Endometriosis on a cesarean cicatrix. Apropos of 3 cases

Endometriosis on a caesarean scar is a well-known, though not frequent event. The lesion generally presents as a painful nodule of the abdominal wall during the menstrual cycle. Pain cyclicity is a useful sign for diagnosis. Treatment consists of removal. Three cases are reported.     

Separation of diffusion and perfusion in intravoxel incoherent motion MR imaging

Intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) imaging is a method the authors developed to visualize microscopic motions of water. In biologic tissues, these motions include molecular diffusion and microcirculation of blood in the capillary network. IVIM images are quantified by an apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), which integrates the effects of both diffusion and perfusion. The aim of this work was to demonstrate how much perfusion contributes to the ADC and to present a method for obtaining separate images of diffusion and perfusion. Images were obtained at 0.5 T with high-resolution multisection sequences and without the use of contrast material. Results in a phantom made of resin microspheres demonstrated the ability of the method to separately evaluate diffusion and perfusion. The method was then applied in patients with brain and bone tumors and brain ischemia. Clinical results showed significant promise of the method for tissue characterization by perfusion patterns and for functional studies in the evaluation of the microcirculation in physiologic and pathologic conditions, as, for instance, in brain ischemia.     

消瘀片对实验性高血脂症兔的治疗作用研究

目的:观察消瘀片对实验性高血脂症兔的治疗作用。方法:雄性新西兰兔高脂饲养8周形成实验性高血脂症,然后分组连续给予消瘀片12周,测定给药后6和12周时的血脂变化。结果:消瘀片0.16～0.32g/(kg·d)口服6～12周后,可使血清TC、TC、LDL-C和apoB含量明显降低,apoAI/apoB比值升高,尤其大剂量组的作用更为显著,单味中药丹参或山楂提取物的降血脂作用不如消瘀片。结论:消瘀片对已形成的高血脂症兔具有明显的降血脂作用。     

Use of standardized patients to enhance a psychiatry clerkship.

Changes in psychiatric health care delivery driven by such major shifts as deinstitutionalization, community-based care, and managed care have greatly altered the educational milieu for third-year psychiatry clerkships. Students may be assigned exclusively to alcohol and substance abuse treatment units, consultation-liaison services, or outpatient clinics, and may not have as broad an exposure as is desirable to patients with a variety of psychiatric illnesses. The authors describe a pilot course they developed in 2001, Clinical Psychiatric Assessment and Diagnosis, for third-year medical students at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences medical school. The course uses standardized patients (SPs) to help students gain broader clinical experience. In psychiatry, a growing body of literature supports the acceptability, reliability, and validity of objective structured clinical examination assessment using SPs for medical students. Only a few articles report the use of SPs to primarily teach psychiatry instead of evaluating student proficiency in clinical psychiatry. Since this course was developed, the National Board of Medical Examiners announced that all medical students will be required to pass a clinical skills test in order to practice medicine, beginning with the class of 2005. The examination will use SPs modeling different clinical scenarios. In light of this change, many medical schools may have to reevaluate and possibly revamp their curriculums to insure sufficient acquisition of clinical skills in different specialties. The use of SPs in psychiatry could provide an effective, primary clinical teaching experience to address this new requirement as well.     

Osteoinductivity assay of the variability of repeated extractions of bone morphogenetic proteins from bovine bone at different times

BOrthobiologicsLaboratory ,DepartmentofOralMaxillofacialSurgery,FacultyofDentistry ,UniversityofToronto ,Canada (HuZH ,SeanA .F .PeelandCameronM .L .Clokie)DepartmentofOrthopaedicSurgery,TheAffiliatedSecondHospital,KunmingMedicalCollege ,1Mayuan ,Kunming ,Yunnan6 5 0 10 1,China (HuZH) Correspondingauthor:Tel:86 871 5 35 12 81 2 5 95 ,E mail:zminghu @hotmail.comonemorphogeneticproteins (BMPs)aremembersoftransforminggrowthfactor (TGF )superfamilyencodingpolypeptidesthatshareco…