Internal medicine journal
-
Internal medicine journal · Jun 2012
Detection of patients presenting with adverse drug events in the emergency department.
Adverse drug events (ADE) have been studied widely in hospitalised and emergency department (ED) patients. Less is known about the ED visits of drug-related injury in Taiwan. This study seeks to determine the incidence, risk and patient outcomes of ADE in an ED population. ⋯ ADE-related ED visits are not uncommon in Taiwan and many cases are preventable. ED-based surveillance may provide useful information for monitoring outpatient ADE.
-
Internal medicine journal · Jun 2012
Identifying patient-specific beliefs and behaviours for conversations about adherence in asthma.
Asthma guidelines advise addressing adherence at every visit, but no simple tools exist to assist clinicians in identifying key adherence-related beliefs or behaviours for individual patients. ⋯ This study identified several specific beliefs and behaviours which clinicians could use for initiating patient-centred conversations about medication adherence in asthma.
-
Anti-glomerular basement membrane (GBM) antibody-mediated disease is rare and classically presents with the syndrome of glomerulonephritis and pulmonary haemorrhage. ⋯ Anti-GBM disease is a rare condition, which is not overrepresented among indigenous people. With aggressive therapy the prognosis has improved; however, the morbidity and mortality of this condition remain significant.
-
Internal medicine journal · Jun 2012
A variant in microRNA-196a2 is not associated with susceptibility to and progression of colorectal cancer in Chinese.
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs with regulatory functions as tumour suppressors and oncogenes. Although single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in miRNA regions have been reported to be rare and unlikely to be functionally important, recent evidence suggested that rs11614913 SNP in miR-196a2 was associated with the susceptibility of lung cancer, breast cancer, congenital heart disease and shortened survival time of non-small-cell lung cancer. ⋯ Our results suggest that miR-196a2 polymorphism is not associated with both an increased risk and progression of CRC in Chinese.
-
Internal medicine journal · Jun 2012
Point-prevalence study of inappropriate antibiotic use at a tertiary Australian hospital.
A point-prevalence study at a tertiary Australian hospital found 199 of 462 inpatients (43%) to be receiving antibiotic therapy. Forty-seven per cent of antibiotic use was discordant with guidelines or microbiological results and hence considered inappropriate. Risk factors for inappropriate antibiotic prescribing included bone/joint infections, the absence of infection, creatinine level >120 µmol/L, carbapenem or macrolide use and being under the care of the aged care/rehabilitation team. In the setting of finite antimicrobial stewardship resources, identification of local determinants for inappropriate antibiotic use may enable more targeted interventions.