Implementing a system to evaluate quality assurance in rehabilitation in Greece.

BACKGROUND: Use of a widely accepted quality assurance tool is an essential procedure of effective and result-oriented quality management in the rehabilitation sector, and generally in health care and social services, but is still lacking in Greece. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to explore to what extent a Quality Assurance System in Rehabilitation (QASR) in the Greek setting could respond to the needs for quality evaluation of the facilities for people with a disability and to discuss possibilities of its use in rehabilitation organizations, sites and hospitals. METHODS: The European Quality in Social Services (EQUASS) Assurance self-assessment questionnaire was officially translated and used as the basis for the new tool, which consisted of 110 questions in 11 sections on development and 6 questions on its evaluation. This tool was tested in 15 specialized centers. RESULTS: The study received a high (93.75%) response rate. Overall score ranged from 11% to one perfect 100%; 53.3% of the facilities fell short of the preset qualification standards, while 4 (26.7%) were qualified for level-1 accreditation. Evaluation of the QASR questionnaire for the function of the rehabilitation facilities for the disabled was extremely positive. CONCLUSIONS: The EQUASS assurance-based Greek QASR has received proper attention in its first implementation and it was shown promising to assess the needs of sites that would like to improve their services. The next steps are to establish its validity and reliability so that it can significantly emerge as the standard system for guiding policy in the rehabilitation sector in Greece

John C. Carapanayiotis (1909. – 1999.): grčki radiolog i pionir fizijatrije u Grčkoj

John C. Carapanayiotis was specialized in physical medicine and rehabilitation in the USA in 1948, at a time when the medical world in post-war Greece was ignorant of this specific medical specialty, and the political, economic and social backdrop was incapable of accepting and understanding the wealth of scientific knowledge that he was trying to introduce. At this point it should be noted that the specialty of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation was established in Greece in 1973. John C. Carapanayiotis was a member of the American Congress of Physical Medicine during the 1950’s. In the same period, he expressed interest, on behalf of the New York University, in the establishment of a Physical Therapy Clinic in Greece, which would be granted unlimited funding by the Marshal Plan. His efforts clashed constantly with the backward mentality of his time, with the entrenched conservatism and with the bureaucratic red tape. Unfortunately, he was far ahead of his time and was condemned to the same fate as all other visionaries and pioneers in the way that his knowledge and scientific background were not put into practice for decades to come.John C. Carapanayiotis specijalizirao je fizikalnu medicine i rehabilitaciju 1948. u SAD-u, u vrijeme kada medicinski svijet u poslijeratnoj Grčkoj još nije bio upoznat s ovom specifičnom medicinskom specijalizacijom, a politička, ekonomska i društvena pozadina nije bila spremna prihvatiti bogatstvo znanstvenih spoznaja koje je pokušavao uvesti. Specijalizacija fizikalne medicine i rehabilitacije u Grčkoj je osnovana 1973. godine. John C. Carapanayiotis bio je član Američkog kongresa fizikalne medicine tijekom 1950-ih. U istom je razdoblju izrazio zainteresiranost, u ime Sveučilišta u New Yorku, za osnivanje Klinike za fizikalnu terapiju u Grčkoj, kojoj bi Marshallovim planom bilo odobreno neograničeno financiranje. Njegovi su se napori stalno sukobljavali s nazadnim mentalitetom njegova vremena, s ukorijenjenim konzervativizmom i birokracijom. Bio je daleko ispred svoga vremena, osuđen na sudbinu svih ostalih vizionara i pionira kojima se znanje i znanstvena pozadina nisu primjenjivali još desetljećima

Dimitrios Mavrokordatos (1811-1839), the eve of the Hellenic School of Anatomy in modern era Greece

Dimitrios Alexandrou Mavrokordatos was the first regular professor of Anatomy and Physiology of the Hellenic “Othonian” University of Athens. He had completed his studies in Germany and thus he had been chosen to stimulate the empirical physicians of Greece to awaken. He died young, but his passion was so great that he had published a masterpiece in the new Greece, “On the anatomy of the human body”, and left his fortune for his pupils, even though they had rebelled against him sometime before his death. With his teaching and book he established a kind of Greek “nomina anatomica” which formed the basis for medicine in the newly born country

Lack of an association between SCFD1 rs10139154 polymorphism and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease. Through a genome‑wide association study (GWAS), the Sec1 family domain‑containing protein 1 (SCFD1) rs10139154 variant at 14q12 has emerged as a risk factor gene for ALS. Moreover, it has been reported to influence the age at onset (AAO) of patients with ALS. The aim of the present study was to assess the association of the SCFD1 rs10139154 polymorphism with the risk of developing ALS. For this purpose, 155 patients with sporadic ALS and 155 healthy controls were genotyped for the SCFD1 rs10139154. The effect of the SCFD1 rs10139154 polymorphism was then examined on the following parameters: i) The risk of developing ALS; ii) the AAO of ALS; iii) the site of ALS onset (patients with bulbar onset ALS vs. healthy controls; and patients with limb onset ALS vs. healthy controls); and iv) the AAO of ALS onset with subgroup analyses based on the site of onset (bulbar and limb, crude and adjusted for sex). The analysis of all the outcomes was performed assuming five genetic models. Crude and adjusted analyses were applied. The threshold for statistical significance was set at 0.05. The results revealed no association between SCFD1 rs10139154 and any of the examined phenotypes in any of the models examined. On the whole, based on the findings of the present study, SCFD1 rs10139154 does not appear to play a determining role in the risk of developing ALS

Detection of O-Linked-N-Acetylglucosamine Modification and Its Associated Enzymes in Human Degenerated Intervertebral Discs

Study DesignHuman herniated discs were obtained from discectomy specimens for the immunohistochemical detection of O-GlcNAc and O-GlcNAcase (OGA)/O-GlcNAc transferase (OGT).PurposeThis study aimed to quantify the extent of O-GlcNAcylation and its associated enzymes (OGT/OGA) in human degenerated intervertebral discs.Overview of LiteratureThe O-GlcNAcylation of nuclear, cytoplasmic, and mitochondrial proteins as well as the effects of such post-translational modifications are currently the focus of extensive research. O-GlcNAcylation is believed to contribute to the etiology of chronic illnesses by acting as a nutrient and stress sensor in the cellular environment. Mature intervertebral disc cells are chondrocyte-like cells, and O-GlcNAc has been shown to promote chondrocyte apoptosis in vitro. We believe that O-GlcNAcylation is a key regulator of disc degeneration.MethodsFifty-six specimens were fixed for 24 hours in a 10% solution of neutral-buffered formaldehyde, dehydrated, and embedded in paraffin. Tissue slices (4-µm-thick) were used for hematoxylin-eosin staining and immunohistochemistry.ResultsWe found that O-GlcNAcylation of cytoplasmic proteins was less than that of nuclear proteins in both single cells and cell clusters. Cytoplasmic O-GlcNAcylation occurs subsequent to nuclear O-GlcNAcylation and is directly proportional to disc degeneration. OGT and O-GlcNAc expression levels were identical in all specimens examined.ConclusionsO-GlcNAc and OGA/OGT expression is shown to correlate for the first time with intervertebral disc cell degeneration. Increasing disc degeneration is associated with increasing O-GlcNAcylation in both nuclear and cytoplasmic proteins in human disc cells

In-hospital informal caregivers' needs as perceived by themselves and by the nursing staff in Northern Greece: A descriptive study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Informal care is common in many countries, especially in Greece, where families provide care in hospitals. Health education and informational needs are important factors for family members which are often underestimated by nursing staff. The aim of this study was to compare the perceptions of the nurses and the in-hospital informal caregivers about the in-hospital informal caregivers' knowledge and informational needs, as well as the factors that influence these perceptions.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This was a non-experimental descriptive study conducted in three general hospitals in Greece. The sample consisted of 320 nurses and 370 in-hospital informal caregivers who completed questionnaires. Descriptive statistics were analyzed using t-tests; group comparisons were conducted using ANOVA.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The score of the questionnaire for health education and informational needs was significantly greater for informal caregivers (57.1 ± 6.9 and 26.6 ± 2.8) than for nurses (53.4 ± 5.7 and 22.4 ± 3.1) (p < 0.001). For the nursing staff, the factors that influence the informational needs of patients' caregivers were <it>level of education </it>and <it>working experience</it>, while for the caregivers the <it>level of education </it>was independently associated with the score for the health education needs. Finally, <it>age, marital status</it>, and <it>level of education </it>of informal caregivers' were independently associated with informational needs.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The in-hospital informal caregivers perceived that they have more educational and informational needs than the nurses did. The findings of this study also show that the nursing staff has to identify the needs of in-hospital informal caregivers in order to be able to meet these needs.</p

GLAVNA OBILJEŽJA POVIJESTI ORTOPEDSKIH IMPLANTANATA KOD TRAUMA I ZAMJENE ZGLOBOVA

This manuscript represents an attempt to review orthopaedic implants and reconstructive orthopaedic surgery for lower limbs lesions or trauma mainly in the 20th century. We emphasized on the type of implants, the biomaterials and their evolution, and we also engaged in a special reference for the pioneers of orthopaedic implant surgery and the innovative designers of those implants, in such a way to understand the ways and the stages through which they evolved to their present forms, as well as the scientific principles that affected their design and progress. A correlation between the evolution of implants and several relevant disciplines (biomaterial chemists and engineers, biomechanics) that developed simultaneously with orthopaedic reconstructive joint surgery is present since the first attempts to reconstruct a damaged joint. In the future, further progress is anticipated in the use of biomaterials, more compatible towards human biology, with minimally invasive applications and a perpetually increased life span. This progress depicts a phenomenon directly related to a multilevel, multifactorial and interdisciplinary scientific and technological field with many expectations.Ovaj rad predstavlja pokušaj pregleda ortopedskih implantata i rekonstruktivne ortopedske kirurgije kod lezija ili trauma donjih udova većinom tijekom 20. stoljeća. Naglasak je na tipu implantata, biomaterijalima i njihovu razvoju, ali smo se posebice osvrnuli na pionire ortopedske kirurgije implantata i inovativne dizajnere tih implantata kako bismo shvatili na koji su se način i kroz koje faze razvijali do današnjih oblika, kao i na znanstvene principe koji su utjecali na njihov dizajn i razvoj. Veza između razvoja implantata i nekoliko relevantnih disciplina (biomaterijalna kemija i inženjerstvo, biomehanika) koje su se razvijale paralelno s ortopedskom rekonstruktivnom kirurgijom zglobova prisutna je od prvih pokušaja rekonstrukcije oštećenog zgloba. Anticipira se daljnji napredak u korištenju biomaterijala, kompatibilnijih s ljudskom biologijom, s minimalno invazivnom primjenom i stalno rastućim životnim vijekom. Stoga govorimo o fenomenu direktno povezanom s multirazinskim, multifaktorskim i interdisciplinarnim znanstvenim i tehnološkim perspektivnim poljem

A method for reconstruction of finger prints in cadavers burned to death

In this report a laboratory research for the taking of papillary marks in bodies burned to death is described; it is a modified technique with respect to those proposed, in literature, from other authors. This methodology consists of submitting the dermic surface of the digital pulps, previously cleaned with solvent, to a process of hydration through solution of sodium hydroxide and Η₂O₂ that whiten the sample. The above mentioned procedures give turgidity and consistency to the samples, and therefore the making of the digital pulps is possible.Περιγράφεται μία εργαστηριακή μέθοδος με τροποποιήσεις σε σχέση με τις προτεινόμενες στη βιβλιογραφία από διάφορους συγγραφείς, για τη λήψη των δακτυλικών αποτυπωμάτων σε απανθρακωμένα πτώματα. Αυτή συνίσταται, στο να υποβληθεί η δερμική επιφάνεια των ραγών που προληπτικά έχει υποστεί μονιμοποίηση με φυσιολογικό ορό και θερμότητα 58° C με τη χρήση μικροκυμάτων, να καθαρισθεί με διάλυμα για να απομακρυνθούν τα προϊόντα της καύσης και στη συνέχεια να υποβληθεί στη διαδικασία ενυδάτωσης και λεύκανσης του δείγματος μέσω της χρήσης NaOH και πυκνού υπεροξειδίου του υδρογόνου (Η₂O₂), αφού προηγηθεί αφαίρεση της τυχόν υπάρχουσας επιδερμίδας. Οι διαδικασίες αυτές, δίνουν σπαργή και σύσταση στα δείγματα, κάνοντας δυνατή τη λήψη του αποτυπώματος των δερματικών θηλών των δακτύλων