Will mothers of sick children help their husbands to stop smoking after receiving a brief intervention from nurses? Secondary analysis of a randomised controlled trial

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Is ultrasonography-guided modified coaxial core biopsy of the breast a better technique?

Objective: To compare the diagnostic rate, patient comfort, and complications of ultrasonography-guided breast biopsy using a modified coaxial technique with ultrasonography-guided fine needle aspiration and traditional core biopsy. A secondary objective was to describe the use of the coaxial technique for the biopsy of breast lesions and our initial experience. Design: Retrospective study. Setting: A regional hospital in Hong Kong. Patients: Patients, who were referred for ultrasonography-guided fine needle aspiration or biopsy from 23 November 2007 to 19 March 2008, were divided into three groups. For breast lesions of 8 mm or smaller, fine needle aspirations were performed. For breast lesions larger than 8 mm, the patients were randomly divided into groups receiving traditional core biopsies and coaxial biopsies. The pathological reports were reviewed. Main outcome measures: Diagnostic rate, patient comfort assessed in terms of pain, and any procedural complications. Results: A total of 45 ultrasonography-guided fine needle aspirations or biopsies of breast lesions were performed. All core biopsies using the traditional core technique (n=15) and coaxial technique (n=16) were diagnostic. While for fine needle aspirations, three (21%) of 14 were not diagnostic and repeat biopsies were undertaken for the corresponding patients. Except for one breast lesion biopsied with the coaxial technique that revealed invasive ductal carcinoma, all others yielded benign lesions. The average pain score for coaxial biopsies was 2.2, while for traditional core biopsies and fine needle aspirations, average scores were 3.7 and 3.8, respectively (P=0.022). No procedure-related complication was documented with either of the three techniques. Conclusion: Modified coaxial core biopsy of the breast has an optimal diagnostic rate and hence avoids the need for repeat biopsies. It is associated with better patient comfort and no increase in the risk of complications.published_or_final_versio

Smoking cessation telephone counseling for youth: effective regardless of recruitment methods?

Poster Discussion 64. De-norrmalising Tobacco for Women and Children: no. PD-1351-21Conference Theme: Tobacco and Non-Communicable DiseasesBACKGROUND: Proactive telephone counseling appears effective for smoking cessation in youth and passive recruitment rate has been decreasing. New recruitment methods should be adopted; however, whether effectiveness of counseling is differentiated by recruitment methods remains unclear. This study compared quitting, adherence to services, service satisfaction, and baseline characteristics among youth smokers recruited from different sources. DESIGN/METHODS: 146 (32%) youth smokers who called the Youth Quitline of the Schools of Nursing and Public Health of The University of Hong Kong, 210 (45%) who were recruited proactively from outreach and 107 (23%) …published_or_final_versio

Psychometric properties of the Big Five Inventory in a Chinese sample of smokers receiving cessation treatment: A validation study

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Caesarean section rate in England and Wales: Caesarean section rates in Hong Kong

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Influence of supplementary cementitious materials on microstructure and transport properties of spacer-concrete interface

Reinforcement spacers are a critical component of concrete structures. Their presence affects microstructure and transport properties of concrete cover though this is not widely appreciated. This paper presents the first study to determine whether the negative effects of spacers can be mitigated through the use of supplementary cementitious materials such as silica fume, fly ash and blast-furnace slag. Concrete samples (>200) with different spacers, binders, curing and drying regimes were prepared and tested for diffusion, permeation, absorption, electrical conductivity, carbonation and microstructure. It was found that spacers increase all transport properties, the extent depending on type of spacer, drying regime and transport mechanism. The spacer-concrete interface is weak, porous and micro-cracked, and this lowers the resistance of concrete to ingress of aggressive agents. The beneficial effects of SCMs (strength enhancement and densification) and prolonged curing (120-day) are insufficient to overcome the negative effects of spacers. Implications for durability are discusse

Does ozone have any effect on daily hospital admissions for circulatory diseases?

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Amelioration of soils contaminated with radionuclides:Exploiting biodiversity to minimise or maximise soilto plant transfer

Objective: Computed Tomography (CT) is the leading contributor to medical exposure to ionizing radiation. Although the use of CT brain scans for patients with head injuries and convulsions has shown a tremendous growth, it has raised substantial concerns in the general public because of the risk of radiation-induced cataracts: the current available strategies to reduce the radiation dose to the eye lens region are limited. Therefore, the present research project was initiated with the aim of evaluating the potential benefit of the combined use of bolus and a bismuth shield on reducing the radiation dose to the eye lens region during CT brain examination.Materials and methods: We conducted a series of phantom studies to measure the entrance surface dose (ESD) that is delivered to the eye lens region during CT brain examination under the effect of different scanning and shielding setups.Results: Our results indicated, during CT brain examination: (1) a drastic reduction of 92.5% in the ESD to the eye lens region was found when the CT gantry was tilted from 0 degrees (overall ESD = 30.7 mGy) to 30 degrees cranially (overall ESD = 2.4 mGy), and (2) when the CT gantry was positioned at 0 degrees (the common practice in the clinical setting), the setups with the application of a) a bismuth shield, b) a bismuth shield with a face shield (air gap), c) a bismuth shield with bolus, and d) a bismuth shield with bolus and an air gap can result in an acceptable level of image quality with a smaller overall ESD delivered to the eye lens region (overall ESD = 23.2 mGy, 24 mGy, 21 mGy and 19.9 mGy, respectively) than the setup without the bismuth shield applied (overall ESD = 30.7 mGy).Conclusion: When the primary beam scanning through the eye lens region is unavoidable during CT brain examination, the combined use of a bismuth shield with bolus and a face shield is an easy-to-use and inexpensive shielding setup to reduce the radiation dose delivered to the eye lens region while maintaining the correct CT number and a low degree of image noise in the resultant image.Department of Health Technology and Informatic

Risks for heart disease and lung cancer from passive smoking by workers in the catering industry

Workers in the catering industry are at greater risk of exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) when smoke-free workplace policies are not in force. We determined the exposure of catering workers to SHS in Hong Kong and their risk of death from heart disease and lung cancer. Nonsmoking catering workers were provided with screening at their workplaces and at a central clinic. Participants reported workplace, home, and leisure time exposure to SHS. Urinary cotinine was estimated by enzyme immunoassay. Catering facilities were classified into three types: nonsmoking, partially restricted smoking (with nonsmoking areas), and unrestricted smoking. Mean urinary cotinine levels ranged from 3.3 ng/ml in a control group of 16 university staff through 6.4 ng/ml (nonsmoking), 6.1 ng/ml (partially restricted), and 15.9 ng/ml (unrestricted smoking) in 104 workers who had no exposures outside of work. Workers in nonsmoking facilities had exposures to other smoking staff. We modeled workers' mortality risks using average cotinine levels, estimates of workplace respirable particulates, risk data for cancer and heart disease from cohort studies, and national (US) and regional (Hong Kong) mortality for heart disease and lung cancer. We estimated that deaths in the Hong Kong catering workforce of 200,000 occur at the rate of 150 per year for a 40-year working-lifetime exposure to SHS. When compared with the current outdoor air quality standards for particulates in Hong Kong, 30% of workers exceeded the 24-h and 98% exceeded the annual air quality objectives due to workplace SHS exposures. © 2006 Oxford University Press.postprin

An Internet-Based Intervention to Promote Alcohol-Related Attitudinal and Behavioral Change Among Adolescents: Protocol of a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial

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