The contribution of dietitians to the primary health care workforce.

Introduction: Dietetic intervention is effective in the management of nutrition-related conditions and their comorbidities. New Zealand has an increasing need for primary and preventive health care to reduce the burden of non-communicable disease.

Aim: To review the recent evidence of effectiveness of dietetic intervention in primary health care on health and wider economic outcomes.

Dietary sugars and cardiometabolic risk: systematic review and meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials of the effects on blood pressure and lipids.

Background: Dietary sugars have been suggested as a cause of obesity, several chronic diseases, and a range of cardiometabolic risk factors, but there is no convincing evidence of a causal relation between sugars and risk factors other than body weight.

Objective: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials that examined effects of the modification of dietary free sugars on blood pressure and lipids.

Design: Systematic searches were conducted in OVID Medline, Embase, Scopus, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, and Web of Science databases (to August 2013) to identify studies that reported intakes of free sugars and at least one lipid or blood pressure outcome.

Computed tomography (CT) angiography for confirmation of the clinical diagnosis of brain death.

Background: The diagnosis of death using neurological criteria (brain death) has profound social, legal and ethical implications. The diagnosis can be made using standard clinical tests examining for brain function, but in some patient populations and in some countries additional tests may be required. Computed tomography (CT) angiography, which is currently in wide clinical use, has been identified as one such test.