216 research outputs found
The influence of anaesthetic drug selection for scoliosis surgery on the management of intraoperative haemodynamic stability and postoperative pain – pharmaceutical care programme
Aim: The aim of this study was to conduct a pharmaceutical care programme for two different anaesthetic methods used during scoliosis surgery, to investigate which method ensured better intraoperative haemodynamic stability and postoperative pain control.Methods: A clinical pharmacist actively participated in a prospective randomised double blind study for 40 patients who had a physical status class I-II ASA, scheduled for scoliosis surgery, who were randomly allocated into two groups, 20 in each group. Both groups received midazolam preoperatively, propofol, sevuflorane, atracurium, and either remifentanil infusion 0.2 μg/kg/min for (Group 1 = G1), or the same dose of remifentanil infusion and low dose ketamine infusion 1 μg/kg/min (Group 2 = G2), antidote medications and postoperative morphine. Patients were subject to a pharmaceutical care programme. Heart rate HR, MAP, vital signs, surgical bleeding, urine output, time to accomplish the wake up test, duration of surgery and duration of anesthesia were recorded. In postanesthesia care unit (PACU) for 24 hours, the recoverytime, the first pain score and analgesic requirements were assessed. All drugs used were documented in medical charts for statistical analysis.Results: Intraoperative heart rate and arterial blood pressure were significantly less (p < 0.05) in G1 as compared with G2. In the (PACU) the first pain score recordings were significantly less (p < 0.05) in G2 than G1. The time which passed until the first patient analgesia demand dose was greater in G2 and morphine consumption was greater in G1 than G2 (p < 0.05). The rest of the results were not significantly different between the two groups. None of the patients had any allergic or adverse drug reaction to any of the medications.Conclusions: Adding a low dose ketamine hydrochloride infusion during scoliosis surgery could be applied as a routine therapy to improve the haemodynamic stability during the surgery and reduce the postoperative morphine consumption. A pharmaceutical care programme tested in this study gave a high score for patient satisfaction.Keywords: scoliosis; remifentanil; ketamin
Developing a Robust Computable Phenotype Definition Workflow to Describe Health and Disease in Observational Health Research
Health informatics can inform decisions that practitioners, patients,
policymakers, and researchers need to make about health and disease. Health
informatics is built upon patient health data leading to the need to codify
patient health information. Such standardization is required to compute
population statistics (such as prevalence, incidence, etc.) that are common
metrics used in fields such as epidemiology. Reliable decision-making about
health and disease rests on our ability to organize, analyze, and assess data
repositories that contain patient health data.
While standards exist to structure and analyze patient data across patient
data sources such as health information exchanges, clinical data repositories,
and health data marketplaces, analogous best practices for rigorously defining
patient populations in health informatics contexts do not exist. Codifying best
practices for developing disease definitions could support the effective
development of clinical guidelines, inform algorithms used in clinical decision
support systems, and additional patient guidelines.
In this paper, we present a workflow for the development of phenotype
definitions. This workflow presents a series of recommendations for defining
health and disease. Various examples within this paper are presented to
demonstrate this workflow in health informatics contexts.Comment: IEEE Computer Based Medical Systems Conferenc
Chronic Benzene Exposure Aggravates Pressure Overload-Induced Cardiac Dysfunction
Benzene is a ubiquitous environmental pollutant abundant in household products, petrochemicals, and cigarette smoke. Benzene is a well-known carcinogen in humans and experimental animals; however, little is known about the cardiovascular toxicity of benzene. Recent population-based studies indicate that benzene exposure is associated with an increased risk for heart failure. Nonetheless, it is unclear whether benzene exposure is sufficient to induce and/or exacerbate heart failure. We examined the effects of benzene (50 ppm, 6 h/day, 5 days/week, and 6 weeks) or high-efficiency particulate absorbing-filtered air exposure on transverse aortic constriction (TAC)-induced pressure overload in male C57BL/6J mice. Our data show that benzene exposure had no effect on cardiac function in the Sham group; however, it significantly compromised cardiac function as depicted by a significant decrease in fractional shortening and ejection fraction, as compared with TAC/Air-exposed mice. RNA-seq analysis of the cardiac tissue from the TAC/benzene-exposed mice showed a significant increase in several genes associated with adhesion molecules, cell-cell adhesion, inflammation, and stress response. In particular, neutrophils were implicated in our unbiased analyses. Indeed, immunofluorescence studies showed that TAC/benzene exposure promotes infiltration of CD11b(+)/S100A8(+)/myeloperoxidase(+)-positive neutrophils in the hearts by 3-fold. In vitro, the benzene metabolites, hydroquinone, and catechol, induced the expression of P-selectin in cardiac microvascular endothelial cells by 5-fold and increased the adhesion of neutrophils to these endothelial cells by 1.5- to 2.0-fold. Benzene metabolite-induced adhesion of neutrophils to the endothelial cells was attenuated by anti-P-selectin antibody. Together, these data suggest that benzene exacerbates heart failure by promoting endothelial activation and neutrophil recruitment
Mapping our Universe in 3D with MITEoR
Mapping our universe in 3D by imaging the redshifted 21 cm line from neutral
hydrogen has the potential to overtake the cosmic microwave background as our
most powerful cosmological probe, because it can map a much larger volume of
our Universe, shedding new light on the epoch of reionization, inflation, dark
matter, dark energy, and neutrino masses. We report on MITEoR, a pathfinder
low-frequency radio interferometer whose goal is to test technologies that
greatly reduce the cost of such 3D mapping for a given sensitivity. MITEoR
accomplishes this by using massive baseline redundancy both to enable automated
precision calibration and to cut the correlator cost scaling from N^2 to NlogN,
where N is the number of antennas. The success of MITEoR with its 64
dual-polarization elements bodes well for the more ambitious HERA project,
which would incorporate many identical or similar technologies using an order
of magnitude more antennas, each with dramatically larger collecting area.Comment: To be published in proceedings of 2013 IEEE International Symposium
on Phased Array Systems & Technolog
Technology-enabled medication adherence for seniors living in the community: Experiences, lessons, and the road ahead
Singapore National Research Foundation; Singapore Ministry of National Developmen
Green Criminology Before ‘Green Criminology’: Amnesia and Absences
Although the first published use of the term ‘green criminology’ seems to have been made by Lynch (Green criminology. Aldershot, Hampshire, 1990/2006), elements of the analysis and critique represented by the term were established well before this date. There is much criminological engagement with, and analysis of, environmental crime and harm that occurred prior to 1990 that deserves acknowledgement. In this article, we try to illuminate some of the antecedents of green criminology. Proceeding in this way allows us to learn from ‘absences’, i.e. knowledge that existed but has been forgotten. We conclude by referring to green criminology not as an exclusionary label or barrier but as a symbol that guides and inspires the direction of research
Brute-Force Mapmaking with Compact Interferometers: A MITEoR Northern Sky Map from 128 MHz to 175 MHz
We present a new method for interferometric imaging that is ideal for the large fields of view and compact arrays common in 21 cm cosmology. We first demonstrate the method with the simulations for two very different low-frequency interferometers, the Murchison Widefield Array and the MIT Epoch of Reionization (MITEoR) experiment. We then apply the method to the MITEoR data set collected in 2013 July to obtain the first northern sky map from 128 to 175 MHz at ∼2° resolution and find an overall spectral index of −2.73 ± 0.11. The success of this imaging method bodes well for upcoming compact redundant low-frequency arrays such as Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array. Both the MITEoR interferometric data and the 150 MHz sky map are available at http://space.mit.edu/home/tegmark/omniscope.html.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (AST-0908848)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (AST-1105835)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (AST-1440343
Selection Mechanisms Underlying High Impact Biomedical Research - A Qualitative Analysis and Causal Model
BACKGROUND: Although scientific innovation has been a long-standing topic of interest for historians, philosophers and cognitive scientists, few studies in biomedical research have examined from researchers' perspectives how high impact publications are developed and why they are consistently produced by a small group of researchers. Our objective was therefore to interview a group of researchers with a track record of high impact publications to explore what mechanism they believe contribute to the generation of high impact publications. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Researchers were located in universities all over the globe and interviews were conducted by phone. All interviews were transcribed using standard qualitative methods. A Grounded Theory approach was used to code each transcript, later aggregating concept and categories into overarching explanation model. The model was then translated into a System Dynamics mathematical model to represent its structure and behavior. Five emerging themes were found in our study. First, researchers used heuristics or rules of thumb that came naturally to them. Second, these heuristics were reinforced by positive feedback from their peers and mentors. Third, good communication skills allowed researchers to provide feedback to their peers, thus closing a positive feedback loop. Fourth, researchers exhibited a number of psychological attributes such as curiosity or open-mindedness that constantly motivated them, even when faced with discouraging situations. Fifth, the system is dominated by randomness and serendipity and is far from a linear and predictable environment. Some researchers, however, took advantage of this randomness by incorporating mechanisms that would allow them to benefit from random findings. The aggregation of these themes into a policy model represented the overall expected behavior of publications and their impact achieved by high impact researchers. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed selection mechanism provides insights that can be translated into research coaching programs as well as research policy models to optimize the introduction of high impact research at a broad scale among institutional and governmental agencies
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