Infectious endocarditis – current profile

Infective endocarditis (IE) is a disease of the endocardium of the heart and the endocardium of the great vessels, with infection affecting heart valves (native or prosthetic) and subvalvular structures and, in the last few decades, indwelling intracardiac devices or catheters. It is a life-threatening disease with a wide distribution worldwide. IE was first described 350 years ago, but it continues to be a huge challenge for doctors for several reasons. First – IE is a changing disease. Nowadays, the profile of patients with IE has significantly changed in terms of age, predisposing factors, microbiological causative agent, clinical picture, complications, therapeutic approach. Second, despite modern imaging and microbiological methods, diagnostics often encounter serious difficulties and delays. Third, the improvement in medical and surgical treatment in recent decades has not changed the rates of mortality and severe complications. Knowing the current profile of patients with IE helps in timely and accurate diagnosis, which is key to starting adequate treatment. Early identification of high-risk patients is important for the therapeutic approach, especially when deciding on operative treatment. This is associated with a reduction in in-hospital mortality and an improvement in the long-term prognosis of patients

Linking medical faculty stress/burnout to willingness to implement medical school curriculum change: a preliminary investigation

Rationale, aims and objectivesBalancing administrative demands from the medical school while providing patient support and seeking academic advancement can cause personal hardship that ranges from high stress to clinically recognizable conditions such as burnout. Regarding the importance of clinical faculties’ burnout and its effects on different aspects of their professional career, this study was conducted and aimed to evaluate the relationship between willingness to change teaching approaches as characterized by a modified stage‐of‐change model and measures of stress and burnout.MethodsThis descriptive analytic study was conducted on 143 clinical faculty members of Tehran University of Medical Sciences in Iran. Participants were asked to complete three questionnaires: a modified stages of change questionnaire the Maslach Burnout Inventory and the General Health Questionnaire. Data were analysed by SPSS: 16 using non‐parametric statistical tests such as multiple regression and ICC (intra‐class coefficient) and Spearman correlation coefficient test.ResultA significant relationship was found between faculty members’ readiness to change teaching approaches and the subscales of occupational burnout. Specifically, participants with low occupational burnout were more likely to be in the action stage, while those with high burnout were in the attitude or intention stage, which could be understood as not being ready to implement change. There was no significant correlation between general health scores and stage of change. ConclusionsWe found it feasible to measure stages of change as well as stress/burnout in academic doctors. Occupational burnout directly reduces the readiness to change. To have successful academic reform in medical schools, it therefore would be beneficial to assess and manage occupational burnout among clinical faculty members.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135679/1/jep12439.pd

Information system for registration and economic assessment of medical errors - health managers` readiness to introduce

This report investigates the attitude and the willingness of health managers to implement an information sys- tem for registration and evaluation of medical errors. The study is based on direct anonymous questionnaire with registration card. The questionnaire results demonstrate that the possibility of introducing the Information system for registration and economic assessment of medical errors was generally met with a posi- tive attitude from the health managers of medical clinics and labs, despite the prejudice among some of them that it may cause some repressive consequences

Examination of the Quality of the Manual Pre-Sterilization Processing of Dental Instruments Using Benzidine Test

The risk of infections in dental practices has been attracting for decades the interest of researchers from all over the world. A serious problem related to the transmission of blood-borne viruses is the thorough removal of organic matter, and mainly blood, from dental instruments when performing manual pre-sterilization decontamination. Application of benzidine test to prove the presence of blood traces on large and small dental instruments prepared for sterilization for the purpose of assessing the quality of the manual pre-sterilization decontamination. A total of 485 benzidine tests had been performed on selected 205 large and 280 small dental instruments visibly contaminated with blood. Of the total of 485 tested samples, blood traces were found in 63 (12.99 ± 1.53%). In the group of large instruments, positive benzidine test was obtained in 7.80% compared to 16.78% in the small instruments with the difference being statistically significant (p = 0.003). All 63 positive samples were additionally processed using ultrasound. Blood traces were found in 8 instruments with all of the positive samples being obtained from the barbed broaches. The manual cleaning does not guarantee decontamination of the dental instruments unlike the ultrasonic cleaning where any blood traces are being completely removed from the large instruments. In terms of the small instruments, there are still blood traces present after the ultrasonic cleaning which requires for it to be combined with a suitable enzyme cleaner, and the barbed broaches, as a requirement, should be used on a disposable basis

Pro. Armenia. Voci ebraiche sul genocidio armeno

Il volume presenta quattro brani di insigni diplomatici e giuridici di origine ebraica (Lewis Einstein, Andr\ue9 Mandelstam, Aaron Aronshon, Raphael Lemkin) volti a denunciare il genocidio patito nel 1915 nei territori dell'impero ottomano per mano del governo del Comitato di Unione e Progresso. Si tratta di testimonianze sino ad ora inedite in lingua italian