208 research outputs found
Maternal vaccines during the Covid-19 pandemic:A qualitative interview study with UK pregnant women
BACKGROUND: There is suboptimal uptake of recommended maternal vaccines (pertussis and influenza) during pregnancy in the UK. The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted healthcare services, and potentially vaccine coverage, and brought the need for new vaccines to be tested and rolled out. OBJECTIVES: : To explore: i) the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on pregnant women's access to, and attitudes towards, routine maternal vaccines and; ii) women's attitudes towards testing Covid-19 vaccines on pregnant women and their personal willingness to take part in such a trial. DESIGN: Qualitative interview study with pregnant women in the Bristol and surrounding area (UK). METHODS: Semi-structured telephone/videoconference interviews were conducted (following a topic guide), transcribed verbatim and subjected to thematic analysis. RESULTS: Thirty-one pregnant women (selected for demographic range) were interviewed in April/May 2020. Participants felt the pandemic had elevated the importance of routine maternal vaccines, though women were concerned about safety management around appointment attendance. Women were wary of receiving a new Covid-19 vaccine, with most perceiving it as riskier than Covid-19 itself. CONCLUSIONS: It is important to maximise the safety and efficiency of maternity appointments to encourage uptake of routine maternal vaccines, and to communicate this well. For pregnant women to gain a new vaccine or participate in a vaccine trial, they need to be convinced that the risk posed by the virus is greater than any risk of receiving a new vaccine
Pregnant womenâs experiences of social distancing behavioural guidelines during the Covid-19 pandemic âlockdownâ in the UK, a qualitative interview study
A clinical evaluation of Placental Growth Factor in routine practice in high-risk women presenting with suspected pre-eclampsia and/or fetal growth restriction
Predicting Graph Categories from Structural Properties
Complex networks are often categorized according to the underlying phenomena that they represent such as molecular interactions, re-tweets, and brain activity. In this work, we investigate the problem of predicting the category (domain) of arbitrary networks. This includes complex networks from different domains as well as synthetically generated graphs from five different network models. A classification accuracy of 96.6% is achieved using a random forest classifier with both real and synthetic networks. This work makes two important findings. First, our results indicate that complex networks from various domains have distinct structural properties that allow us to predict with high accuracy the category of a new previously unseen network. Second, synthetic graphs are trivial to classify as the classification model can predict with near-certainty the network model used to generate it. Overall, the results demonstrate that networks drawn from different domains (and network models) are trivial to distinguish using only a handful of simple structural properties
Verification within wave resource assessments. Part 2: Systematic trends in the fit of spectral values
Examining GP online consultation in a primary care setting in east midlands, UK
open access articleBackground
Increasing pressure threatens to overwhelm primary care services, affecting the quality of care and their role as gatekeepers to specialised care services. This study investigated healthcare usersâ acceptability of â and the effectiveness of â an e-consultation system in primary care services.
Methods
Seven GP practices in East-Midlands, all of whom use online consultation system participated in the study, with a retrospective review being undertaken of 189 electronic patientsâ records (age range of 18â76âyears) over 5 months. The focus was on the electronic records of patients who accessed the service for five different conditions identified as presenting common conditions seen by the GPs practices. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS to perform an exploratory data analysis and descriptive statistics.
Results
The results showed a positive reception of the online consultation platform, with an average satisfaction score of 4.15 (most likely to recommend scoreâ=â5). Given the nature of the conditions, 47.6% of patients had experienced a previous episode of the health condition they were seeking consultation for, and a total of 72% had existing comorbidities. Follow-up activity occurred for 87.3% of patients, 66.1% of which included at least one follow-up visit for the same condition as the initial online consultation.
Conclusion
The results suggest that online consultation is convenient for patients, and it also has the potential to relieve pressure placed on primary care services. Although a number of challenges were identified, such as patient verification, this study gives insight into â and enhances our understanding of â the use of online GP consultations
Neurological updates: neurological complications of CAR-T therapy
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) expressing T-cells now offer an effective treatment option for people with previously refractory B-cell malignancies and are under development for a wide range of other tumours. However, neurological toxicity is a common complication of CAR T-cell therapy, seen in over 50% of recipients in some cohorts. Since 2018, the term immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome (ICANS) has been used to describe and grade neurotoxicity seen after CAR T-cells and other similar therapies. ICANS following CAR-T therapy is usually self-limiting but can necessitate admission to the intensive care unit and is rarely fatal. As CAR-T therapies enter routine clinical practice, it is important for neurologists to be aware of the nature of neurological complications. Here we summarise the clinical manifestations, mechanisms, investigations and recommended treatment of CAR-T related neurotoxicity, focusing on the licensed CD19 products
Blood donation screening for hepatitis B virus core antibodies: The importance of confirmatory testing and initial implication for rare blood donor groups
Background and Objectives: Exclusion of blood donors with hepatitis B virus (HBV) core antibodies (antiâHBc) prevents transfusionâtransmitted HBV infection but can lead to significant donor loss. As isolated antiâHBc positivity does not always indicate true past HBV infection, we have investigated the effectiveness of confirmatory antiâHBc testing and the representation of rare blood groups in antiâHBcâpositive donors. Materials and Methods: Three hundred ninetyâseven HBV surface antigenânegative and antiâHBc initially reactive blood donor samples were tested by five different antiâHBc assays. Results: Eighty percentage of samples reactive in Architect antiâHBc assay were positive by the Murex assay and antiâHBc neutralization. Eleven out of 397 samples showed discordant results in supplementary testing from the Murex confirmatory test result, and five remained undetermined following extensive serological testing. Thirtyâeight percentage of antiâHBcâpositive donors identified as minority ethnic groups compared with 11% representation in antiâHBcânegative donors (p < 0.0001); the frequency of the Ro blood group in antiâHBcâpositive donors was 18 times higher in nonâwhite ethnic groups. Conclusion: Using two antiâHBc assays effectively enabled the identification of HBVâexposed and potentially infectious donors, their deferral and potential clinical followâup. However, the exclusion of confirmed antiâHBcâpositive donors will still impact the supply of rare blood such as Ro
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