Duration of breastfeeding, age at introduction of complementary foods and allergy-related diseases: a prospective cohort study.

Background: The influences of breastfeeding and infant diet in the prevention of allergy-related diseases are uncertain and many of the studies conducted on the topic are limited by methodological challenges. Our aim was to assess whether the duration of breastfeeding and age at complementary food introduction affected the prevalence of asthma, wheeze, allergic rhinoconjunctivitis (ARC) and eczema at two and six years of age.

Methods: We used information gathered between 2000 and 2014 through questionnaires in the Prevention of Allergy among Children in Trondheim (PACT) study, a prospective cohort study in Trondheim, Norway.

Heavy menstrual bleeding and health-associated quality of life in women with von Willebrand's disease.

Women with the inherited bleeding disorder von Willebrand's disease (VWD) face gender-specific hemostatic challenges during menstruation. Heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB) can negatively affect their overall life activities and the health-associated quality of life. The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether women with VWD experienced HMB and an impaired health-associated quality of life.

Priming intelligent behavior: an elusive phenomenon.

Can behavior be unconsciously primed via the activation of attitudes, stereotypes, or other concepts? A number of studies have suggested that such priming effects can occur, and a prominent illustration is the claim that individuals' accuracy in answering general knowledge questions can be influenced by activating intelligence-related concepts such as professor or soccer hooligan. In 9 experiments with 475 participants we employed the procedures used in these studies, as well as a number of variants of those procedures, in an attempt to obtain this intelligence priming effect. None of the experiments obtained the effect, although financial incentives did boost performance.

Imaging of four-corner fusion (SLAC arthrodesis) of the wrist with 64-slice computed tomography.

Purpose: To find out whether it is possible to evaluate the healing of wrist arthrodesis, carried out with a metallic spider plate, by means of 64-slice computed tomography (CT).

Material And Methods: 18 CT examinations were performed in 12 patients 2 weeks to 37 months following scapholunate advanced collapse (SLAC) arthrodesis fixed with a metallic plate. Ten patients also had plain films of the wrist.

Magnetic resonance imaging of uterine version in a multiethnic, nulliparous, healthy female population.

Objective: To determine measurement and topography of uterine position in asymptomatic women with different ethnicity.

Study Design: The angle and direction of uterine version were measured using magnetic resonance imaging in nulliparous, young volunteers from 5 ethnic groups (Emiratis, other Arabs, Indians/Pakistanis, Filipinos and Europeans/ Caucasians; N=55) and compared using Europeans/Caucasians as the reference group.

Results: The uterus was anteverted on the vagina in 46 (83.

Dynamic assessment of pelvic floor and bony pelvis morphologic condition with the use of magnetic resonance imaging in a multiethnic, nulliparous, and healthy female population.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine dynamic pelvic floor and bony pelvis morphologic condition in asymptomatic multiethnic women.

Study Design: Pelvic floor anthropometry, at rest and after the Valsalva maneuver, and pelvimetry were compared with the use of magnetic resonance imaging in nulliparous young volunteers from 5 ethnic groups (n=11 x 5 volunteers: Emirati, other Arab, Filipino, Indian/Pakistani, and European/white volunteers), with the white volunteers as the reference group.

Results: The white volunteers were significantly taller (P <.

Early chest radiography and CT in the diagnosis, management and outcome of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis.

Purpose: We report the chest radiographic and CT findings in 21 immunocompromised patients with invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) and describe the outcome when the early diagnosis was linked to treatment with liposomal amphotericin B.

Material And Methods: Chest radiographs and CT examinations were analyzed retrospectively in 53 consecutive neutropenic patients with suspected early IPA.

Results: Twenty-one of 244 patients admitted for chemotherapy of hematologic malignancy fulfilled the definition for IPA - incidence of 8.

MR and other imaging methods in the investigation of mycetomas.

Purpose: To report features of mycetomas (actino- and eumycetoma infection), which belong to the so-called rare bone infections, as evaluated by MR and other imaging methods and to assess chemotherapy treatment.

Material And Methods: Twenty patients (average age 57 years) were diagnosed by different modalities. Analyses of 57 plain films, 31 three-phase bone scans, 28 CT and 35 MR examinations were performed.

Diagnostic radiology in an integrated curriculum: evaluation of student appraisal.

Rationale And Objectives: This study determined student perceptions of the effectiveness of an integrated radiology curriculum in a 6-year undergraduate medical school program.

Materials And Methods: Student perceptions of the effectiveness of an integrated radiology curriculum were assessed with a self-administered questionnaire that was developed in house and consisted of Likert-type and open-ended items. The questionnaire was distributed to 1997-1998 and 1998-1999 cohorts of 2nd- to 6th-year medical students.

Interval cancers and cancers in non-attenders in the Ostergötland Mammographic Screening Programme. Duration between screening and diagnosis, S-phase fraction and distant recurrence.

The study was based on a population mammographic screening programme for women aged 40-74 years. Metastatic potential was analysed in 843 invasive breast cancers with regard to mode of detection and a number of prognostic factors. There was a higher metastatic capacity in clinically detected cases, but multivariate analyses showed that neither the mode of detection (hazard rate ratio of distant recurrence RR = 1.

Blood pressure and heart rate response during exercise in men and women in the USA and Russia lipid research clinics prevalence study.

Examination of blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) measurements at rest and during exercise in samples of USA and Russian middle-aged men and women show significant differences between countries for both genders. Russian men had higher resting systolic blood pressure (SBP) than USA men but lower SBP at both stages of exercise. Russian women had significantly higher resting SBP than USA women at rest and also during exercise.

MR angiography of abdominal and peripheral arteries. Techniques and clinical applications.

This review article deals with MR angiography (MRA) of abdominal and peripheral arteries. Pulsatile flow, respiratory motion and peristalsis impose difficulties in imaging the vascular structures in the abdomen and the lower extremities. Development of new techniques, such as segmentation of the data acquisition, using specific acquisition windows in relation to a cardiac trigger, magnetization preparation of the tissue and phase-encoding re-ordering or sorting, have reduced the artifacts associated with abdominal and peripheral MRA.

The pregnancy zone protein response during gestation: a metabolic challenge.

Prospective studies of pregnant women were performed to compare individual variations in the plasma concentration of sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) and pregnancy zone protein (PZP) during pregnancy, and to elucidate the degree of co-variation between these oestrogen sensitive proteins during gestation. The plasma concentration of SHBG manifested continuous increase reaching a 12-fold peak at delivery. The increase of the protease inhibitor PZP paralleled that of SHBG reaching a peak with a 25-fold increase by the beginning of the third trimester.

Black-white differences in electrocardiographic left ventricular mass and its association with blood pressure (the ARIC study). Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities.

Black-white differences in the association between antihypertensive therapy, continuous measures of mean arterial and pulse pressures and left ventricular (LV) mass estimated from a multivariable electrocardiographic algorithm were examined in 6,020 men (23% black) and 7,970 women (29% black) participating in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study. Mean arterial and pulse pressures, weight, the percentage of subjects taking antihypertensive medication, and LV mass were higher in black than in white men (98 vs 89 mm Hg, 47 vs 46 mm Hg, 188 vs 187 pounds, 30% vs 17%, and 243 vs 217 g, respectively). Results of similar direction but greater magnitude were observed in black versus white women (mean arterial pressure, 94 vs 85 mm Hg; pulse pressure, 50 vs 47 mm Hg; weight, 180 vs 153 pounds; percent treated, 42% vs 18%; and LV mass, 203 vs 169 g, respectively).

Quality-adjusted meta-analysis of the hypertension/coronary dilemma.

Primary investigators of randomized drug trials in hypertension were invited to rate quality of such trials. The intention of the survey was to ask if antihypertensive drug therapy reduces incidence of coronary heart disease (CHD) in hypertensive patients. Response was obtained for 7 of the 11 invited investigators, covering 69% of patients and 75% of CHD cases.

Effects of felodipine versus nifedipine on exercise tolerance in stable angina pectoris.

The effects of single doses of felodipine (5 and 10 mg) and nifedipine (10 and 20 mg) on chronic stable effort angina pectoris were assessed in a placebo-controlled, double-blind, crossover study of 24 patients receiving beta blockers and short-acting nitroglycerin. The effects were measured by repeated bicycle ergometer tests. The total work, and time until 1 mm of ST depression increased significantly by 9 to 31% after both active drugs at both dose levels in comparison with placebo.

Selective salpingography and fluoroscopic transcervical salpingoplasty for diagnosis and treatment of proximal fallopian tube occlusions.

In 25 women with primary or secondary infertility, primary hysterosalpingography (HSG) or laparoscopy with chromopertubation indicated 33 proximal and 2 distal tubal obstructions. Four salpingectomies had been performed earlier. All patients were considered for transcervical catheter salpingoplasty (TCSP) to reconstruct tubal patency.

Evaluation of anatomical obstruction by Doppler echocardiography and magnetic resonance imaging in patients with coarctation of the aorta.

Objective: To evaluate a new Doppler echocardiographic index of obstruction in patients with native coarctation or recoarctation.

Patients: 32 patients (mean age 20, range 3 months--50 years).

Methods: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to investigate the descending aorta.

Instability and femoral head vitality in fractures of the femoral neck.

Sixteen patients with femoral neck fractures were studied with roentgen-stereophotogrammetric analysis (RSA) and low-field magnetic resonance (MR) imaging in addition to plain roentgenography. In six patients, these results were compared with the results of histopathologic analyses. All fractures were stabilized with two cannulated titanium screws.

Clinical characteristics of patients in studies of left ventricular dysfunction (SOLVD).

The Studies of Left Ventricular Dysfunction (SOLVD) trials were designed to evaluate the effects of enalapril on long-term mortality in patients with severe left ventricular (LV) dysfunction. Patients with LV ejection fractions less than or equal to 0.35 and symptoms of congestive heart failure (CHF) were enrolled in the treatment trial, whereas those with no history of overt CHF and taking no treatment directed for LV dysfunction were enrolled in the prevention trial.

Ultra low field MR imaging of cervical spine involvement in rheumatoid arthritis.

In a study of 30 patients with longstanding rheumatoid arthritis the diagnostic usefulness of ultra low field MR equipment was analyzed in assessing lesions of the craniocervical junction. It was found that at 0.04 T all the examinations were diagnostic and that in combination with plain radiography the diagnostic information obtained was valuable in further planning of the treatment strategies.