Medicine
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Observational Study
Postoperative recovery of patients with differential requirements for sevoflurane after abdominal surgery: A prospective observational clinical study.
An association between animals and volatile anaesthetic requirements has been shown; however, evidence related to the postoperative outcome of human patients is lacking. Our aim was to investigate whether there is a difference in the requirement for sevoflurane among people undergoing gastrointestinal surgery. We observed 390 adult patients who underwent gastrointestinal surgery with an American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status of I or II with an expected surgery duration of > 2 hours. ⋯ No intraoperative awareness occurred. There was a significant difference in the requirement for sevoflurane in adult patients. The tracheal extubation time in group L was significantly shorter than that in group H.
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Comparative Study
The Use of hx-index to compare research achievements for ophthalmology authors in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan since 2010.
Ophthalmology authors in mainland China, Hong Kong, or Taiwan were interested in knowing their individual research achievements (IRAs). This study was to evaluate the most cited authors, institutes, and regions in the mainland, Hong Kong, and Taiwan in the field of ophthalmology in the recent 10 years using the hx-index and to display the result with visual representations. ⋯ With an overall increase in publications in the field of ophthalmology, contributions assessed by hx-indexes and the AWS should be encouraged and promoted more in the future.
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Baseline brain metastasis (BBM) commonly occurs in anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-rearranged non-small cell lung cancer. Crizotinib prolongs the survival of patients with ALK rearrangement but lacks significant effect on brain metastasis. It remains unclear whether BBM and local therapy affect therapeutic outcomes and progression patterns during crizotinib treatment. ⋯ A significantly higher occurrence rate of multiple progression was noted in patients with BBM (14/49 vs. 6/53). Baseline intracranial metastasis changes the location and number of progressions after the first-line crizotinib and results in poor prognosis. There is no evidence that local treatment for brain metastasis had a protective effect on intracranial progression.
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Observational Study
Association between 30-day readmission rates and health information technology capabilities in US hospitals.
Health information technology (IT) is often proposed as a solution to fragmentation of care, and has been hypothesized to reduce readmission risk through better information flow. However, there are numerous distinct health IT capabilities, and it is unclear which, if any, are associated with lower readmission risk. To identify the specific health IT capabilities adopted by hospitals that are associated with hospital-level risk-standardized readmission rates (RSRRs) through path analyses using structural equation modeling. ⋯ These findings suggest that improving patient access to and use of their electronic health records may be helpful in improving hospital performance on readmission; however, computerized hospital discharge and information exchange among clinicians did not seem as beneficial - perhaps because of the quality or timeliness of information transmitted. Future research should use more recent data to study, not just adoption of health IT capabilities, but also whether their usage is associated with lower readmission risk. Understanding which capabilities impact readmission risk can help policymakers and clinical stakeholders better focus their scarce resources as they invest in health IT to improve care delivery.
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Observational Study
The clinical course and prognostic factors of severe COVID-19 in Wuhan, China: A retrospective case-control study.
With the surge of newly diagnosed and severe cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the death toll is mounting, this study is aimed to explore the prognostic factors of severe COVID-19. This retrospective study included 122 inpatients diagnosed with COVID-19 from January 13 to February 25, 2020. Univariate and multivariate analysis were used to identity the risk factors, receiver operating characteristics curve (ROC) analysis was used for risk stratification. ⋯ The baseline C-reactive protein (CRP) (OR = 1.019, 95%CI = 1.004-1.306, P = .016) and B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) (OR = 1.018, 95%CI = 1.004-1.035, P = .007) were identified as the independent predictors for disease progression of severe patients. Accordingly, The NLR-LDH grading system was a useful prognostic tool for the early detection of severe COVID-19. And in the severe patients, CRP and BNP seemed to be helpful for predicting the disease progression or death.