BMJ open
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Acupuncture for chronic neck pain with sensitive points: study protocol for a multicentre randomised controlled trial.
Chronic neck pain is a challenging condition to treat in clinical practice and has a considerable impact on quality of life and disability. According to the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, acupoints and tender points may become sensitised when the body is in a diseased state. Stimulation of such sensitive points may lead to disease improvement and improved clinical efficacy. This study aims to evaluate the efficacy and safety of needling at sensitive acupoints in providing pain relief, improvement of cervical vertebral function and quality of life in patients with chronic neck pain. ⋯ Ethical approval of this study has been granted by the local Institutional Review Board (ID: 2017 KL-038). The outcomes of the trial will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications.
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Observational Study
Are service and patient indicators different in the presence or absence of nurse practitioners? The EDPRAC cohort study of Australian emergency departments.
To evaluate the impact of nurse practitioner (NP) service in Australian public hospital emergency departments (EDs) on service and patient safety and quality indicators. ⋯ EDs with NPs had statistically significantly lower performance for service indicators. However, these findings should be treated with caution. NPs are relatively new in the ED workforce and low NP numbers, staffing patterns and still-evolving roles may limit their impact on service indicators. Further research is needed to explain the dichotomy between the benefits of NPs demonstrated in individual clinical outcomes research and these macro system-wide observations.
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Japan Coma Scale (JCS) is a grading system used to evaluate disturbed consciousness in prehospital care settings. We aimed to identify the association between the JCS levels at the scene with in-hospital mortality, as well as the discrimination ability for the outcomes. ⋯ Data from large multicentre prospective registry revealed strong associations of the JCS level at the scene of injury with in-hospital mortality as well as the good discriminatory performance for this outcome.
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To study the psychometric properties of the Georgian version of the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSPSC-GE). ⋯ The HSPSC-GE as a whole demonstrated poor psychometric properties. However, a number of dimensions demonstrated acceptable internal consistency and reliability. Our results indicated presence of reversed item bias, which may be inherent to the original instrument design of the HSPSC and should be taken into account while interpreting or comparing results, as well as in analyses of psychometric properties of the instrument. Nevertheless, the HSPSC-GE provides first insights in hospital patient safety culture (PSC) in Georgia and we recommend using it in its full form to facilitate deeper analysis and further development of PSC in Georgian healthcare.
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Sepsis commonly results in acute kidney injury (AKI), whereas about 50% of AKI cases are due to sepsis. Sepsis-associated acute kidney injury (SA-AKI) increases morbidity and mortality especially among critically ill patients. This study aims to monitor renal microcirculation perfusion during sepsis using contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (CEUS), and to explore whether CEUS is useful for predicting the development of SA-AKI. ⋯ The study protocol was approved on 2 August 2017 by the Ethics Committee of Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital (Zhejiang University Medical College) (approval number: 2016C91401). The results will be published in a peer-reviewed journal and shared with the worldwide medical community within 2 years after the start of the recruitment.