Ethical challenges and nursing.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to M Mathes.
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The beta-amyloid precursor protein (APP) has been implicated in the etiology of Alzheimer's disease (Kang et al.: Nature 325:733-736, 1987; Selkoe: Science 248:1058-1060, 1990; Selkoe: In Cowan et al. (eds): "Annual Review of Neuroscience." Palo Alto, CA: Annual Reviews, Inc., pp 489-519, 1994) and numerous studies have shown that beta-amyloid is involved in amyloid plaque formation (Rumble et al.: N Engl J Med 320:1446-1452, 1989; Sisodia et al.: Science 248: 492-495, 1990). Evidence is presented that APP is modified with N-acetylglucosamine linked to cytoplasmic serine or threonine residues (O-GlcNAc). This is the first report of a plasma membrane protein modified with this carbohydrate. It has been postulated that this modification, which is ubiquitous in all organisms studied to date except bacteria (Haltiwanger et al.: Biochem Soc Trans 20:264-269, 1992; Dong et al.: J Biol Chem 268:16679-16687, 1993; Elliot et al.: J Neurosci 13:2424-2429, 1993; Kelly et al.: J Biol Chem 268:10416-10424, 1993), may function as an alternative to phosphorylation (Dong et al., 1993) and is involved in the multimerization of proteins (Haltiwanger et al., 1992; Dong et al., 1993). O-GlcNAc occurs at "PEST" sequences (Rogers et al.: Science 234:364-368, 1986) and it has been suggested that this modification within such a sequence leads to increased proteolytic stability of the molecule (Dong et al., 1993).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
This study examined the stress experienced by parents of children hospitalized in an intensive care unit (ICU) and explored the degree to which parents are prepared for specific aspects of the ICU environment. Twenty-two mothers and 6 fathers of 22 children hospitalized in a pediatric ICU were interviewed using the Parental Stressor Scale: Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, the Parent Preparation questionnaire designed for this study, and a personal-situational questionnaire. A majority of parents (82%) responded that they had been prepared in some manner and considered the preparation adequate. The dimensions of the ICU that were perceived by parents as most stressful were the child's behavior and the child's emotional response, and parental role alterations. The dimensions of the ICU environment that parents were least likely to have been prepared for or receive help with were these same dimensions. When parents were prepared for or helped with aspects of the ICU, they perceived the adequacy of that help as high. The results of this study suggested that an important focus in parental education and support should be on the parent-child relationship, the most stressful aspect of a child's ICU admission for parents.