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paediatric practice over the past decade.

Because it is "sometimes

difficult for those referring to such services (ie, general paediatricians and community paediatricians) to decide when the disadvantages of referral: distance, potential loss of continuity, lack of familiarity with local support and, on occasion, fragmentation in the care of the whole child, are outweighed by genuine clinical need and advantage" we asked contributors to consider how far there was evidence justifying the changes in practice in these subspecialties of paediatrics over the past five years. We could have organised a conference on growth and

development, on psychiatry, or on international child health, as implied by the editorial-but this was not the occasion, vitally important though these topics are. Furthermore, we disagree with your narrow view that "the" challenge for the next few years must be to ensure that well-accepted advances and protocols of therapy put into effect and become available to all children. Admirable sentiments but limited. Are we to do nothing to prevent pre-term birth and reduce congenital malformations; to prevent sudden infant death syndrome; to reduce childhood accidents; to cope with child sexual abuse; to reduce the incidence of severe developmental delay; or to ameliorate behavioural disorder in childhood? Although improved service delivery or social intervention may well help in some of these areas, it is difficult to be certain, and there is often little evidence of the efficacy. What are the "well accepted advances and protocols of therapy" that will enable us to find effective treatments and preventive and curative strategies for them or for epilepsy, cerebral palsy, arthritis, diabetes, cancer, bone-marrow failure, or the other specialty areas covered in the volume? Indeed there are many children in suboptimum health with physical and emotional disorders in the UK. It is, however, an illusion to feel that general paediatricians alone or even the medical profession as a whole can cure all their problems in the short term. Of course, such problems should be addressed where possible. Of course, paediatricians should contribute to this process, and there are many leaders in the specialty who have done much in this regard. There are, however, many other children with suboptimum health who may be helped by technical and scientific innovations. Paediatric subspecialists and clinical scientists generally have a duty to contribute to and assess such innovations. Such was the goal of the conference reported in the volume, to which your editorial takes are

exception. In my view "children’s departments in medical schools" have a to future children and families extending far beyond the routine application of today’s received wisdom.

duty

Department of Child Health, University of Manchester, Stopford Building, Manchester M13 9PT, UK

ROBERT BOYD, Former chairman, Academic Board, British Paediatric Association

SiR,—The Royal College of Physicians conference, which you discuss in your Aug 24 editorial, was a highly selective review of some aspects of paediatric specialty practice. In fairness, I do not think it claimed to be anything else. Most of the conference was even more tertiary flavoured than the published proceedings’ indicate. Community paediatrics was the first paper on the first day, before some attenders arrived: the general practice contribution was the last item on the second day, delivered after many had already left. This timetabling reflected, I am sure, the accurate view of the organisers that these two subjects were of little interest to many at the conference. Your correspondents on this subject (Sept 14, p 698) have over-reacted to your less than felicitous teasing, and in so doing have missed the point. Paediatrics must have a scientific cutting edge that is forward-looking and often highly technical. It must also have a broad base, involving the health (sic) care of the many children who never see a paediatrician (at least in hospital), in which medicine is not entirely a science and probably never will be, and in which liasion with primary care is, as you rightly point out, an area neglected by most paediatricians. The issues you raise are those of balance and effective communication between leading edge and base, given that all that happens at one is not necessarily relevant to the other. Your editorial’s fmal sentence misleads in suggesting that paediatricians can "go back" to roots in child health and

development (my emphasis). Most paediatric specialty practice has highly selective background based on interest in morbidity in a hospital context. Advances such as integration into paediatrics of the crucial developmental dimension throughout childhood, and acceptance by the paediatric establishment of the relevance of "population paediatrics" have not yet been reflected in traditional happenings such as Royal College of Physicians conferences and British Paediatric Association annual meetings. This will obviously have to change. Preventive and community roots already exist, and are themselves receiving much needed pruning and shaping. Hospital-based paediatric practice, also suitably shaped, should be grafted onto this stock, enabling vigorous and effective growth of the whole, to which we all contribute. Issues of balance, priorities, a

and communication remain to be tackled. Institute of Child Health, Royal Liverpool Children’s Liverpool L12 2AP, UK 1.

Hospital Alder Hey,

MICHAEL ROGERS

Eyre J, Boyd R, eds. Paediatric specialty practice. Physicians, 1991.

Measures of alcohol

London:

Royal College of

dependence

SIR,-Have any of those who commend the CAGE questionnaire (Sept 7, p 627) as a way of detecting alcoholics ever asked the questions of themselves? They are: Have you ever felt that you should Cut down on your drinking? Have others Annoyed you by criticising your drinking? Have you ever felt Guilty about your drinking? Have you ever had a drink in the morning to steady your nerves or get rid of a hangover (Eye-opener)? Many of us, looking back over our (misspent) youth, would say "yes" to at least two or three of those questions. Or have those working in the field of alcoholism never been young? Surely "do you" or "have you" would produce a more precise instrument? Old Manor Cottage, Church Road,

Bacton, Stowmarket IP14 4LN, UK

ANN KENT

Alcoholism treatment and the Minnesota model SiR,—Dr Brewer (July 20, p 191) comments on our report (June 22, p 1550). Our randomised studyl showed that a Minnesota

inpatient unit achieves a higher one-year abstinence rate among employed alcoholics than the leading Finnish traditional inpatient unit (14% vs 1 -9%, p < 0-05). About 40% of study patients had not been treated (outpatient or inpatient) for their alcoholism before. The Minnesota unit was started at 1981 and our study was done in 1985-86, thus initial enthusiasm for the method had probably waned and does

not account

for the differences in

treatment

outcome.

Brewer cites Andreasson and colleagues’ study2 as an example showing no difference in outcome between outpatient treatment, Minnesota inpatient treatment, or no treatment. That study, however, cannot be analysed in terms of treatment outcome, since it failed (as stated by Andreasson et al). No properly executed trials comparing outpatient treatment and Minnesota inpatient treatment have been published as far as we are aware. Our pilot study (unpublished), which included two outpatient groups in addition to the two inpatient groups, also failed because of unsuccessful randomisation. The reason is simple-if an alcoholic has a choice between inpatient treatment (four weeks or longer) and outpatient treatment, he or she almost always selects the latter. Since our trial’ showed a significant difference in drinking outcome between two inpatient units, those showing no difference in treatment outcome between inpatient and outpatient treatment are not relevant, unless a Minnesota inpatient unit is studied. We find no irony in our recommendation to use laboratory markers in the evaluation of treatment outcome. We have shown3

that treatment outcome is highly dependent on the variables used to it. Thus, for example, at the 8-month follow-up visit,1 72-6% of patients were drinking in a controlled manner (on average less than 40 g ethanol daily) according to a structured interview.

measure

890

However, only 52-1% had normal gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase values, and when interview and laboratory data were combined 39 7% were judged to be drinking moderately. Obviously outcome data measured by interviews and/or questionnaires are far too

preservation solution containing polyethyleneglycol: an immunosuppressive Heart

effect?

1. Keso

SIR,-In a rabbit model ’Cardiosol’, a heart preservation solution containing 5% polyethyleneglycol (PEG 20M, ’Carbowax’; Union Carbide Chemicals and Plastics), proved superior to standard cardioplegic solutions for short-term and 24 h heart storage.’ After further testing in larger animals we did a preliminary clinical

Colour and visual discomfort in

low, hence this letter. Between May, 1989, and April, 1990, 22 patients at the Pacific Medical Center received heart transplants preserved by an aortic flush with cardiosol. Standard practice before that had been to use a modified St Thomas solution:

optimistic. Research Unit of Alcohol Diseases, University of Helsinki, 00290 Helsinki, Finland

MIKKO SALASPURO LAURI KESO

L, Salaspuro M. Inpatient treatment of employed alcoholics: a randomised clinical trial on Hazelden-type and traditional treatment. Alcohol Clin Exp Res 1990; 14: 584-89. 2. Andreasson S, Parmander M, Allebeck P. A trial that failed and the reasons why: comparing the Minnesota model with outpatient treatment and non-treatment for alcohol disorders. Scand J Soc Med 1990; 18: 221-24. 3. Keso L, Salaspuro M. Comparative value of self-report and blood tests in assessing outcome amongst alcoholics. Br Addict 1990; 85: 209-15. J

migraineurs

evaluation in cardiac transplantation. The aim was to establish the safety of the solution. Unexpectedly, the rate of acute rejection in recipients whose donor hearts had been preserved with cardiosol was

SIR,-People with migraine sometimes claim that their are triggered by certain colours, usually red.’ 15 patients with migraine (5 with aura and 10 without, according to predefined criteria2) and 15 controls matched for age and sex were asked to manipulate the colour of light falling on a passage of high-contrast text so as to make the text (a) most and (b) least headaches

comfortable. All subjects wore their most recent refractive correction. A simple apparatus allowed for the continuous, intuitive, and independent variation of the hue (colour) and saturation (colourfulness) of the light source with negligible change in luminance. The apparatus was based on that described by Wilkins et aP and had a range similar to that in their fig 3b. In each trial, the saturation was first constrained (Commission Internationale de L’eclairage 1976 saturation standard [CIE 1976 suv] 09-1 -5) while the subject varied the hue; then, the chosen hue was held roughly constant while the saturation .was altered. The average luminance of the stimuli remained constant at 14 cd/m2. Although individuals varied widely in the colours chosen, the migraine group was significantly more likely than the controls to choose reddish colours as least comfortable (13 vs 6; 2 vs 9 for other colours)—a two-sample test of the concentration variable4 showed that the angular variance of the CIE 1976 u’v’ hue-angles selected by the migraineurs was significantly lower than that of controls (p < 0-001). The groups did not differ when the most comfortable colours were considered (2 vs 5 for reddish, 13 vs 10 for other colours). Very similar results were obtained when the text stimulus was replaced by a pattern of high-contrast stripes. Subjects had earlier found their favourite colour when viewing a blank white sheet of paper in the same apparatus. No consistent aesthetic preferences were noted in either group (Rayleigh tests showed that neither group departed significantly from a uniform distribution with respect to the hues chosen). People with migraine have been reported to find strongly contrasting patterns aversive and potentially headache-provoking. 5,6 Our findings suggest that the visual discomfort produced in migraineurs by such patterns may be determined by the colour of light used for illumination. Visual dysfunction in migraine has been reported? but not, hitherto, with respect to colour perception. The dislike of red may relate to a disruption of transient system activity.8 =

MRC Applied Psychology Unit, Cambridge CB2 2EF 1.

The

immunosuppressive regimen was unchanged: Minnesota antilymphocyte globulin 15 mg/kg was given for 14 days; cyclosporin was started on the day after surgery at a daily dose of 8 mg/kg by mouth in divided doses, followed by dosage adjustment according to blood level and toxicity; and prednisone 0-5 mg/kg daily was gradually reduced to maintenance levels. Any rejections, diagnosed by serial endomyocardial biopsy, were treated with oral prednisone 4 mg/kg per day for 5 days followed by gradual reduction to maintenance levels. A 10-14 day course of OKT3 was used to treat steroid-resistant rejection, and in very refractory cases this was sometimes followed by total lymphoid irradiation. The 22 patients (21 males) were aged 32-70 (mean 51, SD 10) years. Cold storage time was 199 (40) min. All have been followed up for more than 16 months (mean 22 [4]). 1 of 2 recipients of a second heart transplant died. There were no deaths or graft failures in the 20 primary transplants. The cumulative (Kaplan-Meier) incidence of rejection was only 45% at 6 months and 50% at 1 year (figure). The age and sex distribution of these patients resembled those in the registry of the International Society for Heart Transplantation,2and the 1-year graft survival of 95 ’5 % and 30-day hospital mortality of 0% for the cardiosol treated patients compare favourably with registry figures of 81 % and 10%, respectively. Although experimental methods have been reported for extending the duration of heart preservation, surgeons usually opt for safety by restricting preservation time to 4-5 h and using cardioplegic solutions designed for open-heart surgery. In our study preservation times averaged only 3 h so it is not surprising that

E. P. CHRONICLE A. J. WILKINS

Debney LM. Migraine, a study of environmental and intra-personal factors (PhD thesis). Birmingham: University of Aston, 1978.

2. Headache Classification Committee of the International Headache Society. Classification and diagnostic criteria for headache disorders, cranial neuralgias and facial pain. Cephalalgia 1988; 8 (suppl 7). 3. Wilkins AJ, Nimmo-Smith MI, Jansons J. A colorimeter for the intuitive manipulation of hue, saturation and brightness. Ophthal Physiol Optics (in press). 4. Mardia KV. Statistics of directional data. London: Academic Press, 1972. 5. Wilkins AJ, Nimmo-Smith I, Tait A, et al. A neurological basis for visual discomfort. Brain 1984; 107: 989-1017. 6. Marcus DA, Soso MJ. Migraine and stripe-induced visual discomfort. Arch Neurol

1989; 46: 1129-32. 7. Khalil NM. Investigations of visual function in migraine using visual evoked potentials and visual psychophysical tests (PhD thesis). London: University of London, 1991. 8. Breitmeyer BG, Williams MG. Effects of isoluminant-background colour on metacontrast and stroboscopic motion: interactions between sustained (P) and transient (M) channels. Vision Res 1990; 30: 1069-75.

Time after Transplantation (Days) patient survival and rejection-free survival for recipients of hearts preserved with cardiosol.

Actuarial

Alcoholism treatment and the Minnesota model.

889 paediatric practice over the past decade. Because it is "sometimes difficult for those referring to such services (ie, general paediatricians a...
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