Stroke is the third leading cause of death and the major reason for disability in American adults (Sullivan, 1992). Stroke can be a recurrent disease, but most strokes are preventable. Patient and family education about stroke is a vital link in eliminating the knowledge deficit that can help lead to stroke. This article describes the process of developing and implementing a stroke education program that involves both patients and their significant others. In 1990, rehabilitation nurses at St. Margaret Mercy Healthcare Centers in Hammond, IN, identified 11 essential areas for education and grouped them into six 1-hour teaching sessions. A program was developed and held weekly for a trial period of 3 months. It was so well received that it continues to be a permanent part of the rehabilitation program. Such structured teaching in a relaxed atmosphere better prepares patients for discharge and eases the transition to the home environment.

Cerebrovascular Disorders↗

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Effectiveness of a nurse-managed follow-up program for rehabilitation patients after discharge.

Former patients in a rehabilitation unit at a large Midwestern hospital continued to actively seek services provided by the inpatient nursing staff, primarily through telephone contact, long after their discharge. A proactive formal follow-up program managed by an advanced practice nurse in rehabilitation was proposed as a better means of providing continuing care for rehabilitation patients after discharge. To examine the efficacy of the nurse-managed follow-up program, a randomized clinical trial was conducted. One hundred patients were randomly assigned to either the intervention group or the control group. Comparisons were made between the two groups on several outcome measures at 4 months after discharge. Outcomes included Functional Independence Measure (FIM) instrument scores, complication rates, rehospitalizations, and anxiety levels. The organizational outcomes included number and types of calls to staff, as well as time spent by staff nurses and social workers. The results indicated significant differences between the intervention and control groups in terms of anxiety levels, the number of calls made to the unit, and the amount of time spent by staff nurses and social workers.

Aftercare↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Heterobifunctional cross-linking agents incorporating perfluorinated aryl azides.

New heterobifunctional cross-linking reagents were developed that possess a photoactive tetrafluorinated phenyl azide as the photoactive terminus and a chemically reactive succinimidyl ester as the electrophilic terminus. These reagents, succinimidyl N-(4-azido-2,3,5,6-tetrafluorobenzoyl)tyrosinate (9) and succinimidyl 2-(4-azido-2,3,5,6-tetrafluorophenyl)thiazole-4-carboxylate (15), were designed to possess either an 125I or 35S radiolabel, respectively. In a biochemical study, the latter reagent was coupled to Lys-75 of calmodulin (CaM), and the radioiodinated monoadduct was photochemically cross-linked, in a calcium-dependent manner, to the porcine erythrocyte plasma membrane Ca2+, Mg2(+)-ATPase. Densitometry scans of the gel indicated a reproducible 22% cross-linking of the CaM with one of the Ca2+,Mg2(+)-ATPase bands. Since the purification of the Ca2+,Mg2(+)-ATPase results in micelles having Ca2+,Mg2(+)-ATPase with its CaM binding site oriented both to the inside and outside of the micelle, the amount of Ca2+,Mg2(+)-ATPase available for cross-linking was reduced by approximately half, suggesting that the actual cross-linking efficiency was on the order of 40%.

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Photolysis of 3-aryl-3-(trifluoromethyl)diazirines: a caveat regarding their use in photoaffinity probes.

The photolysis of 3-(4-tolyl)-3-(trifluoromethyl)diazirine in the presence of benzene, methanol, carbon tetrachloride, cyclohexane, triethylsilane, or diethylamine led to photoproducts consistent with the intermediacy of a singlet carbene. In the case of diethylamine, the photoinsertion into the N-H bond of diethylamine produced the expected adduct, 1-(diethylamino)-2,2,2-trifluoro-1-(4-tolyl)ethane. However, the base-catalyzed elimination of hydrogen fluoride from this adduct afforded an enamine, alpha-(diethylamino)-beta,beta-difluoro-4-methylstyrene, and the subsequent hydrolysis of this enamine furnished diethylamine and 2,2-difluoro-1-(4-tolyl)ethanone. This elimination and hydrolysis sequence effectively reversed the photoinsertion process. A similar photoinsertion and hydrolysis process using 3-(4-n-octylphenyl)-3-(trifluoromethyl)diazirine also produced 2,2-difluoro-1-(4-n-octylphenyl)ethanone in modest yield. These results suggest that the photoinsertion products from 3-aryl-3-(trifluoromethyl)-diazirines in biological systems may suffer similar fates limiting, in part, their utility in obtaining primary sequence data.

Affinity Labels↗