The Success and Failure of a Radiology Quality Metric: The Case of OP-10.

Purpose: Medical quality metrics can serve various functions, including promoting quality improvement efforts within a medical system, and providing a basis for comparing quality among institutions. OP-10, an imaging efficiency quality measure based on the number of CT scans of the abdomen performed both with and without contrast is broadly used and publically reported, but it has not been investigated in actual practice.

Methods: In this project, we report on both a successful quality improvement effort built around measurement of OP-10, and on the identified potential limitations of OP-10 itself for comparing among institutions.

Affective neuroscientific and neuropsychoanalytic approaches to two intractable psychiatric problems: why depression feels so bad and what addicts really want.

The affective foundations of depression and addictions are discussed from a cross-species - animal to human - perspective of translational psychiatric research. Depression is hypothesized to arise from an evolutionarily conserved mechanism to terminate protracted activation of separation-distress (PANIC/GRIEF) systems of the brain, a shutdown mechanism which may be in part mediated by down-regulation of dopamine based reward-SEEKING resources. This shutdown of the brain's core motivational machinery is organized by shifts in multiple peptide systems, particularly increased dynorphin (kappa opioids).

Adaptation to motion sickness from torso rotation affects symptoms from supine head nodding.

Introduction: Space motion sickness affects more than 50% of astronauts. Adaptation to one kind of nauseogenic motion can affect the response to another. We hypothesized that repeated exposure to torso rotation (TR) would diminish motion sickness (MS) due to supine head nodding (HN), a ground-based analogue for space sickness.

Motion sickness provoked by torso rotation predicts that caused by head nodding.

Introduction: Some degree of space motion sickness is experienced by at least 50% of astronauts early in flight. It is unpleasant and could be hazardous during an extravehicular activity or urgent re-entry in the first few days after launch. To date, there is no reliable ground-based test to predict who will be affected.

Panksepp's common sense view of affective neuroscience is not the commonsense view in large areas of neuroscience.

Jaak Panksepp's article 'Affective Consciousness: Core Emotional Feelings in Animals and Humans' is a excellent review and summary by a leading empirical contributor whose work for many years has been running counter to reigning behavioristic premises in neuroscience. It may unfortunately be true that he could not get this review published in many neuroscience journals because it attacks too many sacred (behavioristic) cows. Panksepp has given readers of Consciousness and Cognition a nicely condensed summary of much of his classic 1998 textbook, Affective Neuroscience.

2-year review of a novel vestibular rehabilitation program in Montreal and Laval, Quebec.

Objective: To evaluate the benefits of a vestibular rehabilitation program (VRP) in the Montreal-Laval area.

Design: The VRP was conceptualized by a panel of experts including otolaryngologists, physiotherapists, and researchers from McGill University and its teaching hospitals. From February 1999 to December 2001, 117 patients were seen, and 88 of them completed the VRP.

Vestibular suppression during space flight.

Normal movements performed while voluntarily fixing the head to the torso can lead to motion sickness in susceptible individuals. The underlying mechanism may involve excessive suppression of vestibular responses. A similar motor strategy is often adopted in the early days of a space flight and might contribute to the development of space motion sickness.

Spatial navigation after surgical resection of an acoustic neuroma: pilot study.

Objective: To characterize navigation errors made by patients with the absence of vestibular function on one side owing to surgical resection of an acoustic neuroma.

Methods: Seventeen young (18-38 years) and 9 older healthy individuals (67-83 years), as well as 5 patients 2 to 20 months following surgery (37-61 years), were studied. They sidestepped laterally with eyes closed toward memorized targets located 1.