Diagnosis, Treatment and Follow Up of Acute Pulmonary Embolism: Consensus Practice from the PERT Consortium

Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a life-threatening condition and a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. There have been many advances in the field of PE in the last few years, requiring a careful assessment of their impact on patient care. However, variations in recommendations by different clinical guidelines, as well as lack of robust clinical trials, make clinical decisions challenging. The Pulmonary Embolism Response Team Consortium is an international association created to advance the diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes of patients with PE. In this consensus practice document, we provide a comprehensive review of the diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of acute PE, including both clinical data and consensus opinion to provide guidance for clinicians caring for these patients

Hemoptysis from intralobar pulmonary sequestration in an adult patient

A 20-year-old male patient with no previous medical history presented with new-onset hemoptysis for 2 days with episodes of severe coughing, which was initially nonproductive. However, he went on to have 10–15 episodes of expectoration of bright red blood. The patient did not complain of any dyspnea, chest pain, fever, light-headedness, abdominal pain, melena, nausea, or vomiting. Other review of symptoms was negative. He denied any smoking, alcohol, or drug use and had no significant family history

Sharing a Concept

Though various interesting research problems have been studied in the context of learning agents, few researchers have addressed the problems of one, knowledgeable, agent teaching another agent. Agents can do more than share training data, problem traces, learned policies. In particular, we investigate how an agent can use its learned knowledge to train another agent with a possibly dierent internal knowledge representation. We hav

Environmental arsenic toxicity in West Bengal, India: A brief policy review

High-level arsenic contamination of drinking water in West Bengal (WB), India is a grave public health concern, with 26 million people remaining affected. Two decades of research has provided detailed information on multiple aspects of exposure assessment and risk characterization. However, policy paralysis due to lack of finances and lack of any administrative coordination between the Central and State Governments has hampered the implementation of long-term solutions. Household- and community-level arsenic removal units have provided some relief to the suffering population. In view of the increased funding through the 12th Five-Year Plan period, it is the responsibility of the authorities to implement piped water supply schemes with single-point treatment facilities as the permanent solution to this three-decade-long crisis. Incorporating research evidence into policy and focusing on behavior change communication would be crucial to that end

Letter to the Editor

Occupational exposure to pathogenic microbes as a result of needles stick injury is associated with significant risk to health care professional’s career, health, families and also the patients.  OBJECTIVES:  To establish the incidence of needle stick injury (NSI) among health care workers (HCW) of a tertiary care centre. To study risk factors for getting NSI and to determine barriers in seeking care after NSI in above mentioned setting. To assess awareness, acceptability and availability of post exposure prophylaxis (PEP) in the tertiary care centre. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A cross- sectional study was conducted among HCWs of MM Institute of Medical sciences and Research, Mullana. A total of 300 health care workers were selected for the study by simple random sampling method.  A self designed, semi- structured interview schedule was used to collect data from the participants by interview method. RESULTS:  80.5% of HCWs reported having had one or more NSI in their career, maximum among the nursing staff (94.2%). The average number of NSIs was found to be 1.85 per HCW per year (±2.29 SD). 17.8% of HCWs had a NSI involving a high-risk patient. (61%) of the NSI were from a hollow-bore type of needle. Most of NSIs were while recapping a needle after use (27%)  or bending the needle for  breaking it before disposal (20%). Majority of the NSI were not reported to the hospital administration. 72% of the respondents had heard about PEP and less than 10 % of them knew about the availability of PEP services in the hospital. CONCLUSION: Training of HCWs regarding safety practices needed to avoid NSI should be  an indispensable ongoing activity at the hospital . Besides health promotion, there should be setting up of an adequate surveillance mechanism in every large hospital and also of facilities for prompt response and treatment of NSI