Use of a temporary supramalleolar orthosis to manage foot pain in a patient with rheumatoid arthritis: A case report.

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory condition characterized by joint pain, stiffness, and functional disability. Approximately 90% of patients will report symptoms in the foot or ankle during the course of their disease.

Case Description: A case of a 40-year-old woman with a 12-year history of rheumatoid arthritis referred to outpatient physical therapy with a chief complaint of pain in the lateral rearfoot and forefoot is presented.

Neonatal iron status is impaired by maternal obesity and excessive weight gain during pregnancy.

Objective: Maternal iron needs increase sixfold during pregnancy, but obesity interferes with iron absorption. We hypothesized that maternal obesity impairs fetal iron status.

Study Design: Three hundred and sixteen newborns with risk factors for infantile iron deficiency anemia (IDA) were studied to examine obesity during pregnancy and neonatal iron status.

Commentary: deconstructing gender difference.

In Japan, as in the United States, a growing proportion of physicians are women. Hence, the different social roles that men and women occupy and the gendered norms for behavior are increasingly relevant in ensuring that male and female physicians have equal opportunity to participate and advance in all aspects of medicine. Elsewhere in this issue, Nomura and colleagues report on a large survey of primary care residents in Japan.

Predictors of hospice utilization among acute stroke patients who died within thirty days.

Background: Hospice is considered to be underutilized, particularly among patients with noncancer diagnoses such as stroke. The highest mortality among stroke patients occurs within the first 30 days; however, we know little about the hospice enrollment decision for this population during this critical time frame.

Objectives: To determine hospice enrollment rates and to describe sociodemographic and clinical predictors of hospice utilization among patients who die within 30 days of their stroke.

Enteral erythropoietin and iron stimulate erythropoiesis in suckling rats.

Objectives: A primary objective was to evaluate whether addition of enteral iron supplementation will facilitate a systemic erythropoietic effect when feeding erythropoietin (Epo) to suckling rats. A secondary objective was to confirm that iron does not alter the previous finding that enteral Epo exerts local trophic effects on the small intestine.

Methods: Four-day-old Sprague-Dawley rats underwent gastrostomy and were fed a cow's milk-based rat milk substitute for 8 days.

Laparoscopic sigmoid colectomy after acute diverticulitis: when to operate?

Background: Laparoscopic sigmoid colectomy has become an acceptable method of surgical treatment for diverticulitis. However, an optimal waiting period before attempting elective laparoscopic colectomy has not been established. We sought to evaluate the relationship between the time interval from an acute episode of diverticulitis to laparoscopic colectomy and surgical outcomes.

Management of general surgical problems in the pregnant patient.

Background: General surgeons are frequently consulted for nonobstetrical surgical problems in pregnant women, as up to 2% of pregnancies are complicated by such problems. Concerns over the increased morbidity for both the pregnant patient and the fetus are unique to this population.

Data Sources: A review of the English language literature surrounding nonobstetrical surgical issues was collected through a Medline search and review of relevant society and academy papers.

Impact of parental smoking on the prevalence of wheezing respiratory illness in children.

To quantitatively assess environmental tobacco smoke exposure from parental smoking as a risk factor for asthma or wheezing in childhood, and to derive estimates of excess asthma/wheezing lower respiratory tract illness cases attributable to this risk factor, a cross-sectional analysis of the 1987 National Medical Expenditure Survey (a national probability sample of the civilian, noninstitutionalized US population) was undertaken. The National Medical Expenditure Survey included 7,578 children and youth less than 18 years of age in a stratified cluster sampling of US households. After using logistic regression analysis to control for sex, race/ethnicity, region of residence, population density, poverty status, maternal educational level, family size, and father's current smoking status, children whose mothers smoked at the time of the survey were more likely than children of nonsmoking mothers to experience wheezing respiratory illness (odds ratio = 1.