Foreign body removal with fine-nosed forceps and assistance of image intensification

Foreign body removal has been developed as a routine radiology department service. Techniques, indications and hazards are described.     

Reproducibility of a self-administered lifetime physical activity questionnaire among female college alumnae

Recent epidemiologic evidence suggests that lifetime physical activity is an important factor in the development of many chronic diseases. The authors assessed the reproducibility of a self-administered physical activity questionnaire designed to assess the duration, frequency, and intensity of lifetime household and recreational activities. The study was conducted among 134 female college alumnae from two colleges in western Massachusetts who were aged 39-65 years in 1998. A modified version of the Historical Leisure Activity Questionnaire was used to assess physical activity over four prior age periods (menarche to 21 years and 22-34, 35-50, and 51-65 years). The questionnaire was administered to participants by mail twice 1 year apart. The intraclass correlation coefficients used to measure reproducibility were 0.82 for total lifetime physical activity, 0.80 for lifetime moderate-intensity activities, 0.86 for lifetime vigorous-intensity activities, 0.87 for lifetime recreational activities, and 0.78 for lifetime household activities. Correlations were 0.73 for total activity during the earliest prior age period (menarche to 21 years), 0.70 for ages 22-34 years, 0.78 for ages 35-50 years, and 0.83 for ages 51-65 years. These data indicate that this physical activity questionnaire is reproducible and provides a useful measure of average lifetime activity.     

Physician empathy: definition,components, measurement,and relationship to gender and specialty

OBJECTIVE: There is a dearth of empirical research on physician empathy despite its mediating role in patient-physician relationships and clinical outcomes. This study was designed to investigate the components of physician empathy, its measurement properties, and group differences in empathy scores. METHOD: A revised version of the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (with 20 Likert-type items) was mailed to 1,007 physicians affiliated with the Jefferson Health System in the greater Philadelphia region; 704 (70%) responded. Construct validity, reliability of the empathy scale, and the differences on mean empathy scores by physicians' gender and specialty were examined. RESULTS: Three meaningful factors emerged (perspective taking, compassionate care, and standing in the patient's shoes) to provide support for the construct validity of the empathy scale that was also found to be internally consistent with relatively stable scores over time. Women scored higher than men to a degree that was nearly significant. With control for gender, psychiatrists scored a mean empathy rating that was significantly higher than that of physicians specializing in anesthesiology, orthopedic surgery, neurosurgery, radiology, cardiovascular surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, and general surgery. No significant difference was observed on empathy scores among physicians specializing in psychiatry, internal medicine, pediatrics, emergency medicine, and family medicine. CONCLUSIONS: Empathy is a multidimensional concept that varies among physicians and can be measured with a psychometrically sound tool. Implications for specialty selection and career counseling are discussed.     

Unusual presentation of perirenal lung metastases

Lung cancer is not commonly known to metastasise to the perirenal space, with only five such cases previously published. We present an unusual case of perirenal lung metastases manifesting as diffuse perinephric stranding which to our knowledge has not been described before.     

Multicenter non-randomized phase II study of raltitrexed (Tomudex) and oxaliplatin in non-pretreated metastatic colorectal cancer patients.

BACKGROUND: This multicenter, phase II, open-label study evaluated the antitumor efficacy and safety of oxaliplatin and raltitrexed (Tomudex) in non-pretreated advanced colorectal cancer patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Seventy-one patients received oxaliplatin 130 mg/m(2) and raltitrexed 3 mg/m(2) intravenously on an outpatient basis every 3 weeks. All patients had histologically proven metastatic colorectal adenocarcinoma, performance status 相似文献   

Breast cancer cell lines: friend or foe?

The majority of breast cancer research is conducted using established breast cancer cell lines as in vitro models. An alternative is to use cultures established from primary breast tumours. Here, we discuss the pros and cons of using both of these models in translational breast cancer research.     

Physicians' Perceptions of the Changing Health Care System: Comparisons by Gender and Specialties

This study was designed to investigate physicians' perceptions of changes in the United States health care system impacting academic medicine, quality of care, patient referrals, cost, ethical and sociopolitical aspects of medicine. A survey was mailed in 1998 to 1,272 physicians (graduates of Jefferson Medical College between 1987 and 1992); 835 physicians (66%) responded. Results showed that a substantial majority (92%) believed that learning to work in a managed care environment should become an essential component of medical education. Physicians perceived that current changes impair physicians' autonomy (94%), and restrain physicians' freedom to provide optimal care (84%). A sizable majority (76%) endorsed patients' freedom to seek specialist care, and 55% believed that capitation reduces physicians' motivation for long-term monitoring of patients. The majority endorsed universal health coverage (80%), and agreed to support rather than resist the changes (62%). Only 18% hold a positive view of the changes in the future. The majority believed that medical education should prepare physicians to provide end-of-life care (92%), and that organized medicine should take a stand on social issues that can influence the well-being of society (79%). Only 34% endorsed the legalization of physician-assisted suicide. No gender differences were observed, but a few differences were found between generalists and specialists. Results can help in understanding physicians' perceptions of current changes in the United States health care system, and in providing guidelines for the development of educational programs to prepare physicians to face new challenges.