Novel Melt-Spun Polymer-Optical Poly(methyl methacrylate) Fibers Studied by Small-Angle X-ray Scattering.

The structural properties of novel melt-spun polymer optical fibers (POFs) are investigated by small-angle X-ray scattering. The amorphous PMMA POFs were subjected to a rapid cooling in a water quench right after extrusion in order to obtain a radial refractive index profile. Four fiber samples were investigated with small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS).

Idiopathic CD4 Lymphocytopenia: Spectrum of opportunistic infections, malignancies, and autoimmune diseases.

Idiopathic CD4 lymphocytopenia (ICL) was first defined in 1992 by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as the repeated presence of a CD4+ T lymphocyte count of fewer than 300 cells per cubic millimeter or of less than 20% of total T cells with no evidence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and no condition that might cause depressed CD4 counts. Most of our knowledge about ICL comes from scattered case reports. The aim of this study was to collect comprehensive data from the previously published cases to understand the characteristics of this rare condition.

Spinnability and Characteristics of Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF)-based Bicomponent Fibers with a Carbon Nanotube (CNT) Modified Polypropylene Core for Piezoelectric Applications.

This research explains the melt spinning of bicomponent fibers, consisting of a conductive polypropylene (PP) core and a piezoelectric sheath (polyvinylidene fluoride). Previously analyzed piezoelectric capabilities of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) are to be exploited in sensor filaments. The PP compound contains a 10 wt % carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and 2 wt % sodium stearate (NaSt).

What are specialist and primary care clinicians' attitudes and practices regarding home blood pressure monitoring for hypertensive patients?

Practice guidelines recommend home blood pressure monitoring (HBPM) in the management of hypertension. We surveyed generalists and subspecialists regarding HBPM attitudes and practices in hypertensive patients. Both use HBPM for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes but question the evidence regarding HBPM efficacy.

A review of verbal order policies in acute care hospitals.

Background: Although verbal and telephone orders (VOs) are commonly used in the patient care process, there has been little examination of the strategies and tactics used to ensure their appropriate use or how to ensure that they are accurately communicated, correctly understood, initially documented, and subsequently transcribed into the medical record and ultimately carried out as intended. A systematic review was conducted of hospital verbal and telephone order policies in acute care settings.

Methods: A stratified random sample of hospital verbal and telephone order policy documents were abstracted from critical access, rural, rural referral, and urban hospitals located in Iowa and Missouri and from academic medical centers from across the United States.

Hypoglycemia: A Possible Link between Insulin Resistance, Metabolic Dyslipidemia, and Heart and Kidney Disease (the Cardiorenal Syndrome).

Resistance to insulin metabolic signaling in adipose tissue contributes to the lipid abnormalities in obese, hyperinsulinemic, insulin-resistant patients who develop the cardiorenal syndrome. These same metabolic dyslipidemic abnormalities can be found in conditions of caloric energy restriction with decreased adiposity or normal insulin levels, such as anorexia, starvation or non-diabetic kidney disease. In this review, we assess hypoglycemia as an alternative physiological explanation for the biochemical and lipid findings in conditions of insulin resistance (IR).

MedlinePlus-based health information prescriptions: a comparison of email vs paper delivery.

Background: The internet can provide evidence-based patient education to overcome time constraints of busy ambulatory practices. Health information prescriptions (HIPs) can be effectively integrated into clinic workflow, but compliance to visit health information sites such as MedlinePlus is limited.

Objective: Compare the efficacy of paper (pHIP) and email (eHIP) links to deliver HIPs; evaluate patient satisfaction with the HIP process and MedlinePlus information; assess reasons for noncompliance to HIPs.

Selective laser trabeculoplasty versus medical therapy as initial treatment of glaucoma: a prospective, randomized trial.

Purpose: To compare outcomes of selective laser trabeculoplasty (SLT) with drug therapy for glaucoma patients in a prospective randomized clinical trial.

Patients And Methods: Sixty-nine patients (127 eyes) with open-angle glaucoma or ocular hypertension were randomized to SLT or medical therapy. Target intraocular pressure (IOP) was determined using the Collaborative Initial Glaucoma Treatment Study formula.

Bariatric surgery: 1-year weight loss outcomes in patients with bipolar and other psychiatric disorders.

Background: Bariatric surgery is the most effective obesity treatment in terms of weight loss and resolution of comorbidities. Roux-en-Y bypass surgery achieves weight loss of 60% to 70% excess body weight in most morbidly obese individuals. Patients with psychological disorders are reported to have less optimal results and those with bipolar, possibly worse.

Survival impact of integrative cancer care in advanced metastatic breast cancer.

Integrative cancer treatment is of substantial interest to many cancer patients. Research is needed to evaluate the effects of integrative treatment on patient outcomes. We report survival data for a consecutive case series of advanced metastatic breast cancer patients who received a comprehensive clinical program combining conventional treatments with nutrition and supplementation, fitness and mind-spirit instruction at the Block Center for Integrative Cancer Treatment.

Interobserver repeatability of heidelberg retinal flowmetry using pixel-by-pixel analysis.

Purpose: To determine the interobserver reproducibility of Heidelberg retinal flowmeter (HRF) blood flow measurements using independently selected study areas for pixel-by-pixel analysis.

Patients And Methods: Blood flow measurements were performed on 257 scans from 15 patients, 14 of whom had glaucoma or ocular hypertension. HRF was used to record capillary perfusion in a 2560x640 mum area of the supratemporal peripapillary region and pixel-by-pixel analysis was performed from an area adjacent to the optic disc with a minimum of 1600 pixels.

Knowledge about glaucoma and barriers to follow-up care in a community glaucoma screening program.

Objective: To assess perceived barriers to glaucoma follow-up care, including the lack of glaucoma knowledge and the lack of health care access, among participants in a community glaucoma screening program.

Design: Community survey.

Participants: Two hundred forty-three consecutive participants in a series of free glaucoma screenings between November 2002 and August 2003.

The effect of personality on measures of quality of life related to vision in glaucoma patients.

Aim: To determine the effect of personality on vision-specific health-related quality of life (HRQoL).

Methods: Based on power calculations, 148 individuals diagnosed as having glaucoma or ocular hypertension, without ocular comorbidity, were selected using criteria that included age over 30, no recent or upcoming surgery, the absence of a diagnosis of clinical depression or any other psychiatric illness. Qualifying participants completed the 25-Item National Eye Institute's Visual Function Questionnaire (VFQ), the Neuroticism, Extraversion and Openness Personality Inventory Revised (NEO PI-R) and the 15-Item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15), and provided information regarding their demographic characteristics and past medical history.

Why current medical management is failing victims of Hurricane Katrina: a review of past successes and failures in postdisaster psychosocial treatment.

Background: More than one year after Hurricane Katrina, victims exhibit symptoms of a "chronic disease," representing the disruption of psychosocial health. This systematic review assesses the effects of trauma on multiple domains of health following a disaster.

Method: Authors searched disaster-related literature from 1971 to present, focusing on recent literature involving Hurricane Andrew and outcomes in nonphysical domains of health.

Central corneal thickness in pediatric glaucoma.

Purpose: To compare the central corneal thickness (CCT) of children with and without glaucoma and to estimate the effect CCT may have on the intraocular pressure (IOP) assessment of children.

Patients And Methods: CCT and IOP measurements were performed in an unmasked fashion in 34 consecutive children with glaucoma and 28 consecutive children without glaucoma. Patients with corneal edema or extensive corneal scarring were excluded.

Physical activity assessment: validation of a clinical assessment tool.

Background: Physicians report that they fail to counsel patients about physical activity due to a lack of practical tools, time, reimbursement, knowledge, and confidence. This paper reports concurrent and criterion validation of the Physical Activity Assessment Tool (PAAT), designed to rapidly assess patient physical activity in clinical settings and reduce time for assessment, and thus to facilitate counseling.

Methods: Adult volunteers (n=68) completed the PAAT and International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Long Form (IPAQ-Long) twice and wore a Manufacturing Technology, Inc.

The usefulness of a new method of testing for a relative afferent pupillary defect in patients with ocular hypertension and glaucoma.

Purpose: To evaluate the validity of different methods of relative afferent pupillary defect (RAPD) detection and assess the usefulness of detecting an RAPD in glaucoma patients.

Methods: For this prospective observational study, we enrolled 70 of 153 consecutive glaucoma patients coming for examination. Exclusion criteria were cloudy corneas, recent surgery, fixed pupils, and other diseases producing RAPDs.

Subconjunctival sodium hyaluronate 2.3% in trabeculectomy: a prospective randomized clinical trial.

Purpose: To investigate the efficacy of subconjunctival sodium hyaluronate 2.3% in increasing the success rate of glaucoma filtering surgery and promoting filtering blebs with characteristics presumed to predict better success.

Design: Randomized controlled clinical trial.

Improvement in colour vision parameters following successful trabeculectomy.

Purpose: To determine whether colour vision improves following reduction of intraocular pressure (IOP) in glaucoma patients.

Methods: The medical records of 29 glaucoma patients (41 eyes) were reviewed. Inclusion criteria required subjects to have made more than four visits to the Glaucoma Service Laboratory and to undergo a thorough eye examination including a Farnsworth-Munsell 100-hue colour vision test and Goldmann tonometry before and after pressure lowering.

Assessment of function related to vision (AFREV).

Objectives: To evaluate the relationship of a performance-based measure of visual functioning to clinical and subjective measures in glaucoma patients.

Design: Cross-sectional survey of glaucoma patients.

Participants: Forty-three patients with primary open-angle glaucoma.

The effects of iridotomy size and position on symptoms following laser peripheral iridotomy.

Purpose: To evaluate visual disturbances following laser peripheral iridotomy (LPI). Patients sometimes note visual disturbances following laser peripheral iridotomy. The purpose of this study was to provide what we believe to be the first systematic evaluation of these visual disturbances, including a determination of whether or not they are associated with characteristics of a primary patent laser peripheral iridotomy, such as lid position and size of the iridotomy.

Timolol/dorzolamide combination therapy as initial treatment for intraocular pressure over 30 mm Hg.

Purpose: To determine the intraocular pressure (IOP)-lowering effect of a fixed timolol/dorzolamide combination (Cosopt) for patients with IOP over 30 mm Hg.

Study Design: Prospective interventional case series.

Methods: Eighteen patients being seen on the Wills Eye Hospital Glaucoma Service with at least one eye with an IOP > 30 mm Hg were recruited.