Prevalence, onset and comorbidity of postpartum anxiety and depressive disorders.

OBJECTIVE: The study presents data on the 3-month prevalences of postpartum anxiety disorders (PAD) and postpartum depressive disorders (PDD) and their comorbidity in a German community sample. Associations with sociodemographic variables and previous history of psychopathology were analysed. METHOD: Data were gathered in a longitudinal study over the first 3 months postpartum. In a two-stage screening procedure, a population-based representative sample of 1024 postpartum women was assessed for symptoms of anxiety and depression using DSM-IV-based screening instruments. RESULTS: The estimated rates of DSM-IV disorders were 11.1% for PAD and 6.1% for PDD. Comorbidity was found in 2.1%. The rate for PAD with postpartum onset was 2.2% and for PDD 4.6%. Young mothers and mothers with a low education level had a heightened risk of developing depression following delivery. CONCLUSION: Because of the clinical relevance of PAD, controlled studies and specialized programmes for prevention and treatment are urgently required.

[First diagnosis of Fallot tetralogy in a 74-year-old man]. / Erstdiagnose einer Fallot-Tetralogie bei einem 74-jährigen Mann Kasuistik über einen komplexen Fall einer Fallot-Tetralogie bei einem 74-jährigen Erwachsenen, der ohne chirurgische oder medizinische Behandlung überlebte.

Tetralogy of Fallot is the most common cyanotic cardiac malformation in late childhood and adult, occurring in approximately 0.25 of 1000 live births. Most patients undergo early surgical correction. Therefore, the natural history of this disease has been evaluated in only a few cases. We report a complex case of a tetralogy of Fallot, who reached the age of 74 years without surgical or medical treatment and who was transferred to our clinic after syncope due to ventricular tachycardia.

More real-time visual and haptic interaction with anatomical data.

The University of Colorado's Center for Human Simulation has developed fundamental algorithms for real-time visual and haptic interaction with polygonal and voxel base data sets, including those derived from the Visible Human Dataset. These algorithms are currently being used to create prototype simulators for surgery, needle insertion (anesthesiology, radiology, and rheumatology), dentistry, and ophthalmology. This paper briefly discusses our segmentation and classification effort as well as our ability to create texture-mapped polygonal models directly from the data: both are fundamental to the creation of anatomically based simulators.

Real-time visually and haptically accurate surgical simulation.

The Visible Human Database provides a complete submillimeter photographic and radiological description of both a male and a female cadaver. The Center for Human Simulation has developed real-time algorithms that allow a user to wield a virtual scalpel and produce arbitrary cuts into the reconstructed body. Real-time interaction is achieved by producing the appropriate texture mapped surfaces directly from the Visible Human Database. We are currently combining a 3 degree of freedom PHANToM haptic device (SensAble Devices) with our surgical cutting algorithms to produce a system with the look and feel of surgical cutting.