Post-traumatic stress disorder in paediatric patients and their parents: an exploratory study

OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) in a selected population of paediatric patients and their parents. METHODOLOGY: Twenty-three high-risk patients (serious accidents, newly diagnosed cancer) and 11 low-risk patients (simple planned surgery) and their parents were consecutively selected and assessed 6-8 weeks after the event with a DSM-IV based diagnostic interview and the PTSD Symptom Scale. RESULTS: There is a high prevalence of PTSD in children and parents of the high-risk group. In the low-risk group such disorders are almost nonexistent. Parents in both groups report more PTSD symptoms than their children. Sex and age of the child and duration of hospitalisation have no significant influence on the development of PTSD. CONCLUSIONS: The high prevalence of PTSD in high-risk paediatric patients and their parents offers support for the applicability of a post-traumatic stress model for understanding the psychological impact of accidents, severe illnesses and their medical treatment

Facile Preparation Method for Inclusion Complexes between Amylose and Polytetrahydrofurans

<p>Several methods were used to investigate the possibility of preparing inclusion complexes between amylose and polytetrahydrofurans (PTHF) via direct mixing. Potato amylose (M-v similar to 200 kg/mol) and synthetic amylose (M-n 42 kg/mol) were complexed with PTHF having different molecular weights (Mn between 650 and 2900 g/mol) to study the effect of the length of the host and the guest molecules on the complexation. The resulted products were studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) that showed a characteristic melting peak in the range of 120-140 degrees C. Emulsification of both amylose and polytetrahydrofuran improved the complexation. The largest amount of complexes was obtained with shorter PTHF chains, which also resulted in less amylose retrogradation. Furthermore, PTHF chains with similar molecular weight but different end groups were used. Amine terminated PTHF formed a higher amount of complexes compared to the hydroxyl terminated PTHF. However, no amylose complexes were formed using benzoyl terminated PTHF with low molecular weight. This is due to the bulky group of benzoyl, which indicates that the mechanism of the complexation between amylose and PTHF occurs via insertion rather than wrapping. In addition, X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis showed that the included PTHFs induced the formation of the so-called V-amylose with six glucose residues per helix turn. Some additional diffraction peaks indicate that the induced V-6-amylose is probably an intermediate or the mixtures between V6I- and V-6II-amylose.</p>

The Dynamics of Complex Formation between Amy lose Brushes on Gold and Fatty Acids by QCM-D

<p>Amy lose brushes were synthesized by enzymatic polymerization with glucose-l-phosphate as monomer and rabbit muscle phosphorylase b as catalyst on gold-covered surfaces of a quartz crystal microbalance. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra confirmed the presence of the characteristic absorption peaks of amylose between 3100 cm(-1) and 3500 cm(-1). The thickness of the amylose brushes-measured by Spectroscopic Ellipsometry-can be tailored from 4 to 20 nm, depending on the reaction time. The contour length of the stretched amylose chains on gold surfaces has been evaluated by single molecule force spectroscopy, and a total chain length of about 20 nm for 16.2 nm thick amylose brushes was estimated. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was employed to characterize the amylose brushes before and after the adsorption of fatty acids. The dynamics of inclusion complex formation between amylose brushes and two fatty acids (octanoic acid and myristic acid) with different chain length was investigated as a function of time using a quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring (QCM-D) immersed in the liquid phase. QCM-D signals including the frequency and dissipation shifts elucidated the effects of the fatty acid concentration, the solvent types, the chain length of the fatty acids and the thickness of the amylose brushes on the dynamics of fatty acid molecule adsorption on the amylose brush-modified sensor surfaces.</p>