Who should give lifestyle advice in general practice and what factors influence attendance at health promotion clinics? Survey of patients' views.

BACKGROUND: Health promotion activity in general practice has increased greatly since 1990. A large proportion of this work is undertaken by practice nurses. Little is known about patients' views about the providers of health promotion or their views about general practice health promotion clinics. AIM: A study was carried out in 1992 to determine patients' views about the provision of health promotion advice by general practitioners and practice nurses and their views about attending health promotion clinics. METHOD: A postal questionnaire was sent to a random sample of 1750 patients aged 16 years and over from five general practices in south Tyneside. The questionnaire explored patients' preferences regarding health promotion advice from the general practitioner or practice nurse in relation to four areas of lifestyle advice and factors that might encourage patients to attend a health promotion clinic. RESULTS: A response rate of 75% was obtained from 1639 eligible patients. Receiving health promotion advice from either the general practitioner or the practice nurse was the most commonly preferred option expressed by patients overall. The ability of health promotion clinic staff to deal with patients' concerns about their illness and short waiting times were more likely to influence patients' attendance at health promotion clinics than the presence of a general practitioner or practice nurse. CONCLUSION: In the present study, many patients found health advice received from practice nurses and general practitioners equally acceptable. However, it was the ability of health professionals to respond to patients' health concerns in the health promotion clinic rather than the type of health professional running the clinic that was important for patients.     

Catecholaminergic neurites in senile plaques in prefrontal cortex of aged nonhuman primates

Immunocytochemical studies, using a polyclonal antibody directed against tyrosine hydroxylase, identified catecholaminergic axons in prefrontal cortex of young and aged nonhuman primates. Aged monkeys, who showed cortical senile plaques in silver stains, had swollen tyrosine hydroxylase-immunoreactive axons in neocortex. Some of these abnormal processes were associated with deposits of amyloid (visualized by thioflavin-T fluorescence) and were similar in appearance to neurites demonstrated by silver impregnation methods. This study provides evidence for structural abnormalities in catecholaminergic axons/nerve terminals in the neocortices of aged primates.     

Light chains in Mediterranean lymphoma

Four cases of Mediterranean lymphoma, in two of which serum alpha chains had been identified, were investigated with immunohistochemical techniques. In addition to alpha chains of alpha 1, subclass, monotypic light chains were identified in infiltrating tumour cells in all four patients and in plasma cells in two. The pattern of staining was in keeping with loss of light chain occurring with plasma cell differentiation and strongly suggested that the plasma cells and tumour cells shared a common clonal origin. In two patients concentrations of dendritic reticulum cells were identified in the tumour. These results support the suggestion that Mediterranean lymphoma is a tumour of follicle centre cells which undergoes plasma cell differentiation as a result of exposure to lumenal antigen.     

Metabolic and Functional Characteristics of Alveolar Macrophages Recovered from Rats Exposed to Marijuana Smoke

Pulmonary alveolar macrophages were obtained by bronchopulmonary lavage from male rats after 30 consecutive days of in vivo exposure to marijuana and tobacco smoke. No significant differences were found between either group of experimental animals and controls in the number of cells recovered, the protein content per 10(6) cells, or the percentage of cells that adhered to plastic surfaces. The ability of macrophages to phagocytize viable bacteria was not affected by exposure to either marijuana or tobacco smoke in that both treatment groups ingested Staphylococcus aureus over a 60-min period as well as did control cells. Differences were found between the groups, however, with respect to cellular metabolism. Marijuana smoke inhalation caused a small decrease in the amount of oxygen consumed by macrophages during phagocytosis, as compared with control cells. This may have been reflected in the even greater decrease in superoxide formation observed during particle engulfment by these treated cells. Tobacco smoke, on the other hand, increased oxygen consumption and was without effect on superoxide release. Neither tobacco nor marijuana smoke treatment had an effect on the direct oxidation of glucose via the hexose monophosphate shunt. Our results indicate that, despite several metabolic alterations in response to marijuana and tobacco smoke, alveolar macrophages were not compromised with respect to their ability to ingest a particulate challenge.