Plos One
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Comparative Study
Patterns of gene expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells and outcomes from patients with sepsis secondary to community acquired pneumonia.
Mechanisms governing the inflammatory response during sepsis have been shown to be complex, involving cross-talk between diverse signaling pathways. Current knowledge regarding the mechanisms underlying sepsis provides an incomplete picture of the syndrome, justifying additional efforts to understand this condition. Microarray-based expression profiling is a powerful approach for the investigation of complex clinical conditions such as sepsis. ⋯ Global gene expression profiles after seven days of sepsis progression seem to reproduce, to a certain extent, patterns collected at the time of diagnosis. Gene expression profiles comparing admission and follow-up samples differed between survivors and non-survivors, with decreased expression of genes related to immune functions in non-survivors. In conclusion, genes related to host defense and inflammatory response ontology were up-regulated during sepsis, consistent with the need for a host response to infection, and the sustainability of their expression in follow-up samples was associated with outcomes.
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Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) is an important tool for testing causal relationships in cognitive neuroscience research. However, the efficacy of TMS can be variable across individuals and difficult to measure. This variability is especially a challenge when TMS is applied to regions without well-characterized behavioral effects, such as in studies using TMS on multi-modal areas in intrinsic networks. ⋯ This relationship was selective: CBF and functional connectivity of these networks were not related before TBS or after TBS to the experimental control region (S1). Furthermore, subject groups with different directions of CBF change after TBS showed distinct modulations in the functional interactions of targeted networks. These results suggest that CBF is a marker of individual differences in the effects of TBS.
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Study objectives were to investigate the prevalence and causes of prescribing errors amongst foundation doctors (i.e. junior doctors in their first (F1) or second (F2) year of post-graduate training), describe their knowledge and experience of prescribing errors, and explore their self-efficacy (i.e. confidence) in prescribing. ⋯ Prescribing errors are frequent and of complex causation. Foundation doctors made more errors than other doctors, but undertook the majority of prescribing, making them a key target for intervention. Contributing causes included work environment, team, task, individual and patient factors. Further work is needed to develop and assess interventions that address these.
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During robot assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (RALRP), a CO2 pneumoperitoneum (CO2PP) is applied and the patient is placed in a head-down position. Intracranial pressure (ICP) is expected to acutely increase under these conditions. A non-invasive method, the optic nerve sheath diameter (ONSD) measurement, may warn us that the mechanism of protective cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) shifts becomes exhausted. ⋯ Even though ICP has been documented to increase during CO2PP and head-down positioning, we did not find any changes in ONSD during head-down position. These results indicate that intracranial blood volume does not increase up to a point that CSF migration as a compensation mechanism becomes exhausted, suggesting any increases in ICP are likely to be small.
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Thoracic surgeries including thoracotomy and VATS are some of the highest risk procedures that often lead to CPSP, with or without a neuropathic component. This retrospective study aims to determine retrospectively the prevalence of CPSP following thoracic surgery, its predicting risk factors, the incidence of neuropathic component, and its impact on quality of life. ⋯ Our study demonstrated that nearly 1 out of 4 patients underwent thoracic surgery might develop CPSP, and one third of them accompanied with a neuropathic component. Early prevention as well as aggressive treatment is important for patients with CPSP following thoracic surgery to achieve a high quality of life.