The influence on students' specialty selections of faculty evaluations and mini-board scores during third-year clerkships.

The authors investigated whether graduating students' specialty choices were influenced by favorable faculty evaluations and mini-Board scores during their third-year clerkships, and if so, whether the influences were gender-specific. Data were collected from a total of 53 students in two classes, 1988-89 and 1988-90. Univariate and multivariate tests were performed, and the results were analyzed between each class group and between genders in both groups. These results also were compared with information about the students gathered before they matriculated. In general, the results showed a gender-specific correlation: for each rotation where the women's faculty evaluations were significantly higher than the men's, the women subsequently outnumbered the men in choosing that rotation's specialty. Conversely, for each rotation where the men's mini-Board scores were significantly higher than the women's, the men outnumbered the women in choosing that rotation's specialty. The most notable difference was in pediatrics: 8% of the women had indicated an interest in that specialty on the prematriculation questionnaire, while almost one-third of the women in the classes of 1990 and 1991 chose pediatrics residencies. These findings suggest that the favorable scores and evaluations may be one of the influences for students' specialty choices, and that their influence may be gender-specific.     

Compliance with screening mammography. Survey of primary care physicians

A survey of primary care physicians in the greater Tampa Bay metropolitan area was conducted to determine compliance with screening mammography and associated physician characteristics. Information requested included their age, sex, specialty, and board certification status, and the ages and frequencies that they recommend screening mammography for their patients. A total of 565 physicians responded. Even though 88% indicated they follow American Cancer Society recommendations when advising screening mammography, only 62% were actually in full compliance. A significantly greater percentage of obstetricians/gynecologists were compliant (74%) compared to other specialties (family practice, 57%, p = .006; internal medicine, 56%, p = .007; general practice, 53%, p = .003). Women physicians were more likely to be compliant than men (83% versus 58%, p less than .001), and younger physicians more likely than older physicians (72% versus 49%, p less than .001). There was no significant difference in compliance rates between board certified and noncertified physicians.     

Solitary bronchioloalveolar carcinoma: CT criteria

The computed tomographic (CT) scans of 30 patients with solitary bronchioloalveolar carcinoma were reviewed. Common features at CT included the peripheral or subpleural location of a pulmonary mass (25 cases), pseudocavitation (18 cases), heterogeneous attenuation (17 cases), irregular margins forming a star pattern (22 cases), and pleural tags (21 cases). Using these CT criteria, four independent observers attempted to identify cases of bronchioloalveolar carcinoma from a larger sample of lung cancers and benign lesions by categorizing a series of test cases into four probability categories. Although the bronchioloalveolar carcinomas were correctly ranked in the two highest probability categories 75% of the time (in 45 of 60 cases), there was considerable overlap with other lung lesions, particularly with adenocarcinoma and large cell undifferentiated carcinoma. However, even though the typical features of bronchioloalveolar carcinoma are not invariable or highly specific, they are characteristic enough to suggest the diagnosis.     

Narrative and procedural discourse in temporal lobe epilepsy.

It is well established that some individuals with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) demonstrate language deficits at the single word level. However, discourse production rarely has been examined quantitatively within this group. This study compared adult TLE patients with an early seizure onset (< or = age 14 years, n = 27) to a control group (n = 28) on narrative and procedural discourse tasks. As a group, the TLE patients performed normally on the procedural discourse task, but differed significantly from the controls on several narrative discourse variables. At the individual level, 30% of the TLE patients versus 4% of the controls demonstrated impaired discourse ability (p and 0.01). Within this early onset TLE group, discourse performance was not associated with demographic or seizure history variables. Considering the cognitive domain, discourse performance correlated significantly with working memory. In summary, mild discourse dysfunction was present in a significant minority of early onset TLE patients, but this deficit was not closely associated with other language measures. Discourse ability and its neuropsychological, neuroanatomical and conversational speech correlates deserve further study in TLE patients.