Preoperative assessment for outpatient anaesthesia.

Patients of all ages attending hospital for day-case surgery should undergo some form of routine screening by the anaesthetist before the induction of anaesthesia. A questionnaire is presented which can be recommended as an aid to identifying the patient with a more than normal risk, ensuring smoother anaesthesia with speedy and uneventful recovery and avoiding postponement of surgery in most cases.

Associations between breast-cancer mortality rates, child-bearing and diet in the United Kingdom.

Changes of breast-cancer (BC) mortality for all women in England and Wales between 1911 and 1975, and for the social-class gradient during the 1950s, were not related to changes in child-bearing. The changes in BC mortality for all women were associated with changes in consumption of fat, sugar and animal protein 1-2 decades earlier. A decline in mortality around 1935 was not obviously related to changes in fat or sugar, but dietary data were sparse.

The decline in incidence of acute intussusception in childhood in north-east Scotland.

The records have been studied of 77 cases of acute intussusception in children which occurred in Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, and Banffshire during the 10 years 1967--76. There has been a decrease in age-specific incidence of about a third since a previous study in the same region was carried out between 1950 and 1959. The decline in rates is greater for rural areas than for Aberdeen City and it is more marked for girls than for boys.

Serum antibody to poliovirus in patients in a mental deficiency hospital, with particular reference to Down's syndrome.

Neutralization tests for poliovirus antibodies were carried out on 74 patients in an adult mental deficiency hospital: 37 patients with Down's syndrome and 37 non-Down's mental defectives. The distribution of antibody titres to poliovirus types 1, 2 and 3 did not differ significantly between the two groups. Most patients had antibody to at least one poliovirus type but less than a third had antibodies at a titre of 1/8 or greater to all three types.

The contributions of diet and childbearing to breast-cancer rates.

Mean, age-standardized breast-cancer mortality rates for women of 41 countries, during 1970-71, were closely correlated with diet for 1964-66. Partial correlation analysis indicated that breast-cancer rates were positively correlated with total fat, animal protein and animal calories, independently of other components of diet. These 3 components were correlated with one another so closely that it was not possible, with available data, to say whether any one was associated with breast cancer independently of the other 2.