Association Between Patient and Physician Sex and Physician-Estimated Stroke and Bleeding Risks in Atrial Fibrillation

Background

Physicians treating nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (AF) assess stroke and bleeding risks when deciding on anticoagulation. The agreement between empirical and physician-estimated risks is unclear. Furthermore, the association between patient and physician sex and anticoagulation decision-making is uncertain.

Dietary Tryptophan Reverses Alcohol-induced Impairment of Facial Recognition But Not Verbal Recall

The present study demonstrates that alcohol-induced memory impairment can be attenuated by pretreatment with an oral tryptophan supplementation. These results provide support for the role of a brain serotonin deficit in this impairment and highlight the impact a dietary manipulation can have on a complex behavioral process.     

The self-traumatized perpetrator as a “transient mental illness”

Conceived of during the Vietnam war, the hypothesis that the perpetrators of atrocities could subsequently develop psychiatric disorders identical to those of their victims led to the emergence of a specific category: the self-traumatized perpetrator. While the United States was discovering that its soldiers had been involved in appallingly barbaric acts, psychiatry through the DSM-III post-traumatic stress disorder provided a more conciliatory response to the behavior of those veterans by shifting the political issue into the sphere of clinical debate. The author examines the origin, development and the subsequent exhaustion of this category from a strictly anthropological point of view. In this study, the category of self-traumatized perpetrator has been constructed on the basis of psychological knowledge and of various influencing external factors. In this sense, it can be viewed as transient category as far as psychiatric nosology is concerned, and is closely dependent on the outcome of the political and social issues that favored its emergence, and destined to disappear with them. In adopting the term coined by Ian Hacking, the author shows that the disorder observed in the case of the self-traumatized perpetrator is above all a “transient mental illness”     

Brightness discrimination and contrast sensitivity in chronic glaucoma--a clinical study.

The visual acuity, the difference in sensitivity of the two eyes to light (brightness ratio), and contrast sensitivity were assessed in 28 patients with chronic open angle glaucoma and compared with those of 41 normal controls of similar ages and visual acuity. The results obtained were related to the results of Tübingen visual field analysis in patients with glaucoma. Twenty-four of the 28 glaucoma patients (86%) had a significant disparity in brightness ratio between the two eyes. This was found to match the frequency of visual field loss. Moreover, there was a significant relationship between the interocular differences in brightness sense and the difference in the degree of visual field loss between the two eyes. Of the glaucoma patients 39% had sum contrast sensitivities outside the normal range for age-matched normal controls. No significant correlation was found between the interocular difference in brightness sense and the visual acuity or the interocular difference in sum contrast sensitivity. It is concluded that, in the presence of a normal visual acuity, the brightness ratio test warrants evaluation as a potential screening test for chronic open angle glaucoma.     

Evaluation by dental students of a communication skills course using professional role-players in a UK school of dentistry

This paper reports student (n = 180) feedback on the role-play teaching methodology used in behavioural sciences teaching at The School of Dentistry in Birmingham (UK). The feedback received on this well-established (since 1995) educational programme was collected via questionnaire (100% response rate), requiring Likert scale and free text responses. Generally students reported that they had enjoyed and valued the session. Over two-thirds (69.7%) of students rated the role-players as 'very real' and over three-quarters (78.9%) rated their feedback as 'very fair'. The data collected from this study will inform future curriculum development. Student feedback was very positive and demonstrated that the cohort (86% of all students studying in years 1, 2 and 3) found the use of professional role-players involved in behavioural sciences teaching to be both acceptable and valuable.     

Radiopacity of dental materials using a digital X-ray system.

OBJECTIVES: Radiopacity is a desirable property for most intra-oral materials. There are established ISO and ANSI/ADA protocols for determining radiopacity using film-based radiography. However, these methods are not always followed by researchers. This study aims to adapt those procedures by using digital radiography, a simplified stepwedge, and examine the effects of target distance and exposure time choice. METHODS: One millimetre thick samples of three dental materials were prepared by placing the materials into a 1.00 mm thick washer sandwiched between two glass slides. The samples were digitally radiographed alongside a stepwedge of aluminum alloy 1100 with an X-ray unit at 70 kVp using five different target distance/exposure time combinations. For each combination, the grey scale values of various thicknesses of the stepwedge were converted into absorbencies and plotted against their thickness. These plots were then linearly regressed in order to correlate absorbance with a thickness of aluminum for each target distance/exposure time combination. The absorbencies of each sample were then converted into radiopacities using these correlations. RESULTS: The correlations between the absorbance of the stepwedge and its thickness were highly linear. This linearity allows the correlation to be accurately deduced from fewer data points than required by the ISO and ANSI/ADA protocols. Varying exposure time did not significantly affect the mean radiopacity measured at a target distance of 30 cm. Varying the target distance did not significantly affect the measured radiopacity as long as the samples were properly exposed. SIGNIFICANCE: A simplified, consistent digital method for determining radiopacity is presented.     

Progression of amiodarone induced cataracts

Amiodarone hydrochloride is a potent antiarrhythmic agent recently approved for use by the Food and Drug Administration. Anterior subcapsular lens opacities were observed in seven of fourteen patients treated with moderate to high doses of amiodarone at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in San Francisco in 1982. The present report summarizes the present status of these same fourteen patients ten years later. Anterior subcapsular lens opacities developed or progressed in all patients continuing treatment with this antiarrhythmic agent during the following ten year interval. Although Snellen visual acuities are not decreased, subtle visual impairment is present as measured by contrast sensitivity measurements with and without glare. This decrease in visual acuity is not a contraindication for therapy with this potentially life saving drug.     

In vitro evaluation of an implantable left ventricular assist device

The development of implantable left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) has almost reached the stage of providing permanent circulatory support in patients who are unsuitable for, or denied, the transplant option. As part of our ongoing haemodynamic evaluation of the Thermo Cardiosystems Inc. (Boston, USA) Mark 14 pneumatic LVAD, pressure-volume loops have been produced from in vitro studies using a modified National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI, USA) mock circulatory loop. These studies have demonstrated that during certain phases of the pump cycle non-physiologically high and low pressures are generated within the LVAD. Such abnormal pressures may damage either the bioprosthetic valves in the LVAD or the native heart, and may have adverse effects on cardiovascular control mechanisms.