Drosophila melanogaster: identity of male lipid in reproductive system.

A lipid found exclusively in the ejaculatory bulb of adult male Drosophila melanogaster has been identified as cis-vaccenyl acetate. Identification is based on, spectral comparisons with a synthetic sample.

The prevalence of urinary dysfunction in Hong Kong Chinese women.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of urinary dysfunction in Hong Kong Chinese women. METHODS: A telephone survey was conducted in the territory of Hong Kong. The subjects were a sample of women between the ages of 10 and 90 years. The main outcome determined was the prevalence of urinary dysfunction. RESULTS: We made 3248 calls, resulting in 819 evaluable responses. Stress incontinence was reported by 21% (174) of respondents, urgency or urge incontinence in 15% (120), urinary frequency in 19% (154), nocturia in 20% (166), bed-wetting in 4% (31), and voiding difficulties in 13% (109). Stress incontinence occurred as the only symptom in 7% (53), the combination of urgency and frequency in 1% (11), and mixed symptoms in 6% (52). Four percent required protective underwear or pads, with 2% wearing protective underwear continuously; 4% were incapacitated by their incontinence. Symptoms of urgency, urge incontinence, frequency, and nocturia increased with increasing age, but voiding difficulties and nocturnal enuresis were unrelated to age. Stress incontinence, urgency, urge incontinence, frequency, nocturia, and voiding difficulties increased with increasing parity to para 4. CONCLUSION: Urinary dysfunction and its patterns appear to be as common and incapacitating in Hong Kong Chinese as they are in other populations.

Why the university-based medical school should survive: a historical perspective.

Universities and medical education have been allied since the Middle Ages. In the United States, proprietary medical schools began to unite with universities at the turn of the century. At the end of the century, this traditional alliance is being questioned, even threatened, by marketplace demands, and medical schools and their universities continue to deal with internal struggles regarding teaching and research goals, and funding. In this paper, the author defines and discusses the origins of university-medical school tensions, provides a brief review of the history of university-based medical education in the United States, and describes some of the advantages and disadvantages of the alliance. Finally, he makes a case for why medical education must continue to be grounded in universities.

The plight of premedical education: myths and misperceptions--Part I: The "premedical syndrome".

The preparation for medical study and the process of gaining admission to medical school have long been contentious subjects, plagued by myths and misperceptions. In the first of two articles about the plight of premedical education, the author focuses on the myths of the "premedical syndrome" and the "cutthroat" medical student. He describes the origins of these myths, what purposes they may serve, why they persist, and why he believes they truly are myths and not accurate reflections of reality.

The plight of premedical education: myths and misperceptions--Part II: science "versus" the liberal arts.

For decades it has been known that students who major in non-science fields perform as well as science majors who go to medical school. Yet the overwhelming majority of future medical students still major in biology or chemistry, and organic chemistry has come to be the defining premedical science course. This article traces the history of the liberal arts tradition, discusses its importance for medicine, and urges that readers think about the medical college in the age of the university. The author believes that the medical faculties should take a lead in helping to reshape the premedical as well as the medical education of future doctors.

A portrait of surgery. Surgery in America, 1875-1889.

Between the years 1875 and 1889, extraordinary changes occurred in the practice of medicine and surgery. This article reviews these changes and attempts to understand something of the science of surgery as well as its place in American medicine during these years. The essay uses the two paintings by Thomas Eakins, The Gross Clinic of 1875 and The Agnew Clinic of 1889, as endpoints to the period of discussion.

Are Hong Kong babies getting bigger?

OBJECTIVE: To establish recent birth weight trends in Hong Kong. METHOD: A total of 10,512 confinements for the years 1985-86, and 7857 for the years 1995-96 were analyzed. RESULT: There was a significant increase in maternal height, weight at booking, and maternal age, whereas the body-mass index was reduced slightly (P < 0.0001). Parity increased significantly, with the percentage of parous women rising from 44.1% to 55.6% (P < 0.0001). The percentage of female infants decreased from 49.5% to 47.9%. Despite these changes there was no significant difference in mean birth weights between the two groups. When birth weight was controlled for sex, parity, maternal height and weight there was a trivial increase of 15 g over time (P = 0.01). CONCLUSION: Birth weight has reached a plateau in Hong Kong despite a continuing increase in the regions' socioeconomic status, and evidence of improved nutritional well-being.

Getting into medical school in the good old days: good for whom? The first Nicholas E. Davies Memorial Lecture.

Admission to medical school became selective in the 1920s and by the 1960s became increasingly expensive for applicants. The stories of three applicants, a white man who easily walked into medical school in 1908, a black woman who overcame a double hurdle in the 1930s, and a white man who entered medical school by court order, provide insight into the admissions process and its changes.

The historiography of medicine in America.

What is the state of medical historiography in America? This discipline is now asking new questions, branching new directions and speaking to new audiences. The social and cultural contexts in which medicine moved and moves needs to be an effective integral part of approaching the historical studies. There is today, in the U.S.A., a new history of medicine more problem-oriented and interested in the culture of medicine and in the meaning of medicine to cultural history. This new interdisciplinary field of interest deals with the study of epidemics, seen as causative agents in historical developments and as a means of studying changing ideas; it deals also with the history of women, of their medical professionalization and of their diseases. American medical history, over the last thirty years, has reconstructed the medical practices of the past by using clinical records; between other fields of research, the history of psychiatry has become a particularly fertile field of scholarship, especially in its studies about hysteria and neurasthenia; finally, medical anthropology and the history of ancient and medieval medicine, has flourished and contribute today in a high significant way to the critical reconstruction of a cultural past of medicine, quite far away from the mere biographical historiographical researches.

The effect of obesity on the outcome of successful surgery for genuine stress incontinence.

In a study of 190 patients with genuine stress incontinence, 91 patients were of normal weight, 66 overweight and 33 obese as determined by their Body Mass Index at the time of operation which was either a colposuspension (143) or a silastic sling insertion (47). Body mass index was found to significantly alter the outcome.

Cushing syndrome in pregnancy secondary to an adrenal cortical adenoma.

Cushing syndrome in pregnancy is rare. This is explained by the syndrome's association with amenorrhoea, oligomenorrhoea, infertility and abortions. Cushing syndrome commonly presents with hypertension, weight gain, diabetes, striae or truncal obesity, all of which can be consistent with pregnancy in women without Cushing syndrome. We describe a case of Cushing syndrome in pregnancy secondary to an adrenal cortical tumour which was discovered after an abnormal glucose tolerance test. The woman developed classical features of Cushing syndrome including gestational diabetes and hypertension and was managed successfully to term after a unilateral adrenalectomy at 23 weeks. The case is reported not only because of its rarity but also because the diagnosis was made after a routine screening test for gestational diabetes. Early diagnosis and treatment of adrenal adenoma causing Cushing syndrome in pregnancy reduces maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality.