Managing low back pain in active adolescents.

Adolescent low back pain has received limited research attention despite its potentially considerable impact on quality of life. The role of diagnostic triage to identify serious or specific pathology and/or order relevant investigations is considered. An overview of contemporary pain mechanisms is provided, with specific reference to the wide range of risk factors for persistent low back pain.

Can a low-resource-use blood pressure device impact on global maternal mortality?

Background: Hypertension in pregnancy in the developing world is largely underreported, misdiagnosed, and untreated, especially in rural settings, though it contributes significantly to maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality. To reduce general global cardiovascular and cerebrovascular morbidity and mortality, the World Health Organization aims to develop and validate low-resource-use blood pressure devices for use in developing nations.

Objective And Methods: To describe how existing antenatal care systems provide a useful and relevant model through which to evaluate the potential for this initiative to be applied in low-resource settings and to offer opportunities for much needed further research.

Validation of the Nissei DS-400 in a low-resource setting.

Objective: Hypertension affects approximately one billion individuals worldwide. The effective management of hypertension requires accurate measurement and monitoring of blood pressure. We evaluated the accuracy of a low cost self-measurement oscillometric device, with features suitable for use in a low-resource setting, in an adult population in the developing world according to the International Protocol of the European Society of Hypertension.