Maternal and paternal alcohol consumption and miscarriage

Summary. To explore the role of parental alcohol consumption in miscarriage we interviewed 80 women who miscarried about their own and their partners' drinking habits. A control group of 81 gestational-age-matched women whose pregnancy ended in the delivery of a healthy infant at term were similarly questioned. The use of alcohol by women and men was equally frequent in both groups. Before pregnancy, the mean alcohol consumption per week had been about 1–2 drinks for the women and 4–5 drinks for the men. During the presumed day of conception, 13% of the women who miscarried and 11% of the women in the control group had drunk on average 3–4 drinks; the other women had been abstinent at this time. Of the partners, 13% and 15%, respectively, had taken a mean of 4–5 drinks. In both groups 58% of the subjects continued to consume alcohol during pregnancy. The mean consumption was about one drink a week by the women who miscarried and half a drink a week in the control group. Of women who miscarried, 36 had a blighted ovum and in this subgroup alcohol consumption in both women and men was similar to that in the other women who miscarried and their partners, suggesting that alcohol is not causally related to the development of a blighted ovum. These results suggest that moderate maternal or paternal alcohol consumption does not increase the risk of miscarriage.     

The psychiatric patient's right to self-determination: a preliminary investigation from the professional nurse's point of view

The aim of this preliminary empirical investigation was to explore the concept of self-determination and to discuss its applicability to psychiatric nursing. The data were collected with a questionnaire submitted to professional nurses ( n =127) working on long-term wards in four Finnish hospitals. Data analysis combined the methods of content analysis and quantitative statistics. A tentative concept apparatus was created in order to provide nursing science with a broader understanding of the issue at hand. Nurses identified various factors that act to restrict and to support self-determination: the most common restrictive factor was the patient's illness or condition, and the most common supportive factor was nursing intervention. Views differed on the importance of self-determination in the case of psychiatric patients; over half of the nurses described the right to self-determination as very important. On the basis of the findings it is concluded that self-determination is a valid concept for the psychiatric patient. It was also thought to serve the needs of education as well as evaluation.     

Purification of high molecular weight urokinase from human urine and comparative study of two active forms of urokinase

An improved method for the purification of high molecular weight urokinase to homogeneity from human urine was established. A yield of 32% with a 3,100-fold purification was obtained by Hyflo Super-Cel treatment, heat treatment at 60 degrees C for 10 hr, serial column chromatography on DEAE-Sepharose CL-6B and O-[3-(p-sulfophenylamino)-2-hydroxypropyl]-cellulose (SFOP-cellulose), and gel filtration on Ultrogel AcA 54. The low molecular weight form of urokinase was also purified to homogeneity by chromatography on hydroxyl apatite and gel filtration on Sephadex G-75 after the SFOP-cellulose column step. The high molecular weight urokinase had only one isoelectric form with a pI of 9.7, whereas the low molecular weight form had six isoelectric subforms with pI values between 9.4 and 6.4. The absorption coefficients at 280 nm of both urokinase forms were 13.61 and 13.50, respectively. Fibrinolytic and esterolytic activities of the two urokinase forms were compared in various assay methods.