Cultural Considerations: Pharmacological and Nonpharmacological Means for Improving Blood Pressure Control among Hispanic Patients

Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States, and its prevention and treatment remain a priority for the medical community. Ethnic variations account for some differences in the prevalence of hypertension and blood pressure (BP) control rates among Hispanics, indicating the need for culturally appropriate management models. Aggressive treatment strategies are key to achieving optimal BP control in high-risk Hispanic patients. Hypertension in this ethnic group continues to be a major health concern. Of note, when provided access to comprehensive care, Hispanics demonstrate similar response rates to treatment as the majority of non-Hispanic whites. This highlights the importance of effective, culturally responsive hypertension management among high-risk Hispanic patients for achieving observable, positive health outcomes

Clinicoepidemiological study of fixed drug eruption in tertiary care hospital

Background: Adverse cutaneous drug reactions pose diagnostic difficulties due to a varied clinical manifestations and broad categories of causative agents. Fixed drug eruptions (FDE) are one of them. Present study aims i) to record various clinical features of FDE, their causative agents and ii) to study the pattern of morbidity in patients with FDE in a tertiary care hospital, Rajkot, Gujarat, India.Methods: The 88 patients with FDEs attending department of dermatology, venereology and leprosy at PDU govt. medical college and hospital, Rajkot, Gujarat from September 2018 to September 2020 were included after informed consent. After taking thorough history, complete blood count and biochemical tests were done. HIV testing was done in severe reactions with generalised involvement. Appropriate treatment was given with counselling regarding the offending drug for prevention of reaction in future.Results: The male patients were more affected than female patients with M: F ratio of 1.3:1. The most common age group affected was 21-30 years (22.7%). Antimicrobials were the most common offending drugs (43.2%). None of the patients were HIV reactive in our study. No mortality was reported in our study.Conclusions: The patterns of FDE and the causative drugs are remarkably different in our study. Knowledge of patterns and the causative agents helps in prevention of same reactions in future in patients

Comparison of Methods for Purification of DNA From Rice

Three techniques were employed to purify genomic DNA from deomstic rice (Oryza sativa L). Following extraction, the DNA was electrophoresed through agarose to determine its integrity. We determined that spooling yielded better quality, through lower quantity DNA than either of the other two techniques

An innovative model using Promotores or Community Health Workers for home based dementia care

Background: Health disparities and issues with trust building and relationship building are prominent in Hispanic and underserved populations in south Texas. Community health workers can play a bridging role with underserved communities and may be essential in improving the quality and value of health care. The Texas Health and Human Services Commission certifies the training Community Health Workers under the label of “promotores”. Method: Community health workers were integrated into the primary health care team to serve as a bridge between patient/caregiver dyads and the health care team. Result: Community health workers (CHWs) connected patients to social determinants of health resources such as transportation, food pantries and/or social benefits, Medicaid services, and home care provider services. Caregiver education and resources for respite care, caregiver support in person and virtually. Additionally, CHW\u27s provided education on dementia care resources, caregiver support, recruiting and engaging Hispanic underserve participants in research. Our team was able to increase home visits by 229% to homebound patients throughout several underserved zip codes in Bexar County. This is a success as our team was able to increase health care access to persons with dementia that are homebound that may have not been seen by a healthcare provider until they required emergency care. In fact, we saw roughly 11% decrease of inpatient admissions between 2021 and 2022. Conclusion: Trust and familiarity allows the promotores to easily communicate interventions with cultural sensitivity and experiential knowledge of community values, leading to foster rapport with patients and families. The rapport and trust developed with the patients also helped to engage, and recruit Hispanic and underserved participants for research in dementia

Global patient outcomes after elective surgery: prospective cohort study in 27 low-, middle- and high-income countries.

BACKGROUND: As global initiatives increase patient access to surgical treatments, there remains a need to understand the adverse effects of surgery and define appropriate levels of perioperative care. METHODS: We designed a prospective international 7-day cohort study of outcomes following elective adult inpatient surgery in 27 countries. The primary outcome was in-hospital complications. Secondary outcomes were death following a complication (failure to rescue) and death in hospital. Process measures were admission to critical care immediately after surgery or to treat a complication and duration of hospital stay. A single definition of critical care was used for all countries. RESULTS: A total of 474 hospitals in 19 high-, 7 middle- and 1 low-income country were included in the primary analysis. Data included 44 814 patients with a median hospital stay of 4 (range 2-7) days. A total of 7508 patients (16.8%) developed one or more postoperative complication and 207 died (0.5%). The overall mortality among patients who developed complications was 2.8%. Mortality following complications ranged from 2.4% for pulmonary embolism to 43.9% for cardiac arrest. A total of 4360 (9.7%) patients were admitted to a critical care unit as routine immediately after surgery, of whom 2198 (50.4%) developed a complication, with 105 (2.4%) deaths. A total of 1233 patients (16.4%) were admitted to a critical care unit to treat complications, with 119 (9.7%) deaths. Despite lower baseline risk, outcomes were similar in low- and middle-income compared with high-income countries. CONCLUSIONS: Poor patient outcomes are common after inpatient surgery. Global initiatives to increase access to surgical treatments should also address the need for safe perioperative care. STUDY REGISTRATION: ISRCTN5181700

Cultural Considerations: Pharmacological and Nonpharmacological Means for Improving Blood Pressure Control among Hispanic Patients

Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States, and its prevention and treatment remain a priority for the medical community. Ethnic variations account for some differences in the prevalence of hypertension and blood pressure (BP) control rates among Hispanics, indicating the need for culturally appropriate management models. Aggressive treatment strategies are key to achieving optimal BP control in high-risk Hispanic patients. Hypertension in this ethnic group continues to be a major health concern. Of note, when provided access to comprehensive care, Hispanics demonstrate similar response rates to treatment as the majority of non-Hispanic whites. This highlights the importance of effective, culturally responsive hypertension management among high-risk Hispanic patients for achieving observable, positive health outcomes

Review Article Cultural Considerations: Pharmacological and Nonpharmacological Means for Improving Blood Pressure Control among Hispanic Patients

Copyright © 2012 Neela K. Patel et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States, and its prevention and treatment remain a priority for the medical community. Ethnic variations account for some differences in the prevalence of hypertension and blood pressure (BP) control rates among Hispanics, indicating the need for culturally appropriate management models. Aggressive treatment strategies are key to achieving optimal BP control in high-risk Hispanic patients. Hypertension in this ethnic group continues to be a major health concern. Of note, when provided access to comprehensive care, Hispanics demonstrate similar response rates to treatment as the majority of non-Hispanic whites. This highlights the importance of effective, culturally responsive hypertension management among high-risk Hispanic patients for achieving observable, positive health outcomes. 1