Plos One
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How medical students handle negative emotions expressed by simulated patients during Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCE) has not been fully investigated. We aim to explore (i) whether medical students respond differently to different types of patients' emotional cues; and (2) possible effects of patients' progressive disclosure of emotional cues on students' responses. ⋯ Understanding how medical students manage negative emotions has significant implications for training programme development focusing on emotion recognition skills and patient-centred communication approach. In addition, the statistical approaches adopted by this study will encourage researchers in healthcare communication to search for appropriate analytical techniques to test theoretical propositions.
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Hip fracture is associated with increased mortality. Our aim was to study potential risk factors, including osteoporosis, associated with short- and long-term mortality in a prospectively recruited cohort of fragility hip fracture patients. ⋯ Apart from known predictors as age and comorbidity osteoporosis in our study was identified as a potential independent predictor of long-term hip fracture mortality in males. This is of particular importance as treatment with bisphosphonates after hip fracture has been shown to reduce hip fracture mortality and may be a clinical target to reduce the burden of the disease. Further studies however are needed to confirm the validity of this finding.
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Most studies investigating disability outcomes following injury have examined hospitalised patients. It is not known whether variables associated with disability outcomes are similar for injured people who are not hospitalised. ⋯ At 24 months considerable disability is borne, equally, by hospitalised and non-hospitalised groups. However, predictors of disability are not necessarily consistent between the hospitalised and non-hospitalised groups, suggesting caution in generalising results from one group to the other.
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Comparative Study Clinical Trial
MS cortical lesions on DIR: not quite what they seem?
Accurate identification and localization of cortical gray matter (CGM) lesions in MS is important when determining their clinical relevance. Double inversion recovery (DIR) scans have been widely used to detect MS CGM lesions. Phase sensitive inversion recovery (PSIR) scans have a higher signal to noise, and can therefore be obtained at a higher resolution within clinically acceptable times. This enables detection of more CGM lesions depicting a clearer cortical and juxtacortical anatomy. In this study, we systematically investigated if the use of high resolution PSIR scans changes the classification of CGM lesions, when compared with standard resolution DIR scans. ⋯ When compared with higher resolution PSIR, a significant proportion of lesions classified as involving CGM on DIR appear to either contain more white matter than expected or to not involve CGM at all.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Minimal intensity physical activity (standing and walking) of longer duration improves insulin action and plasma lipids more than shorter periods of moderate to vigorous exercise (cycling) in sedentary subjects when energy expenditure is comparable.
Epidemiological studies suggest that excessive sitting time is associated with increased health risk, independent of the performance of exercise. We hypothesized that a daily bout of exercise cannot compensate the negative effects of inactivity during the rest of the day on insulin sensitivity and plasma lipids. ⋯ One hour of daily physical exercise cannot compensate the negative effects of inactivity on insulin level and plasma lipids if the rest of the day is spent sitting. Reducing inactivity by increasing the time spent walking/standing is more effective than one hour of physical exercise, when energy expenditure is kept constant.