Weight gain in overweight and obese community dwelling old-old.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to 1) investigate lifetime weight changes in community dwelling old-old, those age 80 or older; 2) explore reasons for weight changes from their personal perspective and 3) examine ways the old-old feel they can successfully lose weight. A cross sectional design was used for this qualitative study. SETTING: One county of a southeastern U.S. state. PARTICIPANTS: Nine community dwelling old-old. MEASUREMENT: Content analysis of transcripts was used to examine the interviews. RESULTS: All of the old-old interviewed had reached their maximum weight after the age of 65. Average lifetime weight gain was 73 pounds. All wanted to lose weight and found ways to incorporate small changes in their everyday lives. CONCLUSION: With increasing life expectancy among older adults, health promotion targeting weight control needs to include the old-old.

Program of care for young women with iron deficiency anemia: a pilot.

Iron deficiency anemia is the most widespread nutritional deficiency in the United States; it affects 3.3 million women and is associated with preterm births, low birth weight babies, and cognitive delays in infant and child development. Many young women are rarely screened for iron deficiency anemia, but plasma donors are routinely screened, affording an excellent opportunity to target an at-risk population seldom seen by primary health care providers. Many of these donors are economically disadvantaged young adults. The purpose of this program was to improve the knowledge, diets, and subsequently the hematocrits of young women who cannot give plasma due to low hematocrits. An educational intervention was piloted. The results were an improvement in hematocrit levels and dietary consumption of iron, but no gain in dietary knowledge. This unique, cost-effective health promotion program targets young women before they become pregnant to address the problem of diets low in iron.

Nitric acid passivation of Ti6Al4V reduces thickness of surface oxide layer and increases trace element release.

Passivation of Ti6Al4V and cpTi implants using methods based on the ASTM-F86 nitric acid protocol are used with the intention of reducing their surface reactivity, and consequently the corrosion potential, in the highly corrosive biologic milieu. The ASTM-F86 passivation protocol was originally developed for surgical implants made of stainless steel and chrome cobalt alloy. Using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to examine the effect of nitric acid passivation on the surface oxide layer of mill-annealed Ti6Al4V and cpTi, we have found that such treatment actually reduced the oxide thickness on the alloy while having no significant effect on the pure metal. These results correlated with observations obtained using graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrophotometry (GFAAS) to detect trace element release from solid, mill-annealed, Ti6Al4V and cpTi into serum-containing culture medium. We detected significantly greater levels of Ti, Al, and V in the presence of passivated compared to nonpassivated Ti6Al4V. In contrast, nitric acid passivation did not influence Ti release from mill-annealed cpTi. These results, derived from two mill-annealed Ti-based metals, would indicate that re-examination of ASTM-F86-based passivation protocols with respect to Ti6Al4V should be considered in view of the widespread use of this alloy for biomedical devices.

Behavior of primary bone cells on characterized polystyrene surfaces.

Primary bone cells, isolated from the periosteally stripped calvariae of neonate rats, were cultured on 60Co gamma-irradiation-sterilized bacteriologic-grade polystyrene that had been either surface treated with concentrated sulfuric acid or received further gamma-irradiation treatments facilitated cell colonization of the polystyrene compared to those surfaces not treated in the laboratory. x-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) showed that the two treatments introduced different chemical groups onto the polymer surface and that cell adhesion was related to gamma-irradiation in a dose-dependent manner. These results show that simple biologic assays, such as cell colonization, are not able to distinguish between differences in surface chemistry demonstrated by such a routinely employed surface analysis technique. Thus, there is a need to develop more sensitive biologic assays that provide functional information of a precision that can be correlated with subtle changes in substratum surface chemistry. Further, we argue that because cells isolated by tissue digestion using proteolytic enzymes respond more readily to changes in the surface chemistry of the substratum they colonize, compared to explanted cells; biologic assays designed for biomaterials testing must take into account changes effected in cell adhesion behavior by isolation procedures.