Exploring Perceptions of Barriers, Facilitators, and Motivators to Physical Activity Among Female Bariatric Patients: Implications for Physical Activity Programming.

PURPOSE: To explore barriers, facilitators, and motivators to adopting and maintaining regular physical activity among women with obesity who have undergone bariatric surgery. APPROACH: Individual interviews with women 3 to 24 months post-bariatric surgery. SETTING: Participants were recruited from a bariatric clinic in Montreal, Canada. PARTICIPANTS: Twelve women were recruited (mean age = 47 ± 9 years) using poster advertisements and word of mouth. Participants were on average 15 months postsurgery. METHOD: Each woman was interviewed once using a semistructured interview protocol. Recruitment was conducted until data saturation (i.e., no new information emerged). The interviews were transcribed, coded, and analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. RESULTS: Three interrelated themes emerged: the physical body, appraisal of the physical and social self, and the exercise environment. Barriers included weight-restricted mobility, side effects of surgery, body dissatisfaction, compromised psychological health, competing responsibilities, a lack of exercise self-efficacy and social support, reduced access to accommodating facilities, lack of exercise knowledge, and northern climate. Participants reported postsurgical weight loss, weight and health maintenance, enjoyment, body image, and supportive active relationships, as well as access to accommodating facilities and exercise knowledge, as facilitators and motivators. CONCLUSION: Suggested physical activity programming strategies for health care professionals working with this unique population are discussed. Physical activity and health promotion initiatives can also benefit from a cultural paradigm shift away from weight-based representations of health.

HIV prevalence at reception into Australian prisons, 1991-1997.

OBJECTIVE: To measure the extent and outcome of HIV antibody testing at reception into Australian prisons. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey at reception into prison. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: People received into Australian prisons from 1991 to 1997. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Number of people tested for HIV infection and prevalence of diagnosed HIV infection. RESULTS: In 1991-1997, HIV antibody testing was carried out for 72% of prison entrants in Australia; the percentage tested declined significantly from 76% in 1991 to 67% in 1997 (P < 0.001). In New South Wales, the percentage of entrants tested at reception into prison dropped from almost 100% in 1991-1994 to 45% in 1997, whereas in the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia the extent of testing increased significantly (P < 0.001). HIV prevalence was 0.2% among people received into Australian prisons in 1991-1997, and did not differ by sex. Most people with HIV infection (242/378; 64%) received into prison in 1991-1997 had been diagnosed at a previous entry; 136 people (36% of the total number of diagnoses) were newly diagnosed at reception into prison. CONCLUSIONS: A national monitoring system in place from 1991 indicates generally high rates of HIV antibody testing and a low prevalence of HIV infection among people entering Australian prisons. In each year, people not previously known to the prison health service to have HIV infection were received into prison, indicating continuing HIV infection in the population entering Australian prisons.

Cesarean section scar as a cause of abnormal vaginal bleeding: diagnosis by sonohysterography.

A previously undescribed cause of abnormal uterine bleeding is presented. Nine of 310 women evaluated by sonohysterography for abnormal bleeding demonstrated an 8 to 17 mm gap in the anterior lower uterine segment myometrium at the site of prior cesarean deliveries. All women were premenopausal and had a history of 2 to 12 days of postmenstrual spotting. Presumably a lack of coordinated muscular contractions occurs around the cesarean scar, allowing the defect to collect menstrual debris. Subsequently, the debris leaches out through the cervix for several days after the majority of menstrual flow has ceased.

Localization of drug release sites from an oral sustained-release formulation of 5-ASA (Pentasa) in the gastrointestinal tract using gamma scintigraphy.

Release of 5-ASA from a sustained release formulation (Pentasa, Ferring A/S, Copenhagen, Denmark) was monitored with plasma sampling for up to 24 hours in nine volunteers under both fasted and fed conditions. Drug absorption was correlated with location of the sustained-release microgranules in the gastrointestinal tract by gamma scintigraphy. Disintegration of the labeled tablet preparation occurred in the stomach within 20 minutes and acetylated 5-ASA was detectable in the plasma less than 60 minutes after ingestion. No significant differences were detected in either transit times through the small intestine, peak plasma acetylated 5-ASA concentration or lag time to absorption between fasted and fed individuals. Peak plasma concentration of acetylated 5-ASA usually occurred when the microgranules were present in the small intestine or ascending colon. The pharmacoscintigraphic study confirmed that 5-ASA release from the formulation occurred throughout the gastrointestinal tract, and that food effects on the in vivo behavior of the preparation were minimal.

Isolation and partial characterization of high affinity laminin receptors in neural cells.

Neural cells in culture (NG-108, PC12, chick dorsal root ganglion, chick spinal cord, and rat astrocytes) bind laminin with an apparent Kd of congruent to 10(-9) M. Laminin affinity chromatography of chick brain membranes washed with 150 mM NaCl and eluted with 0.2 M glycine buffer, pH 3.5, yields a single protein with an apparent molecular mass of 67 kDa by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis under reducing conditions. Isoelectric focusing and peptide mapping indicate that the 67-kDa protein is distinct from bovine serum albumin (68 kDa) but indistinguishable from high affinity laminin receptors isolated from skeletal muscle. After electroblotting onto nitrocellulose paper and probing with 125I-laminin, this putative laminin receptor binds laminin specifically (100 ng/ml). A second protein (congruent to 120-140 kDa) is also detected with 125I-laminin (100 ng/ml) in the laminin affinity-purified membrane proteins. Both 67- and congruent to 120-140-kDa proteins can be laminin affinity-purified from cultures enriched for neurons (greater than 90%) following metabolic labeling with [35S]methionine. Our data suggest that neural cells (dorsal root ganglion, central nervous system neurons, astrocytes, and several neural cell lines) have high affinity binding sites for laminin and that two membrane proteins, 67- and congruent to 120-140-kDa, are responsible at least in part for this binding.

Tryptic modification of red-cell sodium pump behaviour.

Inside-out membrane vesicles derived from human red cells were used to probe the effects of controlled tryptic digestion on the sodium pump as it exists in situ. Digestion of the enzyme in its E1 conformation resulted in several alterations which are generally similar to those reported for the purified kidney enzyme, namely (i) greater loss in overall hydrolytic activity compared to level of phosphoenzyme intermediate and (ii) cleavage of the alpha-subunit by trypsin as well as chymotrypsin at the cytoplasmic surface to yield a fragment of approx. 78 kDa. Tryptic digestion effected similar rates of inactivation of pump-mediated Na+-K+(Rb+) exchange, (ATP- plus ADP)-dependent Na+-Na+ exchange and, in the absence extracellular alkali cation, 'uncoupled' Na+ flux (Na+/0 flux). Alteration in the Na+:Rb+(K+) stoichiometry following trypsin cleavage could not be detected. The conformational transitions of phosphoenzyme and dephosphoenzyme are affected similarly by trypsin, as evidenced by similar inactivation rates of reactions through the 'forward' sequence involving the E1P to E2P transition as well as through the 'reserve' sequence involving the E1 to E2 transition.

Uncoupling the red cell sodium pump by proteolysis.

In situ proteolysis of Na,K-ATPase was studied using inside-out red cell membrane vesicles. Proteolysis of the enzyme in its "E1" conformation with either trypsin or chymotrypsin inactivated cation translocation more than ATP hydrolysis. This was evident both in the absence of intravesicular alkali cations when Na-ATPase was compared to ATP-dependent 22Na+ influx, and in the presence of K+ when Na+/K+ exchange was compared to (Na+ + K+)-activated ATPase. This differential loss in pump versus hydrolysis was observed also when the activities of only intact, non-leaky vesicles were compared and therefore reflects intramolecular uncoupling rather than nonspecific leakage. Although oligomycin and thimerosal, like trypsin and chymotrypsin, inhibit the enzyme's conformational step(s), neither effect uncoupling. It is concluded that specific cleavage(s) of Na,K-ATPase, at least as it exists in situ, alters the reaction sequence with respect to the normal ordered mechanism. Accordingly, cytoplasmic Na+ and extracellular K+ bind to the enzyme, stimulate phosphorylation (ATP + E1----E1P + ADP) and dephosphorylation (E2P----E2 + Pi), respectively, but each is then released to the same side from which it had bound; presumably release occurs prior to the conformational transitions of E1P to E2P and E2 to E1. This conclusion is supported by experiments showing that, ar micromolar ATP concentration, the hydrolytic activity (Na-ATPase) of the trypsinized but not the unmodified enzyme is stimulated by K+, consistent with earlier experiments (Hegyvary, C., and Post, R. L. (1971) J. Biol. Chem. 246, 5234-5240) showing that the K X E2 to K X E1 transition is slower than the E2 to E1 transition.

[32P] diphosphonate dose determination in patients with bone metastases from prostatic carcinoma.

In an initial safety study, phosphorus-32 (as diphosphonate) was administered intravenously to five patients with painful bone metastases from prostatic carcinoma; two patients received 9 mCi and three were given 3 mCi. Hematological, biochemical, ECG, x-ray, bone-scan data, and clinical observation, were followed for 2 mo. At both dose levels, bone-marrow depression was noted. One of the patients, who received 9 mCi, had only a slight dip in the levels of circulating white blood cells and platelets. The other 9-mCi patient was the only one with discrete metastases by bone scan; he had bone-marrow depression, from which he recovered, and was the only one of the five who had relief of bone pain.

Correlation of neoplasms with incidence and localization of skeletal metastases: An analysis of 1,355 diphosphonate bone scans.

A total of 1,355 patients from clinical trails with the 99mTc-labeled bone agent, Osteoscan (99mTc-Sn -EHDP), has shown a higher incidence of skeletal abnormalities than previously reported. Overall in this study, 60% of bone scans were abnormal in patients with nonosseous neoplasms. Carcinoma of breast, lung, and prostate yielded 67%, 64%, and 62% skeletal involvement, respectively. Over 50% of all the skeletal abnormalities for the neoplastic indications were detected in the thorax and vertebra while the skull, pelvis, and extremities accounted for 22%, 38%, and 34%, respectively.