Short bowel syndrome.

This article discusses the causes, prognosis, and management of short bowel syndrome. Attempts to enhance intestinal adaptation with trophic factors and surgical treatment options, including small bowel transplantation, are discussed.

A meta-analysis of predictors of continued drug use during and after treatment for opiate addiction.

Aims: Many people treated for opiate addiction continue to use drugs during and after treatment. It may be possible to improve outcomes by addressing patient characteristics that predict continued drug use. This review uses meta-analytic techniques to identify risk factors for continued drug use in patients treated for opiate abuse.

A foodborne outbreak of Cyclospora cayetanensis at a wedding: clinical features and risk factors for illness.

Background: Cyclospora cayetanensis, a coccidian parasite, has increasingly been recognized as a cause of gastrointestinal tract illness. We describe an outbreak of Cyclospora infection following a wedding reception.

Objectives: To investigate and characterize risk factors associated with the outbreak of Cyclospora and to describe the observed clinical course and spectrum of illness.

A controlled study of gold contact hypersensitivity.

1203 patients attending for routine patch testing at 3 hospitals and 105 volunteers were tested with 0.5% and 0.05% gold sodium thiosulfate (GST).

A pilot urban church-based programme to reduce risk factors for diabetes among Western Samoans in New Zealand.

We have assessed the impact of a 2-year pilot church-base diabetes risk reduction programme on major lifestyle predictors of future Type 2 diabetes mellitus: exercise and weight control in a prospective non-randomized controlled study of a modular lifestyle and diabetes awareness intervention programme using a community development model. The study involved two complete church congregations from an ethnic group at high risk of diabetes (Western Samoans) (intervention church n = 78; control church n = 144). Weight remained stable (0+/-4.

The rDNA Internal Transcribed Spacer Region as a Taxonomic Marker for Nematodes.

The ITS region from a wide taxonomic range of nematodes, including secernentean and adenophorean taxa, and free-living, entomopathogenic, and plant-parasitic species, was evaluated as a taxonomic marker. Size of the amplified product aided in the initial determination of group membership, and also suggested groups that may require taxonomic reevaluation. Congeneric species often displayed identically sized ITS regions, but genera such as Pratylenchus and Tylenchorhynchus had species with large differences in size.

Effect of growth hormone, glutamine, and diet on adaptation in short-bowel syndrome: a randomized, controlled study.

Background & Aims: The effects of parenteral growth hormone, glutamine supplementation, and a high carbohydrate-low fat (HCLF) diet on gut adaptation in short-bowel syndrome are unclear. The aim of this study was to compare effects of this treatment regimen and placebo in patients with short-bowel syndrome.

Methods: A randomized, 6-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study in 8 patients with short-bowel syndrome (average small bowel length, 71 cm; mean duration, 12.

Gastrointestinal motility considerations in patients with short-bowel syndrome.

Short-bowel syndrome results from large resections of the small intestine that result in the malabsorption of nutrients and fluids. Following intestinal resection both morphological and functional adaptations of the residual intestine occur. While we have witnessed progress in the understanding of morphological adaptation, little is known about the effects of gastrointestinal motility in short-bowel syndrome.

Prevalence of gold contact hypersensitivity in the west of Scotland.

373 patients attending for routine patch testing were tested with 0.5% and 0.05% gold sodium thiosulfate (GST).

Sunlight and cancer.

Epidemiologic evidence on the relation between sunlight and cancer is reviewed. Strong evidence implicates sunlight as a cause of skin cancer, although, for melanoma and basal cell carcinoma, the relationship is complex. Both types of cancer are associated more strongly with nonoccupational exposure than with occupational exposure, and the pattern and amount of exposure each appear to be important.

A study of the impact of Sun Awareness Week 1995.

We report a questionnaire-based survey of parents of schoolchildren to assess the impact of Sun Awareness Week, organized by the U.K. Skin Cancer Working Party, from 4 to 10 June 1995.

Patch testing in discoid eczema.

We report a retrospective study of patch testing in patients with discoid eczema. 48 patients with persistent or severe discoid eczema were patch tested. The mean age of patients was 45 years and the median duration of symptoms was 6 months.

The professional imagination: narrative and the symbolic boundaries between medicine and nursing.

The sociology of nursing, despite decisive interventions by recent commentators, continues to take as its main focus the subordination of nursing to biomedicine. This view reflects analytic stability, as well as institutional inertia. Far less attention has been paid by sociologists to the ways in which nursing is constructing its difference from medicine, and the exercise of the professional imagination that this involves.

Cutaneous manifestations of fucosidosis.

Angiokeratoma corporis diffusum (ACD) is still often thought to be synonymous with Anderson-Fabry disease, a deficiency of alpha-galactosidase. It is important, however, to consider other possible enzyme deficiencies in patients with ACD. We report an 8-year-old boy with neurodevelopmental delay who was diagnosed as having fucosidosis following recognition of ACD in the dermatology department.

Early detection of prostate cancer. Part II: Estimating the risks, benefits, and costs. American College of Physicians.

Purpose: To evaluate the potential benefits, harms, and economic consequences of digital rectal examination and measurement of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) for the early detection of prostate cancer.

Data Sources: Relevant studies were identified from a MEDLINE search (1966 to 1995), reviews, bibliographies of retrieved articles, author files, and abstracts.

Study Selection: Probabilities for individual clinical outcomes were derived from various sources, including the largest screening study of community volunteers to data, analyses of Medicare claims, and recently published meta-analyses of the outcomes of alternative treatment strategies.

Early detection of prostate cancer. Part I: Prior probability and effectiveness of tests. The American College of Physicians.

Purpose: To estimate the prevalence of clinically important prostate cancer and to evaluate the effectiveness of digital rectal examination and measurement of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in early detection of prostate cancer.

Data Sources: Relevant studies were identified from a structured MEDLINE search (1966 to 1995), reviews, bibliographies of retrieved articles, author files, and abstracts.

Study Selection: Articles selected for analysis of test effectiveness were prospective cohort studies of early detection that did not have obvious selection bias.