Understanding and attitudes towards patient safety concepts in obstetrics.

OBJECTIVES: To measure attitudes of health personnel towards patient safety, and to determine how the concept of patient safety varies between maternal health centers and types of health care personnel. METHODS: A cross-sectional descriptive study included 35 primary heath centers in three governorates in Egypt. The subjects comprised all managers, physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and technicians. RESULTS: The overall mean for all questions and respondents was 3.89+/-0.59 (scale 1-5). The safety climate mean was 3.64+/-0.67. The percentage of respondents viewing the safety climate as positive was 36%. Only 7% of respondents had received feedback after referral of a case of severe pre-eclampsia. CONCLUSION: The concept of patient safety in the centers studied is not as strong as desirable for the provision of reliable health care. The culture is one of a penalizing nature with suppressed error reporting, lack of proper communication, and feedback failure.

Polystyrene cups and containers: styrene migration.

The level of styrene migration from polystyrene cups was monitored in different food systems including: water, milk (0.5, 1.55 and 3.6% fat), cold beverages (apple juice, orange juice, carbonated water, cola, beer and chocolate drink), hot beverages (tea, coffee, chocolate and soup (0.0, 0.5, 1, 2, and 3.6% fat), take away foods (yogurt, jelly, pudding and ice-cream), as well as aqueous food simulants (3% acetic acid, 15, 50, and 100% ethanol) and olive oil. Styrene migration was found to be strongly dependent upon the fat content and storage temperature. Drinking water gave migration values considerably lower than all of the fatty foods. Ethanol at 15% showed a migration level equivalent to milk or soup containing 3.6% fat. Maximum observed migration for cold or hot beverages and take-away foods was 0.025% of the total styrene in the cup. Food simulants were responsible for higher migration (0.37% in 100% ethanol). A total of 60 food samples (yogurt, rice with milk, fromage, biogardes, and cheese) packed in polystyrene containers were collected from retail markets in Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands. The level of styrene detected in the foods was always fat dependent.

C-myc expression in exfoliated cells in serous effusions.

In an attempt to improve the discrimination between benign and malignant cells in pleural and peritoneal fluids, 32 effusions were investigated for c-myc expression. Smears were prepared from cells harvested from the fluids for immunocytochemical staining to identify the presence of c-myc protein. Recombinant DNA technology (Northern blotting, slot blotting and in situ hybridization) was used to detect c-myc mRNA. No significant difference in expression of c-myc was noted in benign or malignant effusions. Although the results are inconclusive, the recombinant DNA technology developed for this research could be used to investigate the expression of other oncogenes in cytological material.