Persisting patency of the ductus arteriosus in the preterm infant

By 1769, it was known to Morgagni that the ductus arteriosus may persist until adulthood. In 1835, Jörg linked delayed postnatal closure with disturbed respiration, a discovery that afterwards was forgotten for a century. When blood gas analysis became available, the association between persisting patency and diminished oxygenation resurfaced. When it became known that prostaglandins played a role in maintaining ductal patency, the development of pharmacologic intervention with cyclooxygenase inhibitors immediately followed. This rapid progress was due to the interaction between basic science, paediatric cardiology, and neonatology disciplines at the Cardiovascular Research Institute in San Francisco, coordinated by Julius Comroe, as well as President Kennedy’s foundation of the National Institute of Child Health and Development. This series of events exemplifies how clinical research became an integrated managed multidisciplinary endeavour in the 20th century.

Comparison of the Mindfulness Skills, Metacognitive Beliefs and Perceived Stress in Hypertension Patients and Control Group

The aim of this study was to compare the skills of mindfulness, metacognitive beliefs and perceived stress in hypertension patients and control group. The study was a causal-comparative one. The population included all patients with high blood pressure who were admitted in Isfahan Cardiovascular Research Institute in 2014, 90 of which were selected by purposive sampling. Research instruments include: Kentucky's mindfulness skills (Baer, Smith, & Allen, 2004), metacognitive beliefs questionnaire (Welles, 1997) and questionnaire perceived stress (Cohen & Kamarck, 1983). Of all the questionnaires returned, 80 were fully completed and therefore analyzed. Data were analyzed using a t-test and multivariate analysis of variance. Results showed that there is a difference between mindfulness skills and beliefs of people with hypertension and control group. Moreover, the results showed that there isn’t any meaningful difference between the perceived stress in patients with hypertension and control group. It can be said that mindfulness skills, metacognitive beliefs and perceived stress can help us to understand the psychological issues of patients with high blood pressure better.