that midlife hypertension enhances cognitive impairment later in life, but at old age, mild hypertension may increase cognitive performance. Directions for future research to further elucidate the complex relationship between age, blood pressure, and cognition are discussed.     

Seat belt use among Hispanic ethnic subgroups of national origin.

OBJECTIVE: Findings from over a dozen studies of Hispanic/white disparities in seat belt use have been inconsistent, variably revealing that seat belt use prevalence among Hispanics is higher, lower, or comparable to use among non-Hispanics. In contrast to previous studies, this study investigates disparities in seat belt use by Hispanic subgroups of national origin. METHODS: Data from the US Fatality Analysis Reporting System were used to compare seat belt use among 60 758 non-Hispanic whites and 6879 Hispanics (Mexican American (MA), n = 5175; Central American/South American (CASA), n = 876; Puerto Rican (PR), n = 412; Cuban (CU), n = 416) killed in crashes from 1999-2003. Logistic regression was used to adjust for age, gender, seat belt law, seat position, urban/rural region, and income. RESULTS: Overall adjusted odds ratios for seat belt use among Hispanic subgroups, relative to non-Hispanic whites, were 1.04 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.85 to 1.28) for CUs, 1.17 (95% CI 0.95 to 1.44) for PRs, 1.33 (95% CI 1.25 to 1.42) for MAs, and 1.66 (95% CI 1.44 to 1.91) for CASAs. Relative to their non-Hispanic white counterparts, odds ratios among MA and CASA Hispanics were highest for men, younger age groups, drivers, primary law states, rural areas, and lower income quartiles. CONCLUSION: Among all Hispanic subgroups, seat belt use was at least as prevalent as among non-Hispanic whites. In the CASA and MA subgroups, which have the most rapidly growing subpopulations of immigrants, seat belt use was significantly more common than among whites.     

Prevalence and risk factors for erectile dysfunction in men with diabetes,hypertension, or both diseases: a community survey among 1,412 Israeli men

BACKGROUND: Erectile dysfunction (ED) and cardiovascular disease share common risk factors and may be further aggravated by medical treatment for reducing them. HYPOTHESIS: The study was undertaken to assess the prevalence of ED in patients with diabetes (DM), hypertension (HTN), or both diseases, and to evaluate the effect of patient age, medical treatment, and disease duration and control on the prevalence of ED in this population. METHODS: A group of 150 primary practitioners who had patients with known DM and/or HTN conducted a survey, utilizing IIEF-15, a 15-item multidimensional, self-administered questionnaire used for the clinical assessment of ED. Results: In all, 1,412 patients were included: 37% had DM, 38% had HTN, and 25% had both diseases. Their mean age was 55, 58, and 60 years, and 62, 46, and 67% had some degree of ED, respectively. The prevalence of ED increased with age and disease duration in each age group and was higher in subjects with DM than in those with HTN, especially in those aged < 65 years. Poor glycemic control was associated with a higher prevalence rate of ED early in the course of the disease. There was no significant difference in the prevalence of ED according to type and number of antihypertensive drugs. CONCLUSIONS: Erectile dysfunction is common among patients at high risk for cardiovascular disease because of diabetes and/or HTN. Diabetic men are affected earlier than those with HTN. Given the high frequency of ED in young patients with these risk factors, physicians should encourage an open discussion on the subject during routine visits to promote early detection and treatment.     

Lysyl oxidase-related protein-1 promotes tumor fibrosis and tumor progression in vivo

The lysyl oxidase gene family members function as extracellular matrix modulating enzymes. We have found that another member of this family, lysyl oxidase related protein-1 (LOR-1), is highly expressed in metastatic breast cancer-derived cell lines but not in the nonmetastatic estrogen-dependent MCF-7 cells. Furthermore, LOR-1 expression in periductal tumor cells of breast carcinomas is significantly correlated with increased tumor malignancy. MCF-7 cells expressing recombinant LOR-1 formed estrogen-dependent tumors that developed much slower than tumors derived from empty vector-transfected MCF-7 cells. The cells of these LOR-1-expressing tumors were surrounded by a high concentration of dense collagen fibers, and the tumors contained many fibrotic foci. Induction of fibrosis in vivo by lysyl oxidase-like enzymes has never been observed before and suggests that LOR-1 may function as an autonomous inducer of fibrosis. The appearance of fibrotic foci in spontaneous breast cancer tumors is correlated with poor prognosis and metastasis, and we, therefore, examined the invasiveness of the LOR-1-expressing tumors. LOR-1-expressing MCF-7 cells invaded the pseudocapsules surrounding the tumors. In contrast, vector-transfected MCF-7 cells did not invade the pseudocapsules. This observation suggests that LOR-1 enhances the malignancy of the tumors. Furthermore, the LOR-1-expressing tumor cells invaded blood vessels, nerves, and muscles adjacent to the tumor, indicating that the LOR-1-expressing MCF-7 cells acquired metastatic properties. We conclude that LOR-1 promotes tumor fibrosis and tumor invasiveness simultaneously, which indicates that these two processes may be associated.     

Establishment and biological activity of a proliferative anti-idiotype-activated T cell line

Antisera were raised in rabbits against a monoclonal antibody (McAb 103) of C3H.SW origin which is specific to the synthetic polypeptide (T,G)-A---L and was shown to express the major idiotypic determinants of conventional anti-(T,G)-A---L antibodies. Antibodies were purified and were shown in a binding assay to recognize McAb 103 as well as C3H.SW anti-(T,G)-A---L antibodies. C57BL/6 mice were immunized with the purified rabbit anti-McAb 103 (Ra 103) and their lymph nodes were studied in a proliferation assay. Proliferation was observed in the presence of both Ra 103 and (T,G)-A---L, although the latter stimulated the cells to a lesser extent, suggesting the induction in vivo of (T,G)-A---L-specific clones in low frequency. A T cell line was established from these lymph node cells. The line is kept in continuous growth in the presence of IL-2 and periodic triggering with Ra 103. A significant proliferative response was obtained with Ra 103 only. This proliferation could be almost completely inhibited by either McAb 103 or by conventional anti-(T,G)-A---L antibodies of C3H.SW origin, indicating the cross reaction between the idiotypes expressed on the T cell line and the (T,G)-A---L-specific antibodies. No proliferation could be detected in the presence of either normal rabbit IgG or rabbit anti-mouse IgG. Thus, the T cell line TId 103 allows the analysis of the role of idiotype in T cell recognition and regulation.     

Prospective Study To Determine Clinical Relevance of Detection of Pneumococcal DNA in Sera of Children by PCR

We undertook a prospective study to evaluate the accuracy of PCR of serum (aimed at the pneumococcal pneumolysin gene) at detecting pneumococcal infections in infants and children. The assay was positive for all blood and cerebrospinal fluid culture-positive samples and for 38 and 44% of patients with lobar pneumonia and acute otitis media, respectively. It was positive for 17% of healthy controls. There was a marked effect of age on the rate of positivity among healthy controls, with the highest rate (33%) being in 2-year-old children, the age group with the highest rate of nasopharyngeal (NP) carriage; the lowest rate was found among infants <2 months of age (13%) and adults ages 18 to 50 years (0%), age groups with the lowest NP pneumococcal carriage rates. Carriers of pneumococci in the nasopharynges had a higher rate of positivity than noncarriers of pneumococci in the nasopharynges for all groups. Our results suggest that although PCR of serum is a sensitive test for the detection of Streptococcus pneumoniae in sterile fluids, its high rate of positivity for healthy controls, related to NP pneumococcal carriage, might exclude it from being useful in detecting deep-seated pneumococcal infections.     

The SARS-CoV-2 Lambda variant and its neutralisation efficiency following vaccination with Comirnaty,Israel, April to June 2021

The SARS-CoV-2 Lambda (Pango lineage designation C.37) variant of interest, initially identified in Peru, has spread to additional countries. First detected in Israel in April 2021 following importations from Argentina and several European countries, the Lambda variant infected 18 individuals belonging to two main transmission chains without further spread. Micro-neutralisation assays following Comirnaty (BNT162b2 mRNA, BioNTech-Pfizer) vaccination demonstrated a significant 1.6-fold reduction in neutralising titres compared with the wild type virus, suggesting increased susceptibility of vaccinated individuals to infection.     

Intravital imaging of vascular anomalies and extracellular matrix remodeling in orthotopic pancreatic tumors

Pancreatic cancers, both adenocarcinomas and endocrine tumors are characterized by varying levels of aberrant angiogenesis and fibrotic microenvironment. The difficulty to deliver drugs and treat the disease has been attributed in part to the vascular architecture and tissue/ECM density. Here we present longitudinal three-dimensional intravital imaging of vascular and tumor microenvironment remodeling in spontaneous transgenic tumors (RIP1-Tag2 insulinomas) and orthotopically injected tumors (KPC adenocarcinomas). Analysis of the data acquired in insulinomas revealed major differences in tumor blood vessel branching, fraction volume, number of branch points segments, vessel straightness and length compared to the normal tissue. The aggressive adenocarcinoma presented widespread peritumoral vascular remodeling and heterogeneous vascular distribution. Longitudinal imaging was used to acquire sequential vascular remodeling data during tumor progression. This work demonstrates the potential for using a pancreatic intravital imaging window for direct visualization of the tumor heterogenic microenvironments during tumor progression.