Childbearing in Prison: A Behavioral Analysis

An ethnographic study of the social and psychological experiences of antepartum and postpartum prisoners was undertaken using semistructured interviews. These data, coupled with chart review data for complications experienced by the mothers and newborns, produced the following outcomes: All subjects perceived the experience as a negative one, 20 of the 26 subjects experienced a total of 72 complications, and four of the 26 newborns experienced complications requiring hospitalization in newborn intensive care units.     

A PROSPECTIVE TRIAL OF 5-FU AND BCNU IN THE TREATMENT OF ADVANCED GASTRIC CANCER

This study was undertaken to investigate the efficacy of a combination of 5-FU and BCNU in the treatment of advanced gastric cancer. Patients whose cancer was recurrent following surgery or in whom surgery was deemed inappropriate were entered in the study and given the two-drug combination at six-weekly intervals until either death or clear progression of disease occurred. Five of twenty-eight patients had unequivocal regression of their disease. The early optimism for this form of therapy in advanced gastric cancer is not supported by this study.     

Undertreatment of Asthma in Dutch General Practice

The relationships between the medication prescribed and fourmeasures of morbidity were assessed in 150 Dutch patients withasthma in general practice. Undertreatment was operationalizedas a discrepancy between medication and morbidity severity.Of the patients, 11.3% were undertreated as measured by thenumber of days during which activities were interrupted by asthmaticsymptoms. Additional measures such as the number of nights interruptedby asthma, number of attacks and episodes of wheezing, indicatedthat 28.0%, 24.0% and 34.5% of the patients respectively wereundertreated. It is concluded that asthma seems to be undertreatedin general practice in The Netherlands, a finding which is consistentwith research on this subject in the UK and other countries.Possible reasons for the persistence of undertreatment of asthmaare discussed, and suggestions for overcoming it are offered.     

CONTINUOUS AMBULATORY ECG MONITORING IN THE PERIOPERATIVE PERIOD: RELATIONSHIP OF PREOPERATIVE STATUS AND OUTCOME

We have used continuous ambulatory electrocardiographs in theperioperative period to monitor 108 patients with known cardiovasculardisease undergoing non-cardiac surgery. There was a high incidenceof ischaemic ST segment changes and ventricular arrhythmias.For the group as a whole, anaesthesia and surgery were followedby increased ventricular ectopic activity, but did not worsenmyocardial ischaemia. However, the mean duration of ischaemicST segment changes was increased significantly in those patientswith treated hypertension. Of the risk factors considered, preoperativeischaemia and peroperative systolic arterial pressure were significantcorrelates with postoperative myocardial ischaemia.