Background. Gynecologic examination is a common measure in reproductive health care. Many women experience the examination as a more or less negative event, with shortcomings in the examiner's behavior. The aim of the study was to describe, in terms of critical incidences, women's experiences concerning the personnel's behavior in the situation of gynecologic examination. Methods. The informants w

Background: There is a shortage of reports on what potential recipients of implantable cardioverter-defibrillators ( ICDs) need to be informed about and what role they can and want to play in the decision-making process when it comes to whether or not to implant an ICD. Aims: To explore how patients with heart failure and previous episodes of malignant arrhythmia experience and view their role in

Background. Ethical issues arise in many obstetric situations and demand constant consideration by obstetricians. The aim of this study was to highlight the meaning of being in an ethically difficult situation as narrated by obstetricians. Methods. A descriptive design with a qualitative approach using a hermeneutic phenomenological method for analysis. Interviews were performed with 14 obstetric

Objective. To describe factors associated with the development of stroke during long-term follow-up after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in the LoWASA trial. Patients. Patients who had been hospitalized for AMI were randomized within 42 days to receive either warfarin 1.25 mg plus aspirin 75 mg daily or aspirin 75 mg alone. Design. The study was performed according to the probe design, that is

Severely deficient activity of the von Willebrand Factor (VWF) cleaving metalloprotease,ADAMTS 13, is associated with thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP). The mutation spectrum ofADAMTS 13 is rather heterogeneous, and numerous mutations spread across the gene have been described in association with congenital TTP. The 4143insA mutation is unusual with respect to its geographic concentration.

The aim of this thesis was to describe eating difficulties and interventions to improve eating among elderly patients, especially those with stroke, to make comparisons between patients with dysphagia and those without (Papers I & II), those with and without assisted eating (Paper IV), and to analyse the relation between eating difficulties, nutritional status (Papers II-V), pressure ulcers (P

We describe a simple method to detect significant changes of the total ozone column from global (diffuse and direct) zenith sky measurements taken at the Earth’s surface. The calculation of the total ozone column relies on measured irradiance at two wavelengths in the ultra violet part of the solar spectrum. One of these (i.e. 306 nm) are appreciable absorbed by ozone whereas the other (i.e. 360 n