Study of bone mineral density in lumbar spine and femoral neck in a Spanish population. Multicentre Research Project on Osteoporosis.

The aim of this study was to generate standard curves for bone mineral density (BMD) in a Spanish population using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), at both lumbar spine and femoral neck sites. The total sample size was 2442 subjects of both sexes aged 20-80 years, stratified according to survival rates, demographic distribution by local regions and sex ratio in the Spanish population. Subjects with suspected conditions affecting bone metabolism or receiving any treatment affecting bone mineralization were excluded. The study was carried out in 14 hospitals and bone density measurements were performed, using a QDR/ 1000 Hologic device. In the female population, the highest value for lumbar spine BMD was found within the 30-39 years age group, being significantly lower after the age of 49 years. In the male population, the highest values for lumbar spine BMD are found one decade earlier than in the female population and become significantly lower after the age of 69 years. The highest values for femoral neck BMD in men and women was found in the 20-29 year age group. Values for femoral neck BMD in the female population become statistically lower after the age of 49 years, while in the male population this effect was seen after the age of 69 years. Values for femoral neck BMD were higher in men than women at all ages.

[Criteria of severity in attempted suicide]. / Criterios de gravedad en la tentativa de suicidio.

Severity, understood as the use of means objectively able to produce death or serious injure, is found in approximately a third of the cases of attempted suicide that have been studied. It has been discovered a statistically significant association between the severity and other variables observed in the self-aggression behaviour: length in the place of residence, insomnia, previous self-aggression, time of the day, way of realization, main trigger and psychiatric diagnosis.

[Triggering factors in attempted suicide]. / Factores desencadenantes en la tentativa de suicidio.

A sample of hundred and thirty-six cases of attempted suicide is studied from the standpoint of principal trigger factor. Absolute and percentual frequencies are exposed and analysed the associations between principal trigger and other variables: sex, age, marital status, retirement, previous suicidal attempts, severity of the act, suicidal intention, psychiatric diagnosis and opinion about recidive.

[Left ventricular pressure response to acute volumetric overload in congenital heart disease (author's transl)]. / Respuesta de la presión ventricular izquierda a la sobrecarga volumétrica brusca de la ventriculografía en las cardiopatías congénitas.

Fifty patients with congenital heart disease were studied hemodynamically to evaluate their functionally dynamic situation. The peak systolic left ventricular pressure and the left ventricular endiastolic pressure were analyzed in basal conditions and following the volumetric overload of the left ventricular angiogram as parameters reflecting afterload and preload, respectively. Highly significant correlations were obtained among those parameters in all patients and taking in consideration different syndromic groups. Regression lines obtained from these correlations permitted to establish, in a given patient, a quantitative prediction of response to volumetric overload which can estimate qualitative situation of his ventricle into the Starling's curve.