Handedness effects in the detection of dichotically-presented words and emotions.

Left-handed and right-handed subjects were given two dichotic listening tasks using identical material. In one task, they were asked to determine whether or not a specific target word was present (verbal task). In the other task, subjects were asked to indicate whether or not one of the dichotically-competing words was spoken in a particular affective tone (emotion task). Overall, a right-ear advantage (REA) was found with the verbal task and a left-ear advantage (LEA) with the emotion task. Left-handers showed a slightly smaller REA than right-handers on the verbal task, but a slightly larger LEA on the emotion task. This finding suggests that left- and right-hemispheric functions are not related in a complementary fashion and that handedness effects for nonverbal tasks are different from those seen with verbal tasks. The emotional LEA was much larger for angry stimuli than for happy, sad, or neutral stimuli. Rather than providing evidence for a hemisphere by affective valence interaction, such results suggest a stimulus-specific effect.

Traumatic abducens nerve paresis in a child.

Trauma is a frequent cause for abducens (sixth) nerve paresis in a child, usually attributed to injury along the nerve's course. An unusual focal lesion of the sixth nerve nucleus is described.

Use of thermography in the diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis.

We attempted to evaluate the use of liquid crystal thermography (LCT) as a screening tool in the detection of deep venous thrombosis (DVT) in the lower extremities. Forty patients were examined with LCT and venography. A venogram was used as the standard by which the LCT results were compared. Liquid crystal thermography had a sensitivity of 70% and a specificity of 50%, and it was found not to have a greater accuracy than clinical examination.

The states' challenge to provide maternal and child care.

President Reagan's federalist policies have resulted in changes in maternal and child services. Public programs are now administered by states instead of by the federal government. The reduction in available funds poses a challenge to state health program administrators and care providers. This dilemma is reviewed in the context of the development of existing programs and the evolution of federalism. The impact of these changes on services and on nursing are discussed.

Odontoid fracture in the elderly: a case report of the screw fixation technique.

The case of a type II, highly unstable, odontoid fracture in a 92 year old patient is reported. This fracture was treated by a new technique for anterior odontoid screw fixation with excellent results. The authors discuss this technique and treatment options for odontoid fracture in the elderly.

Laterality effects for tactile patterns.

A series of studies was carried out to investigate laterality effects in the discrimination of tactile patterns presented to the fingertips of right-handed subjects. When both hands were stimulated simultaneously, a small right-hand advantage (RHA) was observed for a sequential task and a small left-hand advantage (LHA) was found for a spatial task, but only in women and only when there was a delay or mask between presentation and response. This may indicate different attentional strategies for men and women, or better shielding against interhemispheric interference in women. When only one hand was stimulated at a time (unimanual tasks), no laterality effects were found with sequential tasks, but a substantial RHA for a spatial task was observed. Because the unimanual spatial task involves more possible alternatives than the unimanual sequential ones, this RHA may be a consequence of increased information load rather than a the spatial/sequential distinction. While laterality effects in tactile laterality studies are relatively inconsistent, there are clear differences between bimanual and unimanual presentation. Effects related to hemispheric specialization are much more evident with bilateral presentation.

Case report: hemiballismus with unusual MRI findings.

A 90-year-old male experienced the abrupt onset of hemiballismus. He had an unusual MRI picture with bright signal in the right basal ganglia on T1-weighted imaging with no significant signal abnormality identified on T2-weighted imaging. This appearance has been described in diabetic patients who sustain ischemia in the basal ganglia region and prior cases are cited.

Assessing extracranial carotid stenosis: magnetic resonance angiography, duplex scanning, and digital angiography.

Recent data have demonstrated the efficacy of carotid endarterectomy in patients with severe, symptomatic carotid stenosis. In this context, our study analyzes the role of carotid testing with magnetic resonance angiography and carotid duplex scanning, as compared to arterial digital subtraction angiography.

Evidence-based practice and the advanced practice nurse: a curriculum for the future.

The concept of evidence-based practice has gained increased attention throughout the 1990s as a strategy for linking the best scientific findings with clinical judgment to improve health outcomes. Because the concept implies finding, evaluating, summarizing, and using research results, a high level of clinical reasoning skills is required. Effective evidence-based practice also requires the incorporation of new practices into clinical and organizational settings, thereby demanding advanced leadership skills. Competencies in clinical reasoning, leadership, and clinical practice are critical for advanced practice nurses. This article describes a master's-level curriculum supportive of evidence-based practice and includes recommendations for developing curricula of this type.