Plos One
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Prognostic impact of delayed intensive care unit(ICU) admission in critically ill cancer patients remains debatable. We determined predictive factors for later ICU admission and mortality in cancer patients initially not admitted after their first ICU request. ⋯ Compared with immediate ICU admission, later ICU admission was not associated with hospital mortality. Clinical respiratory events were independently associated with both later ICU admission and hospital mortality.
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(i) evaluate the performance of MR-pro-ADM in reflecting the outcome and risk for CAP patients in the emergency department, and (ii) compare the prognostic performance of MR-pro-ADM with that of clinical scores PSI and CURB65. ⋯ The present study confirms that assessment of MR-pro-ADM levels in CAP patients in addition to CURB scores increases the prognostic accuracy of CURB alone and may help rule out discrepancies arising from flawed clinical severity classification. With particular reference to patients scoring in the upper classes of CURB and PSI, MR-pro-ADM values provided additional information towards a better risk stratification of those patients. In particular, our results pointed towards two MR-pro-ADM threshold values that appear to predict with a good degree of accuracy the patient's need for non-invasive mechanical ventilation, endotracheal intubation, or intensive care. This aspect, however, deserves further investigation.
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The early social environment can influence the health and behaviour of animals, with effects lasting into adulthood. In Europe, around 60% of dairy calves are reared individually during their first eight weeks of life, while others may be housed in pairs or small groups. This study assessed the effects of varying degrees of social contact on weaning stress, health and production during pen rearing, and on the social networks that calves later formed when grouped. ⋯ The mean percentage of time that individuals spent with their ex-penmate after regrouping decreased from weeks 1-4, though treatment did not affect this. There were also no significant differences in weighted degree centrality between calves in each rearing treatment. These results suggest that early pair-rearing can allow calves the stress buffering benefits of social support (and that this is more effective when calves are paired earlier) without compromising health or production, and sheds light on the early development of social behaviour in cattle.
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Combined positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) targeting the prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) with a 68Ga-labelled PSMA-analog (68Ga-PSMA-11) is discussed as a promising diagnostic method for patients with suspicion or history of prostate cancer. One potential drawback of this method are severe photopenic (halo-) artifacts surrounding the bladder and the kidneys in the scatter-corrected PET images, which have been reported to occur frequently in clinical practice. The goal of this work was to investigate the occurrence and impact of these artifacts and, secondly, to evaluate variants of the standard scatter correction method with regard to halo-artifact suppression. ⋯ Halo-artifacts are particularly observed for 68Ga-PSMA-11-PET/MRI due to 1) the biodistribution of the PSMA-11-tracer resulting in large OBRs for bladder and kidneys and 2) inaccurate scatter correction methods currently used in clinical routine, which tend to overestimate the scatter contribution. If not compensated for, 68Ga-PSMA-11 uptake pathologies may be masked by halo-artifacts leading to false-negative diagnoses. Reducing the maximum scatter fraction was found to efficiently suppress halo-artifacts.
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To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of a quality improvement intervention aimed at reducing maternal and fetal mortality in Accra, Ghana. ⋯ QI interventions to reduce maternal and fetal mortality in low resource settings can be highly cost effective. Cost-effectiveness analysis is feasible and should regularly be conducted to encourage fiscal responsibility in the pursuit of improved maternal and child health.