Plos One
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Recent experimental evidence suggests that socioeconomic characteristics of neighbourhoods influence cardiovascular health, but observational studies which examine deprivation across a wide range of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are lacking. ⋯ Associations of small-area socioeconomic deprivation with 12 types of CVDs were heterogeneous, and in men absent for several diseases. Findings suggest that policies to reduce deprivation may impact more strongly on heart failure and peripheral arterial disease, and might be more effective in women.
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Neutrophil CD64 has been proposed as an early marker of sepsis. This study aims to evaluate the diagnostic utility of neutrophil CD64 for identification of early-onset sepsis in preterm neonates. ⋯ Neutrophil CD64 is a highly sensitive marker for suspected early-onset sepsis in preterm neonates. Our study suggests that neutrophil CD64 may be incorporated as a valuable marker to diagnose infection.
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Dying at home and dying at the preferred place of death are advocated to be desirable outcomes of palliative care. More insight is needed in their usefulness as quality indicators. Our objective is to describe whether "the percentage of patients dying at home" and "the percentage of patients who died in their place of preference" are feasible and informative quality indicators. ⋯ GPs know their patients' actual place of death, making the percentage of home deaths a feasible indicator for collection by GPs. However, patients' preferred place of death was often unknown to the GP. We therefore recommend using information from relatives as long as information from GPs on the preferred place of death is lacking. Timely communication about the place where patients want to be cared for at the end of life remains a challenge for GPs.
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Clinical Trial
Transforaminal decompression and interbody fusion in the treatment of thoracolumbar fracture and dislocation with spinal cord injury.
A retrospective clinical study. ⋯ We showed that transforaminal decompression together with interbody fusion is an alternative method to treat thoracolumbar fracture and dislocation.
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Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is associated with neuro-inflammation, debilitating sensory-motor deficits, and learning and memory impairments. Cell-based therapies are currently being investigated in treating neurotrauma due to their ability to secrete neurotrophic factors and anti-inflammatory cytokines that can regulate the hostile milieu associated with chronic neuroinflammation found in TBI. In tandem, the stimulation and mobilization of endogenous stem/progenitor cells from the bone marrow through granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) poses as an attractive therapeutic intervention for chronic TBI. ⋯ On the other hand, combined therapy of hUCB+G-CSF displayed synergistic effects that robustly dampened neuroinflammation, while enhancing endogenous neurogenesis and reducing hippocampal cell loss. Vigorous and long-lasting recovery of motor function accompanied the combined therapy, which was either moderately or short-lived in the monotherapy conditions. These results suggest that combined treatment rather than monotherapy appears optimal for abrogating histophalogical and motor impairments in chronic TBI.