BMJ open
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Patients with renal colic present to the emergency department in excruciating pain. There is variability in practice regarding the choice of initial analgesic to be used in renal colic. The aim of this article is to outline the protocol for review of the efficacy and safety of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), opioids and paracetamol use in renal colic pain management. ⋯ Formal ethics approval is not required, as primary data will not be collected. We plan to publish the result of this review in a peer-reviewed journal.
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Comparative Study
Platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio associated with disease activity in patients with Takayasu's arteritis: a case-control study.
Platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) have been reported to reflect the inflammatory response and disease activity in a variety of autoimmune diseases. ⋯ PLR and NLR could be useful markers to reflect inflammation and disease activity in patients with TAK.
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Epidemiology of Neisseria meningitidis has been changing since the introduction of universal vaccination programmes against meningococcal serogroup C (MenC) and meningococcal serogroup B (MenB) has now become dominant. This study aimed to analyse the cases reported in institutional data recording systems to estimate the burden of invasive meningococcal diseases (IMDs) and assess the effectiveness of surveillance in Veneto region (Italy). ⋯ Quality of surveillance systems relies on case ascertainment based on serological characterisation of the circulating strains by microbiology laboratories. All available sources should be routinely combined to improve the epidemiology of IMD and the information used by public health departments to conduct timely preventive measures.