Plos One
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This study assessed the ability of the Acute Physiologic and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II score, Simplified Acute Physiology Score (SAPS) II, Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score, and out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) score to predict the outcome of OHCA patients who underwent therapeutic hypothermia (TH). ⋯ The APACHE II score, SAPS II, SOFA score, and OHCA score have different capabilities in discriminating and estimating hospital mortality and neurologic outcomes. The OHCA score, APACHE II score and SAPS II at time zero and 48 h offer moderate predictive accuracy. Other scores at 0 h and 48 h, except for the SOFA score, are independently associated with 30-day mortality and poor cerebral performance.
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Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) has been associated with cancer aggressiveness, but studies focused on specific tumors are lacking. In this pilot study we investigated whether SDB is associated with breast cancer (BC) aggressiveness. ⋯ Our results do not support an association between the presence or severity of SDB and BC aggressiveness.
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Evaluation of multislice-CT (MSCT) during diagnosis and therapeutic decision-making in patients with suspected non-occlusive mesenteric ischemia (NOMI). ⋯ MSCT is an appropriate non-invasive method for diagnosing NOMI and leads to adequate and immediate therapeutic stratification.
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While most individuals wish to die at home, the reality is that most will die in hospital. ⋯ Location of death is strongly associated with end-of-life health care in the home. Less than one-third of the population, however, received end-of-life home care or a physician visit in their last year of life, revealing large room for improvement.
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Demographic change has led to an increase of older people in need of long-term care in nearly all European countries. Informal carers primarily provide the care and support needed by dependent people. The supply and willingness of individuals to act as carers are critical to sustain informal care resources as part of the home health care provision. This paper describes a longitudinal study of informal care in six European countries and reports analyses that determine those factors predicting the outcomes of family care over a one-year period. ⋯ The majority of family carers continued to provide care to their respective older relatives over a one-year period, despite often high levels of functional, cognitive and behavioural problems in the care-recipient. Those family carers could benefit most from appropriate support. The carer/care-recipient relationship plays an important role in whether or not a family care dyad remains intact over a one-year period. The support of health and social care services should be particularly targeted toward those care dyads where there is no partner or spouse acting as carer, or no extended family network that might absorb the caring role when required. Distant relatives, friends or acquaintances who are acting as carers might need substantial intervention if their caregiving role is to be maintained.