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Objective: To provide health care personnel with guidelines for the management of a distal biceps tendon rupture. Background: Traumatic ruptures of the biceps tendon are rare, but serious, and usually involve the long head of the proximal insertion. Ruptures of the distal tendon account for only 3% of all biceps tendon ruptures. A history of tendinitis, overuse, or anabolic steroid abuse may predispose tendons to rupture. Surgical repair, followed by a comprehensive rehabilitation program, is indicated to regain full strength and range of motion in both flexion and supination. Differential Diagnosis: Rupture of the distal head of the biceps brachii muscle at the insertion on the radial tuberosity. Treatment: After the injury, the athlete continued to compete for the remainder of the collegiate football season. He then underwent surgery to repair the tendon at its insertion. Postoperatively, the athlete was immobilized in a cast and then a brace to prevent any movement of the muscle. Rehabilitation proceeded with isometric exercises and manual resistive exercises of the shoulder and wrist. At 16 weeks, the athlete was cleared for biceps curls and wrist supination. At 6 months, the athlete had regained full use of the muscle. Uniqueness: This is a relatively rare injury, usually occurring at the proximal tendon insertion and in those who are middle aged (30 to 50 years old). Also, the surgical intervention in this case was delayed without detrimental effects to the patient. Conclusions: This study shows that, while surgical intervention to repair a ruptured distal biceps tendon is necessary, appropriate conservative measures can be taken to allow surgery to be delayed without harm to the patient. The athletic trainer should be aware of how to recognize and treat this injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The assertiveness program developed by Wise, Bundy, Bundy, and Wise (1991), which focused on the unique problems and peer interactions of young adolescents, was expanded to a 12-week program and presented to a group of 28 sixth graders. Cognitive acquisition and retention of the symbolic information was measured with a pretest, posttest, and follow-up administration of the multiple-choice tests that were designed and used in the prior study. Verbal content of assertive behavior was measured in a pretest and posttest role-play situation. When trained students were compared to a control group on the symbolic measures, a significant effect for treatment (p < or = .000); a significant effect for measures (p < or = .000); and a significant Treatment x Measure interaction (p < or = .000) were found. A comparison of means showed a significant difference between pretest vs. posttest and follow-up (p < or = .000). However, no difference between posttest and follow-up was found (p < .351). Unlike the earlier study, in which girls benefited more from training than did boys, no treatment by gender interaction was found for the cognitive measure (p < .691). Boys and girls benefited similarly in terms of the cognitive acquisition of assertiveness information from this program. However, the results did not show that these students were able to demonstrate assertiveness on the behavioral level. Results are discussed in terms of the difference between simply having stored symbolic information regarding assertive responses and recognizing contexts in which accessing the information would be appropriate. Suggestions for designing programs aimed at bringing about changes in adolescents' assertive behavior that will generalize to their lives beyond the training context are also offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The widespread use of semi- and nonvolatile organofluorochemicals in industrial facilities, concern about their persistence, and relatively recent advancements in liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) technology have led to the development of new analytical methods to assess potential worker exposure to airborne organofluorochemicals. Techniques were evaluated for the determination of 19 organofluorochemicals and for total fluorine in ambient air samples. Due to the potential biphasic nature of most of these fluorochemicals when airborne, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) versatile sampler (OVS) tubes were used to simultaneously trap fluorochemical particulates and vapors from workplace air. Analytical methods were developed for OVS air samples to quantitatively analyze for total fluorine using oxygen bomb combustion/ion selective electrode and for 17 organofluorochemicals using LC/MS and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The experimental design for this validation was based on the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Guidelines for Air Sampling and Analytical Method Development and Evaluation, with some revisions of the experimental design. The study design incorporated experiments to determine analytical recovery and stability, sampler capacity, the effect of some environmental parameters on recoveries, storage stability, limits of detection, precision, and accuracy. Fluorochemical mixtures were spiked onto each OVS tube over a range of 0.06-6 microg for each of 12 compounds analyzed by LC/MS and 0.3-30 microg for 5 compounds analyzed by GC/MS. These ranges allowed reliable quantitation at 0.001-0.1 mg/m3 in general for LC/MS analytes and 0.005-0.5 mg/m3 for GC/MS analytes when 60 L of air are sampled. The organofluorochemical exposure guideline (EG) is currently 0.1 mg/m3 for many analytes, with one exception being ammonium perfluorooctanoate (EG is 0.01 mg/m3). Total fluorine results may be used to determine if the individual compounds quantified provide a suitable mass balance of total airborne organofluorochemicals based on known fluorine content. Improvements in precision and/or recovery as well as some additional testing would be needed to meet all NIOSH validation criteria. This study provided valuable information about the accuracy of this method for organofluorochemical exposure assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]