Effects of Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting Surgery on Olfactory and Taste Functions

Conclusion: Our study demonstrated that olfactory function was impaired in patients, who underwent on-pump CABG in the postoperative period, and significant impairment in taste function was present in neither off-pump nor on-pump CABG patients. However, the results of our study should be supported by more comprehensive, prospective, randomized controlled trials with more extensive patient series and by further tests

Clinical and Laboratory Characteristics of Hyperprolactinemia in Children and Adolescents: National Survey

Conclusion: We present the largest cohort of children and adolescents with hyperprolactinemia in the literature to date. Hyperprolactinemia is more common in females and cabergoline is highly effective and practical to use in adolescents, due to its biweekly dosing. Indications for surgery in pediatric cases need to be revised

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P < 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely

A state of the art of required techniques for employing activated carbon in renewable energy powered adsorption applications

This paper reviews, for the first time, the measurement adsorption characteristics techniques to facilitate optimal testing of the validity of adsorbent materials in adsorption applications. Thermo-physical properties, adsorption characteristics and modelling techniques are presented. The characterisation of material thermo-physical properties includes true and bulk densities, specific heat capacity, surface area, pore volume distribution and thermal conductivity. The adsorption characteristics were categorized into adsorption isotherms and kinetics including experimental and theoretical equations. A range of models used in the simulation of adsorption cooling systems is presented and discussed. The paper highlights the conditions for which each measurement technique is most suitable and the limitations of modelling techniques, which is a vital element in the robust assessment of the performance of adsorption cooling units

Prognostic factors in blunt abdominal trauma patients undergoing laparotomy and prognostic value of trauma scoring systems

WOS: 000437951900031Purpose: The aim of this study was determining the prognostic factors in patients treated surgically after blunt abdominal trauma and evaluating the prognostic values of trauma scoring systems. Materials and Methods: Of the 151 blunt abdominal trauma patients admitted and had laparotomy during 1st January 1998 and 31st December 2005 were reviewed retrospectively. Trauma and injury severity score (TRISS), Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II), Injury severity score (ISS), Trauma score (TS), Revised trauma score (RTS), CRAMS and Glasgow coma scale (GCS) scores were calculated for all patients and compared as predictors of patient outcomes. Results: The most common pattern of trauma was traffic accident injuries (73.4%) with the spleen being the most affected organ (36.5%). Major surgical complication developed in 54 (34.8%) patients postoperatively and 37 (24.5%) patients died. The accuracy rate of Trauma and injury severity score, Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II, Injury severity score, Revised trauma score, Trauma score, CRAMS and Glasgow coma scale to predict the patient outcomes was found as 92%, 87%, 80%, 72%, 69%, 68% and 66%, respectively. Conclusion: Among patients with blunt abdominal trauma treated surgically, Trauma and injury severity score and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II were found to be the best systems in prediction of patient outcomes, while age over 55, transfusion over 6 units, the time interval of more than 12 hours between trauma and operation and the development of postoperative complications were determined as independent prognostic factors

Across-shift lung function variation in cottonseed oil workers

WOS: 000240771500003PubMed ID: 16775023Background The effects of cotton dust on pulmonary function among workers employed in cotton-spinning mills are well known. However, little data exist on the prevalence of this disorder in 'non-textile' cotton industries, including cottonseed oil mills, where high levels of exposure to dust have been demonstrated. Aims This study was performed in order to determine the across-shift and across-week decline of FEV1 and respiratory symptoms among workers in a cottonseed oil mill. Methods Sixty-six exposed and 48 unexposed workers of a cottonseed oil mill in Turkey were investigated by questionnaire and lung function test (LFT). LFTs were performed before and after shift on all the working days of the week. Acute airway response was defined as an across-shift decline in FEV1 of 5% or more on the first working day. Results Smoking was the only risk factor for having respiratory symptoms. Acute airway response was more frequently observed in the exposed group as compared to the unexposed group (OR = 6.2, 95% CI = 2.3-16.7). The median across-shift decline in FEV1 on the first day (120 ml) significantly improved on the following days (10, 50, 60 and -30 ml). Conclusion Smoking appears to be the main risk factor for having respiratory symptoms. Cottonseed dust may cause an acute pulmonary function decline on the first working day, but not on the following days of the week. This decline is associated with respiratory symptoms in exposed workers

Parameter Robustness Analysis for System Function Reconstruction

The quality of images in system function reconstruction (SFR) depends on an extensive calibration scan that acquires the system matrix (SM). A change in parameters of the scanner, trajectory, or magnetic nanoparticle requires the acquisition of a new SM. In this work, we analyze the parameter robustness of SFR with simulations. We investigate the effect of utilizing an existing SM in the case of a change in the aforementioned parameters. The results show that a new calibration scan is not needed, as long as the change is sufficiently small.   Int. J. Mag. Part. Imag. 6(2), Suppl. 1, 2020, Article ID: 2009045, DOI: 10.18416/IJMPI.2020.200904

A Deblurring Model for X-space MPI Based on Coded Calibration Scenes

X-space reconstructions suffer from blurring caused by the point spread function (PSF) of the Magnetic Particle Imaging (MPI) system. Here, we propose a deep learning method for deblurring x-space reconstructed images. Our proposed method learns an end-to-end mapping between the gridding-reconstructed collinear images from two partitions of a Lissajous trajectory and the underlying magnetic nanoparticle (MNP) distribution. This nonlinear mapping is learned using measurements from a coded calibration scene (CCS) to speed up the training process. Numerical experiments show that our learning-based method can successfully deblur x-space reconstructed images across a broad range of measurement signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) following training at a moderate SNR

Left-sided appendicitis: Review of 95 published cases and a case report

AIM: To give an overview of the literature on left-sided acute appendicitis (LSAA) associated with situs inversus totalis (SIT) and midgut malrotation (MM)