Food for thought: the importance of nutritional well-being during COVID-19.

Individuals with mental illness have poorer physical health, nutritional status, and lowered life expectancy. Optimising their physical and nutritional status has become an increasingly important therapeutic goal. Current experience with COVID-19 has further emphasised the susceptibility to physical illness and poorer outcomes amongst individuals with mental illness and those who are nutritionally compromised. Although life as we knew it has been suspended until the widespread roll-out of a vaccine, individuals can take immediate action to improve physical and mental health by attending to and optimising their nutritional well-being. Clinicians within mental health services have a crucial role to play in assisting such change, and reminding their patients of the importance of pursuing a healthy and balanced diet.

Sonographic appearance of the endometrium and ovaries during cycles stimulated with human menopausal gonadotropin.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the measurable factors that correlated with a higher conception ratio in one of our subpopulations of infertility patients. STUDY DESIGN: We analyzed 58 menstrual cycles in 24 consecutive infertility patients treated only with human menopausal gonadotropin (hMG) and intrauterine insemination between January 1992 and February 1993 to compare those cycles leading to conception with those that did not with regard to certain factors: endometrial thickness, endometrial layering, number of follicles > or = 15 mm in diameter, peak estradiol level and number of cycles prior to conception. RESULTS: All conceptions occurred in cycles that showed endometrial layering. No patient conceived if the endometrial thickness was < 8 mm. The incidence of conception increased with the number of follicles (one to three) measuring > 15 mm in average diameter. No patient conceived if the serum estradiol was < 192 pg/mL. No conceptions occurred after three successive cycles of treatment. CONCLUSION: Endometrial layering, endometrial thickness of at least 8 mm, a higher number of follicles (up to three) with an average of 15 mm and a serum estradiol level of at least 192 pg/mL correlated with a higher rate of conception.

Hubble Space Telescope primary-mirror characterization by measurement of the reflective null corrector.

The reflective null corrector used to manufacture of the Hubble Space Telescope contains valuable information about the prescription of the primary mirror since an excellent null was achieved between the null-corrector wave front and the primary-mirror wave front. During the Phase I measurements, the leading cause of the spherical aberration, the field lens position error, was discovered and remeasured to an accuracy of +/-0.005 mm. To derive the conic constant of the primary mirror to an accuracy of +/-0.0003, we remeasured the parameters of the reflective null corrector that could contribute to the spherical aberration of the primary mirror.

The role of serum isoamylase and lipase determinations in clinical practice.

To determine the clinical utility of routine determination of serum isoamylase (pancreatic/salivary) and/or lipase activity, sera were tested from 109 consecutive patients with elevated total serum amylase. Without knowledge of the isoamylase and lipase results, an assessment was made of the confidence with which the attending medical staff had made or excluded a diagnosis of acute pancreatitis. The attending staff had considered acute pancreatitis to be probable in 78, possible in 12 and unlikely in 19 patients. The confidence of the clinical diagnosis of acute pancreatitis was directly related to the degree of elevation of the serum total amylase: (mean IU/l +/- s.e.m.) probable pancreatitis 1807 +/- 313, possible pancreatitis 680 +/- 74, pancreatitis unlikely 493 +/- 50. Pancreatic isoamylase was elevated in 97% of patients with probable pancreatitis, 92% with possible pancreatitis and 68% in whom pancreatitis had been considered unlikely. Lipase elevations generally parallelled these results. Although gall-stones were usually sought among patients with probable pancreatitis, they were rarely sought in patients in the other categories. In conclusion, amylase isoenzyme or lipase determinations add little information in cases of clinically suspected acute pancreatitis with marked hyperamylasemia. The tests may have a role in the evaluation of patients with clinically unexplained hyperamylasemia by defining more precisely the origin of the amylase.