Shotguns are used in a considerable number of homicides and suicides, and while gunshot wounds are extensively reported in the literature, there is a paucity of shotgun deaths. To specifically study deaths by shotguns, all deaths due to shotguns examined at the Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office between 1988 and ...

The American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology Psychiatry Part II Examination (the "oral boards") is among the most challenging examinations in all of medicine. The pass rate for the oral boards has hovered around 55% to 60% for years and remains lower than in other medical specialties. This article is ...

1. This study investigated whether feather damage due to feather pecking and bird behaviour were influenced by plumage colour in Oakham Blue laying hens (black, white, grey colour variants). The reflectance properties of feathers and spectral composition of light environments experienced by the hens were also examined. 2. Nine hundred ...

In this issue, Reidenberg and Willis share results of a 2-year study of cases in which physicians were criminally prosecuted for their prescribing of opioids "outside the bounds of proper medical practice."(1) They found that in only two of 32 such cases had a state medical board reviewed the case ...

Because many physicians do not use the Vaccine Information Statement (VIS), we created a revised statement that would alert the physician to the need to use the VIS. Even though the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) coordinated this evaluation, both the CDC and most of the State Board of Medical ...

We created a model surveillance system (Med-X) designed to enable medical examiners and coroners to recognize fatal infections of public health importance and deaths due to bioterrorism. All individuals who died in New Mexico and fell under medical examiner jurisdiction between November 23, 2000, and November 22, 2002, were prospectively ...

Although acute urinary retention (AUR) is not commonly thought of as a life-threatening condition, its presentation in orbit can lead to a number of medical complications that could compromise a space mission. We report on a middle-aged astronaut who developed urinary retention during two spaceflights. On the first mission of ...

The authors explore the constructions of gender in male doctors' narratives of gynecological examinations. Focusing on the ways in which gender identities are constructed in the stories of the medical encounter, they argue, first, that gender is more flexible during the visit with a gynecologist than has been suggested. Gendered ...

Hands and instruments used by healthcare workers may serve as vectors for the nosocomial transmission of microorganisms. The use of cellular telephones by medical personnel and the associated nosocomial transmission of pathogens have not been thoroughly examined. Findings from our study show that cellular telephones are commonly used by hospital ...

A prototypical in situ noninvasive study of ancient mural painting materials has been carried out using an easily manageable fiber-optic Fourier transform mid-infrared (mid-FT-IR) reflectance spectrophotometer. The reported object of the study is the Renaissance fresco by Pietro Vannucci, called il Perugino, located in the church of Santa Maria delle ...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Although alopecia areata is a well-recognized entity, it is riddled with issues that need to be addressed; therefore, the epidemiology, clinical data, and psychological impact of alopecia areata were investigated. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An observational study was performed in 65 consecutive patients in the Indian subcontinent. Physical ...

A 70-year-old woman presented for evaluation of an eruption localized to the area covered by her partial upper denture. Her medical history and physical examination were otherwise unremarkable. She originally had a metal upper partial denture, which she used for many years without difficulty. Four years before presentation, she developed ...

Medical practice in police custody needs to be harmonized. A consensus conference was held on 2-3 December 2004 in Paris, France. The health, integrity, and dignity of detainees must be safeguarded. The examination should take place in the police station so that the doctor can assess the conditions in which ...

OBJECTIVES: A task force of the National Psoriasis Foundation Medical Board was convened to evaluate the current severity criteria of mild, moderate, and severe psoriasis and to make recommendations concerning a 2-tiered categorization of severity based on current clinical practice and related to intent to treat. PARTICIPANTS: This volunteer task ...

During routine examination of a 32-year-old patient, a cervical polyp was found and CIN III was confirmed by biopsy. After performing colposcopy, biopsy and establishing CIN III as well as performing gastroscopy where a duodenal polyp was found, thorough diagnostic exams and therapy were carried out. Complete duodenal resection and ...

In this study, we investigate the use of narrative in online conversations among persons suffering from chronic opiate addiction and evaluate both its positive and negative uses. Illness narratives, as argued by sociologist Arthur Frank and psychiatrist/medical anthropologist Arthur Kleinman, enable patients to give order to life experiences and receive ...

PURPOSE: In antiquity the visual examination of urine (uroscopy) is well documented. Uroscopy gradually evolved from a prognostic indicator to a diagnostic tool. Comparison of the uses of uroscopy by Hippocrates (400 BC) and Theophilus (700 AD) illustrates this transformation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We reviewed medical and historical literature as ...

Minimizing endoscopic complications includes attention to the details about each patient's current medical condition before they undergo an invasive procedure. This article focuses on critical issues about proper preparation for endoscopic procedures and examines potential modifications to a patient's medical regimen near the time of an endoscopic procedure, highlighting recently ...

The aim of the present study was to determine the percentage of dentists who use radiographic examination on the initial appointment, and establish the relation between the use of periodontal probe and graduation year. Dentists were interviewed in their private offices in three cities in Rio Grande do Sul. They ...

A case of diarrhoea in a four-month-old golden retriever is described. On the basis of anamnesis and bacteriological examination, the diagnosis of bacterial enteritis due to Providencia alcalifaciens was reached. Although there are contradictory opinions about the role of this organism as the enteric pathogen, it seems that Providencia alcalifaciens ...

Trepanation is the process by which a hole is drilled into the skull, exposing the intracranial contents for either medical or mystical purposes. It represents one of the oldest surgical procedures, and its practice was widespread in many ancient cultures and several parts of the world. Trepanation was used in ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Cannabis (marijuana) had been used for medicinal purposes for millennia. Cannabinoid agonists are now attracting growing interest and there is also evidence that botanical cannabis is being used as self-medication for stress and anxiety as well as adjunctive therapy by the seriously ill and by patients with terminal ...

BACKGROUND: In the rehabilitation of patients with prolonged back and neck pain, the physical impairment should be assessed. Previous research has exclusively engaged medically educated examiners, mostly physiotherapists. However, less biased evaluations of efforts at rehabilitation might be achieved by personnel standing outside the treatment work itself. Therefore, if medically ...

After briefly reviewing theories of standard setting we analyzed the problems of the current cut scores. Then, we reported the results of need assessment on the standard setting among medical educators and psychometricians. Analyses of the standard setting methods of developed countries were reported as well. Based on these findings, ...

The North American Pharmacist Licensure Examination (NAPLEX) is currently used by all 50 state boards of pharmacy to aid in determining whether a candidate for licensure possesses the minimal knowledge and skills required to safely and effectively practice pharmacy. The blueprint for this examination periodically undergoes revision so that it ...

Sensory chemo-signals conveying information on sex and familiarity are important to the manifestation of aggressive behaviors in male mice. In this study, we examined the role of familiarity conveyed by urine odor in the induction of aggressive behavior using a resident-intruder paradigm. First, an intact ICR male mouse (resident) was ...

During the examination of a large suite of tropical deep-water molluscs, a number of Solenogastres were found, some of them typically curled around gorgonian stems. A subsequent closer examination of the Solenogastres revealed another type of object also curled around the gorgonians, which strongly resembled Solenogastres but lacked their external ...

We examined the best location in a house to install MosquiTRAPs, sticky ovitraps that attract and capture Aedes aegypti females and investigated the physiological state of captured female mosquitoes. The study was performed in a twenty-block area in Mirassol, São Paulo State, Brazil, in which five blocks were randomly chosen ...

On review of 3117 patients' records (all were female Indonesian foreign workers over the span of eight years (1997 to 2004 in a private clinic in Johor Bahru, 223 cases (7.2%) were found to have various medical problems. These 3117 foreigners were to be employed as domestic helpers in Malaysia. ...

BACKGROUND: Argyria is often considered an entity of the past, one which has largely disappeared with the cessation of silver usage in oral medications. However, with the practice of colloidal silver ingestion in current "alternative health" treatments, argyria should be considered in the differential diagnosis of blue-gray hyperpigmentation. METHODS: A ...

This study examined the toxicity of bithionol to Atlantic salmon Salmo salar and rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss in fresh- and seawater and the efficacy of bithionol as a 1h seawater bath treatment for amoebic gill disease (AGD). To examine toxicity, fish were bathed for 1, 3 and 6h in bithionol, ...

Medical cannabis is a contentious issue in the United States, with many fearing that introduction of state laws will increase use among the general population. The present study examined whether the introduction of such laws affects the level of cannabis use among arrestees and emergency department patients. Using the Arrestee ...

Coral reefs have suffered long-term decline due to a range of anthropogenic disturbances and are now also under threat from climate change. For appropriate management of these vulnerable and valuable ecosystems it is important to understand the factors and processes that determine their resilience and that of the organisms inhabiting ...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the validity of a questionnaire and medical anamnesis to identify persons with dermatitis in an occupational setting. The design was a clinical epidemiological cross-sectional study. The study was performed between the second and fourth week of January 2001. A questionnaire was followed ...

The rise of the corporation within health care during the 1980s and early 1990s was met by organized medicine with a deluge of editorials, articles, and books that identified a singular enemy--commercialism--and depicted it as corrosive of, and antithetical to, medical professionalism. Medicine's ire proved prognostic as scores of highly ...

BACKGROUND: The Israeli Board of Anesthesiology Examination Committee added a simulation-based Objective Structured Clinical Evaluation component to the board examination process. This addition was made in order to evaluate medical competence and considers certain domains that contribute to professionalism. This unique and new process needed to be validated. OBJECTIVES: To ...

PURPOSE: To evaluate the reliability and validity of the Mini-Clinical Evaluation Exercise (mini-CEX) for postgraduate year 4 (PGY-4) internal medicine trainees compared to a high-stakes assessment of clinical competence, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada Comprehensive Examination in Internal Medicine (RCPSC IM examination). METHODS: Twenty-two PGY-4 residents ...

BACKGROUND: Following the marketing ban of ephedra-containing supplements in April 2004, many manufacturers substituted the herb Citrus aurantium for ephedra and marketed the products as "ephedra-free" supplements. Extracts of C. aurantium contain synephrine, a sympathomimetic alkaloid. OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of consumption of dietary supplements containing C. aurantium in ...

SUMMARY: After years of treatment with the medication levodopa, most individuals with Parkinson disease (PD) experience fluctuations in response to their medications. Although relatively consistent perceptual voice improvements have been documented to correspond with these fluctuations, consistent quantitative data to support this finding are lacking. This mismatch may have occurred ...

The aim of the present study was to examine the potential of hydrostatic extrusion for the fabrication of high-strength materials for medical applications. The materials examined were 316LVM steel and technically pure titanium. The microstructures and mechanical properties of the materials before and after hydrostatic extrusion were analysed. It was ...

The objective of this study was to suggest a new formulation of the core research diagnostic consensus criterion "loss of insight" in frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Eight patients with FTD (diagnoses made by interviews, medical and neuropsychological examination, CT scan, and regional cerebral glucose metabolism measured by positron emission tomography (PET) ...

PURPOSE: To evaluate the plaque removal efficacy of a dual action power toothbrush (Crest SpinBrush Pro Clean) relative to an ADA reference manual toothbrush. In addition to overall plaque removal, emphasis was put on plaque reduction around the gingival margin, interproximal areas of the tooth and in the posterior segment ...

Acquired prosopagnosia (PA) is a rare condition after, for example, a stroke or brain injury. The congenital form of PA is generally considered to be even less common. Beside a few single case reports and anecdotal mentioning of familial cases no data on the epidemiology exists. Following a questionnaire-based screening ...

CONCLUSIONS: This study revealed two characteristic findings of the feeling of ear fullness (FEF) in acute sensorineural hearing loss (ASNHL). First, that the appearance of FEF was not associated with the auditory function on audiograms; and second, that the disappearance of FEF is clearly associated with the hearing prognosis. OBJECTIVE: ...

Effective documentation of torture is the key to successful interrogation and redress of torture victims. However the facilities available for such documentation to the forensic practitioners in less resourced countries are far from satisfactory. The emphasis on accurate and detailed documentation of examination findings of torture victims is currently necessary ...

Dr Ronald Vernon Southcott (1918-1998) was amongst the greatest of the Australian doctor-naturalists. His toxinological contributions included the description and naming of the box-jellyfish, Chironex fleckeri, the first definitive study (1950-1957) of the toxinology, taxonomy and biology of Australian scorpions; and the first observations in Australia of the introduced fiddleback ...

Although English verbs can be either regular (walk-walked) or irregular (sing-sang), "denominal verbs" that are derived from nouns, such as the use of the verb ring derived from the noun a ring, take the regular form even if they are homophonous with an existing irregular verb: The soldiers ringed the ...

Recreational self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA) diving continues to grow in popularity. Medical requirements to be 'fit to dive' vary throughout the world, from self-certification to a full medical examination prior to training. This review discusses the relative merits of the most commonly used guidelines for recreational SCUBA diving, with ...

Eggs of F. gigantica were placed in dung heaps that were located in the shade or exposed to sun light, and examined at intervals for up to 14 weeks. The rate and extent of decline in viability of eggs was greater in dung exposed to sun light than in shaded ...

Low frequency ultrasound was used to depolymerize a high-molecular-weight exopolysaccharide (EPS) produced by a deep-sea hydrothermal bacterium Alteromonas macleodii subsp. fijiensis biovar deepsane. The influence of several parameters was examined including the duration of ultrasonic irradiation, EPS concentration, reaction temperature and volume of the sonicated solution. With the aim of ...