A telephone survey of day surgery eye patients

The objective of this research study was to evaluate the nursing care processes and patient satisfaction with the new day-surgery services. Forty-five adult day-surgery eye patients were selected at random to take part in a telephone survey. The response rate was 84·4% (38). Patients were contacted 48 hours post-surgery to obtain their view of the entire surgical experience. The research result found that the majority of the patients were satisfied with the day-surgery services. The main problems experienced by patients were long waiting times to see the doctor during pre-operation assessment, unsatisfactory journeys to and from theatre, and difficulty in remembering verbal advice. Twenty-eight (73·6%) of the day-surgery patients would prefer day-surgery again for a similar operation, but 10 (26·3%) would prefer a longer stay in hospital. The main implications for practice are that realistic assessment time should be allocated to reduce waiting time, verbal advice should be accompanied by written leaflets or audio-tape, and patients should be encouraged to make an informed choice about day or in-patient surgery. A regular survey of day-surgery eye patients should be part of a general audit

Direct UV-MALDI-TOF MS Analysis of (Glyco)proteins of Fractions of Bovine Seminal Plasma

Bovine seminal plasma was submitted to chromatography on Con A-Sepharose. The "noninteracting", "weakly-interacting" and "strongly-interacting" fractions were analyzed through UV-MALDI-TOF MS together with a subfraction of the "non-interacting" material, using sinapinic acid (SA) as matrix. The spectra were obtained in linear positive mode in the 4.0-90.0 kDa mass/charge range showing peaks in well defined zones, namely: 5.5-8.0 kDa, 10.0-12.0 kDa, 12.5-14.0 kDa (major), 23.2-23.7 kDa, 26.1-27.5 kDa and 38.0-40.0 kDa. High sensitivity spectra showed some very small peaks until 90 kDa. Bovine seminal protein (BSP-A3), acidic seminal fluid protein (aSFP) and PDC-109 glycoproteins (BSP-A1 and BSP-A2) were identified. Caltrin, the human epididymis-specific glycoprotein (HE4), the calcium transport inhibitor protein, the inhibitor of metalloprotease 2 (TIMP-2), osteopontin (OPN) and the prostatic acid protease (PAP) were tentatively identified. The molecular weight of some peaks can be arranged in a sequence from that of BSP-A3 going through the molecular weights of glycoforms (including the known BSP-A1 and BSP-A2) which differ in the amounts of neutral hexoses and sialic acids, composing a BSP-family more extended than previously reported. Another two families could be builded up from proteins of molecular weight of about 12730 and 12750 Da and glycoforms which differ from them also by hexoses and sialic acids. The structures of the deduced O-linked oligosaccharides of the glycoforms are in complete agreement to that determined for the BSP-A1 Oligosaccharide. Small differences in the m. w. of some (glyco)proteins were attributed to genetic polymorphysm. The identification of proteins and O-linked glycoproteins in the "interacting" fractions of the chromatography suggests that the fractionation was not due to specific affinity interactions but to non-specific hydrophobic interactions of the proteins with the hydrophobic pocked of the Con A.Fil:Cerezo, A.S. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentina.Fil:Giudicessi, S.L. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentina.Fil:Erra-Balsells, R. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentina.Fil:Marquinez, A.C. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentina