Behavior change, acceptance, and coping flexibility in highly distressed patients with rheumatic diseases: feasibility of a cognitive-behavioral therapy in multimodal rehabilitation.

Objective: To describe the development and feasibility of the integration of a cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) within a multimodal rehabilitation program for highly distressed patients with rheumatic diseases.

Methods: Development included the detailed specification of the theoretical and empirical-based underpinnings of the CBT and the comprehensive description of its design and content. Feasibility was assessed by percentage of eligible patients, attrition and attendance rates, and patient satisfaction.

Differential effect of female gender on coronary artery disease and peripheral artery disease.

Background: Women are relatively protected against coronary artery disease (CAD). Whether female gender has a similar protective influence on the development of peripheral artery disease (PAD) has not been extensively investigated and was the main subject of our study.

Methods: We analysed 2707 consecutive patients (2008 men and 699 women) who underwent a first diagnostic coronary angiography for suspicion of CAD and 2367 consecutive patients (1426 men and 941 women) who underwent a first ankle arm index measurement because of suspicion of PAD.

Quality management in the doctor's consulting room.

Clinical research and the measurement of quality in healthcare have similar properties. Clinical research is generally restricted to university and teaching hospitals because of it's time consuming nature while quality management and subsequent quality measurement are of interest to all medical doctors. To serve both purposes a Kaplan Meier satellite module was developed as an add-on to a medical workstation.

[Nitric oxide inhalation in newborn infants with pulmonary hypertension].

Nitric oxide (NO) is an important endogenous vasodilator. NO, produced in the endothelial cell, causes vasodilation by relaxation of the vascular smooth muscle cell. Inhalation of NO plays a role in the treatment of persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn, a syndrome with considerable morbidity and mortality.

Cis-element, oriR, involved in the initiation of (-) strand poliovirus RNA: a quasi-globular multi-domain RNA structure maintained by tertiary ('kissing') interactions.

The key steps in the replication of the poliovirus genome, initiation of (-) and (+) strands, require two different cis-acting elements, oriR and oriL, respectively. It has been proposed that the spatial organization of these elements is maintained by tertiary ('kissing') interactions between the loops of two constituent hairpins. Here, the putative partners of the kissing interaction within the oriR of the full-length poliovirus RNA were modified by site-directed mutagenesis.