Connecticut medicine
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Connecticut medicine · Nov 2013
Biography Historical Article Classical ArticleThe president's page. Medicine and the general practitioner. 1963.
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Connecticut medicine · Oct 2013
Assessment of pain and treatment satisfaction in patients with painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy.
Painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) is a common complication of diabetes mellitus and can have debilitating consequences with a significant impact on quality of life. This study was done to evaluate treatment satisfaction and to describe pain experienced from DPN by patients at our Center. ⋯ Painful DPN is a complication of diabetes mellitus and has a significant impact on quality of life. The results of our questionnaire found about a third of patients with long-standing diabetes have DPN of which about two thirds reported that it affected their quality of life. Surprisingly, almost half of the patients reported being satisfied with their treatment despite severe nerve pain.
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Connecticut medicine · Sep 2013
Feasibility of an electronic stethoscope system for monitoring neonatal bowel sounds.
Bowel dysfunction remains a major problem in neonates. Traditional auscultation of bowel sounds as a diagnostic aid in neonatal gastrointestinal complications is limited by skill and inability to document and reassess. Consequently, we built a unique prototype to investigate the feasibility of an electronic monitoring system for continuous assessment of bowel sounds. ⋯ We demonstrated the long-term recording of infant bowel sounds. Our contributions included a prototype stethoscope head, which was affixed using a specially designed hydrogel adhesive patch. Such a recording can be reviewed and reassessed, which is new technology and an improvement over current practice. The use of this system should also, theoretically, reduce risk of infection. Based on our research we concluded that while automatic assessment of bowel sounds is feasible over an extended period, there will be times when analysis is not possible. One limitation is noise interference. Our larger goals include producing a meaningful vital sign to characterize bowel sounds that can be produced in real-time, as well as providing automatic control for patient feeding pumps.