Food choice in response to computer-generated nutrition information provided about meal selections in workplace restaurants

Aim : The study was designed to determine the effect of computerized nutrition information on consumer food choice in two workplace restaurants, one in which customers had to pay for their lunch and the other providing a free lunch. Methods : Customers entering the restaurants were asked to make selections from the menu on a computer screen. The energy, saturated fatty acids, non-milk extrinsic sugars and non-starch polysaccharide content of the meal selected was displayed graphically in proportion to the dietary reference values. They were given the opportunity to change their selected meal and the composition of all meals was recorded. Results : The nutritional composition of the first meal provoked 16% of customers to make a second selection. The proportion of energy in the first selection had been 31% higher for saturated fatty acids and 23% higher for non-milk extrinsic sugars than the first selection made by people who were satisfied with their first choice. In their second attempt they succeeded in reducing both nutrients to levels similar to those present in the meals selected by people who had been satisfied with their first selection. Customers>> selections for non-starch polysaccharide and energy did not differ between the groups. The main changes made by customers to achieve improved second choices were to omit dishes (44%), add dishes (19%), make changes within a menu category (46%), and make changes from one menu category to another (26%). Conclusion : It was concluded that provision of graphical nutrition information on a computer screen could be used by a subset of the users of both restaurants to enable them to improve their menu selections to a similar composition to that selected by the other people who used the computer system.     

Severe odontogenic infections

Background : Severe odontogenic infections are serious potentially lethal conditions. Following the death of a patient in the authors' institution this study was initiated to determine the risk factors, management and outcome of a consecutive series of patients.
Methods : All patients admitted to the Royal Adelaide Hospital under the care of the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Unit with odontogenic infections in calendar year 2003 were investigated. Detailed information relative to their pre-presentation history, surgical and anaesthetic management and outcome was obtained and analysed.
Results : Forty-eight patients, 32M, 16F, average age 34.5, range 19 to 88 years were treated. All presented with pain and swelling, with 21 (44 per cent) having trismus. Forty-four (92 per cent) were as a result of dental neglect and four (8 per cent) were regular dental patients having endodontic treatment which failed. Of those known to have been treated prior to presentation, most had been on antibiotics. Most patients had aggressive surgical treatment with extraction, surgical drainage, high dose intravenous antibiotics and rehydration. The hospital stay was 3.3 (range 1–16) days. Patients requiring prolonged intubation and high dependency or intensive care (40 per cent) had longer hospitalization. No patient died and all fully recovered.
Conclusion : Severe odontogenic infections are a serious risk to the patient's health and life. Management is primarily surgical with skilled anaesthetic airway management. Antibiotics are required in high intravenous doses as an adjunct and not as a primary treatment.     

Radiation dose reduction during hysterosalpingography: an application of scanning-beam digital radiography

Hysterosalpingography was performed in 31 patients by means of a low-dose scanning-beam digital radiographic system. The technique permits adequate evaluation of gynecologic abnormalities while allowing significant reduction in radiation: 2.4-mR (6.1 X 10(-7) C/kg) exposure to the skin and 0.7-mrad (7 X 10(-6) Gy) mean dose to the ovaries per image obtained. Sixteen patients demonstrated readily recognizable and documented abnormalities, corroborated by laparoscopy, laparotomy, or other supportive evidence.     

Granulomatous mastitis: a report of seven cases

The clinical history and histological features of seven cases of granulomatous mastitis are presented. The lesion occurs in young parous women as a tender extra-areolar breast lump. Histologically, non-caseating discrete granulomas are present, confined to breast lobules with, in three cases, coalescence of the granulomas and microabscess formation. Pathogenesis of the changes is discussed. It is thought that granulomatous mastitis is an entity morphologically distinct from duct ectasia/plasma cell mastitis and the commoner forms of granulomatous breast diseases.     

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) antigenemia assay is more sensitive than shell vial cultures for rapid detection of CMV in polymorphonuclear blood leukocytes.

We compared the cytomegalovirus (CMV) antigenemia assay with shell vial cultures of polymorphonuclear leukocyte (PMNL)-enriched blood fractions for rapid diagnosis of CMV viremia. PMNL fractions of 280 blood specimens from 171 patients (170 solid-organ transplant recipients and 1 patient undergoing pretransplant evaluation) were inoculated in shell vial and conventional CMV cultures. A commercially available kit (CMV-vue kit; INCSTAR Corp.) was used for the CMV antigenemia assay, in which PMNL preparations were stained with monoclonal antibodies directed against the CMV protein pp65. Mixed-leukocyte blood fractions from the same blood specimens were inoculated in parallel shell vial and conventional cultures. CMV viremia (defined by the isolation of CMV in conventional cultures) was detected in 32 (13%) of 245 PMNL fractions included in the final analysis. Twenty-eight (87.5%) were also positive in the CMV antigenemia assay, whereas 22 (69%) were positive in shell vial cultures. Ten (4%) additional PMNL fractions positive only in the CMV antigenemia assay were from eight patients with active CMV infections (six patients), who had previous or subsequent episodes of CMV viremia (seven patients), or in whom CMV was isolated in cultures of simultaneously obtained mixed-leukocyte fractions (three patients). Overall, the CMV antigenemia assay was significantly more sensitive than shell vial cultures for detection of CMV in the PMNL fraction of blood leukocytes (P < 0.01, McNemar's test), and we recommend it as the method of choice for rapid diagnosis of CMV viremia.     

Cytomegalovirus infection in infancy: virological and immunological studies

Immunological and virological studies on 18 infants with cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection were performed. Eleven of these infants were studied on multiple occasions over a period of 1 year. The patients were divided into three clinical groups based on the probable time of infection and the resulting variation in clinical presentation. General parameters of cell-mediated immunity as determined by E-rosette formation and lymphocyte proliferative responses to mitogens and antigens were found to be normal. Quantitation of CMV excretion in urine, CMV-specific immunofluorescent (IF) and complement-fixing (CF) antibody titres and CMV-specific cell-mediated immune responses were done on all patients at approximately monthly intervals. Throughout the study period all patients continued to excrete CMV despite the presence of high antibody titres to the virus. CMV-specific lymphocyte proliferative responses were absent or diminished in 15 of the 18 patients. The immunological and virological status of all patients was similar regardless of the clinical manifestation of infection.