Antidepressants for hip and knee osteoarthritis.

Background: Although pain is common in osteoarthritis, most people fail to achieve adequate analgesia. Increasing acknowledgement of the contribution of pain sensitisation has resulted in the investigation of medications affecting pain processing with central effects. Antidepressants contribute to pain management in other conditions where pain sensitisation is present.

Comprehensive comparative genomics reveals over 50 phyla of free-living and pathogenic bacteria are associated with diverse members of the amoebozoa.

The Amoebozoa, a group containing predominantly amoeboid unicellular protists has been shown to play an important ecological role in controlling environmental bacteria. Amoebozoans not only graze bacteria but also serve as a safe niche for bacterial replication and harbor endosymbiotic bacteria including dangerous human pathogens. Despite their importance, only a few lineages of Amoebozoa have been studied in this regard.

Transglutaminases Are Active in Perivascular Adipose Tissue.

Transglutaminases (TGs) are crosslinking enzymes best known for their vascular remodeling in hypertension. They require calcium to form an isopeptide bond, connecting a glutamine to a protein bound lysine residue or a free amine donor such as norepinephrine (NE) or serotonin (5-HT). We discovered that perivascular adipose tissue (PVAT) contains significant amounts of these amines, making PVAT an ideal model to test interactions of amines and TGs.

Establishing a Telephone Medication Order Policy and Protocol for a Small Private Hospital in Jamaica.

Objective: To institutionalize an evidence-based policy/protocol adapted from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) national medication standards for managing telephone medication orders (TMO) and to determine the impact of the policy/protocol on the number of telephone medication errors (TME) on two medical units of a small private hospital in Jamaica.

Methods: Kotter's Eight-step Change Model was used to facilitate organizational change among nurses and physicians by teaching and implementing the TMO policy/protocol adapted from AHRQ standards and collecting pre-policy and post-policy frequency of TMEs. A convenience sample of 80 nurses and physicians participated in training about the policy/protocol, took post-instructional tests and participated in the implementation of the policy/protocol.

Evaluation of POSSUM and P-POSSUM scoring systems in patients undergoing colorectal surgery.

Background: The Physiological and Operative Severity Score for the enUmeration of Mortality and morbidity (POSSUM) and Portsmouth POSSUM (P-POSSUM) equations were derived from a heterogeneous general surgical population and have been used successfully as audit tools to provide risk-adjusted operative mortality rates. Their applicability to high-risk emergency colorectal operations has not been established.

Methods: POSSUM variables were recorded for 1017 patients undergoing major elective (n = 804) or emergency (n = 213) colorectal surgery in ten hospitals.

The effectiveness of humor in persuasion: the case of business ethics training.

In this study, persuasion theory was used to develop the following predictions about use of humor in persuasive messages for business ethics training: (a) cartoon drawings will enhance persuasion by creating liking for the source, (b) ironic wisecracks will enhance persuasion by serving as a distraction from counterarguments, and (c) self-effacing humor will enhance persuasion by improving source credibility. Canadian business students (N = 148) participated in 1 of 4 versions of "The Ethics Challenge," a training exercise used by the Lockheed Martin Corporation. Three versions were modified by adding or removing cartoon drawings (of cartoon characters Dilbert and Dogbert) and humorous responses (Dogbert's wisecracks).

Fibre-optic links eliminate distances separating specialists, patients.

New types of telemedicine links are being tested in Ottawa and the definition they provide is so good that cardiologists can treat patients several hundred kilometres away. Dr. Wilbert Keon says this technology should not be seen as an expensive frill but as a needed advance that will make health care more efficient.

Issues concerning ethical conduct and genetic mapping raised at Montreal meeting.

Ethical concerns about the Human Genome Diversity Project were discussed in Montreal last year during the 1st International Conference on DNA Sampling and Banking. This article, the second in a 2-part series, looks at the potential for misuse and commercialization of DNA samples and discusses some of the ethical concerns surrounding genetic mapping.

Is informed consent possible in the rapidly evolving world of DNA sampling?

Ethical concerns about the human genome diversity project were discussed in Montreal last year during the 1st International Conference on DNA Sampling and Banking. This, the first article in a 2-part series on the conference, examines issues related to informed consent.

Mandatory CPR training for students may improve cardiac-arrest survival rate, MDs say.

A mandatory cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) program that started as a pilot project in Ottawa-area high schools is expanding to other Canadian schools. Besides CPR techniques, Grade 9 students are being taught about healthy lifestyles and how to recognize cardiac arrest. Emergency physician Justin Maloney, the program's principal architect, believes that in a decade this mandatory training will translate into increased bystander-initiated CPR and improved chances of survival for victims of cardiac arrest.

Canadian patient played key role in uncovering secrets about early-onset Alzheimer's disease.

Last June, the University of Toronto announced that Canadian scientists and a team of international researchers had discovered the gene responsible for most cases of early-onset Alzheimer's disease. One of the key players in that discovery had died just 3 months earlier. Frances Hodge, who participated in a battery of tests for the 20 years she lived with the disease, helped lead researchers to gene S182--and an ember of hope for future generations.

Canadian military physician one of many who tried to help Rwandans cope with a "world of hurt".

Lieutenant-Commander Colin Harwood was part of a team from the Canadian Forces Medical Service (CFMS) that was sent to Rwanda in the wake of that country's bloody civil war. The Ottawa-based officer says the CFMS personnel helped ease many serious medical problems during the 10 weeks they spent there, although the sheer numbers of wounded, diseased and orphaned people sometimes seemed overwhelming. The Canadian personnel helped more than 22,000 patients during their stay.

Subsets of T lymphocytes in relation to T lymphocyte function in multiple sclerosis.

T lymphocyte control of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection of autologous B lymphocytes was examined in parallel to the enumeration of subpopulations of mononuclear cells in 22 multiple sclerosis (MS) patients and in 22 healthy individuals. All were seropositive for EBV. The incidence of lack of T cell control was significantly higher in patients than in controls, confirming previous published work.

Tumor morphometry as prognostic factor in T1 and T2 bladder cancer.

Cytologic features indicative of malignancy were related to the subsequent rate of tumor recurrence in 50 patients with T1 and T2 transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) of the bladder. All patients with T1 disease in whom frequent recurrences developed had more than 15 per cent malignant-looking (ML) cells in their original biopsy. In patients with less than 15 per cent ML cells recurrences developed infrequently.

Primary squamous carcinoma of the proximal large bowel. Report of a case and review of the literature.

A patient with primary squamous carcinoma of the proximal colon, who also had a previous adenocarcinoma of the large bowel, is described along with a review of the literature. Clinical features, etiologic factors, and possible pathogenesis are discussed.

Intersphincteric excision of the rectum.

Wide excision of the rectum in inflammatory bowel disease is both unnecessary and undesirable as the healthy pelvic floor is damaged and the pelvic nerves put at risk. An operative technique is described which includes dissection of the anal canal and rectum in the intersphincteric plane, i.e.

Carotid artery thrombosis, encephalitis, myelitis and optic neuritis associated with rubella virus infections.

The clinical, virological and pathological findings in 5 patients with neurological complications associated with rubella virus infection are described. The neurological illnesses began four to ten days after the rubella illnesses. The patients were all males aged between 6 and 17 years and were diagnosed during one non-epidemic year in a population of 1-5 million people.

Strangulated lumbar hernia and volvulus following removal of iliac crest bone graft.

A case of a woman aged 88 years with a volvulus and strangulated small bowel in a hernia, following removal of iliac crest for bone grafting, is described. Emphasis is laid on prevention of an incisional hernia when obtaining the bone graft.