Thromboembolic prophylaxis with low molecular weight heparin during pregnancy.

Objective: The objective of this study was to show that low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) can be used in preventing veno-pulmonary thromboembolic diseases in pregnancy.

Methods: Twenty-four women carrying 27 pregnancies with known risk of veno-pulmonary thromboembolic diseases in pregnancy were prophylactically treated with LMWH (dalteparin) during part of their pregnancy. Our therapeutic target was a plasma concentration of 0.

Videothoracoscopic lung biopsy by a stapling technique.

Objectives: To describe initial experience with a new technique for obtaining lung biopsy specimens using video-thoracoscopy and Multifire Endo GIA (U.S. Surgical Corporation) stapler.

Coffee and cancer: a prospective study of 43,000 Norwegian men and women.

Relationships between coffee drinking and cancer incidence were examined in a 10-year complete follow-up of 21,735 men and 21,238 women aged 35-54 years. The study population participated in a cardiovascular screening in three countries in Norway during 1977-82. Data on coffee and smoking habits were based on information from a self-administered questionnaire.

Adjustment to breast cancer using downward comparison.

Downward comparison is a cognitive process that is used when events such as illness threaten a person's self-esteem. The afflicted person feels better about his/her situation when he/she compares himself/herself with another whose condition is worse. This study identified the presence of downward comparison in 195 women with recently diagnosed breast cancer and determined the impact of such comparison on adjustment.

Incidence of juvenile thyrotoxicosis in Denmark, 1982-1988. A nationwide study.

The objective of this study was to ascertain the annual incidence density of thyrotoxicosis in children under the age of 15 years in Denmark in 1982-1988. The design was based on computerized hospital registration of patient admittances in all departments of paediatrics and internal medicine of Denmark (Faroe Islands and Greenland excluded). Fifty-six children (48 girls and 8 boys) had a confirmed diagnosis of thyrotoxicosis, giving a national incidence density of 0.

Human growth hormone (hGH)-(44-191), a reportedly diabetogenic fragment of hGH, circulates in human blood: measurement by radioimmunoassay.

The purpose of these experiments was to determine whether a 17-kilodalton (K) fragment of human GH (hGH), hGH-(44-191), a peptide 10 times more potent than intact hGH in causing glucose intolerance in an animal model, circulates in human blood. Analysis of pituitary extracts and sera by Western blotting revealed the presence of a 17K hGH-immunoreactive band in both samples. Monoclonal antibodies to recombinant hGH-(44-191) cross-reacted with the 17K hGH-immunoreactive band of the pituitary.

Mental illness in the biological and adoptive relatives of schizophrenic adoptees. Replication of the Copenhagen Study in the rest of Denmark.

Background: Our previous investigation of the prevalence of mental illness among the biological and adoptive relatives of schizophrenic adoptees in Copenhagen, Denmark, showed a significant concentration of chronic schizophrenia (5.6%) and what Bleuler called "latent schizophrenia" (14.8%) in the biological relatives of chronic schizophrenic adoptees, indicating the operation of heritable factors in the liability for schizophrenic illness.

Effect of olsalazine and mesalazine on intraluminal pH of the duodenum and proximal jejunum in healthy humans.

Background: Treatment of inflammatory bowel disease with olsalazine causes diarrhoea in 10% of patients. This is claimed to be caused by a drug effect on mucosal transport in the small intestine, which might be reflected in the intraluminal pH. We aimed to study the effect on jejunal pH of olsalazine (Dipentum) and an alternative preparation, slow-release mesalazine (Pentasa).

Comparative bioavailability of 5-aminosalicylic acid from a controlled release preparation and an azo-bond preparation.

Background: Knowledge of the bioavailability of 5-aminosalicylic acid (5-ASA, mesalazine) from the different 5-ASA-containing drugs is important for rational therapy of inflammatory bowel diseases.

Methods: The local and systemic bioavailability of 5-ASA from a controlled release 5-ASA preparation (Pentasa--2, 4 or 6 g/day) was investigated and compared with the azo-bond 5-ASA preparation olsalazine (Dipentum--2 g/day) in 13 healthy volunteers during steady state conditions.

Results: The therapeutically relevant parameter of 5-ASA at the rectal level, expressed as the mean concentration in faecal water, showed a significant trend towards higher concentrations with increasing Pentasa dose: 9.

Re-examination of the psychometric characteristics of the La Monica-Oberst Patient Satisfaction Scale.

The purpose of this study was to provide further psychometric testing of the 41-item La Monica-Oberst Patient Satisfaction Scale (LOPSS). Data were drawn from three studies designed to study a model of nurse specialist transitional care (n = 307). Previously, the scale had been tested with oncology patients.

Very low intraluminal colonic pH in patients with active ulcerative colitis.

Intraluminal gastrointestinal pH was measured in seven patients with active ulcerative colitis (four male, three female). A radiotelemetry capsule was used, and its location was determined by fluoroscopy. Satisfactory measurements were obtained from six, in all of whom pH levels were normal in the stomach and small intestine.

[Cryptorchism. Treatment with human chorionic gonadotropin or gonadotropin-releasing hormone?].

In a modified double-blind study on the effect of human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG), gonadotrophin releasing hormone (GnRH) and placebo, 163 prepubertal boys (aged 1.8-13.0) with bilateral and 94 (aged 1.

Bioavailability of 5-aminosalicyclic acid from slow release 5-aminosalicyclic acid drug and sulfasalazine in normal children.

The bioavailability of a controlled release 5-aminosalicyclic acid preparation (Pentasa) was investigated in nine healthy children after a medication period of six days (1000 mg/day) and compared with sulfasalazine (Salazopyrin) (2000 mg/day). The local bioavailability in the distal gut lumen, reflected by the 5-aminosalicylic acid concentration in the fecal water, showed comparable values after Pentasa (4.44 mmol/liter) and Salazopyrin (6.

Lifetime DSM-III-R diagnostic outcomes in the offspring of schizophrenic mothers. Results from the Copenhagen High-Risk Study.

Objectives: To perform a long-term prospective follow-up of children at high risk for schizophrenia to identify risk factors for the development of this disorder.

Design: Prospective follow-up population study of children of schizophrenic mothers and their matched controls from age 15 years to age 42 years, with multiple diagnostic assessments performed by senior clinicians using structured interviews blindly with respect to the group membership of the subject.

Participants: Two hundred seven offspring of schizophrenic mothers and 104 control children without schizophrenic parents matched to the index group on age, sex, paternal socioeconomic status, urban/rural residence, and the amount of time spent during childhood in institutional rearing.

Clonal karyotypic evolution in an embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma with trisomy 8 as the primary chromosomal abnormality.

An embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma was analyzed cytogenetically. In primary cultures fed a serum-containing medium, 11 clones with karyotypic abnormalities were found. One had trisomy 8 only.

Reproductive factors and survival from ovarian cancer.

During a 29-year screening follow-up of 63,090 Norwegian women, 644 women were found to have an ovarian cancer with known metastatic status as their first malignancy. Of these women, 419 subsequently died of ovarian cancer. As reproductive factors, particularly parity, are risk factors for ovarian cancer, we investigated possible relationships between reproductive history and survival from ovarian cancer.

[Laparoscopic cholecystectomy during pregnancy].

Pregnancy has been considered an absolute contraindication to laparoscopic cholecystectomy, but recently several successful cases have been published. Two patients operated upon during the second trimester with an uneventful intra- and postoperative course and subsequent uncomplicated obstetric course are reported. The procedure requires special consideration with respect to incisions, insertion of cannula and ports, establishment and maintenance of pneumoperitoneum with a pressure of 10 mmHg, intraoperative monitoring of maternal end-tidal pCO2, perioperative foetal monitoring and choice of postoperative analgesics.

Physiologic responses of coronary care patients to visiting.

The authors examined physiologic changes in myocardial infarction patients during a family visit in the cardiac intensive care unit (CICU) and the relationship of these changes to illness variables, patient preference for visits, and patients' perceptions of the supportiveness of the visit. Forty-eight patients were studied for changes in heart rate, blood pressure, ST segment, and oxygen saturation. Patients who had the greatest physiologic changes were among those who had had more severe infarcts.

Incidence and pattern of jaundice in healthy breast-fed infants during the first month of life.

The incidence and pattern of jaundice in 155 normal, full-term, breast-fed, white infants was examined. Infants were screened for jaundice on Days 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13 following birth using transcutaneous bilirubinometry (TcB). By Day 3, 49.

Milk--a better drink? Relationships with total serum cholesterol in a cross-sectional survey. The Nordland Health Study.

Cross-sectional studies have not consistently shown a positive association between milk drinking and serum cholesterol. We studied this relationship in a cohort of 7506 men and women aged 40-42 years in the county of Nordland in northern Norway (72% of all subjects in the age-bracket living in the county). We found a positive relationship between the percentage of fat in the milk and total serum cholesterol, but no positive relationship between whole fat milk consumption (number of glasses per day) and serum cholesterol.

[The post-thrombotic syndrome. Description and comparison of diagnostic methods: clinical examination, venous return time, phlebography and ultrasonography].

Thirty-one patients with deep vein thrombosis (DVT) confirmed by phlebography 5-11 years previously were examined for the post-thrombotic syndrome (PTS). Where all of the patients were concerned, the examination included crossing-off of their symptoms of PTS on a special chart and clinical examination carried out by four doctors independently of one another, for 29 patients also determination of the venous return time by strain gauge pletysmography and for 29 patients also secondary phlebography (SF) and B-method ultrasonic scanning (UL). The degree of severity of PTS was determined by means of a scoring value which was calculated on the bases of four observers assessment of the clinical symptoms and findings.

Attention versus avoidance: attributional search and denial after myocardial infarction.

Objective: In this study the focus was on two strategies: denial (an avoidant strategy) and causal thinking (an attention strategy) and their relationships to affect after myocardial infarction.

Design: Descriptive, correlational.

Setting: Large rural medical center.

Mediastinal germ cell tumour associated with Klinefelter syndrome. A report of case and review of the literature.

A 14-year-old boy with Klinefelter syndrome (KS) and a large mediastinal tumour is presented. Human chorionic gonadotropin and oestradiol were markedly increased. An attempt at radical resection was performed.