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The Anatomical Graduated Component Total Knee Replacement
This study examined the 20-year follow-up of the cemented Anatomical Graduated Component total knee replacement carried out between 1983 and 2004. The results showed that the overall survival rate at 20 years was 97.8% with revision of the tibial or femoral component as the endpoint. The survival rate at 20 years of the tibial component was 98.3% and the femoral component was 99.4%. None of the 36 implants at the 20 year follow-up had been revised for polyethylene wear or osteolysis, which may be a reflection of the use of a non-modular, compression-moulded polyethylene implant, since other studies have found polyethylene wear to be a leading cause of failure leading to revision.
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South African Health Minister To Launch PMTCT Plan
South African Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi within the next two weeks is expected to launch a plan to address mother-to-child HIV transmission in an effort to reduce infant mortality in the country, The Times reports. The MTCT plan is part of a new health program adopted by President Jacob Zuma"s administration, according to The Times."This is one of the most urgent things I want to (deal with) as the new minister," Motsoaledi said. According to Motsoaledi, a child dies every eight minutes in South Africa, and about 40% of child deaths are related to HIV/AIDS. The plan was developed by the Development Bank of Southern Africa at a July meeting of government and health sector stakeholders. Participants at the meeting also examined maternal deaths and the decrease in life expectancy among young adults because of HIV/AIDS. According to Motsoaledi, these and other issues have been identified as priorities for the Zuma administration if South Africa is to meet targets in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. They also have been consolidated into a 10-point plan to help the Department of Health focus on urgent issues through 2015."Health and education are the biggest challenges for (the government) and we ought to be doing something drastic," Motsoaledi said, adding, "These are very serious issues in society." The health department"s plan also calls for the revival of the National AIDS Council and says that the government should improve regulation of the private health sector. It also calls for the establishment of a national tuberculosis reference laboratory, a focus on infection rates among women ages 17 to 21 and the improvement of HIV prevention among commercial sex workers (Molele, The Times, 5/25).
News of the day
Strategies Evolving As Retractable Safety Syringe Suppliers Strive For Traction
Following the lead of the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act in the U.S., government regulations regarding syringe needle handling and disposal continue to proliferate worldwide, fostering increased demand in the use of safety syringes. Retractable syringes represent the most elegant approach to addressing the caregiver sharps risk issue by lowering the risk of user error and de-emphasizing the need for a separate sharps disposal step.
Public Health

Seeing More With Rose-Coloured Glasses

A University of Toronto study provides the first direct evidence that our mood literally changes the way our visual system filters our perceptual experience suggesting that seeing the world through rose-coloured glasses is more biological reality than metaphor. "Good and bad moods literally change the way our visual cortex operates and how we see," says Adam Anderson, a U of T professor of psychology. "Specifically our study shows that when in a positive mood, our visual cortex takes in more information, while negative moods result in tunnel vision. The study appears in the Journal of Neuroscience. The U of T team used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine how our visual cortex processes sensory information when in good, bad, and neutral moods. They found that donning the rose-coloured glasses of a good mood is less about the colour and more about the expansiveness of the view. The researchers first showed subjects a series images designed to generate a good, bad or neutral mood. Subjects were then shown a composite image, featuring a face in the centre, surrounded by "place" images, such as a house. To focus their attention on the central image, subjects were asked to identify the gender of the person"s face. When in a bad mood, the subjects did not process the images of places in the surrounding background. However, when viewing the same images in a good mood, they actually took in more information - they saw the central image of the face as well as the surrounding pictures of houses. The discovery came from looking at specific parts of the brain - the parahippocampal "place area" - that are known to process places and how this area relates to primary visual cortical responses, the first part of the cortex related to vision. Images from the experiment are at the Affect & Cognition Lab website. "Under positive moods, people may process a greater number of objects in their environment, which sounds like a good thing, but it also can result in distraction," says Taylor Schmitz, a graduate student of Anderson"s and lead author of the study. "Good moods enhance the literal size of the window through which we see the world. The upside of this is that we can see things from a more global, or integrative perspective. The downside is that this can lead to distraction on critical tasks that require narrow focus, such as operating dangerous machinery or airport screening of passenger baggage. Bad moods, on the other hand, may keep us more narrowly focused, preventing us from integrating information outside of our direct attentional focus." The research is supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Canada Research Chairs program. Christine Elias University of Toronto


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