Medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial
A stress management intervention for adults living with HIV in Nigerian community settings: An effects study.
This study evaluated the effectiveness of a group-based cognitive-behavioral stress management intervention among community-dwelling adults living with HIV in Southeastern Nigeria. ⋯ The present results suggest the need for further implementation of group-based cognitive-behavioral stress management interventions for people living with HIV. Cognitive-behavioral stress management clinicians should make efforts toward identifying HIV-positive adults experiencing psychological distress and design cognitive-behavioral stress management interventions in order to better assist them.
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There are lack of indicators of quality of care in resuscitation units of emergency departments. With the aim of proposing a series of indicators to evaluate the quality of care delivered in hospital resuscitation areas, we conducted a descriptive study of 7579 admissions to the resuscitation unit of an emergency department at a Spanish hospital between 2012 and 2016. The proposed indicators were the percentage of patients attending to the emergency department admitted to the resuscitation area by level of triage, the length of stay, the percentage of patients moved to intensive care and surgery at disposition, the mortality in the area or in the emergency department within 24 hours of disposition, and the data completeness. ⋯ Mortality was 0.41%. Specific indicators are needed to assess the quality of care delivery in resuscitation units. We believe that our findings will provide new insights into the work done to date in this field.
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Observational Study
Reference values of bioelectrical impedance analysis for detecting breast cancer-related lymphedema.
Secondary lymphedema is a chronic debilitating lifelong complication and early diagnosis is crucial. The Inbody 720, which is widely used, has no universal index of diagnostic criteria for test results. We aim to determine the normal range, cutoff values, and mean + standard deviation values of extracellular fluid (ECF) and the single frequency bioimpedance (SFBIA) ratios for the diagnosis of lymphedema and suggest the usefulness of these values for detecting lymphedema. ⋯ When the cutoff values were applied, a higher proportion of BCRL patients were included. When these figures were applied to the patient group, the cutoff values included a higher proportion of patients with lymphedema. Further studies are needed to investigate whether bioimpedance analysis can accurately predict the development of lymphedema.
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Observational Study
The impact of prophylactic cranial irradiation for post-operative patients with limited stage small cell lung cancer.
To evaluate the impact of prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI) on the prognosis of patients who received definitive surgery for surgically resected small cell lung cancer (SCLC). A retrospective analysis was performed on post-operative SCLC patients treated in Zhejiang Cancer Hospital from January 2003 to December 2015. According to the treatment modality, patients were allocated to PCI group and non-PCI group. ⋯ The 2-year OS rates were 78.0% and 38.0% in PCI and non-PCI group respectively (P = .023). The brain metastasis-free survival (BMFS) rate at 2-year in PCI group was significantly higher than those of non-PCI group (89.0% vs 53.0%, respectively, P = .026). In conclusion, PCI might be suggested for limited SCLC patients who received definitive surgery.
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Buddhist priests lead a unique lifestyle, practicing asceticism, with a vegetarian diet. Such behavior may have an impact on clinical outcomes. Hence, we explored the mortality among Korean Buddhist priests as compared with the general population. ⋯ Female and patients older than 50 years (0.74, 95% CI 0.55-0.98) had a significantly lower SMR. In the Cox proportional hazards model with adjustment, older age (adjusted HR 1.04, 95% CI 1.10-1.07) and presence of CKD (adjusted HR 2.55, 95% CI 1.07-6.06) were independently associated with increased all-cause mortality. Buddhist priests and especially Buddhist priests without CKD showed a significantly lower mortality compared with the general population.