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People rapidly make first impressions of others, often based on very little information–minimal exposure to faces or voices is sufficient for humans to make up their mind about personality of others. While there has been considerable research on voice personality perception, much less is known about its relevance to hallucination-proneness, despite auditory hallucinations being frequently perceived as personified social agents. The present paper reports two studies investigating the relation between voice personality perception and hallucination-proneness in non-clinical samples. A voice personality perception task was created, in which participants rated short voice recordings on four personality characteristics, relating to dimensions of the voice’s perceived Valence and Dominance. Hierarchical regression was used to assess contributions of Valence and Dominance voice personality ratings to hallucination-proneness scores, controlling for paranoia-proneness and vividness of mental imagery. Results from Study 1 suggested that high ratings of voices as dominant might be related to high hallucination-proneness; however, this relation seemed to be dependent on reported levels of paranoid thinking. In Study 2, we show that hallucination-proneness was associated with high ratings of voice dominance, and this was independent of paranoia and imagery abilities scores, both of which were found to be significant predictors of hallucination-proneness. Results from Study 2 suggest an interaction between gender of participants and the gender of the voice actor, where only ratings of own gender voices on Dominance characteristics are related to hallucination-proneness scores. These results are important for understanding the perception of characterful features of voices and its significance for psychopathology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Objective: To assess the uptake of postnatal oral glucose tolerance test and to determine the sensitivity of fasting postnatal blood sugar in predicting 2-h impaired glucose tolerance. Methods: Retrospective study of 1961 women diagnosed with gestational diabetes mellitus. All women were offered oral glucose tolerance test six weeks post-delivery. Results: Of 1961 women, 1090 (56%) returned for postpartum oral glucose tolerance test. A fasting plasma glucose of ≥6.1 mmol/l identified only 76 of 167 women with impaired glucose tolerance detected by a 2-h oral glucose tolerance test (sensitivity of 45.5%; 95%CI: 38.1-53.1). We observed a normal fasting glucose but an impaired 2-h glucose tolerance in 91 out of 968 (9.4%) women. Asian ethnicity, admission on special care baby unit and antenatal insulin therapy strongly predicted 2-h impaired postnatal blood glucose levels (P50.05). Conclusion: Although fasting plasma glucose is a convenient method, it lacks sensitivity in identifying women with impaired glucose tolerance postnatally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Statistically speaking, Malawi has achieved the World Health Organisation's target for the elimination of leprosy (<1 case per 10 000 people), yet the disease is still considered a leading cause of long term physical disability. In this case study the authors discuss the presentation of a 39-year-old gentleman to a district hospital in Malawi with multibacillary, lepromatous leprosy. The condition was initially managed in the community as an ‘allergy' which suggests that local barriers currently hinder the detection of leprosy in this developing primary care system. Leprosy is a multi-system disease and this gentleman demonstrated evidence of lepromatous orchitis. Promoting an awareness of these systemic manifestations will increase the the detection of complications and circumvent long term morbidity. Efforts to optimise systems of detection, management and public and professional education are essential to drive eradication in these at-risk populations. At an international level, we must strive to fulfil the objectives outlined by the ‘Enhanced Global Strategy for Further Reducing the Disease Burden due to Leprosy for 2011–2015'. At a national level, local research should delineate community factors that impede the eradication of leprosy. Developing new diagnostic and epidemiologic tools, more efficacious chemoprophylactic regimens and vaccination for endemic regions would facilitate these efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents case study of a 74-year-old patient who underwent Tension-free vaginal tape (TVT) for Stress Urinary Incontinence (SUI). It is stated that even after one week, she felt persistent urinary leakage and review revealed that the wound was healing normally but an ultrasound (US) scan revealed a 9-cm organising haematoma, which can be life threatening due to significant blood loss.