Scholarly productivity: are nurse academics catching up?

The aim of this study was to document the amount of recent change in Australian nurse academics' scholarly productivity and to investigate the influence of demographic factors such as gender, academic rank, qualifications, increase in qualifications, state of residence, university and university size. Scholarly productivity was calculated from an audit of journal articles. The findings of this study indicate that, while there has been a slight increase in scholarly productivity in the last five years, nursing still lags behind other disciplines. Scholarly productivity was found to be positively associated with highest academic qualification, academic rank and promotion. The study indicates the continuing need for senior nurse academics to provide mentoring to colleagues and foster the development of skills associated with scholarly productivity.     

Influence of pain and urinary symptoms on quality of life in young men with chronic prostatitis-like symptoms

BACKGROUND: Our aims in the present study were to estimate the influences of pain and urinary symptoms on quality of life, and to determine which of these two variables has the most predictive power with respect to quality of life in young men with chronic prostatitis-like symptoms. METHODS: Chronic prostatitis-like symptoms were measured by the National Institutes of Health-Chronic Prostatitis Symptom Index. Of the 28,841 men aged 20 years who lived in the study community, 18,495 men (a response rate 64.1%) agreed to participate in the study. A total of 1057 men who complained of symptoms indicative of chronic prostatitis were included in the study. The influences of pain and urinary symptoms on quality of life were determined using logistic regression analysis. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to estimate the predictive ability of each of these variables with respect to quality of life. RESULTS: Results from multivariate analysis showed that both pain and urinary symptoms were associated with an increased likelihood of impaired quality of life, although pain contributed more to a reduced quality of life than urinary symptoms. Relative to men who experienced mild pain, men who experienced moderate pain had a 3.9-fold risk of poor quality of life (odds ratio [OR], 3.87; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.86-5.23; P < 0.001) and those who experienced severe pain had a 15.7-fold risk of reduced quality of life (OR, 15.68; 95% CI, 6.59-37.35; P < 0.001). Moderate urinary symptoms were associated with a 1.4-fold risk of bother (OR, 1.41; 95% CI, 1.01-1.99; P < 0.001) and severe urinary symptoms were associated with 2.4-fold risk (OR, 2.39; 95% CI, 1.37-4.12; P < 0.001), relative to mild urinary symptoms. Comparison of the effects of pain and urinary symptoms showed that pain severity had the most predictive power for bother, quality of life, and quality-of-life impact. The areas under the ROC curves for bother, quality of life, and quality-of-life impact were 71.3%, 69.3% and 72.5%, respectively. CONCLUSION: Urinary symptoms and pain might be associated with an increased likelihood of impaired quality of life in young men with chronic prostatitis-like symptoms. In addition, our findings suggest that pain severity is the most influential variable for determining quality of life in this population.     

Pelvic Pain Complicating LHRH Analogue Treatment of Fibroids

We present these 3 cases to alert others to the possibility of severe pain with rapid shrinkage of fibroids occurring during LHRH analogue treatment. We suggest management of such events should not be surgical except for vaginal excision of prolapsed fibroid polyps.     

Voltage-gated Currents in Rabbit Retinal Astrocytes

The voltage-gated currents of the astrocytes associated with the retinal capillaries of the rabbit retina were studied using whole-cell patch clamp recording. The resting potential of these cells was −70 ± 4.8 mV (mean ± SEM; n = 54), and the input resistance and cell capacitance were 558 ± 3.6 MΩ and 19.5 ± 1.8 pF respectively. Depolarization to potentials positive to −50 mV evoked rapidly activating inward and outward currents. The inward current was transient, eliminated by substitution of choline for Na⁺ in the bathing solution, and reduced by 50% in the presence of 1 μM tetrodotoxin. The time-to-peak of the Na⁺ current was more than twice that for the Na⁺ current found in retinal neurons. The glial Na⁺ current was half-inactivated at −55 mV. A transient component of the outward K⁺ current was blocked by external 4-aminopyridine while a more sustained component was blocked by external tetraethylammonium. At potentials between −150 and −50 mV the membrane behaved Ohmically. Voltage-gated currents in retinal astrocytes recorded in situ appear qualitatively similar to those described for some glial cells in vitro.