The Course of Eating Disorders Involving Bingeing and Purging Among Adolescent Girls: Prevalence,Stability, and Transitions

Purpose

To quantify eating disorder (ED) stability and diagnostic transition among a community-based sample of adolescents and young adult females in the United States.

Comparing histological data from different brains: Sources of error and strategies for minimizing them

The recent development of brain atlases with computer graphics templates, and of huge databases of neurohistochemical data on the internet, has forced a systematic re-examination of errors associated with comparing histological features between adjacent sections of the same brain, between brains treated in the same way, and between brains from groups treated in different ways. The long-term goal is to compare as accurately as possible a broad array of data from experimental brains within the framework of reference atlases. Main sources of error, each of which ideally should be measured and minimized, include intrinsic biological variation, linear and nonlinear distortion of histological sections, plane of section differences between each brain, section alignment problems, and sampling errors. These variables are discussed, along with approaches to error estimation and minimization in terms of a specific example—the distribution of neuroendocrine neurons in the rat paraventricular nucleus. Based on the strategy developed here, the main conclusion is that the best long-term solution is a high-resolution 3D computer graphics model of the brain that can be sliced in any plane and used as the framework for quantitative neuroanatomy, databases, knowledge management systems, and structure–function modeling. However, any approach to the automatic annotation of neuroanatomical data—relating its spatial distribution to a reference atlas—should deal systematically with these sources of error, which reduce localization reliability.     

Radial artery infections and aneurysms after catheterization

Twelve patients in whom radial artery infections developed after catheterization in an intensive care unit over a 2-year period were reviewed. The incidence of local infection was 0.4%. An increased risk of infection was associated with prolonged catheterization (greater than 4 days). Aneurysms developed in five patients. Signs of septic emboli were present in two patients, including Osler's nodes, Janeway's lesions, and fingertip infarcts. In 6 of the 12 patients, the radial artery infection resolved with antibiotic treatment alone. The five patients with infected aneurysms were treated successfully with antibiotics and surgical excision. The radial artery was reconstructed by use of a vein graft in one patient. We believe that patients not responding promptly to antibiotics or patients with infected aneurysms are best treated by surgical excision.     

A population-based study of migraine headaches in Olmsted County, Minnesota. Case ascertainment and classification.

Using the unique resources of the Rochester Epidemiology Project for population-based studies, we identified 629 Olmsted County, Minn., residents who fulfilled the 1988 International Headache Society criteria for newly diagnosed migraine over a 3-year period. Over 6,400 patient records from several diagnostic rubrics were screened; a substantial proportion of cases had been 'signed-out' to diagnoses other than 'migraine headache'. Medical records were reviewed by two trained nurses who abstracted supporting data for two neurologists. The neurologists determined whether each case met eligibility requirements and assigned a headache diagnosis by consensus. The diagnostic criteria offered some flexibility and were adapted to retrospective record-based research. Most records contained enough information to effectively classify the headache, although information on the frequency and duration of attacks proved to be problematic. A validation re-abstraction of a 10% sample of cases was undertaken with acceptable reproducibility of symptoms and diagnosis. Our study shows that migraine headache can be studied retrospectively through existing detailed medical records.