Four Type I insulin-dependent diabetic men received minced tissue from 6-12 pooled fetal pancreata cultured for 48 hours. Immunosuppressive therapy was not given. The tissue was transplanted under local anesthesia into the brachioradialis muscle of the nondominant arm or below the subcutaneous adipose tissue of the left lower quadrant of the abdominal wall. An increase in C-peptide secretion was documented following each procedure. Detectable C-peptide secretory capacity has persisted for 1 year in three cases. The total insulin requirement showed a drop of 71-100% at the time of maximum C-peptide secretion. No increase in anticytoplasmic islet cell antibody titer was detected during the year of observation following transplantation. These studies document that transplantation of functioning fetal pancreatic insulin-secreting tissue can be performed with minimal operative or immunologic risk to the recipient. Significant insulin secretory capacity persists for 1 year following implantation. Further studies are warranted in order to optimize insulin secretion following fetal pancreatic islet transplantation.

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Animal rights in the 1990s: a different species, but you're still the prey.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Animal Rights↗

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Quality of life measures and gender comparisons in North Carolina Cardiac Rehabilitation Programs.

BACKGROUND: Quality of life (QOL) is an important health-related outcome measure in patients with cardiovascular disease. The North Carolina Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation Association (NCCRA) is a coalition of 72 state-certified, multidisciplinary cardiac rehabilitation (CR) programs. In 1997, the NCCRA Executive Board and Research Committee agreed to collect ongoing data to assess QOL changes following CR participation using the Ferrans & Powers QOL Index Cardiac Version III. The purpose of this study was to determine if changes were present in QOL scores after 12 weeks of CR in men and women from multiple outpatient centers. METHODS: Data were analyzed from 420 patients from 19 Phase II early outpatient CR programs who completed the QOL index survey within the first week of program entry and upon discharge. The four QOL index domains measured were health/function, psychological/spiritual status, socioeconomic status, and family interaction. Overall QOL was tabulated as the aggregate score from the four domains. Each domain, as well as overall QOL, was compared pre- and post-CR participation with a repeated measures analysis of variance. RESULTS: Across programs, statistically significant improvements in QOL indices were observed following 12 weeks of CR in each of the four domains and on the overall score in all patients. Men reported greater CR entry and discharge scores than women on the health/function, family interaction, and overall scores. Women showed a greater positive change in scores than men on the socioeconomic, family interaction, and overall scores. CONCLUSIONS: Patients who participated in Phase II multidisciplinary North Carolina CR programs and completed the protocol improved QOL parameters. While men had higher physical function and overall QOL scores both pre- and post-CR, women showed greater improvements in overall scores, as well as in family and socioeconomic parameters. These findings suggest that North Carolina CR patients experience a positive change in QOL following short-term participation in CR. Further study with a larger number of patients benchmarked with programs from other regions with comparisons to patients who do not participate in formalized CR programs is indicated from this investigation.

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Knowledge of male and female midwestern college students about baby bottle tooth decay.

The purpose of this bellwether study was to establish the level of knowledge a group of young men and women college students had about baby bottle tooth decay (BBTD) and the associated risk factors. The results show that knowledge about BBTD is very limited even among a well-educated group of young adults. Overall 39% of the respondents had heard of BBTD whereas 87% had heard of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Thirty-two percent thought BBTD was a fictional (vs. "real" or "unsure") health problem, while 3% of the respondents thought SIDS was a fictional health problem. Knowledge about overall risk factors for oral disease was greater than that for BBTD. Further, these subjects report that if they believed that adopting a certain feeding practice would reduce the risk of tooth decay for their babies, they would be likely to adopt it. Men and women significantly differed on the age at which a child should first see a dentist (chi sq = 19.56, df = 5, P < 0.01). Forty-five percent of the men selected either when the first tooth erupts or between 6-18 months as the time a child should first be seen by a dentist. Only 11% of the women thought a child should be seen that early. Forty-five percent of the women students selected 2-3 years as the earliest age at which a child should be seen by a dentist. Implications of this research are discussed.

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