Plos One
-
Multicenter Study
Adverse drug events in older hospitalized patients: results and reliability of a comprehensive and structured identification strategy.
Older patients are at high risk for experiencing Adverse Drug Events (ADEs) during hospitalization. To be able to reduce ADEs in these vulnerable patients, hospitals first need to measure the occurrence of ADEs, especially those that are preventable. However, data on preventable ADEs (pADEs) occurring during hospitalization in older patients are scarce, and no 'gold standard' for the identification of ADEs exists. ⋯ The ADE identification strategy provided a detailed insight into the scope of ADEs occurring in older hospitalized patients, and showed that the majority of (serious) ADEs can be prevented. Several strategy related aspects, as well as setting/study specific aspects, may have contributed to the results gained. These aspects should be considered whenever ADE measurements need to be conducted. The results regarding pADEs can be used to design tailored interventions to effectively reduce harm caused by medication errors. Improvement of the inter-rater reliability of a PCR remains challenging.
-
Compared with invasive breast cancer, breast cancer in situ (BCIS) is seldom life threatening. However, an increasing incidence has been observed in recent years over the world. The purpose of our study is to investigate the epidemiological, clinical and pathological profiles of BCIS in Chinese women from 1999-2008. ⋯ The younger age of BCIS among Chinese women than Western countries and increasing number of cases pose a great challenge. BCT and endocrine therapy are under great needs.
-
Multicenter Study
Atropine for critical care intubation in a cohort of 264 children and reduced mortality unrelated to effects on bradycardia.
Atropine has is currently recommended to facilitate haemodynamic stability during critical care intubation. Our objective was to determine whether atropine use at induction influences ICU mortality. ⋯ Atropine use during induction was associated with a reduction in ICU mortality in children over one month. This effect is independent of atropine's capacity to attenuate bradycardia during intubation which occurred similarly in neonates and older children. This result needs to be confirmed in a study using randomised methodology.
-
Multicenter Study
Right ventricular morphology and the onset of dyspnea: the MESA-right ventricle study.
The association of right ventricular (RV) structure and function with symptoms in individuals without cardiopulmonary disease is unknown. We hypothesized that greater RV mass and RV end-diastolic volume (RVEDV), smaller RV stroke volume (RVSV), and lower RV ejection fraction (RVEF) measured by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in participants free of clinical cardiovascular disease at baseline would be associated with a greater risk of self-reported dyspnea. ⋯ Lower RV mass and smaller RV volumes were associated with an increased risk of dyspnea in men, but not in women.
-
No extensive investigation has been performed and thus no representative data are available regarding acute liver failure (ALF) in China. This study aims to investigate the causes and outcomes of ALF in China and establish a prognostic model. ⋯ Traditional Chinese medicine was a major cause of ALF in China. The spontaneous mortality of ALF was high, whereas the rate of liver transplantation was significantly low. The established prognostic model of ALF had superior sensitivity and specificity.