[Child orthopedics].

Children's fractures are a challenge to the treatment system, in that 17,000 children are treated in Denmark each year. The true burden on patients and society is unknown. It is estimated that 1000 new-born infants are treated for hip instability in Denmark per year, and 30 are diagnosed late.

[Enterococcal infections. Clinical findings and treatment considering antibiotic resistance in Denmark].

Enterococcus has become a more frequent cause of serious infections over the last 10-15 years. The infections are primarily nosocomial, owing to compromised immunity in the patients and excessive use of antibiotics in the hospitals. The rise is marked in the USA, where the enterococci furthermore tend to become multiresistant.

[Prehospital treatment of patients with acute exacerbation of chronic pulmonary disease. Before and after introduction of a mobile emergency unit].

Introduction: A Mobile Emergency Care Unit (MECU), manned by an anaesthesiologist and a member of the ambulance crew, was introduced in the city of Arhus in 1997. Endotracheal intubation is not performed by ambulance personnel in Denmark. The aim of this study was to describe the influence of prehospital treatment given by the MECU on the rate of endotracheal intubation, hospitalisation, and survival rate in patients suffering from acute exacerbation of chronic pulmonary disease.

[Surgical treatment of preauricular fistula. A follow-up study].

Introduction: Our aim was to evaluate the results of surgery on preauricular fistulas over a ten-year period and to determine the postoperative recurrence rate and the factors responsible.

Materials And Methods: Forty-three patients with 51 preauricular fistulas, who had been operated on in the period, 1 August 1990 to 1 August 2000, at the Department of Otolaryngology, Aarhus University Hospital, were asked to participate in a follow-up examination. Thirty-three patients turned up for examination, four patients were interviewed over the telephone, and for the rest the data available from the medical records were used.

[Supervision].

Within the past year, the idea of supervision has been introduced and promoted in the media by the manufacturers of wavefront-guided excimer lasers for refractive surgery. The concept is related to the ability of obtaining supernormal visual acuity and contrast sensitivity by correction of higher order aberrations in the biological optics of the human eye. However, the ocular aberrations fluctuate continuously and dynamically over time with the functional state of several of the individual optical components, including: thickness of the tear film, size of the pupil, and the degree of lens accommodation.

[Communication and information in the Danish health services. Laws, regulations and rules for patients and personnel in the Danish health services].

This article describes communication and information between patients and health staff in the Danish Health Service. A number of laws, regulations, rights, and rules have been passed, and in 1998 a new law came into effect concerning patients' rights in the health service. This law protects the rights of patients and provides the health staff with guidelines on communication and information to patients.

[Diagnostic imaging of inflammatory rheumatic joint diseases. Part II: techniques and axial joints].

Imaging of inflammatory disorders of the spine and sacro-iliac joints is important for the diagnosis, prognosis, and evaluation of therapy. Conventional radiography still constitutes the basic imaging modality, but supplementary computed tomography (CT) and especially magnetic resonance imaging (MR-scanning) may provide additional important information. The radiation dose by CT must be taken into account.

[Thiazolidinediones--a new class of oral antidiabetics].

Two members of the group, thiazolidinediones, have been approved for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus. These novel oral antihyperglycaemic agents reduce insulin resistance through binding to and activation of the nuclear receptor, PPAR gamma, with subsequent effects on the glucose and lipid homoeostasis. The compounds will probably exhibit beneficial effects on other facets of the metabolic syndrome.

MR-based statistical atlas of the Göttingen minipig brain.

Thedomestic pig is increasingly being used as an experimental model for brain imaging studies with positron emission tomography (PET). The recording of radiotracer uptake by PET gives functional and physiological information, but with poor spatial resolution. To date, anatomical regions of interest in pig brain have been defined in MR images obtained for each individual animal, because of the lack of a standard stereotaxic coordinate system for the pig brain.

[Receptor mapping in living human beings by means of positron emission tomography].

PET can map neurotransmitter synthesis, storage, release, binding to receptors, and re-uptake in the brain with tracer concentrations in the picomolar or nanomolar range. Tracers are analogues of naturally occurring precursors or ligands, or are drugs, which bind with varying degrees of specificity to receptor subtypes in the brain. Tracers have been synthesised for many transmitter systems, but dopaminergic and serotonergic neurotransmissions are the main foci of current efforts to selectively trace synthesis, storage, re-uptake, or post-synaptic binding of neurotransmitters.

[The molecular genetic background of hereditary craniosynostoses and chondrodysplasias].

Fibroblast growth factors are structurally related proteins associated with cell growth, differentiation, migration, wound healing, angiogenesis, and oncogenesis. At the cellular level, their function is mediated by transmembrane tyrosinekinase receptors, fibroblast growth factor receptors. Four genes encoding fibroblast growth factor receptors have been identified, and mutations in three of these, FGFR1, FGFR2, and FGFR3, can cause different congenital, autosomal dominant disorders affecting the craniofacial and skeletal development: craniosynostosis and chondrodysplasias.

[Severe chronic acrylamide intoxication].

This report of a severe, occupational, long-term acrylamide intoxication with permanent peripheral neuropathy, that chemical toxicity is still a hazard at Danish workplaces.

[NSAID--COX-2-inhibitors, where is the difference? Focus on the modes of action].

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) induce their action by inhibiting prostaglandin synthesis via the cyclooxygenase enzymes (COX). COX has recently been shown to have at least two isoforms, termed COX-1 and COX-2. The life-threatening gastrointestinal side effects of NSAID are caused by their inhibition of COX-1, which results in increased gastrointestinal bleeding and decreased ability to induce platelet aggregation.