Feasibility of online mindfulness-based interventions for families affected with postpartum depression and anxiety: study protocol.

Introduction: Postpartum depression and anxiety (PPDA) is experienced by up to 20% of families in the first year. The condition impacts not only parents but also their developing child. While mindfulness-based interventions (MBI) have shown to be beneficial for this population, many parents do not have access to treatment or find it challenging to commit or complete the treatment.

Design of Shape Memory Thermoplastic Material Systems for FDM-Type Additive Manufacturing.

The work presented here describes a paradigm for the design of materials for additive manufacturing platforms based on taking advantage of unique physical properties imparted upon the material by the fabrication process. We sought to further investigate past work with binary shape memory polymer blends, which indicated that phase texturization caused by the fused filament fabrication (FFF) process enhanced shape memory properties. In this work, two multi-constituent shape memory polymer systems were developed where the miscibility parameter was the guide in material selection.

Feasibility of a mindfulness-based cognitive therapy group intervention as an adjunctive treatment for postpartum depression and anxiety.

Background: Many women experience moderate-to-severe depression and anxiety in the postpartum period for which pharmacotherapy is often the first-line treatment. Many breastfeeding mothers are reticent to increase their dose or consider additional medication, despite incomplete response, due to potential adverse effects on their newborn. These mothers are amenable to non-pharmacological intervention for complete symptom remission.

Capnographic identification of end-expiratory flow limitation.

Patients with end-expiratory flow limitation (eEFL) demonstrate a terminal rise in capnography slope. The high slope could represent phase 5, a phenomenon described for single breath N tests but previously unreported during capnography. This study evaluated 6 healthy subjects exhaling from total lung capacity to residual volume at several set constant rates.

Measurement of blood pressure.

Blood pressure is overwhelmingly the most commonly measured parameter for the assessment of haemodynamic stability. In clinical routine in the operating theatre and in the intensive care unit, blood pressure measurements are usually obtained intermittently and non-invasively using oscillometry (upper-arm cuff method) or continuously and invasively with an arterial catheter. However, both the oscillometric method and arterial catheter-derived blood pressure measurements have potential limitations.

Access to Complex Abortion Care Service and Planning Improved through a Toll-Free Telephone Resource Line.

Background. Providing equitable access to the full range of reproductive health services over wide geographic areas presents significant challenges to any health system. We present a review of a service provision model which has provided improved access to abortion care; support for complex issues experienced by women seeking nonjudgmental family planning health services; and a mechanism to collect information on access barriers.

Noninvasive continuous beat-to-beat radial artery pressure via TL-200 applanation tonometry.

The Tensys TL-200(®) noninvasive beat-to-beat blood pressure (BP) monitor displays continuous radial artery waveform as well as systolic, mean and diastolic BP from a pressure sensor directly over the radial artery at the wrist. It locates the site of maximal radial pulse signal, determines mean BP from maximal pulse waveform amplitude at optimal artery compression and then derives systolic and diastolic BP. We performed a cross-sectional study of TL-200 BP comparisons with contralateral invasive radial artery (A-Line) BP values in 19 subjects during an average 2.

Alveolar recruitment versus hyperinflation: A balancing act.

Purpose Of Review: To address lung recruitment according to pressure/volume curves, along with regional recruitment versus hyperinflation evidence from computed tomography and electrical impedance tomography.

Recent Findings: Cyclical tidal volume recruitment of atelectatic lung regions causes acute lung injury, as do large breaths during pneumonectomy. Using the lower inflection point on the static pressure/volume inflation curve plus 2 cmH2O as a positive end-expiratory pressure setting limits hyperinflation in acute lung injury, but may not provide enough positive end-expiratory pressure to avoid cyclical recruitment/derecruitment injury in more severe acute lung injury regions.

Assessment and monitoring of flow limitation and other parameters from flow/volume loops.

Flow/volume (F/V) spirometry is routinely used for assessing the type and severity of lung disease. Forced vital capacity (FVC) and timed vital capacity (FEV1) provide the best estimates of airflow obstruction in patients with asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and emphysema. Computerized spirometers are now available for early home recognition of asthma exacerbation in high risk patients with severe persistent disease, and for recognition of either infection or rejection in lung transplant patients.

Patient-physician communication as organizational innovation in the managed care setting.

Despite changes in the healthcare system, the relationship between patients and physicians remains fundamental to high-quality care. Managed care rules and restrictions, such as constraints on choice of providers, review processes, and decreasing length of visits, are creating potential conflicts between patients and their physicians. To strengthen the patient-physician relationship, some managed care organizations are implementing communication skills training for physicians.

A pilot study of expiratory flow limitation and lung volume reduction surgery.

Study Objectives: To examine the relationships between changes in expiratory flow limitation (FL) during anesthesia and postoperative responses to lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS).

Design: Prospective consecutive case comparison.

Setting: University medical center.

Resolving disagreements in the patient-physician relationship: tools for improving communication in managed care.

Managed care uses financial incentives and restrictions on tests and procedures to attempt to influence physician decision making and limit costs. Increasingly, the public is questioning whether physicians are truly making decisions based on the patient's best interest or are unduly influenced by economic incentives. These circumstances lead to the potential for disagreements and conflict in the patient-physician relationship.

Effects of endotracheal intubation on airway neuropeptide content, arterial oxygenation and lung volumes in anaesthetized rats.

Background: General anaesthesia affects lung volume and pulmonary gas exchange. What role is played by mechanical stimulation by the endotracheal tube?

Methods: We investigated the effects of intubation on arterial oxygenation and lung volume in rats.

Results: Endotracheal intubation caused an increase in PA-aO2 and volume of trapped gas in the lung.

Effect of parainfluenza infection on gas exchange and FRC response to anesthesia in sheep.

We examined the interaction of viral pneumonitis with the respiratory effects of halothane/N2O anesthesia in six tracheostomized sheep. Ventilation-perfusion (VA/Q) distribution, pulmonary artery pressure (PAP), metabolic rate (VO2), and functional residual capacity (FRC) measurements were compared in awake and anesthetized animals before and 1 week after inoculation by tracheal instillation of ovine parainfluenza type-3 (PI-3) virus. Awake shunt (VA/Q less than 0.

The lung volume at which shunting occurs with inhalation anesthesia.

The relationship between functional residual capacity (FRC) and shunt development with halothane anesthesia in 18 nonobese surgical patients (age, 21-34 yr) was studied. FRC was measured by helium dilution, and intrapulmonary shunt was distinguished from ventilation-perfusion inequality by multiple tracer inert gas elimination analysis. Awake supine FRC was 34.

Effects of barbiturate anesthesia on functional residual capacity and ribcage/diaphragm contributions to ventilation.

The effect of iv methohexital infusion anesthesia on functional residual capacity (FRC) (helium dilution) in 14 surgical patients (age 23 to 59 years) was determined. Eight subjects were studied wearing an inflatable mask, sealed with surgical lubricant. They showed a mean +/- SD 3.

Intermittent tracheostomy in sheep.

A modified tracheostomy was designed for respiratory function studies in sheep. Our primary objective was to prevent development of severe tracheal stenosis, which was observed with procedures designed for canine tracheostomy. Surgery consisted of an intercartilaginous tracheal slit, with apposition of tracheal mucosa to skin.

Lung volume and VA/Q distribution response to intravenous versus inhalation anesthesia in sheep.

The effects of intravenous pentobarbital versus nitrous oxide/halothane inhalation anesthesia on blood gases, distribution of ventilation-perfusion ratios (VA/Q), and lung volume (FRC) were compared in 8 tracheostomized sheep in the lateral decubitus position. Pentobarbital anesthesia produced no significant changes (from awake control) in arterial blood PO2 or PCO2, ventilation-perfusion inequality, intrapulmonary shunt, or FRC during either spontaneous breathing or mechanical ventilation with muscle paralysis. With inhalation anesthesia, PaO2 decreased from 132 +/- 13 mmHg awake to 106 +/- 11 mmHg and 104 +/- 6 mmHg (FIO2 all 0.

Mechanisms of abnormal gas exchange during anesthesia.

A review of the literature and of our recent data (obtained by computer-based analysis of multiple inert gas elimination) re-emphasizes the significant gas exchange disturbances found to occur during general anesthesia which develop for probably several reasons. In this report we suggest firstly that the reduction in functional residual capacity (FRC) may well be an effect of anesthesia just as is abnormal gas exchange. In other words, the reduction in FRC is not per se the cause of gas exchange disturbances, but rather occurs alongside them.