A unique actual experience for recognizing the various roles of healthcare professionals while enhancing pharmacy students\u27 motivation

薬学生に医療従事者の役割や医療チームの重要性を認識させることは極めて重要である。そこで我々は、病院診療科の視察体験が薬学生にどのような効果をもたらすか検討した。本学薬学4年生15名に宮崎大学医学部附属病院放射線科への視察の機会を与え、他の15名には、対照群として視察の機会を与えなかった。視察体験をした学生は、医療従事者が行う診断や患者への治療を、説明を受けながら観察し、さらに医療従事者と質疑応答の時間を持った。視察体験が学生に及ぼす効果は、学生への質問調査によって評価した。視察体験をした学生は医師及びコメディカル職員とのコミュニケーションに大きな興味を示した。また、視察体験をした全ての学生は医療チームの重要性を認識し、医療における知識の修得が必要と考えていた。それ故に診療科の視察体験は、高学年の薬学生において医療従事者の役割の重要性を理解する有意な実地演習であり、教育方略になると考えた。This study aimed to have pharmacy students understand the medical care team and recognize the importance of each healthcare professional\u27s role in medical practice through the implementation of a oneday visitation experience. Thirty fourth-year pharmacy students participated in the study. Half were given an opportunity to visit the Department of Radiology at University of Miyazaki Hospital; the other half were not, and served as the control group. The students observed the medical team diagnose and provide medical treatment to patients and received explanations from various healthcare professionals. They then had a question-and-answer session with healthcare professionals. The students were subsequently given questionnaires to evaluate the impact the visitation experience had on them. Students evinced huge enthusiasm in communicating with physicians and allied healthcare professionals in the one-day experience. The experience increased their motivation to study pharmacy and helped them recognize the importance of the medical care team. Students showed a positive attitude toward the one-day experience. This experiential visit was therefore very meaningful for senior-year pharmacy students. A visitation experience in a department providing diagnosis and treatment for patients affords a unique practical training and educational strategy for understanding the role of each healthcare professional

Impact of COVID-19 on cardiovascular testing in the United States versus the rest of the world

Objectives: This study sought to quantify and compare the decline in volumes of cardiovascular procedures between the United States and non-US institutions during the early phase of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the care of many non-COVID-19 illnesses. Reductions in diagnostic cardiovascular testing around the world have led to concerns over the implications of reduced testing for cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality. Methods: Data were submitted to the INCAPS-COVID (International Atomic Energy Agency Non-Invasive Cardiology Protocols Study of COVID-19), a multinational registry comprising 909 institutions in 108 countries (including 155 facilities in 40 U.S. states), assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on volumes of diagnostic cardiovascular procedures. Data were obtained for April 2020 and compared with volumes of baseline procedures from March 2019. We compared laboratory characteristics, practices, and procedure volumes between U.S. and non-U.S. facilities and between U.S. geographic regions and identified factors associated with volume reduction in the United States. Results: Reductions in the volumes of procedures in the United States were similar to those in non-U.S. facilities (68% vs. 63%, respectively; p = 0.237), although U.S. facilities reported greater reductions in invasive coronary angiography (69% vs. 53%, respectively; p < 0.001). Significantly more U.S. facilities reported increased use of telehealth and patient screening measures than non-U.S. facilities, such as temperature checks, symptom screenings, and COVID-19 testing. Reductions in volumes of procedures differed between U.S. regions, with larger declines observed in the Northeast (76%) and Midwest (74%) than in the South (62%) and West (44%). Prevalence of COVID-19, staff redeployments, outpatient centers, and urban centers were associated with greater reductions in volume in U.S. facilities in a multivariable analysis. Conclusions: We observed marked reductions in U.S. cardiovascular testing in the early phase of the pandemic and significant variability between U.S. regions. The association between reductions of volumes and COVID-19 prevalence in the United States highlighted the need for proactive efforts to maintain access to cardiovascular testing in areas most affected by outbreaks of COVID-19 infection

Effect of TSH, FT3 and FT4 on brown adipose tissue visualization of clinical FDG-PET/CT

Objectives: Several researchers have reported that type 2 idothyronine deiodinase 2 (D2) is considered to be important for the synergism of thyroid hormone (TH) and to be required to generate the T3 from T4 in the brown adipose tissue (BAT), which maintains the normal acute thermogenic function of BAT to occur. However, to date, details about the relationship between visualization of BAT on FDG-PET/CT and the effect of TH remain unknown. In this present of study, we retrospectively analyze BAT visualization on FDG-PET/CT in patients with various conditions and TH levels.Methods: In this retrospective investigation, we reviewed all patients who underwent clinical FDG-PET/CT studies from October 2010 to July 2015, and categorized patients for 5 groups: (i) Thyroid hormone withdrawal (THW) group; (ii) recombinant human thyrotropin (rh TSH) group; (iii) Hypothyroidism group; (iv) hyperthyroidism group; and (v) BAT group. Total of sixty-two FDG-PET/CT imaging studies in fifty-nine patients were performed. To compare each group; gender, age; body weight; serum TSH, FT3, FT4 levels; and outside temperature were compared among groups.Results: No significant visualization of BAT was noted in any of the images included in the THW, rhTSH, hypothyroidism, and hyperthyroidism groups. Serum TSH level was significantly in the rhTSH group and significantly low in the hyperthyroidism group. Elevated serum TSH was noted in the THW and hypothyroidism group. All patients in the BAT group were in a euthyroid state. In comparison of BAT-negative and -positive patients, the minimum and maximum temperature on the day of the PET study and maximum temperature of the one day before of the PET study were significantly lower in BAT positive patients than those of other groups.Conculusion: In summary, we investigated the influence of TH on the visualization of activated BAT on FDG-PET/CT images of patients with various conditions. Although TH was considered to be associated with thermogenesis through UCP1 gene expression and D2 in BAT, elevated TSH status before RIT, hyperthyroidism, or hypothyroidism did not significantly impact BAT visualization and the interpretation of clinical FDG-PET/CT images.SNMMI 201

Development of radioiodine-labeled 4-hydroxyphenylcysteamine for specific diagnosis of malignant melanoma.

A specific diagnosis for melanoma is strongly desired because malignant melanoma has poor prognosis. In a previous study, although radioiodine-125-labeled 4-hydroxyphenyl-L-cysteine ((125)I-L-PC) was found to have good substrate affinity for tyrosinase enzyme in the melanin metabolic pathway, (123/131)I-L-PC had insufficient substrate affinity for tyrosinase to diagnose melanoma. In this study, we synthesized 4-hydroxyphenylcysteamine (4-PCA) and developed a novel radioiodine-125-labeled 4-hydroxyphenylcysteamine ((125)I-PCA) to increase affinity for the melanin biosynthesis pathway