Objectives
Pre-treatment patient education has been shown to decrease anxiety and enhance comprehension. Our pilot study evaluates the impact of VERT™, a virtual environment education tool, on these ...endpoints.
Methods
Twenty-two patients with prostate cancer being treated with radiotherapy completed a 16-question comprehension/anxiety survey. Patients proceeded to VERT™, modeled after a flight simulator using realistic sounds and views. The test was then repeated. A power analysis determined that enrolling 20 patients achieves 80% power to detect an effect size of 0.89 with a Bonferroni-adjusted significance level of 0.003125 using a one-sided one-sample paired
t
test to analyze differences between individual pre/post-test scores. Descriptive statistics were reported and effect size was computed.
Results
Pre/post-test measures for all questions were statistically significant, favoring our hypothesis of improved education and reduced anxiety following virtual simulation except three measures of anxiety (low in both assessments). Baseline anxiety was highest for treatment precision, which also demonstrated the most significant pre/post-intervention improvement.
Conclusion
Decreased anxiety and improved comprehension influence patient-reported satisfaction and can contribute to quality assurance. Implementation of virtual simulation was successful in improving comprehension and reducing anxiety. Development of personalized, site-specific, clinic-based virtual modules is a long-term goal of this pilot study.
Overview:
For many years, researchers have been studying reproduction of cats and dogs, including approaches to non-surgical sterilization, but scant funding has been available for this work. ...Recognizing the need to fund research and to attract researchers from the biomedical community to apply their expertise to this area, the Michelson Prize & Grants (MPG) in Reproductive Biology program was founded. Since 2009, it has funded 34 research projects in seven countries toward discovery of a safe single-administration lifetime non-surgical sterilant in male and female cats and dogs.
Goal:
The goal of the MPG program is the reduction or elimination of the approximately 2.7 million deaths of healthy shelter cats and dogs in the US every year. The successful product is expected to be a single-dose injectable product approved by the US Food and Drug Administration as a veterinary prescription item. The most optimistic prediction is that such a product will reach the hands of practicing veterinarians within the next decade.
Areas of research:
Active research is in progress using approaches such as immunocontraception with a single-administration vaccine against gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH). Long-term therapy with GnRH agonists such as deslorelin administered in controlled-release devices is also being studied. Other scientists are targeting cells in the brain or gonads with cytotoxins, such as are used in cancer chemotherapy. Gene therapy expressing proteins that suppress reproduction and gene silencing of peptides essential to reproduction are further avenues of research. Findings are available at www.michelsonprizeandgrants.org/michelson-grants/research-findings.
This article describes a distributed model clinical curriculum developed by the College of Veterinary Medicine, Western University of Health Sciences (CVMWU), and presents outcome data for the ...2005/2006 academic year. Extramural clinical education requires close institutional involvement, including planning, formulation of learning objectives, selection of partner sites with numbers compatible with teaching needs, training of clinical preceptors, faculty commitment, administrative support, and ongoing assessment. Extramural delivery of the CVMWU clinical curriculum is facilitated by its geographical location in close proximity to participating sites and by an admissions process designed to select students judged likely to succeed in a student-centered learning environment. Outcome data collected from students and clinical preceptors supports the conclusion that year 3 of the curriculum was successfully delivered.
Seminal fluid was collected by manual ejaculation from 95 dogs. Quantitative aerobic bacterial, qualitative anaerobic bacterial and mycoplasma cultures were performed on the seminal fluid, and their ...association with presence of inflammatory cells present in the pellet formed after centrifugation of the fluid was investigated. There was a clinically meaningful aerobic bacterial growth in 28.4%, anaerobic bacterial growth in 13.7%, and mycoplasma growth in 57.9% of the seminal fluid samples. Presence of inflammatory cytology was statistically associated with clinically meaningful aerobic bacterial growth. However, of the 78 dogs (82.1%) with clinically meaningful growth of at least one aerobic, anaerobic or mycoplasma organism, 43 (55.1%) had non-inflammatory seminal fluid cytology.
To determine the effect of finasteride on programmed cell death (apoptosis) of prostatic cells during prostatic involution in dogs with benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH).
9 dogs with BPH.
Dogs were ...randomly assigned to treatment or control groups. Treatment dogs (n = 5) were administered finasteride (0.1 to 0.5 mg/kg, PO, q 24 h) for 16 weeks, whereas the 4 control dogs were administered an inert compound. Prostatic cells from the prostatic fluid portion of the ejaculate of treatment and control dogs were obtained before and 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, and 16 weeks after initiation of treatment. Cells were concentrated by use of centrifugation. Prostatic cells were examined for indications of apoptosis by use of a terminal deoxyribonucleotidyl transferase-mediated deoxyuracil triphosphate nick-end labeling technique. After receiving the inert compound for 16 weeks, the 4 control dogs were administered finasteride for 16 weeks, and evaluations were repeated.
Percentage of apoptotic prostatic cells in ejaculated prostatic fluid of treatment dogs increased significantly (from 9% before treatment to 33, 31, 26, and 27% after 1, 2, 3, and 8 weeks of treatment, respectively). There was no significant change in percentage of apoptotic prostatic cells in the ejaculated prostatic fluid of control dogs.
Finasteride-induced prostatic involution appears to be via apoptosis in dogs with BPH. Finasteride treatment of dogs with BPH causes prostatic involution by apoptosis rather than necrosis.
Serum and seminal plasma concentrations or activities of acid phosphatase (AP), prostate specific antigen (PSA), and canine prostate specific esterase (CPSE) were measured in normal dogs, dogs with ...benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), dogs with bacterial prostatitis, and dogs with prostatic carcinoma to determine if these assays would be of value in differentiating dogs with prostatic carcinoma from normal dogs, and dogs with other prostatic disorders. In addition, tissue sections of prostatic adenocarcinomas were stained with antiprostatic AP, anti‐CPSE, and anti‐PSA antibodies to determine if these would be suitable immunohistochemical markers of prostatic carcinoma. Prostate‐specific antigen was not detected in canine serum or seminal plasma. Serum and seminal AP activities did not differ significantly between normal dogs and those with prostatic diseases, or among dogs with different prostatic disorders. Serum CPSE activities were significantly higher in dogs with BPH than in normal dogs. Mean serum CPSE activities in dogs with BPH, bacterial prostatitis, and prostatic carcinoma were not significantly different from each other. Slight to moderate immunohistochemical staining of canine prostatic adenocarcinomas was noted for prostatic AP and PSA; most tumors did not stain for CPSE. These results show that proteins of prostatic origin appear in the serum of dogs as a result of prostatic pathology, especially BPH. Canine prostatic adenocarcinoma does not appear to be associated with significant increases in CPSE or AP activities, possibly because of down‐regulation of these enzymes by prostatic carcinoma cells. It is also possible that failure to detect significant differences resulted from limited statistical power for some groups and pairwise analyses because of the small number of dogs evaluated.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate, in an animal whose skeleton is comparable to humans, the combined effects of estrogen depletion and Cd exposure on bone resorption by monitoring skeletal ...release of 45Ca and to determine whether Cd-induced bone resorption occurred independent of osteotropic hormone changes and renal dysfunction. Cd exposure following ovariectomy or sham surgery was for 7 months: 1 month by oral ingestion of capsules (1, 5, 15, 50 ppm) and 6 months via drinking water (15 ppm). Serum and fecal 45Ca were increased at 1 week following ovariectomy (OV) (54 +/- 9% and 122 +/- 40%, respectively), but this response was attenuated by 2 weeks. Five of seven exposed dogs had increased serum and fecal 45Ca during the 50-ppm Cd capsule period (15-40% and 15-190%, respectively). Serum 45Ca levels in OV/+Cd dogs showed a significant and consistent increase within 1 week of initiating each of three separate Cd.H2O exposure cycles. Blood Cd levels increased over time from 2 to 15 micrograms/l, coinciding with the elevated serum 45Ca concentrations. No correlation was observed between serum 45Ca increases and parathyroid hormone, 1,25-(OH)2-vitamin D, or calcitonin. No effects of ovariectomy and/or Cd were observed in total serum Ca, calciotropic hormone concentrations, serum or urinary phosphorus and creatinine, creatinine clearance, or urinary specific gravity. Urinary Cd concentrations ranged from 7 to 50 micrograms/l in exposed dogs but were not detectable in nonexposed dogs. Urinary protein concentrations showed no differences between groups. Cd increased bone resorption (skeletal 45Ca release) in ovariectomized and sham-operated dogs without renal dysfunction or calciotropic hormone interaction. Based on our results, Cd is an exogenous factor which exacerbates bone mineral loss in postmenopausal osteoporosis.
Vaginal septa in dogs: 15 cases (1983-1992) Root, M.V. (University of Minnesota, St Paul, MN.); Johnston, S.D; Johnston, G.R
Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association,
(1 Jan 1995), 1995-Jan-01, Letnik:
206, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Medical records of 15 dogs with vaginal septa, examined between April 1983 and December 1992, were reviewed. Overall prevalence of vaginal septation at the hospital during the study period was 0.03%. ...Thirteen breeds were represented; mean age at the time of initial examination was 2.4 years. Owners' original complaints included inability to breed naturally, dysuria, urinary incontinence, infertility, recurrent vaginitis, ambiguous external genitalia, and dystocia. One dog did not have clinical signs associated with the vaginal septum. In 11 of the 15 dogs, the septum could be palpated during digital vaginal examination. The septum could be seen in 6 of the 7 dogs in which vaginoscopy was performed. Twelve of the 15 dogs underwent positive-contrast vaginography; in all 12, the septum could be easily seen. Four of the 15 dogs underwent removal of the septum, with or without episiotomy, and 4 others were ovariohysterectomized. One dog was bred by means of artificial insemination and became pregnant. The remaining 6 dogs were lost to follow-up.
