Negative Perceptions of Pregnancy Scale: A Scale Development Study.

Background and Purpose: This study was conducted to develop a measurement tool to determine the perception of pregnancy. Methods: The scale was developed in four main stages: the design and development of the items, submitting the draft form to expert opinion, administration of the scale, and performing construct validity and reliability analyses. The study data were collected from 327 women with pregnancies between May 1, 2020, and February 1, 2021. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences 22 and LISREL software packages were used to evaluate the data. Results: The result of the exploratory factor analysis of the scale indicated that there were three factors with an eigenvalue of greater than 1 and that the factors explained 54.152% of the total variance. Cronbach's alpha values of the factors were .84, .80, and .81, respectively. Conclusions: Considering the factor structure, item-total test correlations, and reliability coefficients, the negative perceptions of the pregnancy scale that was developed in this study can be used to determine the perception of pregnancy.

Perception of traumatic childbirth of women and its relationship with postpartum depression.

Traumatic birth has various effects on women, and postpartum depression is one of them. The present study had two aims: 1) to determine the level of traumatic childbirth perception and postpartum depression in women and the factors affecting them and 2) to reveal the relationship between traumatic childbirth perception and postpartum depression. Five hundred fifty women, recruited between March 2018 and February 2019, completed the following form and scales one month after delivery: the general and obstetric information form, the Perception of Traumatic Childbirth Scale (PTCS), and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). The mean PTCS scores of the women included in the study were 63.45 ± 28.116 with a median value of 65, and the prevalence of traumatic childbirth was 33.8%. The risk of postpartum depression was determined in 25.3% of the women. There was a significant relationship between the participants' traumatic childbirth perception and their EPDS scores (p < .05). It was determined that the probability of experiencing postpartum depression increased four to five times in women with a high or very high level of traumatic childbirth perception (OR = 4.31; CI 95% 1.912 to 9.701; p = .000)(OR = 5.57; CI 95% 2.090 to 14.818; p = .001). The findings revealed that one-third of the participant women had traumatic childbirth perception, and the risk of postpartum depression increased as the level of traumatic birth perception increased.

Local application of hyperthermia in the esophagus with a heatable malleable thermoplastic stent.

OBJECTIVE: This study measures the effect of hyperthermia applied through a heatable stent in the esophagus in order to investigate whether this procedure offers a therapeutic option for tumor treatment. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Thermoplastic malleable stents, with the capacity to be heated after implantation, were placed endoscopically in the middle third of the esophagi of 30 pigs. After placement the stents were heated in vivo for 60 min at temperatures ranging from 43 to 52 degrees C. Temperature was measured in the surrounding tissue at various distances from the stent, determining heat penetration. The esophagi were histologically examined after 7 days. RESULTS: The maximal heating temperature tolerated in the esophagi without transmural necrosis was 46.5 degrees C, when applied twice for 60 min with a pause of 48 h. With this procedure a tumor damaging temperature of 42.5 degrees C was achieved at a maximum distance of 12 mm surrounding the stent. CONCLUSION: Application of hyperthermia through a heatable stent in the esophagus is feasible. The maximal depth of therapeutic temperature achieved by this procedure (12 mm) is not sufficient to heal esophageal cancer, but may be of palliative value.

Fishing line suture: cost-saving alternative for atraumatic intracutaneous skin closure--randomized clinical trial in Rwanda.

Experience with the use of nylon fishing line for surgical sutures has been reported from several African countries. A recent publication suggested that fishing line and an injection needle may provide an atraumatic suture that is especially suitable for intracutaneous skin closures. This article provides further empirical support for such alternative technology. We describe a randomized, blinded clinical trial conducted in Butare (Rwanda) with 220 cutaneous wounds closed by intracutaneous sutures, with either the homemade suture or a commercial nylon thread (Ethilon). We compared the clinical outcomes as well as the costs of those two materials. There are no significant differences between the two sutures in terms of clinical findings or in the reported ease of use by the surgeons. The cost of a homemade atraumatic suture is US $0.07, which is less than one-thirtieth the cost of the commercial thread. The advantage of the commercial thread is the assurance of quality. We consider whether this quality assurance justifies the large price difference, and if the homemade suture should be recommended to surgeons in countries where the costs of surgical material often remain an obstacle for life-saving operations.