Domestic violence

The purpose of this study was to analyze the development in the incidence of violence against women committed by husband/spouse and violence against children committed by parents. This study is based on a prospective registration during a one year period (1993-94) of women and children who attended the casualty wards and/or the Department of Forensic Medicine because of exposure to violence. The results were compared with similar studies from 1981-82 and 1987-88. The incidence of domestic violence within the age group of 25-34 years (the major group) was in 1993-94 1.9 per 1000 per year, in 1981-82 1.7 and in 1987-88 2.9. Twelve percent of the women had been exposed to violence characterized as severe. Twenty (6.6%) women were registered more than once. Thirty-eight percent of Danish women and 25.8% of foreign women reported the incident to the police. The incidence of violence against children remained unchanged at 0.3 per 1000 per year during the three registration periods.     

Respiratory mechanics after prosthetic reconstruction of the chest wall in normal rats

OBJECTIVE: Prosthetic reconstruction of the chest wall may yield several respiratory changes. Nevertheless, to our knowledge, no comprehensive analysis of respiratory mechanics under this condition has been hitherto performed. METHODS: Respiratory mechanics were evaluated in two groups of rats. In one group (n=8), a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) patch was used; in another group (n=8), a polypropylene mesh (Marlex) associated with methylmethacrylate (PPMM) was employed. All animals were sedated, anesthetized, paralyzed, and mechanically ventilated before and after the prosthetic reconstruction of the chest wall. After airway occlusion at end inspiration, respiratory system, pulmonary, and chest wall resistive pressures (deltaP1rs, deltaP1L, and deltaP1cw, respectively) and viscoelastic/inhomogeneous pressures (deltaP2rs, deltaP2L, and deltaP2cw, respectively) were determined. Respiratory system, lung, and chest wall static (Est(rs), EstL, and Est(cw), respectively), and dynamic elastances (Edyn(rs), EdynL, and Edyn(cw), respectively), and the corresponding delta elastances (deltaE, calculated as Edyn-Est) were also obtained. RESULTS: In both groups, significant increases in deltaP2rs, deltaP2cw, deltaErs, deltaEcw, Est(rs), EstL, and Est(cw) were observed after chest wall reconstruction. However, deltaP2rs, deltaP2cw, deltaErs, deltaEcw, Est(rs), and EstL were significantly higher in the PPMM group than in the PTFE group. CONCLUSIONS: Prosthetic reconstruction of the chest wall yields not only elastic changes, but also there is also an important increase of pressure dissipated against viscoelastic/inhomogeneous segments of the chest wall. Furthermore, taking into account respiratory mechanics, the PTFE patch might be preferred to the PPMM patch.     

Photophosphorylation in alkalophilic halobacterial cells containing halorhodopsin: chloride-ion cycle?

The anxiolytic and memory enhancing effects of moclobemide (p-chloro-N-(2-morphinoethyl)benzamide, CAS 71320-77-9, Ro 11-1163), a reversible and selective monoamine A oxidase inhibitor, were investigated in rats. It was found that the drug had an anxiolytic activity lasting in chronic experiments over 2 weeks. The used dose of the drug did not change animal locomotion in activity cages. In memory experiments (food finding time in maze), moclobemide exerted a favorable effect only after a single administration. In rats with scopolamine-impaired memory, moclobemide attenuated the effects of scopolamine in single and chronic experiments.     

Current principles of multidisciplinary treatment of pain in orthopedic clinics

Differentiated strategy of treating patients with acute and chronic pain is developed. Preemptive analgesia is a priority trend in the treatment of acute postoperative pain. The most prevalent method of postoperative analgesia is prolonged opioid epidural analgesia carried out in intensive care wards and other wards by an acute pain management team. For treating patients with chronic painful syndromes, protocols of initial clinical and diagnostic evaluation are developed, permitting the choice of individual treatment strategy. Differentiated complex drug therapy planned with consideration for individual course of the painful syndrome is the basis of treating patients with phantom pain syndrome. Algorithms of differentiated therapy of radicular and spondylogenic pain are designed. Stage-by-stage analysis of treatment efficacy is carried out using modern electrophysiological methods. Realization of the proposed organization principles improved the efficacy of postoperative analgesia to 88.2%, prevented the development of postoperative painful syndrome in 35.6% cases, decreased the incidence of phantom pain syndrome after amputation of the limb from 63.3 to 31.6% and increased the efficacy of this syndrome treatment to 70.1%, and increased the efficacy of treating vertebrogenic painful syndromes to 82.3%.     

Prognosis of bleeding from duodenal ulcers

Clinical and pathogenetic findings on 147 patients with duodenal ulcer (DU) and 29 patients with DU complicated by ulcerogenic bleeding were compared. This allowed to single out significant criteria for prediction of development of bleeding in such patients: male sex freguent seasonal exacerbations, hereditary load, location of the ulcer at the back wall of the duodenal bulb, negative atropine test, HLA-phenotype B35, A2 A3, A2 AX. High acidity and large sixe of DU were hot prognostically independent. The importance of complex approach in solution of prognostic problems is emphasized.