A 47-Year-Old Man with Fever and Rash.

A 47-Year-Old Man with Fever and RashA 47-year-old man presented for evaluation of fevers, rash, and diffuse muscle aches. How do you approach the evaluation, and what is the differential diagnosis?

Appropriateness of peripherally inserted central catheter use among general medical inpatients: an observational study using routinely collected data.

Background: Peripherally inserted central catheters (PICC) are among the most commonly used medical devices in hospital. This study sought to determine the appropriateness of inpatient PICC use in general medicine at five academic hospitals in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, based on the Michigan Appropriateness Guide for Intravenous Catheters (MAGIC).

Methods: This was a retrospective, cross-sectional study of general internal medicine patients discharged between 1 April 2010 and 31 March 2015 who received a PICC during hospitalisation.

Association of hospital and physician case volumes with cardiac monitoring and cardiotoxicity during adjuvant trastuzumab treatment for breast cancer: a retrospective cohort study.

Background: Adjuvant trastuzumab is the standard of care for patients with HER2 overexpressing breast cancer, but use of trastuzumab may lead to cardiotoxicity. Our goal was to evaluate the relationship between hospital and physician case volume and cardiac outcomes in this population.

Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, we identified all female patients in Ontario with a breast cancer diagnosis in 2003-2009 who underwent treatment with trastuzumab through a provincial drug-funding program and linked these patients to administrative databases to ascertain patient demographics, treating hospital and physician characteristics, admissions to hospital, cardiac risk factors, cardiac imaging and comorbidities.

Associations among socioeconomic status, patterns of care and outcomes in breast cancer patients in a universal health care system: Ontario's experience.

Background: The Canadian health care system provides equitable access to equivalent standards of care. The authors investigated to determine whether patients with breast cancer who had different socioeconomic status (SES) received different care and had different overall survival (OS) in Ontario, Canada.

Methods: Women who were diagnosed with breast cancer between 2004 and 2009 were identified from the Ontario Cancer Registry and linked to provincial databases to ascertain patient demographics, screening, diagnosis, treatment patterns, and survival.

A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis of Biologic Agents in the First Line Setting for Advanced Colorectal Cancer.

Background: Epithelial growth factor receptor inhibitors (EGFRis) and bevacizumab (BEV) are used in combination with chemotherapy for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). However, few randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have directly compared their relative efficacy on progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS).

Methods: We conducted a systematic review of first-line RCTs comparing (1) EGFRis vs.

Chemoradiotherapy regimens for locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma: A Bayesian network meta-analysis.

Background: Concurrent chemoradiotherapy followed by adjuvant chemotherapy (CRT-A) is often the regimen of choice in locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Many alternative regimens have been reported in the literature, however, it is unknown how effective these regimens are compared to each other due to the lack of direct comparisons. Our objective was to perform a network meta-analysis (NMA) to determine the relative survival benefits of these treatments for locoregionally advanced NPC.

High-throughput generation of hydrogel microbeads with varying elasticity for cell encapsulation.

Elasticity of cellular microenvironments strongly influences cell motility, phagocytosis, growth and differentiation. Currently, the relationship between the cell behaviour and matrix stiffness is being studied for cells seeded on planar substrates, however in three-dimensional (3D) microenvironments cells may experience mechanical signalling that is distinct from that on a two-dimensional matrix. We report a microfluidic approach for high-throughput generation of 3D microenvironments with different elasticity for studies of cell fate.

Electrochemical sensing in paper-based microfluidic devices.

This paper describes the fabrication and the performance of microfluidic paper-based electrochemical sensing devices (we call the microfluidic paper-based electrochemical devices, microPEDs). The microPEDs comprise paper-based microfluidic channels patterned by photolithography or wax printing, and electrodes screen-printed from conducting inks (e.g.

A microfluidic approach to chemically driven assembly of colloidal particles at gas-liquid interfaces.

Bubbling up: Dissolution of CO(2) bubbles in a suspension of colloidal particles chemically induces the assembly of particles on the surface of shrunken bubbles, and thus yields rapid continuous formation of a colloidal armor. This approach maintains the high colloidal stability of particles in bulk, has increased productivity, and allows the formation of bubbles with precisely controlled dimensions.