Olympic opening ceremony was a vibrant feast of fun and energy.

If director Danny Boyle's intention at the Olympic opening ceremony was to provide a snapshot of Britain today, he succeeded. It was an inspired feast of energy, colour and vibrancy - as well as being great fun.

Why winners win: decision making in medical malpractice cases.

A high percentage of physicians will, at some time in their careers, face a lawsuit, possibly finding themselves in the courtroom even when they have not made a medical mistake. Despite the presumption that juries are biased in favor of injured plaintiffs, physicians win most of their trials. Why this occurs and how juries make their decisions are topics of ongoing interest.

Predictive value of a cross-cultural asthma case-detection tool in an elementary school population.

Objective: Bronchial asthma, which affects approximately 5 million US children, is vastly underdiagnosed and treated, particularly among minorities and those of low socioeconomic status. Because current methods of detecting those at greatest risk of asthma in a multicultural setting appear inadequate, we assessed the validity and reliability of a new asthma questionnaire across 3 dominant cultures in Orange County, California (white, Hispanic, and Vietnamese).

Methods: Children in grades 1, 3, and 5 and their families, in 3 different schools representative of these major ethnic groups, were randomly selected to participate in the validation process.

Acute effects of nicotine on serum glucose insulin growth hormone and cortisol in healthy smokers.

Cigarette smoking impairs glucose tolerance and alters serum levels of hormones involved in glucose metabolism, but the role of nicotine in such hormonal alterations is not well understood. In order to isolate the effects of transdermal nicotine on serum glucose, insulin, growth hormone, and cortisol in smokers, we conducted a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled cross-over study involving 34 healthy volunteer smokers between 18 and 55 years of age. Administration of a 14-mg transdermal nicotine patch resulted in nonsignificantly lowered fasting quantitative insulin-sensitivity index (P =.

In-house calibration of the international sensitivity index or calibration curve for determination of the international normalized ratio.

Context: The international normalized ratio (INR) has been used since 1983 to standardize prothrombin time results for patients on oral anticoagulants. However, significant interlaboratory variations have been noted. Attempts have been made to address these differences with the use of instrument-specific International Sensitivity Index (ISI) values and in-house calibration of ISI values.

Good practice guidelines for laboratory investigation of hemoglobinopathies.

A review of the Quality Management Program-Laboratory Services (QMP-LS) hemoglobin fraction quantitation/hemoglobinopathy investigation surveys revealed recurrent errors in diagnosis of carrier genotypes for serious hemoglobinopathies. To address these concerns, QMP-LS developed guidelines for laboratory investigation of hemoglobinopathy syndromes. The guidelines are based on current practice in the province of Ontario, expert opinion in the field, and a review of recent literature.

Fetal-maternal hemorrhage detection in Ontario.

The results from fetal-maternal hemorrhage (FMH) detection and quantitation external quality assessment surveys conducted in Ontario indicate that the rosette test had a sensitivity and specificity for an FMH of more than 10 mL of 1.0 and 0.75, respectively, compared with 0.