Plos One
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Malaria is one of the transfusion transmissible infections in malaria endemic countries such as Ghana. Healthy blood donors may harbour Plasmodium parasites without showing signs of malaria. Blood from such donors constitutes a risk to transfusion recipients and the recipients of this blood may go on to develop transfusion transmitted malaria (TTM). ⋯ Out of 100 health workers surveyed, 26% (26/100) had never heard of transfusion transmitted malaria. In an emergency situation, 41% health workers were willing to transfuse malaria positive blood but only 2%, 4% and 8% were willing to transfuse blood that was positive for HIV, Hepatitis B and Syphilis respectively. Regular training workshops may help improve the knowledge of health workers as a quarter of workers had not heard about transfusion transmitted malaria and 6.8% did not know that malaria was transmissible by transfusion.
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Peripheral nerve blocks are becoming increasingly popular for perioperative use as anesthetics and analgesics in small animals. This prospective study was performed to investigate the duration of motor and sensory blockade following use of bupivacaine for ultrasound-guided femoral and sciatic nerve blocks in dogs and to measure the plasma concentrations of bupivacaine that result from these procedures. Six dogs were anesthetized twice using a randomized cross-over design. ⋯ There were no differences in the median times to functional recovery for the two techniques. Plasma concentrations of bupivacaine were no different following the blocks and were less than 0.78 μg mL-1 at all times. These results suggest that these ultrasound-guided nerve blocks do not result in potentially toxic systemic levels of local anesthetic and that their duration of action is useful for providing anesthesia and analgesia for pelvic limb procedures.
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In human chronic kidney disease (CKD) the extent of renal tubulointerstitial fibrosis correlates with progressive loss of renal function. However, fibrosis can so far only be assessed by histology of kidney biopsies. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can provide information about tissue architecture, but its potential to assess fibrosis and inflammation in diseased kidneys remains poorly defined. ⋯ MRI parameters provide a promising approach to quantitatively assess renal fibrosis and inflammation in CKD. Especially T2 relaxation time correlates well with histological features of CKD and is not influenced by paraformaldehyde fixation of kidney samples. Thus, T2 relaxation time might be a candidate parameter for non-invasive assessment of renal fibrosis in human patients.
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Observational Study
Caring for the caregivers: Evaluation of the effect of an eight-week pilot mindful self-compassion (MSC) training program on nurses' compassion fatigue and resilience.
Nurses vicariously exposed to the suffering of those in their care are at risk of compassion fatigue. Emerging research suggests that self-compassion interventions may provide protective factors and enhance resilience. This pilot study examined the effect of an eight-week Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) training intervention on nurses' compassion fatigue and resilience and participants' lived experience of the effect of the training. ⋯ This is the first study to examine the effect of a pilot (MSC) training program on nurses' compassion fatigue and resilience in this new area of research. It provides some preliminary empirical evidence in support of the theorized benefits of self-compassion training for nurses. However, further research, such as a Randomized Control Trial (RCT) with a larger sample size and a longitudinal study, is required to see if the benefits of self-compassion training are sustainable.
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[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0191949.].