Bacterial contamination of ‘Venflon’ intravenous cannulae with valved injection sideport

Eighty-eight intravenous cannulae with valved injection sideports were examined bacteriologically after approximately three days (64–80 h) normal clinical use. Three methods of culture of the cannulae were used, which distinguished contamination of the outer and inner surfaces as well as detecting bacteria remaining on the inner cannula surface following a washing procedure of the lumen. Of the cannulae sampled, 40·9 per cent were found to be contaminated on their inner surfaces and no correlation was obtained between use of the sideport and contamination of the cannulae at this site. It was concluded that contamination of a cannula lumen did not necessarily result in bacteraemia.     

Arthrography of the knee: a comparative study of the accuracy of single and double contrast techniques

Single and double contrast arthrographic techniques were compared in 951 patinets with suspected meniscal injuries. Exploratory surgery of the knee was performed in 384 of these patients and good clinical follow-up was obtained in 135 patients. In the latter two groups of patients, the single contrast technique was 97% accurate in assessing the medial meniscus and 96% accurate in assessing the lateral meniscus. Double contrast arthrography was 97% accurate in assessing the medial meniscus and 93% accurate in assessing the lateral meniscus. Numerical differences in the results from the two techniques were not statistically significant. Therefore both techniques can be considered equally effective diagnostically.     

Alexithymia and its relationship to dissociation in patients with panic disorder

Conditions that impede the regulation of emotional arousal, such as alexithymia and dissociation, may underlie panic attacks. This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between alexithymia and dissociation in patients with panic disorder (PD). We assessed 95 PD outpatients with regard to alexithymia (20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale), dissociation (Dissociation Experience Scale), and overall psychological distress (Symptom Checklist 90-Revised, Global Severity Index). Regression analyses revealed a positive correlation between alexithymia and dissociation, even when the Global Severity Index was controlled for. A specific link was observed between "difficulty in identifying feelings" and "depersonalization/derealization." Patients who showed the pathological form of dissociation had higher levels of alexithymia, with particular regard to "difficulty in identifying feelings" and, to a smaller extent, "difficulty in describing feelings." These results support a strong relationship between alexithymia and dissociation in patients with PD. Assessing alexithymia and dissociation at the outset of therapy may be helpful for individualized therapy planning.     

Mental health problems, obstructive lung disease and lung function: findings from the general population

Objective

There is cumulative evidence for a strong association of obstructive lung disease, i.e. asthma and COPD, with poor mental health, particularly with anxiety disorders and major depression. However, studies relating mental health problems to objective measures of lung function as assessed by spirometry are lacking.

Methods

The 12-month prevalence of specific psychopathological syndromes among 1772 adults from the general population was estimated by a structured interview. Additionally, participants underwent spirometry and were asked about obstructive lung disease in the year prior to the study. Logistic and linear regression models were used to relate obstructive lung disease and spirometrically defined airway obstruction to mental health problems.

Results

Mental health problems were found in 35.7% of the participants. After adjusted for sociodemographic, clinical and life-style factors, asthma and chronic bronchitis were associated with almost all domains of mental health problems. In contrast, independent of its definition, spirometric airflow limitation was only related to generalized anxiety (odds ratios ranging from 2.3 to 2.7). A reduced ratio of forced expiratory volume in one second to forced vital capacity was associated with mental health problems in general and panic and general anxiety in particular.

Conclusion

Our findings suggest an association of objective measure of airflow limitation to generalized anxiety and panic. While the causal relationship between obstructive lung disease, airflow limitation and anxiety remains to be determined, clinicians should pay diagnostic attention to the significant overlap of these conditions.     

Familiality of obsessive-compulsive disorder in nonclinical and clinical subjects

OBJECTIVE: Studies of the familiality of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) have yielded inconsistent results. This study compared the familial aggregation of OCD in first-degree relatives of community subjects with never-treated OCD, outpatients with OCD, and comparison subjects. METHOD: Fifteen persons from the community with untreated OCD were matched on age and interview type (direct or through family informants) with 90 OCD patients from four treatment facilities and 70 comparison subjects. Direct or indirect interviews using the German-language version of the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia-Lifetime Version for Anxiety Disorders (DSM-IV) were obtained from 58, 285, and 247 first-degree relatives, respectively, of the three groups. The rate of OCD in case versus comparison relatives was assessed with chi-square tests, and odds ratios were calculated for risk estimation. Cox proportional hazards analysis was used to estimate the age-related risk of relatives of being affected by OCD. RESULTS: Cox proportional hazards analyses revealed a 6.2-fold higher risk (hazard ratio) for relatives of all OCD cases for definite OCD and a 2.2-fold higher risk for subclinical OCD compared with relatives of comparison subjects. For relatives of community subjects with OCD, the risk for definite OCD (10.3% versus 5.6%) was 1.6, and the risk for subclinical OCD (15.4% versus 4.1%) was 3.4 compared with relatives of OCD patients from treatment sites. CONCLUSIONS: These results from the first controlled European family study of OCD confirm earlier U.S. data on the familiality of OCD in patients recruited from treatment facilities. The finding of a comparable familial aggregation of definite OCD and a higher familial aggregation of subclinical OCD in relatives of never-treated persons with OCD from the community strongly supports the impact of familial-genetic factors in OCD.