Developing an international standard for the classification of surface anatomic location for use in clinical practice and epidemiologic research

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“It Got Likes,But I Don’t Think People Understood”: A Qualitative Study of Adolescent Experiences Discussing Type 1 Diabetes on Social Media

Background:The majority of adolescents with type 1 diabetes (T1D) integrate social media engagement into their daily lives. The aim of this study was to explore adolescents’ experiences and perspectives discussing their T1D on social media.Methods:Semi-structured interviews with adolescents with T1D were conducted in person and via telephone. Questions focused on the participant’s experiences utilizing social media to discuss T1D and factors that informed the nature of T1D-related social media engagement. Open coding and thematic content analysis were used to identify emergent themes that aligned with accepted domains of social media affordances.Results:Participants included 35 adolescents with T1D. Adolescents’ experiences related to discussing T1D on social media aligned with four affordances of social media: identity, cognitive, emotional, and social. The identity affordances of social media platforms allowed adolescents to curate online personas that selectively included their diagnosis of T1D, while managing the potential negative emotional and social implications linked to the stigma of T1D. Adolescents who decided to discuss T1D on social media leveraged cognitive affordances by providing and receiving diabetes management advice, emotional affordances by obtaining affirmation from peers, and social affordances by extending their network to include other individuals with T1D.Conclusions:Adolescents with T1D flexibly leverage the affordances offered by social media to access emotional support, information, and identity affirmation resources while navigating stigma-based social consequences. Our findings highlight the value of developing tools to support adolescents with T1D in comfortably discussing and receiving appropriate support about T1D on social media.     

Simultaneous demonstration of phenylethanolamine N-methyltransferase immunofluorescent and catecholamine fluorescent nerve cell bodies in the rat medulla oblongata

The distribution of phenylethanolamine N-methlytransferase-immunoreactive nerve cell bodies was investigated in the rat medulla using an antiserum to bovine phenylethanolamine N-methyltransferase raised in rabbits. A procedure that combines immunohistochemistry and catecholamine fluorescence histochemistry was developed with a formaldehyde/glutaraldehyde mixture as a fixative. Three groups of immunoreactive nerve cell bodies were found in the medulla: a ventrolateral group, C1, a dorsal group, C2, in the nucleus of the tractus solitarius and a smaller medial group of cells, C3, scattered in the medial longitudinal fasciculus. Most of the phenylethanolamine N-methyltransferase positive nerve cells did not show catecholamine fluorescence and did not correspond to the catecholamine cell groups A1 and A2. Both groups C1 and C2 of immunoreactive nerve cells extended further rostrally than A1 and A2. Group C3 has not previously been described as a distinct group of catecholamine fluorescent nerve cell bodies.Inhibition of phenylethanolamineN-methyltransferase and monoamine oxidase results in the appearance of catecholamine fluorescence in the immunoreactive cell bodies suggesting that they usually store adrenaline which reacts poorly with the formaldehyde/glutaraldehyde mixture or other aldehydes which induce catecholamine fluorescence and it is for this reason that they are not normally identified in maps of catecholamine fluorescent cells.     

Contributors to white matter damage in the frontal lobe in Alzheimer's disease

Abnormalities of cerebral white matter are present in a majority of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and probably contribute to motor dysfunction and cognitive impairment. The white matter abnormalities are usually attributed to degenerative vascular disease and cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) but the evidence is scanty or inconclusive. In the present study we examined sections of frontal lobe from 125 autopsy-confirmed cases of AD and assessed the relationship of degenerative large and small vessel disease, CAA, parenchymal Abeta load and APOE genotype, to several objective measures of white matter damage: extent of immunolabelling for glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), axonal accumulation of amyloid precursor protein (APP), axon density in superficial and deep white matter, and intensity of staining for myelin. We found no association between atherosclerosis, arteriolosclerosis, CAA or APOE genotype and white matter damage. However, labelling of white matter for GFAP correlated strongly with the parenchymal Abeta load (P = 0.0003) and with APP accumulation (P = 0.008). Our findings suggest that severity of frontal white matter damage in AD is closely related to parenchymal Abeta load and that in most cases the contribution of degenerative vascular disease, CAA and APOE is relatively minor.     

EFFECTS OF ENALAPRIL AND HYDROCHLOROTHIAZIDE ON BLOOD PRESSURE, RENIN–ANGIOTENSIN SYSTEM, AND ATRIAL NATRIURETIC FACTOR IN ESSENTIAL HYPERTENSION: A DOUBLE BLIND FACTORIAL CROSS-OVER STUDY

The hypotensive and hormonal effects of the angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor enalapril (10 mg twice daily) were compared with those of hydrochlorothiazide (25 mg twice daily), with the two drugs in combination and with placebo in 21 patients with essential hypertension. For each patient there were four randomised double-blind treatment phases, each of four weeks' duration, which comprised a 2 times 2 factorial experiment.     

Help-seeking among illicit drug users: some differences between a treatment and nontreatment sample.

A number of both medical and nonmedical disciplines have expressed concern regarding the large numbers of individuals that fail to present to services, despite experiencing problems similar to those of active help-seekers. Such a concern is most pertinent in the field of substance misuse, particularly in terms of the role of injecting drug users in the spread of HIV and AIDS. This study looked at two samples of problem drug takers in London: 120 seeking help (the "agency group") and 120 not seeking help (the "non-agency group"). A number of factors were examined to distinguish the two groups, including sociodemographic profiles, drug histories, and self-reported "concern" and "need for help" in a wide variety of life areas. Data analysis highlighted the significance of "concern" and "need for help" in specified life areas.