ALCOHOL AND SOCIAL INFLUENCE: FEMALE YIELDING TO MALE AND FEMALE GROUP PRESSURE

Thirty college women were randomly assigned to either an alcohol,a placebo, or a control group. The alcohol group drank 0.8 mlof 100% alcohol/kg body weight. Subjects estimated the lengthof lines and were exposed to a simulated group pressure. Yieldingto the group pressure constituted the dependent variable. Boththe alcohol and the placebo groups showed increased number ofyieldings compared to the control group. Different theoreticalexplanations are discussed suggesting psychological mechanismsto be the most important.     

A Follow-up Study of Children with Neonatal Herpes Simplex Virus Infections with Particular Regard to Late Nervous Disturbances

Forty-five children with neonatal herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection, representing all known cases in the diagnostic records of four virological laboratories within a 15-year period, were followed up. Twelve children had died. Sixteen of the 33 survivors were healthy. Thirteen children had severe disabilities: all of them showed severe mental retardation; moreover, 11 were tetraplegic, one was hemiplegic with hydrocephalus and one had a pronounced behavioural abnormality. Four children had slight to moderate disabilities: one child was mildly mentally retarded and three, although mentally normal, had hemiplegia and delayed speech development, one of them having a learning disorder as well. Of these 17 neurologically impaired children 16 had ophthalmological abnormalities. EEG recordings were made in 29 patients in the neonatal period. They were markedly abnormal in 24 patients, 14 of whom had localized periodic complexes. An abnormal EEG was a bad prognostic sign. The neurological outcome was better in the HSV-l-infected children (10 cases) than in the HSV-2-infected ones (35 cases). Progressive or recurrent encephalitis was strongly suspected in two preterm children.     

NUTRITION IN LOW-BIRTH-WEIGHT INFANTS: II. Repeated Intravenous Injections of Fat Emulsion

Abstract. Gustafson, A., Kjellmer, I., Olegård, R. and Victorin, L. (Department of Paediatrics, Children's Hospital, and of Medicine I, Sahlgren's Hospital, Goteborg, Sweden). Nutrition in low-birth-weight infants. II. Repeated intravenous injections of fat emulsion. Acta Paediat Scand, 63: 177, 1974.–The elimination of an exogenous fat emulsion from the blood stream after repeated intravenous injections was investigated in two groups of low-birth-weight infants: 11 appropriate-for-date (AFD) pre-term babies and 8 light-for-date (LFD) pre- and full-term infants. During a period with six injections hourly of 0.15 g fat/kg 'b.w. the total lipids of plasma increased only moderately in the AFD group, from 264 to 351 mg/100 ml, while in the LFD group a progressive rise of total lipids occurred from 244 to 466 mg/100 ml. The plasma turbidity increased correspondingly more in the LFD than in the AFD group. In 5 LFD babies, where a progressive accumulation of total lipids occurred with each injection of fat emulsion, heparin was given intravenously after eight fat injections. The plasma was rapidly cleared of fat although fat injections were continued. It is concluded that AFD infants are able to hydrolyse fat emulsions given at an hourly rate of 0.15 g/kg b.w., while this amount of fat to LFD babies will cause an accumulation of plasma lipds unless heparin is supplied simultaneously.     

The work of the student doctor: a pilot project

The primary task of the student doctor in the third year of medical school is to inquire into problems of illness, in co-operation with patients, house officers and other staff. This is a new kind of work for most medical students, who have spent the previous two years reading textbooks and listening to lectures. How do students get out of these passive forms of learning into active inquiry? How do they learn to work co-operatively with other people in the technical difficulty and emotional upheaval of illness? We know that most medical students somehow manage to become practicing physicians, but we have known very little about this critical transition. We would expect that this phase of training, like any major transition in the life cycle, leads to great strain and the formation of new patterns of thinking and behaviour that will last through a lifetime of clinical practice. These considerations lead directly to practical matters of medical education and research. How can we best study this critical period? How can we offer the best education to student doctors forming working relationships with patients? This paper describes a working model of training and research to meet these concerns, adapted from the work of Michael Balint and colleagues in the ‘G.P. (General Practitioner) Seminars’( Balint, 1954, 1957 ; Bourne, 1975 ).     

MEDIASTINAL LYMPHOSARCOMA SIMULATING PERICARDITIS

ABSTRACT: Berg, M., Wilander, E. and Eriksson, A. (Departments of Paediatrics and Pathology, University Hospital, Uppsala, and Department of Paediatrics, Central Hospital, Boden, Sweden). Mediastinal lymphosarcoma simulating pericarditis. Acta Paediatr Scand, 64: 873, 1975–A case of lymphosarcoma of the heart in a 10-year-old boy is presented. The clinical picture simulated a pericarditis. Prednisolone had a remarkably good temporary effect. Post-mortem examination showed a highly differentiated lymphosarcoma invading the pericardium and myocardium from a primary mediastinal localisation. Cytologic examination for malignant cells in the pericardial fluid must not be forgotten in a case of unexplained pericardial effusion.     

Synthesis of sulfated glycosaminoglycans by human gingival fibroblasts from phenytoin-induced gingival overgrowth in vitro

Abstract – The in vitro synthesis of sulfated glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) was studied in gingival fibroblasts from two patients exhibiting phenytoin(PHT)-induced gingival overgrowth, i.e. pseudopockets, which required surgical excision, from one patient on PHT medication not exhibiting pseudopockets and from two normal controls. The results showed that the newly synthesized GAGs were distributed to the culture medium, to a pericellular pool and to the cell fraction. Gingival fibroblasts from the PHT-induced gingival overgrowth showed a significantly increased incorporation of ³⁵SO₄^2- into GAGs compared to the other strains, and this, increase was mainly confined to the dermatan sulfate fraction. These results are in accordance with our previous biochemical studies where increased amounts of GAGs were found in gingival biopsies from the PHT-induced lesion.