ABSTRACT
Associates and predictors of lowered mood were investigated in a 10-year prospective study of 411 random persons of three birth cohorts (aged 75, 80 and 85 years) in Helsinki, Finland. High Zung-score ( > 45 points = lowered mood) was found in 24% of subjects and clearly associated with age. Lowered mood was also associated with pessimistic attitudes towards life and impaired survival prognosis. The mean Zung-score fell drastically during the first follow-up (from 39.1 to 34.6 points, P < 0.001) and remained unchanged thereafter at 10-year examination of the survivors (33.9 points). Lowering mood (increase in Zung-score) was best predicted by low baseline Zung-score (r = -0.673, P < 0.001), high baseline MMSE-score (r = -159. P < 0.05) and simultaneous changes in MMSE-scores (r = 0.269, P < 0.01). The data show that lowered mood is associated with pessimistic attitudes towards life, cognitive impairment and impaired survival and that cognitive impairment exposes a patient to lowering mood. It is possible that a screening program improves the mood of aged population.
Subject(s)
Aging/physiology , Depression/diagnosis , Depression/epidemiology , Mood Disorders/diagnosis , Mood Disorders/epidemiology , Age Distribution , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Cohort Studies , Confidence Intervals , Female , Finland/epidemiology , Follow-Up Studies , Geriatric Assessment , Humans , Incidence , Male , Probability , Prospective Studies , Psychiatric Status Rating Scales , Risk Assessment , Sex DistributionABSTRACT
Seven late relapses of acute lymphoblastic leukemia occurring 5.5 to 12.3 years after cessation of therapy are reported in 986 patients who had discontinued treatment for leukemia acquired before the age of 15. The study covers patients from the five Nordic countries. Of the 434 patients with ALL who had passed 5 years of follow-up without recurrence, seven have subsequently relapsed so far; an estimated cumulative proportion of 6.9% within the 10 years. In addition, we report a girl 15.9 years old at diagnosis who relapsed 7.3 years after cessation of therapy. These findings confirm that "cure" of acute lymphoblastic leukemia treated in the 1970s cannot be considered definite, even 5 years after discontinuation of therapy.
Subject(s)
Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma/mortality , Adolescent , Child , Child, Preschool , Female , Follow-Up Studies , Humans , Male , Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma/therapy , Recurrence , Scandinavian and Nordic CountriesABSTRACT
Seventeen children aged 5 months to 3 years with recurrent or chronic otitis media complicated by Pseudomonas aeruginosa were treated with ceftazidime. All patients had been previously treated with several antibiotics. All strains of Pseudomonas were initially sensitive to ceftazidime. In four of the six cases which failed bacteriologically, the Pseudomonas was found to be of intermediate sensitivity after treatment. In 11 patients the Pseudomonas was eradicated during treatment but reappeared in 4 during the follow-up period. All 11 patients were clinically cured or improved. Three of the six children whose Pseudomonas was not eliminated from aural discharge showed some clinical improvement whereas the remaining three showed no clinical response to treatment. The range of MIC values of ceftazidime, gentamicin and carbenicillin for the Pseudomonas isolated were respectively 0.5 to 4.0, 0.25 to 2.0 and 4.0 to 125 mg/l. The mean ceftazidime serum level at 1 h after the first injection of 50 mg/kg was 74.12 (S.D. 12.84) mg/l and at 12 h post injection 1.93 (S.D. 4.14) mg/l.
