Features of Extrinsic Plantar Muscles in Patients with Plantar Fasciitis by Ultrasound Imaging: A Retrospective Case Control Research

[Abstract] The present study aimed to compare by ultrasound imaging (USI) the tibial posterior (TP), medial gastrocnemius (MG) and soleus muscle in patients with and without plantar fasciitis (PF). A sample of 42 individuals was recruited and divided into two groups: PF and a healthy group. The thickness, cross-sectional area (CSA), echointensity and echovariation were assessed in both groups by USI. TP, soleus and MG variables did not report differences (p > 0.05) for thickness and CSA. For the echotexture parameters significant differences were found for MG echointensity (p = 0.002), MG echovariation (p = 0.002) and soleus echointensity (p = 0.012). Non-significant differences (p > 0.05) were reported for soleus echovariation, TP echointensity and TP echovariation variables. The thickness and CSA of the TP, GM and soleus muscle did not show significant differences between individuals with and without PF measured by USI. Muscle quality assessment reported an increase of the MG echointensity and echovariation, as well as a decrease of echointensity of the soleus muscle in the PF group with respect to the healthy group. Therefore, the evaluation of the structure and muscle quality of the extrinsic foot muscles may be beneficial for the diagnosis and monitoring the physical therapy interventions

What presence do receivers have in service-learning research in Physical activity and sports?

Las experiencias de aprendizaje-servicio en las que están implicadas las actividades físicas y los deportes son cada vez más numerosas en la universidad. Esto ha traído consigo que las publicaciones aumenten. Al ser una metodología en la que la participación del alumnado es clave, muchas de estas publicaciones ponen el foco en su proceso de aprendizaje, quedando en un segundo plano las personas a las que se dirige el servicio. El objetivo principal de este trabajo es conocer qué tipo de presencia tienen las personas receptoras de los servicios en las publicaciones. Por ello, se ha realizado una revisión narrativa de la literatura en la que se analizaron 310 documentos a través del software NVivo Release 14.1. Tan solo se encontraron referencias sobre las personas receptoras en 55 de ellos. Los resultados muestran que la presencia de los colectivos receptores es escasa en la literatura y que, en ocasiones, son otras las personas que hablan en su lugar, siendo mínima la presencia de sus voces. Ante la diversidad de las personas a las que se dirigen los servicios, se ve necesario desarrollar instrumentos de investigación ad hoc para recoger sus testimonios atendiendo a sus características y necesidadesLes experiències d’aprenentatge-servei en les que estan implicades les activitats físiques i els esports són cada vegada més nombroses a la universitat. Això ha comportat un augment de les publicacions. En ser una metodologia en què la participació de l’alumnat és clau, moltes d’aquestes publicacions se centren en el seu procés d’aprenentatge, quedant en un segon pla les persones a les que es dirigeix el servei. L’objectiu principal d’aquest treball és conèixer quin tipus de presència te-nen les persones receptores dels serveis en les publicacions. S’ha realitzat una revisió narrativa de la literatura en què es van analitzar 310 documents amb el software NVivo Release 14.1. Només es van trobar referències sobre les persones receptores en 55. Els resultats mostren que la presència dels col·lectius receptors és escassa a la literatura, i que en ocasions, altres persones parlen per ells. Per tant, la presència de les seves veus és mínima. Davant la diversitat de les persones a les que es dirigeixen els serveix, es creu necessari desenvolupar instruments de recerca ad hoc per recollir-ne els seus testimonis fent atenció a les seves característiques i necessitatsThere has been an increase in Service-Learning (SL) experiences involving physical activities and sports at university. This has led to a rising in publications on the topic. As SL is a methodology in which the students’ participation is key, many of these publications focus on the students’ learning process, leaving aside the people to whom the service is addressed. The main objective of this work is thus to know what type of presence people who received the services had in the publications. To do so, a narrative review of the literature was carried out in which 310 documents were analysed through the NVivo Release 14.1 software. References of recipients were found in only 55 of the documents. The results show that the presence of the receiving groups in the literature is scarce, and that in many cases, the information came from people who were not receivers themselves, so the presence of their voices is minimal. Facing the diversity of people who receive the services, it is strongly recommended to develop ad hoc research instruments to collect their testimonies in accordance with their characteristics and need

¿Qué presencia tienen las personas receptoras en las investigaciones de Aprendizaje-Servicio en actividad física y deportiva?

Les experiències d’aprenentatge-servei en les que estan implicades les activitats físiques i els esports són cada vegada més nombroses a la universitat. Això ha comportat un augment de les publicacions. En ser una metodologia en què la participació de l’alumnat és clau, moltes d’aquestes publicacions se centren en el seu procés d’aprenentatge, quedant en un segon pla les persones a les que es dirigeix el servei. L’objectiu principal d’aquest treball és conèixer quin tipus de presència tenen les persones receptores dels serveis en les publicacions. S’ha realitzat una revisió narrativa de la literatura en què es van analitzar 310 documents amb el software NVivo Release 14.1. Només es van trobar referències sobre les persones receptores en 55. Els resultats mostren que la presència dels col·lectius receptors és escassa a la literatura, i que en ocasions, altres persones parlen per ells. Per tant, la presència de les seves veus és mínima. Davant la diversitat de les persones a les que es dirigeixen els serveix, es creu necessari desenvolupar instruments de recerca ad hoc per recollir-ne els seus testimonis fent atenció a les seves característiques i necessitats.There has been an increase in Service-Learning (SL) experiences involving physical activities and sports at university. This has led to a rising in publications on the topic. As SL is a methodology in which the students’ participation is key, many of these publications focus on the students’ learning process, leaving aside the people to whom the service is addressed. The main objective of this work is thus to know what type of presence people who received the services had in the publications. To do so, a narrative review of the literature was carried out in which 310 documents were analysed through the NVivo Release 14.1 software. References of recipients were found in only 55 of the documents. The results show that the presence of the receiving groups in the literature is scarce, and that in many cases, the information came from people who were not receivers themselves, so the presence of their voices is minimal. Facing the diversity of people who receive the services, it is strongly recommended to develop ad hoc research instruments to collect their testimonies in accordance with their characteristics and needs.Las experiencias de aprendizaje-servicio en las que están implicadas las actividades físicas y los deportes son cada vez más numerosas en la universidad. Esto ha traído consigo que las publicaciones aumenten. Al ser una metodología en la que la participación del alumnado es clave, muchas de estas publicaciones ponen el foco en su proceso de aprendizaje, quedando en un segundo plano las personas a las que se dirige el servicio. El objetivo principal de este trabajo es conocer qué tipo de presencia tienen las personas receptoras de los servicios en las publicaciones. Por ello, se ha realizado una revisión narrativa de la literatura en la que se analizaron 310 documentos a través del software NVivo Release 14.1. Tan solo se encontraron referencias sobre las personas receptoras en 55 de ellos. Los resultados muestran que la presencia de los colectivos receptores es escasa en la literatura y que, en ocasiones, son otras las personas que hablan en su lugar, siendo mínima la presencia de sus voces. Ante la diversidad de las personas a las que se dirigen los servicios, se ve necesario desarrollar instrumentos de investigación ad hoc para recoger sus testimonios atendiendo a sus características y necesidades

Epidemiología básica. Material docente para prácticas en ciencias de la salud

Material docente teórico práctico para apoyar la enseñanza de la epidemiología. Consta de 4 unidades, cada una de ellas con una introducción teórica y unos ejercicios basados en artículos publicados en inglés en revistas científicas

UGR Empática: programa de intervención para el desarrollo de la empatía en el alumnado de Ciencias de la Salud y Ciencias de la Educación

La capacidad empática es fundamental para garantizar el éxito profesional en las carreras de Ciencias de la Educación y Ciencias de la Salud. En tanto que se trata de una capacidad que puede entrenarse, este proyecto pretende desarrollar la empatía en el estudiantado de estas ramas del conocimiento. Para ello se diseñó una acción de innovación docente consistente en una serie de materiales didácticos en formato multimedia en los que se abordan diferentes aspectos de la empatía y que han sido empleados por los docentes de diferentes materias durante sus clases. Los materiales se han agrupado en 8 sesiones, cada una de ellas conteniendo dos actividades breves. Las actividades han sido presentaciones en videos en torno a 5 minutos y casos prácticos de elaboración propia de los componentes del equipo del PID. En cada sesión se ha incluido un ejercicio de aprendizaje por autoevaluación. La duración ha sido de 8 semanas, a razón de una sesión compuesta por las 2 actividades cada semana. Para determinar la eficacia de la acción innovadora se ha evaluado la capacidad de empatía en el estudiantado antes de iniciar el proyecto y tras la finalización del mismo, a través del Índice de Reactividad Interpersonal (IRI), una escala que mide la empatía de forma multidimensional. El IRI ofrece una medida compuesta de la empatía, incluyendo su dimensión cognitiva y afectiva. La empatía cognitiva se mide mediante el grado en el que la persona comprende el punto de vista de otra persona. El IRI tiene 2 escalas para medir empatía cognitiva: a) la Escala de Toma de Perspectiva, que evalúa cómo la persona intenta adoptar las perspectivas de otras personas y ver las cosas desde su punto de vista; y b) la Escala de fantasía, que mide la tendencia a identificarse con los personajes de las películas, novelas, obras teatrales y otras situaciones ficticias. La de mayor interés para este proyecto es la primera. En cuanto a la empatía afectiva o emocional, el IRI intenta captar la respuesta emocional de la persona cuando observa el estado afectivo de otras personas, y lo hace con otras 2 escalas: c) Escala de Preocupación Empática consta de ítems sobre los sentimientos de simpatía, compasión y preocupación por los demás; y d) la Escala de Angustia Personal, que valora si la persona experimenta ansiedad y malestar cuando observa que otros están atravesando por experiencias negativas. En nuestro estudio, el interés estaba en que aumentase la puntuación en la escala de preocupación empática, pero no en la de angustia personal. Los objetivos específicos fueron la mejora en las dimensiones de la capacidad empática más relevantes, considerando que la toma de perspectiva y la preocupación empática son las más relacionadas con el desempeño profesional del estudiantado al que iba dirigido el proyecto. En general, los resultados indican que el conjunto del alumnado que ha participado en el PID ha mejorado su capacidad empática. Por tanto, podemos considerar que los materiales creados son válidos para tal fin y pueden ser de aplicación práctica a la docencia.Empathic skills are fundamental to ensure professional success in the fields of Education and Health Sciences. As it is an ability that can be trained, this project aims to develop empathy in students of these branches of knowledge. To this end, a teaching innovation action was designed consisting of a series of teaching materials in multimedia format in which different aspects of empathy are addressed and which have been used by teachers of different subjects during their classes. The materials have been grouped into 8 sessions, each containing two short activities. The activities consisted of 5-minute video presentations and case studies developed by the IDP team. Each session included a self-assessment learning exercise. The duration was 8 weeks, with one session consisting of the 2 activities each week. To determine the effectiveness of the innovative action, the students' capacity for empathy was assessed before the start of the project and after its completion, using the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), a scale that measures empathy in a multidimensional way. The IRI provides a composite measure of empathy, including both cognitive and affective dimensions. Cognitive empathy is measured by the degree to which a person understands another person's point of view. The IRI has 2 scales to measure cognitive empathy: a) the Perspective Taking Scale, which assesses how the person tries to adopt other people's perspectives and see things from their point of view; and b) the Fantasy Scale, which measures the tendency to identify with characters in films, novels, plays and other fictional situations. Of most interest for this project is the first one. As for affective or emotional empathy, the IRI attempts to capture the person's emotional response when observing the affective state of other people, and does so with 2 other scales: c) the Empathic Concern Scale consists of items on feelings of sympathy, compassion and concern for others; and d) the Personal Distress Scale, which assesses whether the person experiences anxiety and discomfort when observing that others are going through negative experiences. In our study, the focus was on increasing scores on the empathic concern scale, but not on the personal distress scale. The specific objectives were to improve the most relevant dimensions of empathic ability, considering that perspective-taking and empathic concern are the most related to the professional performance of the target students. In general, the results indicate that the students who participated in the IDP as a whole have improved their empathic ability. Therefore, we can consider that the materials created are valid for this purpose and can be of practical application in teaching

Phenolic and furanic compounds of Portuguese chestnut and French, American and Portuguese oak wood chips

Botanical species used on aging process must be wisely and judiciously chosen, and for this selection, a basic knowledge of the chemical composition of woods is warranted. Aiming to contribute to extend the knowledge of the chemical composition of several wood species useful for enological purposes, we have focused our studies on Portuguese chestnut and French, American and Portuguese oak chips. The profile of low molecular weight phenolic composition of these chips was achieved, using an optimized extraction method based on pressurized liquid extraction, followed by the quantification of phenolic acids, phenolic aldehydes and furanic derivatives by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC-DAD). The identification of those compounds was also confirmed by LC-DAD/ESI-MS. This study allowed the determination of the low molecular phenolic composition of Portuguese chestnut and French, American and Portuguese oak wood. According to our results, the influence of the botanical species seems to be more relevant than the geographic origin of the wood species

Detectives de alimentos: un trabajo en equipo para la investigación de toxiinfecciones alimentarias

Proyecto de Innovación Docente en el que los estudiantes realizan un trabajo cooperativo mediante el método del puzle para diseñar fichas descriptivas de patógenos de transmisión alimentaria y resolver un caso de toxiinfección alimentari

Effectiveness of an intervention for improving drug prescription in primary care patients with multimorbidity and polypharmacy:Study protocol of a cluster randomized clinical trial (Multi-PAP project)

This study was funded by the Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias ISCIII (Grant Numbers PI15/00276, PI15/00572, PI15/00996), REDISSEC (Project Numbers RD12/0001/0012, RD16/0001/0005), and the European Regional Development Fund ("A way to build Europe").Background: Multimorbidity is associated with negative effects both on people's health and on healthcare systems. A key problem linked to multimorbidity is polypharmacy, which in turn is associated with increased risk of partly preventable adverse effects, including mortality. The Ariadne principles describe a model of care based on a thorough assessment of diseases, treatments (and potential interactions), clinical status, context and preferences of patients with multimorbidity, with the aim of prioritizing and sharing realistic treatment goals that guide an individualized management. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a complex intervention that implements the Ariadne principles in a population of young-old patients with multimorbidity and polypharmacy. The intervention seeks to improve the appropriateness of prescribing in primary care (PC), as measured by the medication appropriateness index (MAI) score at 6 and 12months, as compared with usual care. Methods/Design: Design:pragmatic cluster randomized clinical trial. Unit of randomization: family physician (FP). Unit of analysis: patient. Scope: PC health centres in three autonomous communities: Aragon, Madrid, and Andalusia (Spain). Population: patients aged 65-74years with multimorbidity (≥3 chronic diseases) and polypharmacy (≥5 drugs prescribed in ≥3months). Sample size: n=400 (200 per study arm). Intervention: complex intervention based on the implementation of the Ariadne principles with two components: (1) FP training and (2) FP-patient interview. Outcomes: MAI score, health services use, quality of life (Euroqol 5D-5L), pharmacotherapy and adherence to treatment (Morisky-Green, Haynes-Sackett), and clinical and socio-demographic variables. Statistical analysis: primary outcome is the difference in MAI score between T0 and T1 and corresponding 95% confidence interval. Adjustment for confounding factors will be performed by multilevel analysis. All analyses will be carried out in accordance with the intention-to-treat principle. Discussion: It is essential to provide evidence concerning interventions on PC patients with polypharmacy and multimorbidity, conducted in the context of routine clinical practice, and involving young-old patients with significant potential for preventing negative health outcomes. Trial registration: Clinicaltrials.gov, NCT02866799Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Role of age and comorbidities in mortality of patients with infective endocarditis

[Purpose]: The aim of this study was to analyse the characteristics of patients with IE in three groups of age and to assess the ability of age and the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) to predict mortality. [Methods]: Prospective cohort study of all patients with IE included in the GAMES Spanish database between 2008 and 2015.Patients were stratified into three age groups:<65 years,65 to 80 years,and ≥ 80 years.The area under the receiver-operating characteristic (AUROC) curve was calculated to quantify the diagnostic accuracy of the CCI to predict mortality risk. [Results]: A total of 3120 patients with IE (1327 < 65 years;1291 65-80 years;502 ≥ 80 years) were enrolled.Fever and heart failure were the most common presentations of IE, with no differences among age groups.Patients ≥80 years who underwent surgery were significantly lower compared with other age groups (14.3%,65 years; 20.5%,65-79 years; 31.3%,≥80 years). In-hospital mortality was lower in the <65-year group (20.3%,<65 years;30.1%,65-79 years;34.7%,≥80 years;p < 0.001) as well as 1-year mortality (3.2%, <65 years; 5.5%, 65-80 years;7.6%,≥80 years; p = 0.003).Independent predictors of mortality were age ≥ 80 years (hazard ratio [HR]:2.78;95% confidence interval [CI]:2.32–3.34), CCI ≥ 3 (HR:1.62; 95% CI:1.39–1.88),and non-performed surgery (HR:1.64;95% CI:11.16–1.58).When the three age groups were compared,the AUROC curve for CCI was significantly larger for patients aged <65 years(p < 0.001) for both in-hospital and 1-year mortality. [Conclusion]: There were no differences in the clinical presentation of IE between the groups. Age ≥ 80 years, high comorbidity (measured by CCI),and non-performance of surgery were independent predictors of mortality in patients with IE.CCI could help to identify those patients with IE and surgical indication who present a lower risk of in-hospital and 1-year mortality after surgery, especially in the <65-year group