OBJECTIVE: To assess attitudes to body size and obesity in Samoans, a Paci®c island group characterised by very high levels of obesity and traditionally strong positive cultural views of large bodies. DESIGN: Cross sectional study of Samoan adults in Samoa and New Zealand. SUBJECTS: 84 female and 77 male Samoans in Samoa and 41 female and 24 male Samoans in Auckland, New Zealand, aged 25±55 y. MEASUREMENT: Body mass index (BMI), standardised survey questionnaires of perceptions of bodyweight and health, diet and exercise, and perception of body sizes on a continuous scale. RESULTS: Although Samoans in both countries display high population levels of obesity, ideal body sizes are slim and body dissatisfaction and attempted weight losses were apparent. However, women and men above normal weight did not characteristically perceive themselves as obese, were as positive about their body size, weight and health, and obese women were no more likely to be attempting to lose weight than their slimmer peers. CONCLUSIONS: The traditional Samoan veneration of large bodies is not apparent as ideal body sizes are slim. An important difference in values with Western industrialised societies is the absence of a strongly negative view of obesity.

The purpose of this retrospective study was to determine the association between clinical characteristics, computed tomography (CT) characteristics, and histologic diagnosis in 43 cats with sinonasal disease. All cats were evaluated with CT and nasopharyngeal endoscopic examination, with histologic diagnosis based on nasal biopsy. Fifteen cats were diagnosed with sinonasal neoplasia and 28 cats were diagnosed with rhinitis. Clinical characteristics determined to be significantly associated with neoplasia were unilateral ocular discharge (odds ratio [OR] 9.6) and the presence of a nasopharyngeal mass during endoscopic examination (OR 18.9). CT characteristics found to be significantly associated with neoplasia included: unilateral lysis of ethmoturbinates (OR 11.0), unilateral lysis of the dorsal (OR 8.3) and lateral maxilla (OR 6.9), lysis of the vomer bone (OR 6.7) and ventral maxilla (OR 28.8), and bilateral lysis of the orbital lamina (OR 4.1); unilateral abnormal soft tissue/fluid within the sphenoid sinus (OR 15.3), frontal sinus (OR 10.4), and/or and retrobulbar space (OR 12.2). Lysis of the maxillary turbinates, nasal septum, nasal bone, palatine bone, and cribriform plate were not significantly associated with sinonasal neoplasia.

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Endoscopic-assisted foraminotomy could be used to improve intraoperative visualization in dogs with foraminal stenosis as a component of degenerative lumbosacral stenosis.

Dogs with palliatively treated primary brain tumors, particularly those with tumors in the cerebellum, pons, or medulla, had a poor prognosis. However, dogs with supratentorial tumors had survival times > 3 months.