This report describes the attitudes of women patients about the presence and role of a chaperone during pelvic exams and factors associated with these perceptions. A questionnaire was mailed to a systematic sample of all adult women patients of an academic-affiliated family practice (n = 939) in a rural southeastern United States community. Approximately 64% of the sample responded, and 440 (91%) of the returned questionnaires could be used in the analysis. Over half of the patients had no gender preference for the examining physician; when a preference was indicated, it was for a woman physician. Patients expressing a preference were more likely to be younger, never married, nulliparous, and black. Gender of the examining physician was a major factor in the desire for a chaperone during pelvic exams. A chaperone was desired most often when the examining physician was male, and this was especially so when a female physician was preferred. The results indicate most women desired a chaperone when the physician was male, but preferred no chaperone or had no preference when a woman physician was involved.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Characteristics of the transplanted heart in the radionuclide ventriculogram.

We examined conventional radionuclide ventriculograms of 19 heart transplant patients and 12 control patients. R-to-R intervals were shorter in heart transplant patients (630 +/- 95 msec) than in controls (781 +/- 204 msec, p less than 0.01). The elevated heart rate is associated with a decreased left ventricular ejection fraction (56.7 +/- 10.3% vs 67.4 +/- 6.1%, p less than 0.005) and decreased emptying time (225 +/- 21 msec vs 270 +/- 47 msec, p less than 0.01), a shorter interval from the R wave to end systole (311 +/- 28 msec for heart transplant patients vs 349 +/- 48 msec in controls, p less than 0.01) and decreased filling time (262 +/- 61 msec vs 340 +/- 123 msec, p less than 0.01). The maximal filling rate is significantly increased (4.3 +/- 1.4 end diastolic volume/sec in heart transplant patients) compared with controls (3.0 +/- 1.1 end diastolic volume/sec, p less than 0.01, Student's t test). In those patients for whom the interval between the transplant procedure and the radionuclide ventriculogram study was greater than 360 days, the filling time (231 +/- 34 vs 296 +/- 67 msec) and emptying time (216 +/- 18 vs 235 +/- 20 msec, p less than 0.05) were significantly less than for those transplants in place less than 1 year. Other parameters were not significantly different. Those heart transplant patients having had two or more documented rejection episodes had no significant difference in hemodynamic function when compared with patients with one or no rejection episodes; no measure of the severity of rejection was used in this analysis.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Cardiac Pacing, Artificial↗