Medicine
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Observational Study
The accuracy with which the 5 times sit-to-stand test, versus gait speed, can identify poor exercise tolerance in patients with COPD: A cross-sectional study.
Identifying those patients who underperform in the 6-minute walk test (6MWT <350 m), and the reasons for their poor performance, is a major concern in the management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. To explore the accuracy and relevance of the 4-m gait-speed (4MGS) test, and the 5-repetition sit-to-stand (5STS) test, as diagnostic markers, and clinical determinants, of poor performance in the 6MWT. We recruited 137 patients with stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to participate in our cross-sectional study. ⋯ Unlike the 4MGS test, the 5STS test provided a significant clinical determinant of a poor 6MWT (odds ratio 1.23, 95% CI 1.05-1.44). The 5STS test reliably predicts a poor 6MWT, especially when using ordinal data. Used alone, the 4MGS test is reliable when measured with continuous data.
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Advanced melanoma is an incurable disease with complex and expensive treatments. The best approach to prevent melanoma at advanced stages is an early diagnosis. A knowledge of factors associated with the process of detecting cutaneous melanomas and the reasons for delays in diagnosis is essential for the improvement of the secondary prevention of the disease. ⋯ Improper treatments without a histopathological confirmation occurred in 14.7% of patients. A professional delay was related to both inappropriate treatments performed without histopathological confirmation (P = 0.003) and long requirements for medical referrals (P < 0.001). A deficient knowledge in the population regarding melanoma and physicians' misdiagnoses regarding suspicious lesions contributed to delays in diagnosis.
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The aim of this study is to evaluate the hematological differences between septic and traumatic disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) using the rotational thromboelastometry (ROTEM). This retrospective study includes all sepsis or severe trauma patients transported to our emergency department who underwent ROTEM from 2013 to 2014. All patients were divided into 2 groups based on the presence of DIC diagnosed by the Japanese Association for Acute Medicine (JAAM) DIC score. ⋯ ROTEM findings showed that the A10, A20, and MCF in the FIBTEM test were significantly higher in the S-DIC group. However, no statistical differences were confirmed in the LI30, LI45, and ML in EXTEM test. The plasma fibrinogen level and fibrinogen based clot firmness in whole-blood test revealed statistical significance between septic and traumatic DIC patients.
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Observational Study
Influence of patient and provider factors on the workload of on-call physicians: A general internal medicine cohort observational study.
Factors associated with the physician workload are scarcely reported. The study aims to investigate the associated factors of on-call physician workload based on a published conceptual framework. The study was conducted in a general internal medicine unit of National Taiwan University Hospital. ⋯ On-call physician workload is associated with patient factors and the training of nurses. Number of unstable patients in a shift may be considered in predicting workload. The training of nurses may improve patient safety and decrease demand for clinical procedure.
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Patients with pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) with acid-fast bacilli (AFB)-positive sputum smear at 5 months or later during treatment are considered to be cases of treatment failure according to World Health Organization guidelines. This study evaluated the proportion, clinical characteristics, and significance of positive sputum smears after ≥5 months of standard treatment in patients with drug-susceptible pulmonary TB. This was a retrospective cohort study of 1611 patients with culture-confirmed drug-susceptible pulmonary TB who received standard anti-TB treatment from January 2009 to February 2014. ⋯ In patients with smear positivity after ≥5 months of treatment compared with controls, cavitation on chest radiographs (53.7% vs. 25.2%, P = 0.001), bilateral involvement (51.2% vs. 30.1%, P = 0.01) and combined pleural effusion (26.8% vs. 10.6%, P = 0.01) were found more frequently at the time of treatment initiation, and paradoxical response occurred more commonly (19.5% vs. 3.3%, P = 0.002) during treatment. Smear-positive sputum after ≥5 months of standard anti-TB treatment was mainly because of nonviable MTB bacilli or NTM in patients with drug-susceptible pulmonary TB. AFB smear alone should not be used to assess treatment failure and careful examination of microbiologic status, including culture and drug susceptibility testing, is needed before making changes to retreatment regimens or empirical second-line anti-TB regimens in these patients.