Obstetrical ultrasound training of and practise by general practitioners in the private sector, Free State

Background: The aim of the study was to determine the level of obstetrical ultrasound training and practice of general practitioners in the Free State private sector. Methods: In this descriptive study, questionnaires were mailed to all general practitioners in the Free State private sector. The questionnaire included demographic information about the practitioner, the ultrasound profile of the practice, and the type of machine used. Results: Four hundred and eighty-one questionnaires were sent to general practitioners and 229 (47.6%) were returned. Of the 176 practising respondents, 47 (26.8%) used ultrasound. The majority of ultrasound examinations done per month were obstetrical. Eight practitioners had relevant qualifications for using ultrasound and more than a third (18, 38.3%) had no training in ultrasound use. Less than half (19, 40.4%) of the practitioners that use ultrasound were aware of the South African Association of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynaecology (SASUOG). Conclusions: The response to the questionnaire was low and may have influenced the results. The study indicates that there are general practitioners who perform ultrasound examinations without training. As general practitioners mainly do obstetrical ultrasound, it is recommended that the SASUOG play a bigger role in their training. A diploma course in ultrasound and support from medical aid organisations to only pay full fees to doctors who can prove that they have sufficient ultrasound training and competence will be ideal. For full text, click here:SA Family Pract 2004,46(6): 25-2

Using a model of group psychotherapy to support social research on sensitive topics

This article describes the exploratory use of professional therapeutic support by social researchers working on a sensitive topic. Talking to recently bereaved parents about the financial implications of their child's death was expected to be demanding work, and the research design included access to an independent psychotherapeutic service. Using this kind of professional support is rare within the general social research community, and it is useful to reflect on the process. There are likely to be implications for collection and interpretation of data, research output and the role and experience of the therapist. Here, the primary focus is the potential impact on researcher well-being

Negative phototaxis in the photosymbiotic sea anemone Aiptasia as a potential strategy to protect symbionts from photodamage

Photosymbiotic cnidarians generally seek bright environments so that their symbionts can be photosynthetically active. However, excess light may result in a breakdown of symbiosis due to the accumulation of photodamage in symbionts causing symbiont loss (bleaching). It is currently unknown if photosymbiotic cnidarians sense light only to regulate spawning time and to facilitate predation, or whether they also use their light-sensing capacities to protect their symbionts from photodamage. In this study, we examined how the sea anemone Aiptasia changes its behaviour when exposed to excess light. We reveal that Aiptasia polyps, when carrying symbionts, contract their bodies when exposed to high light intensities and subsequently migrate away in a direction perpendicular to the light source. Interestingly, this negative phototaxis was only evident under blue light and absent upon UV, green and red light exposure. Non-symbiotic Aiptasia did not exhibit this light response. Our study demonstrates that photosymbiotic Aiptasia polyps display negative phototactic behaviour in response to blue light, and that they also can perceive its direction, despite lacking specialized eye structures. We postulate that Aiptasia uses blue light, which penetrates seawater efficiently, as a general proxy for sunlight exposure to protect its symbionts from photodamage

Frequent loss of heterozygosity on chromosome 6 in human ovarian carcinoma.

Investigation of genetic changes in tumours by loss of heterozygosity (LOH) is a powerful technique for identifying chromosomal regions that may contain tumour suppressor genes. LOH has been described on chromosome 6 in ovarian carcinoma using restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis with a small number of probes. We studied 29 ovarian carcinomas with 19 probes mapping to chromosome 6. Sixteen of the 29 tumours showed LOH on 6q (55%). Of these 16, 63% showed loss of all informative markers on that arm. One tumour showed loss of 6q24-qter, localising the putative tumour suppressor gene to that region. Loss on 6p was 28% overall. However, using three dinucleotide repeat primer pairs from 6p to study LOH in seven selected tumours, LOH was demonstrated at both 6p22.3-pter and at 6p12-6p22. These results confirm that 6q harbours a tumour suppressor gene of relevance to ovarian carcinoma and suggest that there may also be a similar gene(s) on 6p. By Southern analysis, there was no evidence of genomic rearrangements of the oestrogen receptor gene, located at 6q25.1. LOH on 6q was more common in high than low grade tumours. The relevance of our findings to previous work in ovarian cancer and other solid tumours is discussed