421 research outputs found

    La información escrita del farmacéutico mejora el cumplimiento de la antibioterapia

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    Non-compliance with therapeutic guidelines represents a potential public health risk, given that it contributes to bacterialresistance. One of the strategies used to improve compliance to such guidelines is to provide the patient with betterinformation in written form. The objectives of the present investigation were the following; To evaluate the influencethat written information, provided by the community pharmacist, has on compliance with antibiotic therapy, to verify theconsequences of degree of compliance on patient health, and to discover other factors influencing patient compliance.The experimental study was carried on patients that attend a community pharmacy for antibiotic prescriptions. Membersof the control group were given information in verbal form only, while members of the experimental group were giventhe same information in both verbal and written form. The degree of compliance was determined through telephoneinterviews, carried out the day after having finished treatment. 214 patients completed the study. A 14% increase incompliance among members of the experimental group was achieved. Patients that had completed treatment, had a betterperception of their own health than those that had not. Another factor found to have a significant influence oncompliance was the number of daily dosages.In conclusion, the written information provided by the pharmacist improves therapeutic compliance. Therapeutic complianceimproves patients’ perception of their state of health. The number of daily dosages also have an influence to bear, butcontradict appropriate antibiotic administration policies.El incumplimiento terapéutico es un riesgo potencial para la salud pública al contribuir al incremento de lasresistencias bacterianas. Una de las estrategias utilizadas para mejorar el cumplimiento terapéutico es el de mejorarla información del paciente mediante información escrita. Los objetivos fueron evaluar la influencia de la informaciónescrita del farmacéutico comunitario sobre el cumplimiento antibiótico, verificar sus consecuencias sobre lasalud y descubrir otros factores que influyan en el cumplimiento. Se trata de un estudio experimental en pacientesque acuden a una farmacia comunitaria con una prescripción antibiótica. Al grupo control se le da informaciónverbal sobre su tratamiento, y al grupo de intervención la misma información, pero también por escrito. Se mideel cumplimiento mediante encuesta telefónica al día siguiente de haber tenido que finalizar el tratamiento. 214pacientes finalizaron el estudio. Los pacientes del grupo de intervención incrementaron el cumplimiento terapéuticoen un 14,2%. Los pacientes que cumplen el tratamiento tienen una mejor percepción de salud respecto de losincumplidores. Otro factor que influye significativamente en el cumplimiento es la pauta posológica diaria. Estetrabajo concluye que la información escrita del farmacéutico mejora el cumplimiento terapéutico. El cumplimientoterapéutico mejora la percepción de salud de los pacientes

    The effect of written information provided by pharmacists on compliance with antibiotherapy

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    El incumplimiento terapéutico es un riesgo potencial para la salud pública al contribuir al incremento de las resistencias bacterianas. Una de las estrategias utilizadas para mejorar el cumplimiento terapéutico es el de mejorar la información del paciente mediante información escrita. Los objetivos fueron evaluar la influencia de la información escrita del farmacéutico comunitario sobre el cumplimiento antibiótico, verificar sus consecuencias sobre la salud y descubrir otros factores que influyan en el cumplimiento. Se trata de un estudio experimental en pacientes que acuden a una farmacia comunitaria con una prescripción antibiótica. Al grupo control se le da información verbal sobre su tratamiento, y al grupo de intervención la misma información, pero también por escrito. Se mide el cumplimiento mediante encuesta telefónica al día siguiente de haber tenido que finalizar el tratamiento. 214 pacientes finalizaron el estudio. Los pacientes del grupo de intervención incrementaron el cumplimiento terapéutico en un 14,2%. Los pacientes que cumplen el tratamiento tienen una mejor percepción de salud respecto de los incumplidores. Otro factor que influye significativamente en el cumplimiento es la pauta posológica diaria. Este trabajo concluye que la información escrita del farmacéutico mejora el cumplimiento terapéutico. El cumplimiento terapéutico mejora la percepción de salud de los pacientes.Non-compliance with therapeutic guidelines represents a potential public health risk, given that it contributes to bacterial resistance. One of the strategies used to improve compliance to such guidelines is to provide the patient with better information in written form. The objectives of the present investigation were the following; To evaluate the influence that written information, provided by the community pharmacist, has on compliance with antibiotic therapy, to verify the consequences of degree of compliance on patient health, and to discover other factors influencing patient compliance. The experimental study was carried on patients that attend a community pharmacy for antibiotic prescriptions. Members of the control group were given information in verbal form only, while members of the experimental group were given the same information in both verbal and written form. The degree of compliance was determined through telephone interviews, carried out the day after having finished treatment. 214 patients completed the study. A 14% increase in compliance among members of the experimental group was achieved. Patients that had completed treatment, had a better perception of their own health than those that had not. Another factor found to have a significant influence on compliance was the number of daily dosages. In conclusion, the written information provided by the pharmacist improves therapeutic compliance. Therapeutic compliance improves patients’ perception of their state of health. The number of daily dosages also have an influence to bear, but contradict appropriate antibiotic administration policies

    Synergistic effect of vascular endothelial growth factor gene inactivation in endothelial cells and skeletal myofibres on muscle enzyme activity, capillary supply and endurance exercise in mice

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    NEW FINDINGS: What is the central question of this study? Dose VEGF expressed by both endothelial cells and skeletal myofibers maintain the number of skeletal muscle capillaries and regulate endurance exercise. What is the main finding and its importance? VEGF expressed by both endothelial cells and skeletal myofibers is not essential for maintaining capillary number but does contribute to exercise performance. ABSTRACT: Many chronic diseases lead to exercise intolerance, with loss of skeletal muscle capillaries. While many muscle cell types (myofibers, satellite cells, endothelial cells, macrophages and fibroblasts) express VEGF, most muscle VEGF is stored in myofibers vesicles which can release VEGF to signal VEGF receptor-expressing cells. VEGF gene ablation in myofibers or endothelial cells alone does not cause capillary regression. We hypothesized that simultaneously deleting endothelial cell (EC) and skeletal myofiber (Skm) VEGF would cause capillary regression and impair exercise performance. This was tested in adult mice by simultaneous conditional deletion of the VEGF gene (Skm/EC-VEGF-/- mice) through the use of VEGFLoxP, HSA-Cre-ERT2 and PDGFb-iCre-ERT2 transgenes. These double-deletion mice were compared to three control groups - WT, EC VEGF deletion alone and myofiber VEGF deletion alone. Three weeks after initiating gene deletion, Skm/EC-VEGF-/- mice, but not SkmVEGF-/- or EC-VEGF-/- mice, reached exhaustion 40 minutes sooner than WT mice in treadmill tests (p = 0.002). WT, SkmVEGF-/-, and EC-VEGF-/-, but not Skm/EC-VEGF-/- mice, gained weight over the three weeks. Capillary density, fiber area and capillary:fiber ratio in soleus, plantaris, gastrocnemius and cardiac papillary muscle were similar across the groups. Phosphofructokinase and pyruvate dehydrogenase activities increased only in Skm/EC-VEGF-/- mice. These data suggest that deletion of VEGF signaling simultaneously in endothelial cells and myofibers, while reducing treadmill endurance and despite compensatory augmentation of glycolysis, is not required for muscle capillary maintenance. Reduced endurance remains unexplained, but may possibly be related to a role for VEGF in controlling perfusion of contracting muscle

    Allocation of Communications to Reduce Mental Workload

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    As the United States Department of Defense continues to increase the number of Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) operations overseas, improved Human Systems Integration becomes increasingly important. Manpower limitations have motivated the investigation of Multiple Aircraft Control (MAC) configurations where a single pilot controls multiple RPAs simultaneously. Previous research has indicated that frequent, unpredictable, and oftentimes overwhelming, volumes of communication events can produce unmanageable levels of system induced workload for MAC pilots. Existing human computer interface design includes both visual information with typed responses, which conflict with numerous other visual tasks the pilot performs, and auditory information that is provided through multiple audio devices with speech response. This paper extends previous discrete event workload models of pilot activities flying multiple aircraft. Specifically, we examine statically reallocating communication modality with the goal to reduce and minimize the overall pilot cognitive workload. The analysis investigates the impact of various communication reallocations on predicted pilot workload, measured by the percent of time workload is over a saturation threshold

    A corpus-based study of Spanish L2 mispronunciations by Japanese speakers

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    Abstract In a companion paper (Carranza et al.) submitted to this conference we discuss the importance of collecting specific L1-L2 speech corpora for the sake of developing effective Computer Assisted Pronunciation Training (CAPT) programs. In this paper we examine this point more deeply by reporting on a study that was aimed at compiling and analysing such a corpus to draw up an inventory of recurrent pronunciation errors to be addressed in a CAPT application that makes use of Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR). In particular we discuss some of the results obtained in the analyses of this corpus and some of the methodological issues we had to deal with. The corpus features 8.9 hours of spontaneous, semi-spontaneous and read speech recorded from 20 Japanese students of Spanish L2. The speech data was segmented and transcribed at the orthographic, canonical-phonemic and narrow-phonetic level using Praat software We report on the analyses of the combined annotations and draw up an inventory of errors that should be addressed in the training. We then consider how ASR can be employed to properly detect these errors. Furthermore, we suggest possible exercises that may be included in the training to improve the errors identified

    Breaking the entangling gate speed limit for trapped-ion qubits using a phase-stable standing wave

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    All laser-driven entangling operations for trapped-ion qubits have hitherto been performed without control of the optical phase of the light field, which precludes independent tuning of the carrier and motional coupling. By placing 88Sr+ ions in a λ=674  nm standing wave, whose relative position is controlled to ≈λ/100, we suppress the carrier coupling by a factor of 18, while coherently enhancing the spin-motion coupling. We experimentally demonstrate that the off-resonant carrier coupling imposes a speed limit for conventional traveling-wave Mølmer-Sørensen gates; we use the standing wave to surpass this limit and achieve a gate duration of 15  μs, restricted by the available laser power

    Cri du chat syndrome : a critical review

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    A new syndrome was identified in 1963, when Lejeune et al. reported a genetic disease resulting from a partial or total deletion on the short arm of chromosome 5 (5p-) and named it the cri du chat syndrome (CdCS). This term makes reference to the main clinical feature of the syndrome, a high-pitched monochromatic cat-like crying, that usually disappears in the first years of life. CdCS is one of the most common chromosomal deletion syndromes in humans, with an incidence of 1:15.000-1:50.000 live-births. Our purpose was to review different aspects of this syndrome (concept, epidemiology, aetiology, clinical features, diagnostic methods and prognosis) emphasizing both: the breakthrough in this field introduced by new cytogenetic and molecular techniques, and the orofacial manifestations most frequently reported. The main orofacial anomalies registered were mandibular microretrognathia, high palate but rarely cleft, variable malocclusion (frequently anterior open-bite), enamel hypoplasia, poor oral hygiene, generalized chronic periodontitis, and retardation of tooth eruption, although there is not enough evidence to support any clear association between these pathologies and the CdCS

    Oral manifestations of Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome: genotype-phenotype correlation analysis

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    Background: Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome (WHS) is a rare disease caused by deletion in the distal moiety of the short arm of chromosome 4. The objectives of this study were to report the most representative oral findings of WHS, relate them with other clinical characteristics of the disease, and establish possible phenotype-genotype correlation. Methods: The study was conducted at 6 reference centers distributed throughout Spain during 2018–2019. The study group consisted of 31 patients with WHS who underwent a standardized oral examination. Due to behavioral reasons, imaging studies were performed on only 11 of the children 6 years of age or older. All participants had previously undergone a specific medical examination for WHS, during which anatomical, functional, epilepsy-related, and genetic variables were recorded. Results: The most prevalent oral manifestations were delayed tooth eruption (74.1%), bruxism (64.5%), dental agenesis (63.6%), micrognathia (60.0%), oligodontia (45.5%), and downturned corners of the mouth (32.3%). We detected strong correlation between psychomotor delay and oligodontia (p = 0.008; Cramér’s V coefficient, 0.75). The size of the deletion was correlated in a statistically significant manner with the presence of oligodontia (p = 0.009 ; point-biserial correlation coefficient, 0.75). Conclusion: Certain oral manifestations prevalent in WHS can form part of the syndrome’s phenotypic variability. A number of the characteristics of WHS, such as psychomotor delay and epilepsy, are correlated with oral findings such as oligodontia and bruxism. Although most genotype-phenotype correlations are currently unknown, most of them seem to be associated with larger deletions, suggesting that some oral-facial candidate genes might be outside the critical WHS region, indicating that WHS is a contiguous gene syndrome

    Lawsonia intracellularis in pigs: progression of lesions and Involvement of apoptosis

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    The purpose of this study was to follow the progression of gross and histologic lesions and apoptosis events in Lawsonia intracellularis- infected enterocytes through the course of the disease, proliferative enteropathy (PE). Thirty 5-week-old pigs were divided into 2 groups: 20 challenged and 10 control animals. Groups of 3 pigs, 2 challenged and 1 control, were euthanized at 1, 3, 5, 8, 11, 15, 19, 24, 29, and 35 days after inoculation. Complete necropsies were performed with gross evaluation. Tissue samples from different sites of the gastrointestinal tract and other visceral organs were collected for routine histologic staining and for immunohistochemistry (IHC) for L. intracellularis. In addition, caspase-3, terminal deoxyuridine nick-end labeling assay, and electron microscopy were performed in ileum samples. Macroscopic and histologic lesions suggestive of PE were first detected 11 days after infection and continued through day 24. L. intracellularis antigen was first detected in the intestine by IHC on day 5 after inoculation, and the bacterium was first detected by transmission electron microscopy on day 15. Positive IHC staining for [L. intracellularis] and enterocyte proliferation, but no gross lesion, were detected on day 29. All 3 pigs euthanized on day 35 were grossly and histologically normal and IHC negative. Hyperplastic crypts in challenge pigs had more apoptotic cells on days 15, 19, and 24 postinfection (P < .05) compared to control pigs. Our results demonstrated the progression of lesions and infection by L. intracellularis and that inhibition of enterocyte apoptosis is not involved in the pathogenesis of proliferative enteropathy.Facultad de Ciencias Veterinaria
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