The Heartmate II: design and development of a fully sealed axial flow left ventricular assist system.

Our group is developing the control and power transmission components required to implement a permanent and fully sealed left ventricular assist system (LVAS). Starting with the percutaneously powered HeartMate II blood pump, our development efforts are focused in the following areas: a complete redesign of the transcutaneous energy transmission system (TETS) to include a rectification network and autonomous voltage regulation within the secondary coil, a hermetically sealed electronics package containing a miniaturized implementation of the existing redundant drive and control electronics with several power-input options, an implanted rechargeable lithium ion battery pack capable of providing up to 1 h of untethered operation, implantable electrical connectors that allow components to be connected after placement in the body or to be replaced if needed, and a radio telemetry subsystem to transmit diagnostic information and to permit remote adjustment of selected parameters.

A comparison of nurse and patient perceptions of chemotherapy treatment stressors.

To assess how closely nurses and patients considered various situations as causing stress in chemotherapy treatment, this study was designed to compare nurse and patient perceptions of chemotherapy treatment stressors for patients in an oncology hospital. This descriptive study was conducted in the summer of 1997. Fifty patients receiving cytotoxic treatment were chosen by random sample. All 21 registered nurses of the Tabriz University of Medical Sciences who worked in the oncology department were contacted. A Likert-type questionnaire was designed to measure the stressfulness of commonly occurring items in chemotherapy treatment. The intensity of each item was measured by a scale with response choices ranging from the most to the least important. The patients were asked to indicate their perceptions of the seriousness of stress by sorting items. The nurses were asked to complete the same questionnaire as the patients completed. The greatest physical stressor mentioned by the patients was fatigue (66%), and by nurses, alopecia (62%). The nurses' perceptions of psychosocial items causing the greatest stress included fear of disease recurrence (90.5%), fear of death (90.5%), economic problems (90.5%), and appearance changes (90.5%), whereas the patients perceived dependency (80%), economic problems (70%), and loss of social activity (66%), as the greatest stressors (p < 0.05). The findings showed disagreement between the two groups on intensity of physical and psychosocial stressors (p < 0.05). The results from this study increased nurses' awareness of important stress factors in chemotherapy treatment. Identification of the situations perceived to be more stressful than others helped clinical nurses to modify their care and provide for their patients in a way that removes or reduces the stressors.