What can art history offer medical humanities?

This article charts the emergence of visual medical humanities as a space of academic research, creative practice and lively critical debate, with a focus on how art historical scholarship has influenced the field's formation. Concentrating on developments over the past decade, it offers an overview of current scholarship while highlighting opportunities and challenges for the future. We begin with a survey of medical and health humanities handbooks and readers, noting that their engagement with art and visual culture is predominately limited to the contexts of therapy, clinical pedagogy and medical history.

Use of programme budgeting and marginal analysis as a framework for resource reallocation in respiratory care in North Wales, UK.

Background: Since the global financial crisis, UK NHS spending has reduced considerably. Respiratory care is a large cost driver for Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, the largest health board in Wales. Under the remit of 'prudent healthcare' championed by the Welsh Health Minister, a Programme Budgeting Marginal Analysis (PBMA) of the North Wales respiratory care pathway was conducted.

Gender bias in the clinical management of women with angina: another look at the Yentl syndrome.

Background: Woman with heart disease may receive lower levels of clinical care than men. We assessed whether the Yentl syndrome (women receive equivalent care to men only when they demonstrate that they are like men by having a heart attack) operates in the management of angina pectoris in primary care.

Methods: The study design is a cross-sectional survey of 1162 angina patients (552 women) managed in eight sentinel centers serving 15% of the population of Liverpool.

Gender differences in the clinical management of patients with angina pectoris: a cross-sectional survey in primary care.

Background: Previous research suggests that women admitted to hospital with acute myocardial infarction (MI) are managed less intensively than men. Chronic stable angina is the commonest clinical manifestation of coronary heart disease in the community, but little information is available concerning its contemporary clinical management. The aim of this study is to assess the extent of gender differences in the clinical management of angina pectoris in primary care.

IGF-1 and leptin associate with fetal HDL cholesterol at birth: examination in offspring of mothers with type 1 diabetes.

Objective: Offspring of mothers with type 1 diabetes (OT1DM) demonstrate increased fat deposition, hyperinsulinemia, and hyperleptinemia in utero. We examined the influence of maternal diabetes on cord lipids at birth and relationship to body composition, cord insulin, leptin, and other hormonal measures.

Research Design And Methods: We performed an observational study measuring fetal, HDL, and LDL cholesterol; triglycerides; and nonesterified fatty acids (NEFAs) in a total of 139 OT1DM and 48 control subjects at birth and assessed cross-sectional relationships with birth weight, fetal insulin, leptin, adiponectin, and IGF-1.

Inverse changes in fetal insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-1 and IGF binding protein-1 in association with higher birth weight in maternal diabetes.

Objective: The insulin like growth factor (IGF) system plays a key role in regulating fetal growth, is metabolically regulated, and may influence development of increased birth weight in offspring of mothers with diabetes. We examined IGF-1 and IGF binding protein-1 (IGFBP-1) concentrations in cord blood samples from offspring of mothers with gestational and type 2 diabetes.

Design And Patients: Case-control study of Maori and Pacific Island mothers recruited prospectively at Middlemore Hospital, South Auckland, New Zealand.

Type 1 diabetes and pregnancy: trends in birth weight over 40 years at a single clinic.

Objective: To examine changes in perinatal mortality and birth weight of babies born to mothers with pregestational type 1 diabetes over 40 years in a single teaching hospital clinic.

Methods: This was a retrospective survey of cases from the combined diabetes and obstetrics antenatal clinic at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and Simpson Memorial Maternity Pavilion, Edinburgh, Scotland. Birth weight, standardized birth weight, and perinatal mortality were obtained from 643 singleton babies born after 28 weeks of gestation to mothers with pregestational type 1 diabetes between 1960 and 1999.

Hyperinsulinemia in cord blood in mothers with type 2 diabetes and gestational diabetes mellitus in New Zealand.

Objective: In genetically diabetes-prone populations, maternal diabetes during pregnancy increases the risk of their children developing diabetes and obesity (the vicious cycle of type 2 diabetes). Fetal hyperinsulinemia at birth acts as a marker of this risk. We therefore examined whether cord insulin and leptin concentrations are increased in offspring of Maori and Pacific Island mothers with type 2 and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and varying degrees of glycemic control (HbA(1c)).

The relation of insulin, leptin and IGF-1 to birthweight in offspring of women with type 1 diabetes.

Objective: Maternal diabetes is associated with excess foetal growth. We have assessed the influence of maternal diabetes on hormones associated with foetal growth and the relationship of these hormones to birthweight.

Design: Case-control study.

Type 1 diabetes-related antibodies in the fetal circulation: prevalence and influence on cord insulin and birth weight in offspring of mothers with type 1 diabetes.

During pregnancy, maternal type 1 diabetes-associated autoantibodies may cross the placenta. It is proposed that insulin antibodies (IA) allow transfer of insulin across the placenta, contributing to fetal hyperinsulinemia and macrosomia. We assessed the prevalence of IA, the tyrosine phosphatase IA-2, and glutamic acid decarboxylase (GADA) in cord blood from offspring of mothers with type 1 diabetes (ODM, n = 138) and control mothers (control, n = 47) and further assessed cross-sectional relationships of antibody titers to birth weight and fetal insulin.

Howse II cemented titanium metal-backed acetabular cups: poor 10-year results in 107 hips.

We report a retrospective clinical and radiographic review of 107 consecutive primary total hip replacements, using the cemented Howse II prosthesis. The review concentrates on the long-term performance of the acetabular cup, which was designed with a cylindrical titanium metal backing and a polyethylene liner. In all the hips in the series, this cup was used with a modular titanium straight femoral stem and a 32-mm diameter titanium head.

Are 2 cages needed with instrumented PLIF? A comparison of 1 versus 2 interbody cages in a military population.

Bovine biomechanical data have demonstrated adequate stability of a single threaded interbody cage when combined with a unilateral facet screw during posterior lumbar disc excision and interbody fusion (PLIF). Instrumented PLIF surgery using 1 versus 2 interbody cages was studied in 35 military men with disc disease and chronic low back pain. All patients underwent instrumented PLIF with bilateral diskectomy and partial facetectomy, pedicle screws, autogenous iliac crest bone graft, 1 or 2 interbody cages, and posterior lateral fusion.

Adiponectin is present in cord blood but is unrelated to birth weight.

Objective: In adults, adiponectin is reduced in association with excess adiposity, type 2 diabetes, and hyperinsulinemia. We assessed whether adiponectin was 1) present in the fetal circulation, 2) altered in the fetal circulation in the presence of maternal diabetes, and 3) had relations to fetal cord blood insulin or adiposity.

Research Design And Methods: We assessed adiponectin in cord blood in a large cohort of singleton offspring of diabetic mothers (ODM; n = 134) and control mothers (n = 45).

Insulin and insulin propeptides at birth in offspring of diabetic mothers.

Maternal diabetes during pregnancy is associated with excess fetal growth and increased fetal insulin production. We hypothesized that insulin propeptides (proinsulin and 32-33 split proinsulin) might be more robust indicators of chronic fetal overproduction of insulin. We examined insulin-like molecules in cord blood (ILM) (insulin, proinsulin, and 32-33 split proinsulin) in relation to birth weight, maternal glycemia, and cord glucose in 140 offspring of mothers with type 1 diabetes (ODM) and 49 offspring of mothers who did not have diabetes (CONTROL) as well as degradation of ILM in response to sampling conditions at birth.

Local surveillance of influenza in the United Kingdom: from sentinel general practices to sentinel cities?

Surveillance of influenza in England and Wales utilises a disparate geographical network of general practices to provide clinical data in the form of weekly consultation rates for influenza and 'influenza-like illness'. This network accurately detects and monitors seasonal influenza activity at national and supra-regional levels. Localised regional and sub-regional epidemics are less easily detected.

Managing sewer solids for the reduction of foul flush effects--Forfar WTP.

In times of high sewer flow, conditions can exist which enable previously deposited material to be re-entrained back into the body of the flow column. Pulses of this highly polluted flow have been recorded in many instances at the recently constructed wastewater treatment plant (WTP) in Forfar, Scotland. Investigations have been undertaken to characterise the incoming flows and to suggest remedial measures to manage the quality fluctuations.

Behavioral and magnetic resonance spectroscopic studies in the rat hyperserotonemic model of autism.

Autism is classified as a pervasive developmental disorder, with several cardinal features including sensory disturbances, obsessive-compulsive-like behavior, lack of bonding to caregivers and motor disturbances. To date, there is a lack of an animal model of the disease. The current work is aimed at producing such a model by treating developing rat pups with a serotonergic agonist, 5-methoxytryptamine (5-MT; 1 mg/kg) during development (from gestational age 12 days to postnatal day 20), thus mimicking one of the hallmark neurochemical features of the illness-increases in the neurotransmitter, serotonin.

Side effects of influenza vaccination in healthy older people: a randomised single-blind placebo-controlled trial.

Objectives: To investigate the frequency of side effects following influenza vaccination in healthy participants aged 65-74 years.

Materials And Methods: A single-blind randomised placebo-controlled trial was performed in general practices in central Liverpool on 729 healthy individuals (341 females and 388 males) aged 65-74 (median age 68.9) years, of whom 552 received influenza vaccine and 177 received placebo.