Objective To determine whether pregnant hypertensives women are more anxious when monitored in hospital or at homes. Design Prospective randomized controlled trial. Setting Rosie Maternity Hospital and women's homes. Subjects Ninety‐nine pregnant hypertensive women: 50 had their blood pressure measured telemetrically from home, and 49 had it measured in hospital. Main outcome measures Number of episodes of monitoring, duration of monitoring, mean blood pressure during monitoring, gestational age at delivery, trait and state anxiety levels. Results There were no significant differences in anxiety levels, or in any other outcome measure, between the home and hospital groups. Conclusion When blood pressure is being monitored serially in pregnant hypertensive women, there is no measurable difference in their anxiety levels, whether they are in hospital or at home.

Universal screening of gestational diabetes (GDM) has been advocated but is seldom practised in the United Kingdom. We report 12 months' audit of a comprehensive screening programme for women attending a teaching hospital for antenatal care. The population served is almost exclusively Caucasian. Of 4,016 women who booked in for delivery at the hospital, 3,3 16 (83%) completed the screening protocol. Sixty-seven women (1.7%) were found to have gestational diabetes after a 75 gram oral glucose tolerance test (OG n) by WHO criteria. Of these, 43 were identified by following the screening protocol (one at booking following a random venous plasma glucose result of >7.0 mmoUL, 42 after a third trimester 50 gram glucose challenge) and 24 as a result of OGTTs performed on clinical grounds. Clinical suspicion was usually raised by the identification of clinical risk factors for diabetes. Seventy OGTTs were requested despite a normal third trimester 50 gram challenge result and generated eight abnormal results, although these were at a latergestation than those generated by abnormal 50 gram results. Fifty two women (78%) were referred to the combined diabetes-antenatal clinic. Only eight women (12%) received insulin. Thirty five women (52%) returned for postnatal O G n , of which four were abnormal. We have confirmed the low prevalence of GDM in a predominantly Caucasian population and would question the value of first trimester screening in such a population. The screening protocol is only valuable if abnormal results are acted upon and, while there is disagreement among clinicians regarding the value of treating GDM, not all women with abnormal results receive dietary advice. Practical Diabetes Int 1998; 15(2): 45-48

Abstract. This paper presents a prototype segmentation system for three-dimensional ultrasound data. 3D ultrasound is cheap and noninvasive but the data has a low signal-to-noise ratio and contains artifacts. To overcome these difficulties we have developed a system which uses a prior model, initialised by a clinician, to provide the starting point for a data-driven segmentation algorithm based on active contours. Results are presented showing how the technique can facilitate the segmentation of a gall-bladder.