BioMed research international
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Staff shortages among nurses have been severely felt in most countries around the world for many years. In Poland, this problem is particularly visible due to the lowest nursing employment rate per 1000 inhabitants among 28 EU states and the high rate of leaving the profession. The average age of Polish nurses has been constantly growing for several years-in 2016 it was 50.79, while in 2008 it was 44.19. These data confirm that young nurses are the first to leave the profession. Diagnosis of the working conditions and psychosocial burden level among nurses should be subject to detailed analysis, so that leaving the profession will not additionally deepen the difficult staffing situation in health care. ⋯ (1) The study results indicate the need to diagnose problems related to work conditions in the context of occupational stress within individual hospital wards. To limit employee turnover, nursing staff managers should approach the issue of improving working conditions individually for each ward, due to differences in the nature of the work and level of stressogenicity. (2) In each hospital ward, employees at different stages of their career are sensitive to the psychosocial burden resulting from different work characteristics. These areas should be thoroughly diagnosed and the burden minimized to prevent departures from the profession-at early stages of the professional career as well as among experienced personnel. (3) Nurses working in managerial positions should receive the necessary substantive support, due to the higher stress burden associated with greater responsibility.
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Chromosomal microarray analysis (CMA) has currently been considered as the first-tier genetic test for patients with developmental delay/intellectual disability (DD/ID) in many countries. In this study, we performed an extensive assessment of the value of CMA for the diagnosis of children with ID/DD in China. ⋯ Microdeletion/microduplication syndromes and unbalanced rearrangements are probably the main genetic etiological factors for DD/ID. DD/ID patients with MCA have a higher rate of chromosomal aberrations. Parents of DD/ID children with submicroscopic unbalance rearrangements are more likely to have chromosome balanced translocations or pericentric inversions, which might have been missed by karyotyping. CMA can significantly improve the diagnostic rate for patients with DD/ID, which is of great value for medical management and clinical guidance for genetic counseling.
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Vascular remodeling is the most critical pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. Adipokine chemerin was known for its relationship with obesity as well as metabolism. Most recently, chemerin was found to play a crucial role in the pathologic process of cardiovascular diseases including coronary heart disease. In this study, we surveyed the role of chemerin in progression of atherosclerosis in ApoE-/- mice. ⋯ Our study revealed that chemerin stimulated the progression of atherosclerosis in ApoE-/- mice.
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Circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) are potential biomarkers for cardiovascular diseases. Our study aimed to determine whether miR-22-5p, miR-132-5p, and miR-150-3p represent novel biomarkers for acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Plasma samples were isolated from 35 AMI patients and 55 matched controls. ⋯ Furthermore, neither heparin nor medications for coronary heart disease (CHD) affected plasma levels of miR-22-5p and miR-132-5p, but circulating miR-150-3p was downregulated by medications for CHD. We concluded that plasma miR-22-5p, miR-132-5p, and miR-150-3p may serve as candidate diagnostic biomarkers for early diagnosis of AMI. Moreover, a panel consisting of these three miRNAs may achieve a higher diagnostic value.
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Native nephrectomy in Adult Polycystic Kidney Disease (ADPKD) patients is a major operation with controversy related to timing and indications. We present our single centre experience in transplanted patients and future candidates for transplantation. ⋯ Native nephrectomy for ADPKD could be safely performed in case of refractory symptoms, suspect of cancer or to create space for transplantation. It does not affect graft function or DSA status of transplanted patients or the prospect of transplantation of those on the waiting list.