Health care system and patient-related factors affecting low cancer screening participation in Poland.

The level of participation in cancer screening is low in the Polish population. The aim of this study was to assess the opinions of centers providing cancer screening as to the reasons for the low frequency of cancer screening in Poland and possible methods to increase participation. In July 2020 433 centers in Poland carried out breast and/or cervical cancer screening. Of these, 136 centers decided to participate in the study. The study was conducted using an original questionnaire. The questions were addressed to opinion of centers about: reasons for the low frequency of cancer screening in Poland, methods to increase the frequency of cancer screening, pricing and motivating factors for providing cancer screening. Among opinions as to possible reasons for the low frequency of cancer screening in Poland related to the care-system, lack of encouragement from general practitioners, lack of invitations for cancer screening and lack of proper social advertising were most prevalent; whereas among reasons related to patients, a low awareness of cancer screening and fear of cancer diagnosis. The main methods that could potentially increase screening participation are considered to be the inclusion of cancer screening in mandatory periodic employee examinations, more activity by general practitioners, better promotion of screening by central institutions, and sending personal invitations. In conclude some interventions should be carried out to motivate people to break down barriers.

Middle superficial cerebral vein.

The microanatomical study present the anatomy of the middle cerebral vein. On the basis of the anatomical data we distinguished concentric and nonconcentric types of tributaries of the middle superficial cerebral vein. The nonconcentric type prevails.

Prenatal cocaine exposure in the Long-Evans rat: I. Dose-dependent effects on gestation, mortality, and postnatal maturation.

Pregnant Long-Evans rats were injected daily with 40, 60, 80, or 100 mg/kg cocaine HCl (SC, 2% solution) from gestational days 7-20 (sperm positive = day 0). Daily doses were split evenly with half given between 9:00-10:00 a.m. and half between 3:00-4:00 p.m. An ad lib-fed group as well as nutritional control groups that were pair-fed to the 80 and 100 mg/kg cocaine dams were also evaluated (N = 11-18 liters/group). Cocaine had no effect on gestational length but did cause dose-dependent decreases in maternal food consumption and weight gain and increases in maternal mortality. Interestingly, cocaine-treated dams shows a significant increase in water consumption. In terms of offspring variables, there was a dose-dependent decrease in birth weight and postnatal weight gain in both the cocaine and pair-fed groups. There were also dose-dependent effects on litter size, stillbirths and postnatal mortality in the cocaine-treated groups as compared to the control groups. High dose cocaine treatment caused delays in several indices of physical maturation (pinna detachment, fur growth, ear opening, eye opening, vaginal opening) but not in others (incisor eruption, testicular descent). Physical anomalies and postnatal morbidity, while uncommon, were observed in animals prenatally exposed to the higher cocaine doses. Collectively, these data suggest that prenatal cocaine exposure can increase postnatal morbidity as well as increase pre-and postnatal mortality in animal offspring.