Influence of gender on outcome from ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm.

Background: The aim of the present study was to compare outcomes following ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) in men and women.

Methods: Overall mortality from ruptured AAA was compared in men and women using the Western Australia Health Services Research Database. The linked chains of de-identified hospital morbidity and death records were selected using the ICD-9-CM (International Classification of Diseases - Clinical Modification) diagnostic and procedure codes pertaining to AAA.

Trends in repeat prostatectomy after surgery for benign prostate disease: application of record linkage to healthcare outcomes.

Objective: To compare the risk of repeat prostatectomy for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) in a population-based cohort of 19 598 men in Western Australia treated by transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) or open prostatectomy over a 16-year period.

Patients And Methods: The Western Australian Health Services Research Linked Database was used to extract all hospital morbidity data, death records and prostate cancer registrations for men who had prostate surgery for BPH in 1980-95. The cumulative incidence of first repeat prostatectomy calculated using the actuarial life-table and incidence-rate ratios of the first repeat prostatectomy, comparing TURP and open prostatectomy, were obtained using Cox regression.

Mortality and prostate cancer risk in 19,598 men after surgery for benign prostatic hyperplasia.

Objectives: To examine postoperative mortality and prostate cancer risk after the first prostatectomy for benign prostatic hypertrophy over a 17-year period in a population-based cohort of men in Western Australia, using improved methods to adjust for comorbidity.

Patients And Methods: The relative survival from death and prostate cancer incidence was calculated against the background population rates. The outcomes of transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) and open prostatectomy (OP) were compared adjusting for calendar year, age, admission type and comorbidity using Cox regression.

Comparison of treatment of mastitis by oxytocin or antibiotics following detection according to changes in milk electrical conductivity prior to visible signs.

Mastitis was induced in dairy cows by infusion of 500 cfu of Streptococcus uberis into the mammary gland. Most infections developed to clinical disease, and the majority were predicted by changes in the electrical conductivity of the foremilk. The benefits of clinical prognosis and bacteriological cure were determined for cases that were treated when predicted to develop into clinical mastitis and compared with cases that were allowed to develop until milk clotted or until pyrexia before intramammary antibiotic treatment was used.

Long term relative survival after surgery for abdominal aortic aneurysm in western Australia: population based study.

Objective: To determine the long term relative survival of all patients who had surgery for abdominal aortic aneurysm in Western Australia during 1985-94.

Design: Population based study.

Setting: Western Australia.

Population-based record linkage study of the incidence of abdominal aortic aneurysm in Western Australia in 1985-1994.

Background: The incidence of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) has increased steadily during the past 30 years.

Methods: Trends in the incidence and surgical intervention for AAA in Western Australia were reviewed for the interval 1985-1994. A population-based health database was used to link morbidity and mortality records of all patients aged 55 years or more who died from rupture or were admitted and treated surgically for AAA.

The Quality of Surgical Care Project: benchmark standards of open resection for abdominal aortic aneurysm in Western Australia.

Background: The Quality of Surgical Care Project (QSCP) was established in May 1996, to evaluate surgical outcomes and where indicated, recommend changes to improve the quality of surgical care in Western Australia (WA). The purpose of this study is to establish benchmark standards in WA for operative mortality, 5-year survival and length of stay in all patients who were surgically treated for aneurysm of the abdominal aorta (AAA) in WA.

Methods: The WA Linked Database was used to link the morbidity and mortality records of all patients admitted and surgically treated for AAA in WA from 1985 to 1994.

The Quality of Surgical Care Project: a model to evaluate surgical outcomes in Western Australia using population-based record linkage.

Background: The aim of this study is to establish a model to evaluate surgical outcomes and, where indicated, recommend changes to improve the quality of surgical care in Western Australia (WA). Open resection for aneurysm of the abdominal aorta was the first procedure evaluated and the results are reported in an accompanying paper.

Methods: The Quality of Surgical Care Project (QSCP) is conducted under the aegis of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) in WA, and brings together a multidisciplinary team of surgeons, public health researchers and health service administrators.

Children's experience of a parent's chronic illness and death.

Five dependent young people who had experienced the chronic illness and death of a parent were asked to reflect on the meanings of their loss. The most important of the eight themes revealed by analysis of the data were the interviewees' emotional upheavals and the shock of being forced to face the realities of illness and death. During the illness phase, the participants had felt powerless and isolated.

Vaginal physiology in postmenopausal women: pH value, transvaginal electropotential difference, and estimated blood flow.

Basal vaginal physiologic study, including pH values in various locations, transvaginal electropotential difference, and blood flow estimation, was done twice in a group of 34 untreated postmenopausal women. Plasma hormone levels (gonadotropins and estrogens) and vaginal cytology were also obtained to confirm the estrogen deficiency state. The pH values in the vaginal fornices were significantly lower than those in the middle portion of the vagina.

The effect of estrogen treatment on plasma concentrations of steroid hormones, gonadotropins, prolactin and sex hormone-binding globulin in post-menopausal women.

Twenty-one post-menopausal women on no other medication were treated with a low dose (0.625 mg/day) of conjugated equine estrogen (CEE) for a mean (+/- SEM) period of 2.6 +/- 0.

Effects of estrogen therapy on vaginal physiology during menopause.

Vaginal physiology was evaluated in 23 postmenopausal women before estrogen replacement therapy and at 1, 3, 6, 12, 18, and 24 months while receiving conjugated equine estrogens (Premarin). Reversal of hormonal levels (17 beta-estradiol, gonadotropins) and vaginal cytology occurred within one month. Vaginal pH levels significantly decreased from a baseline mean of 5.

Relationships between age, body weight, physical fitness and sex-hormone-binding globulin capacity.

The associations between sex-hormone-binding globulin capacity (SHBG), age, body mass index (BMI), and physical fitness have been studied in 34 men and 36 women. Multivariate analysis was used to look for independent associations with SHBG. The data indicate that when controlled for a number of other factors SHBG levels are related, in men but not in women, to age (positively, p less than 0.

Relationship of plasma HDL-cholesterol to testosterone, estradiol, and sex-hormone-binding globulin levels in men and women.

The significance of sex hormone levels in determining variation in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) concentrations was studied in healthy Seventh Day Adventists (vegetarians) and Mormons. These groups were selected to avoid the confounding effects of alcohol consumption and cigarette smoking on HDL-C concentrations. Multivariate analysis showed that testosterone has a strong negative association with HDL-C in men (t = 3.

Estrogen deprivation and vaginal function in postmenopausal women.

A physiological study of the effects of menopause on vaginal function involving 14 postmenopausal women aged 51 to 70 years is reported. Initial evaluations in the estrogen-deprived state were hormonal and cytological studies, vaginal pH, quantity of vaginal fluid, transvaginal electropotential difference, and vaginal blood flow. A significant fall in vaginal pH and increases in transvaginal potential difference, the quantity of vaginal fluid, and vaginal blood flow were observed after estrogen replacement therapy.

A case of trisomy of chromosome 15.

We describe a case of trisomy of chromosome 15 in an infant who presented at birth with numerous abnormalities. As far as we are aware this chromosomal abnormality has not been described before. On the basis of this one case there appear to be no features which are specific to this chromosomal abnormality.

Acute neonatal and benign citrullinaemia in one sibship.

Citrullinaemia was diagnosed in an infant who died at age 8 days. The clinical picture was of the disease in its acute neonatal form. A sib has a blood citrulline of 100 times normal and about 10% of normal argininosuccinic acid synthetase activity in cultured fibroblasts.