[Comparison of Plaster Fixation and Kirschner Wire Transfixation as Temporary Fixation of Displaced Ankle Fractures - Randomised Prospective Study].

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY The purpose of the study was to assess two therapeutic procedures of temporary fixation of displaced ankle fractures, namely the plaster fixation or Kirschner wire (KW) transfixation via the sole of the foot. MATERIAL AND METHODS Group of patients The randomised prospective study conducted in the period 02/2016-02/2017 compared two methods of temporary fixation of displaced ankle fractures. In total, 38 patients were included in the study (18 patients treated with plaster fixation, 20 patients treated with KW).

Cancer patients' perception of information exchange between hospital-based doctors and their general practitioners.

Rationale, Aims And Objectives: The quality of communication between health care professionals is a key issue determining health outcomes in cancer care. This study aims to find out what importance cancer patients in Austria attach to information exchange between hospital-based doctors and their general practitioners (GPs) and how patients perceive this flow of information.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, cancer patients seeking help at a community-based organization in the voluntary sector (Viennese Cancer League) were polled with a 16-item questionnaire.

Stigma resistance in patients with schizophrenia.

Background: An individual's capacity to counteract the stigma of mental illness, stigma resistance (SR), is considered as playing a crucial role in fighting stigma. However, little is known about SR and its correlates in patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.

Aim: Exploring SR in patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.

Breaking bad news to cancer patients: survey and analysis.

Purpose: To find out how patients perceived the disclosure of news about their cancer as regards the physician counselling and how they perceived the flow of information between hospital-based and family physicians.

Methods: 272 cancer patients were polled with a 16-item questionnaire.

Results: 252 cancer patients, 92.

Spontaneous 24-h ghrelin secretion pattern in fasting subjects: maintenance of a meal-related pattern.

Objective: Ghrelin stimulates GH release and causes weight gain through increased food intake and reduced fat utilization. Ghrelin levels were shown to rise in the preprandial period and decrease shortly after meal consumption, suggesting a role as a possible meal initiator. However, ghrelin secretion in fasting subjects has not yet been studied in detail.

Polymorphism in ARE-I region of prostate-specific antigen gene associated with low serum testosterone level and high-grade prostate cancer.

Objectives: To examine the impact of polymorphism in the androgen-responsive element I region of the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) gene on the serum testosterone level and Gleason score in patients with newly diagnosed, untreated prostate cancer (PCa). High-grade PCa is associated with a low serum testosterone level, and the testosterone level has been negatively correlated with the expression of PSA.

Methods: Endocrine factors (including testosterone, follicle-stimulating hormone, and luteotropic hormone), PSA level, prostate volume, and Gleason score were measured in 134 patients with untreated, biopsy-verified PCa.

Multidrug resistance markers P-glycoprotein, multidrug resistance protein 1, and lung resistance protein in non-small cell lung cancer: prognostic implications.

Purpose: The aim of this retrospective study was to comparatively investigate the expression of the three drug-resistance genes P-glycoprotein (P-gp), multidrug-resistance protein 1 (MRP1), and lung resistance protein (LRP), in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tissues, and to assess possible associations with clinicopathologic features.

Methods: Tumor specimens from 126 patients were analyzed by immunohistochemistry and, in selected cases, by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and data were statistically analyzed by SPSS.

Results: The mean expression levels of tumor tissues in the case of P-gp and LRP did not exceed the one of normal epithelia, while MRP1 was significantly enhanced in NSCLC.

[Empowerment, quality of life and participation in neurological rehabilitation. Empirical study with stroke patients and their relatives].

The active role (participation) that patients with chronic conditions are able to achieve has increasingly been recognised as a measure for the effectiveness of prevention- and rehabilitation strategies. An empowerment scale is an especially effective instrument for measuring social participation, and was applied to stroke patients in neurological rehabilitation for the first time. 26 stroke survivors and 26 informal carers, who participated in self-help groups in Lower Austria, were surveyed.

Effect of intestinal microfloras from vegetarians and meat eaters on the genotoxicity of 2-amino-3-methylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoline, a carcinogenic heterocyclic amine.

Aim of this study was to investigate the impact of intestinal microfloras from vegetarians and non-vegetarians on the DNA-damaging activity of 2-amino-3-methyl-3H-imidazo[4,5-f]quinoline (IQ), a carcinogenic heterocyclic amine that is found in fried meats. Floras from four vegetarians (Seventh Day Adventists) and from four individuals who consumed high amounts of meats were collected and inoculated into germfree F344 rats. The rats were kept on isocaloric diets that either contained animal derived protein and fat (meat consumers group) or proteins and fat of plant origin (vegetarian groups).

Growth data in large series of 587 children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes mellitus.

Objective: Discordant data were found in recent growth studies in children with type-1 diabetes mellitus. This study focuses on growth data and final height in the largest cohort of diabetic children studied so far.

Methods: 7598 growth data collected in a longitudinal/cross sectional way between 1971 and 1996 in 587 diabetic subjects (317 males, 270 females) were available for analysis of height and BMI, together with 3889 HbA1c measurements.

Validation of a mathematical model predicting the response to growth hormone treatment in prepubertal children with idiopathic growth hormone deficiency.

Objective: To validate a mathematical model developed by Ranke et al. (J Clin Endocrinol Metab 1999;84:1174-7783) to predict the GH response during the first years of GH replacement therapy.

Patients And Methods: 38 children with idiopathic GH deficiency (GHD) met all inclusion criteria for the prediction model, but the group differed in some characteristics from the cohort from which the model was derived.

Complementary therapies in cancer patients: prevalence and patients' motives.

Background: Data relating to the use of complementary/alternative medicine (CAM) in cancer patients have been published for a number of European countries. No recent data are available for Austria.

Aim: To ascertain the extent of CAM use by cancer patients, what patients' motives are, what methods are used and who the CAM providers are.

Association of microsomal epoxide hydrolase polymorphisms and lung cancer risk.

Microsomal epoxide hydrolase (mEH) plays a dual role in the detoxification and activation of tobacco procarcinogens. Two polymorphisms affecting enzyme activity have been described in the exons 3 and 4 of the mEH gene, which result in the substitution of amino acids histidine to tyrosine at residue 113, and arginine to histidine at residue 139, respectively. We performed a hospital-based case-control study consisting of 277 newly diagnosed lung cancer patients and 496 control subjects to investigate a possible association between these two polymorphisms and lung cancer risk.

Morphological and functional results of AcrySof intraocular lens implantation in children: prospective randomized study of age-related surgical management.

Purpose: To evaluate the prevalence and severity of posterior capsule opacification (PCO) in pediatric eyes with a foldable acrylic AcrySof (Alcon) intraocular lens (IOL) and age-related surgical methods.

Setting: Department of Ophthalmology, University of Vienna, Medical School, Vienna, Austria.

Methods: This prospective randomized study comprised 50 eyes of 34 children aged between 2 and 16 years.

Impact of radical prostatectomy and TURP on the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal hormone axis.

Objectives: To assess the impact of prostate cancer (PCa) and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) on the hypothalamic-pituitary hormone axis, we determined the endocrine changes after radical prostatectomy (RP) and transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) for BPH and in a group of men with BPH followed up conservatively.

Methods: Patients with PCa before RP (n = 49), those who underwent TURP for BPH (n = 51), and men with lower urinary tract symptoms for whom a wait-and-see strategy was chosen (n = 46) were included. Serum levels of total testosterone, luteinizing hormone, and follicle-stimulating hormone were determined at baseline and 6 and 12 months later in all patients.

Polymorphic CAG repeats in the androgen receptor gene, prostate-specific antigen polymorphism and prostate cancer risk.

As the development of prostate cancer is androgen-dependent, it has been hypothesized that variation in transcriptional activity by the androgen receptor (AR) related to polymorphic CAG repeats in exon 1, influences prostate cancer risk. The AR regulates gene transcription by binding to androgen-response elements (AREs) in target genes, such as the prostate-specific antigen (PSA). In the ARE-I sequence of the PSA gene an adenine to guanine polymorphism is described.

Patterns of joint involvement at onset differentiate oligoarticular juvenile psoriatic arthritis from pauciarticular juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.

Objective: To compare the patterns of joint involvement of patients with oligoarticular onset juvenile psoriatic arthritis (Oligo-JPsA) and pauciarticular onset juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (Pauci-JRA) in order to estimate the predictive performance of specific patterns for the diagnosis of Oligo-JPsA.

Methods: Twenty-three children who fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for JPsA (Vancouver criteria) and who had fewer than 5 joints involved in the first 6 months of disease (Oligo-JPsA), and 64 children with Pauci-JRA (ACR criteria) were enrolled. Patients were also classified with respect to the ILAR criteria for juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA).

A cohort mortality and nested case-control study of French and Austrian talc workers.

Objectives: To study whether the mortality from non-malignant and malignant respiratory diseases of workers employed in French and Austrian talc mines and mills is related to their long term occupational exposure.

Methods: Two historical cohorts were set up comprising all male subjects who had been working continuously for at least 1 year in a series of talc producing companies in France and Austria. The French cohort consisted of those employed at a site in the French Pyrenees and working between 1 January 1945 and 31 December 1994.

Cellular reaction on the anterior surface of 4 types of intraocular lenses.

Purpose: To assess the cellular reaction on the anterior surface of 4 types of foldable intraocular lenses (IOLs).

Setting: Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.

Methods: One hundred eyes scheduled for cataract surgery were prospectively randomized into 4 groups of 25 eyes each using random number tables.

Influence of a beta-glucan-enriched bedtime snack on nocturnal blood glucose levels in diabetic children.

Background: The high prevalence of low nocturnal blood glucose levels is a major problem in the treatment of children with diabetes.

Methods: The effect of a beta-glucan-enriched bedtime snack on nocturnal blood glucose levels was examined in comparison with an equicaloric conventional snack in 38 children with diabetes during a 12-night study period.

Results: A significant influence of the type of bedtime snack on the blood glucose course until 2 AM could be observed (P < 0.

High-altitude retinopathy and retinal vascular dysregulation.

Purpose: (a) To show that high-altitude retinopathy (HAR) is common at high altitudes even in well-acclimatised climbers and that it should not be regarded as part of the spectrum of benign mountain sickness but rather as a clinical sign with a separate aetiology. (b) To test the hypothesis that HAR could be interpreted as a clinical expression of 'ocular vascular dysregulation'.

Methods: Both eyes of the 8 mountaineers of the First Vienna Himalayan Expedition in May/June 1996 were examined 2 weeks before departure to and 2 weeks after descent from a high altitude.

Symptoms suggestive of atopic rhinitis in children aged 6-9 years and the indoor environment.

Background: We aimed to investigate the influence of indoor factors on the prevalence of symptoms suggestive of atopic rhinitis in children aged 6-9 years in Upper Austria.

Methods: We analyzed the results from an extended ISAAC (International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood) questionnaire, answered by the parents, about indoor environment and symptoms strongly suggesting atopic rhinitis. This was defined as having reported a running, obstructed, or itchy nose apart from having a cold in the last year.

[Prevalence of smoking habits of Upper Austria students of the 7th and 8th grade and effect of smoking habits of family and peers].

The aim of the study was to explore the prevalence of different smoking habits in a population of Austrian pupils, 12 to 15 years old, and the relationship of familial and peer group smoking customs with these habits. In 1997 a population-based survey (International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood, ISAAC) was conducted of all 7th and 8th grade school children of a district of Upper Austria. Information on the smoking habits of the adolescents, the family members, and of the peer as well as smoking habits of the teacher, gender, and age of the children was collected.

Longitudinal growth in HIV-negative boys with haemophilia.

Unlabelled: It has been shown that HIV-positive haemophilic children develop growth retardation. As not only the HIV infection but also other disease-related factors might compromise growth in these children, growth data were analysed in a longitudinal cross-sectional manner in 84 HIV-negative haemophilic patients from two university clinics. A total of 2-24 height and weight measurements (median 6) were recorded in each patient resulting in 683 single values collected between 1977-1995.

Indoor factors and their association to respiratory symptoms suggestive of asthma in Austrian children aged 6-9 years.

The ISAAC (International Study of Asthma and Allergy in Childhood) was founded in 1990 in order to maximise the value of epidemiological research into asthma and allergic diseases, to describe the prevalence of asthma and allergic disease in children living in different locations, to make comparisons within and between countries, to provide a framework for further etiological research and to find prevention strategies. We analysed a sub-sample of a population-based study (1995 to 1997) in Upper Austria. The aim of our study was to investigate the influence of indoor risk factors on wheezing in children 6-9 years old.