Reliability of a 3-min all-out Arm Crank Ergometer Exercise Test.

The 3-min all-out test is a well-established exercise test developed for cycling ergometry. However, no such test exists in arm cranking. Thus the aim of this study was to investigate the test-retest reliability of a 3-min all-out exercise test on an arm crank ergometer. 21 healthy participants (9 male and 12 female, age 34±11 years, body mass 69.6±11.1 kg and height 175.5±6.9 cm) twice performed a 3-min all-out exercise test on an arm crank ergometer separated by 7 days. Peak power (PP), mean power (MP), fatigue index (FI), time to peak (TTP) and total work (TW) were assessed to detect test-retest reliability. PP, MP, FI and TW showed an excellent intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) ranging from 0.940 to 0.984. Only TTP showed very low reliability with an ICC of 0.379. The results from this test-retest analysis showed that all parameters except the TTP were highly reliable in a 3-min all-out exercise test on an arm crank ergometer in able-bodied participants.

[German psychiatry in the 20th century. Life course of the psychiatrist Johannes Suckow (1896-1994)]. / Deutsche Psychiatrie im 20. Jahrhundert. Der Lebensweg des Psychiaters Johannes Suckow (1896-1994).

Johannes Suckow's biography reflects the history of German psychiatry in the first two thirds of the twentieth century in an exemplary way. Above all, he became distinctly influenced by Emil Kraepelin and Karl Bonhoeffer. During World War II he worked for a short time under Carl Schneider at a research department concerned with the "Euthanasia program". Eventually he built up the Department of Psychiatry and Neurology at the Dresden Medical School to run it for eight years. We examine Suckow's social background and motives and show why he failed to stand up for his humanistic convictions under the Nazi regime.

[Doppler-guided ligation of the hemorrhoidal arteries. Report of experiences with 248 patients]. / Die dopplergeführte Hämorrhoidalarterien-Ligatur. Erfahrungsbericht über 248 Patienten.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Since the beginning of 2001, Doppler-giuded ligation of the hemorrhoidal arteries (DG-HAL) has been used at this clinic in almost all patients with various forms of hemorrhoidal disease. Aim of this study was to ascertain whether this intervention can be done without general anaesthesia, the hemorrhoidal knots regress and this procedure provides advantages over the classical methods of treating hemorrhoids. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Early results of DG-HAL in 248 patients are presented. Through a special proctoscope the arteries leading to the hemorrhoidal cushions are located in the pain-free rectum under Doppler guidance and suture ligated. The form of anaesthesia, duration of the operation, numbers and sites of the ligatures, additional interventions and postoperative complications were recorded. RESULTS: 171 patients (69%) needed no anaethesia. 147 patients (Without additional interventions) were re-examined 6 weeks after the operation: 61.2% were free of symptoms. A total of 87.7% were at least improves. The complication rate was low. CONCLUSION: In our experience DG-HAL has been a well tolerated efficacious method with few complications in the ambulatory treatment of hemorrhoids. The ideal indication for this methods is nonprolapsing hemorrhoids.

[Georg Ilberg (1862-1942). His life and medical-humanistic legacy]. / Georg Ilberg (1862-1942). Leben und ärztlich-humanistisches Vermächtnis.

Georg Ilberg, who is almost forgotten nowadays, was a scholar of Kraepelin and Ganser. From 1910 to 1928 he was director of the Landes-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt (country mental hospital) for mental patients Sonnenstein at Pirna. He was active in the scientific-literary field to a great age and worked as editor of the Allgemeine Zeitschrift für Psychiatrie from 1924 to 1934. Although he principally advocated the exclusion of certain mental patients from reproduction at the beginning of the 1930s, in a review in 1942, his integer humanist basic position and his pronounced social feeling made him to protest in public against the putting to death of mental in-patients.