Deutsche medizinische Wochenschrift
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Sonography is an established noninvasive diagnostic tool in the clinical context of an emergency department. Its use in the prehospital setting is still rare despite its importance to use someone's resources purposeful and its importance in emergency medicine guidelines. ⋯ We reflect organizational hurdles implementing pPOCUS as well as describing the technical preconditions for an easy and meaningful use. Furthermore, we explain teaching issues for pPOCUS and with a standard operating procedure (SOP) we show how pPOCUS could be implemented in the prehospital setting using some cardinal symptoms as examples.
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Dtsch. Med. Wochenschr. · Aug 2024
[Nuclear medicine approaches in the diagnosis and treatment of neuroendocrine neoplasms].
Despite, or perhaps because of the rarity of neuroendocrine neoplasms, the diagnosis and treatment of these malignancies is of particular importance. Nuclear medicine can make an important contribution to this challenge. ⋯ This theragnostic (fusion of therapeutic and diagnostic) concept is based on the frequent overexpression of somatostatin receptors on neuroendocrine tumor cells. Using diagnostic and therapeutic pharmaceuticals based on analogues from somatostatin, most applications from the nuclear medicine are successful, an additional therapeutic method is SIRT, also known as TARE, in which the hypervascularization of NEN-metastases is used as a therapeutic target.
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About 0,5% of the population in Germany has a chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Untreated, chronic HBV infection can progress to liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). ⋯ HBV/HDV co-infection leads to liver cirrhosis in approximately 50% of patients within 5-10 years. Since 2020, the cell entry inhibitor bulevirtide is available as a specific therapy for HBV/HDV co-infection.
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Dtsch. Med. Wochenschr. · Aug 2024
[Vaccinations in pulmonary diseases - part 1: Covid and influenza].
SARS-COV-2 : During the COVID-19 pandemic, mRNA-based vaccines were approved for the first time. The mRNA encodes for the viral spike protein, leading to the development of specific antibodies and T-cells, providing effective protection against severe illness and death from COVID-19. New variants regularly emerge due to rapid viral evolution. ⋯ The WHO predicts and recommends which genetic variants should be included in the vaccine. Quadrivalent vaccines were recommended previously, but for 2024/2025, trivalent vaccines are advised as the Influenza B/Yamagata lineage has not circulated since 2020. For all people over 60 years of age, a high-dose vaccine is recommended, showing slightly improved efficacy.
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Currently, only 25% of all polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) patients are referred to specialists. An expert committee has recently recommended confirmation of diagnosis by specialist care. This can help to avoid misdiagnoses and hospital stays and can result in lower glucocorticoid doses. ⋯ Glucocorticoids remain the primary treatment. The interleukin-6 inhibitor Sarilumab has recently been approved in the USA for patients with recurrent PMR. Studies have also demonstrated the effectiveness of Tocilizumab in PMR.