Practice recommendations regarding parental presence in NICUs during pandemics caused by respiratory pathogens like COVID-19.

Aim: To co-create parental presence practice recommendations across Canadian NICUs during pandemics caused by respiratory pathogens such as COVID-19.

Methods: Recommendations were developed through evidence, context, Delphi and Values and Preferences methods. For Delphi 1 and 2, participants rated 50 items and 20 items respectively on a scale from 1 (very low importance) to 5 (very high).

Effect of a Bayesian Penalized Likelihood PET Reconstruction Compared With Ordered Subset Expectation Maximization on Clinical Image Quality Over a Wide Range of Patient Weights.

Objective: A study was performed to compare background liver signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and visually assessed image quality of clinical PET/CT studies from the same PET acquisition data reconstructed by Bayesian penalized likelihood (BPL) and ordered subset expectation maximization (OSEM) over a range of patient weights.

Materials And Methods: The effect of a BPL PET reconstruction algorithm on liver SNR and visually assessed image quality over a range of patient weights (41-196 kg; n = 108) was retrospectively compared with standard-of-care OSEM reconstruction on the same PET acquisition data after IV administration of F-FDG (4 MBq/kg).

Results: BPL showed no significant change (p > 0.

Effect of tubing length on the dispersion correction of an arterially sampled input function for kinetic modeling in PET.

Objective: Arterial sampling with dispersion correction is routinely performed for kinetic analysis of PET studies. Because of the the advent of PET-MRI systems, non-MR safe instrumentation will be required to be kept outside the scan room, which requires the length of the tubing between the patient and detector to increase, thus worsening the effects of dispersion.

Methods: We examined the effects of dispersion in idealized radioactive blood studies using various lengths of tubing (1.

Susceptibility of the pilot balloon of the disposable laryngeal mask airway to puncture during laser therapy.

The tube of the laryngeal mask airway is frequently protected by foil during ablative laser procedures. The pilot balloon, however, is often left exposed. The effect of firing seven different cutaneous lasers at the pilot balloon of a disposable laryngeal mask airway was examined to assess its susceptibility to accidental laser strikes.

The GP's response to pandemic influenza: a qualitative study.

Background: Current pandemic influenza plans to place GPs at the front line of a pandemic influenza response. However, little is known about GPs' perceptions of their role and preparedness in the event of a pandemic occurring.

Objective: Our aim was to assess general practice preparedness to respond to pandemic influenza and to identify issues that need to be addressed to enhance preparedness for the next pandemic.