Exploring the experiences of living with Lewy body dementia: An integrative review.

Aim: Lewy body dementia is a common neurodegenerative dementia with unique challenges in managing day-to-day life. A more in-depth multifaceted picture of the Lewy body dementia lived experience will enable identification of best practice and future research direction. The review aim was to explore experiences of people living with Lewy body dementia and their family carers.

Introduction of a Management Toolkit for Lewy Body Dementia: A Pilot Cluster-Randomized Trial.

Background: Lewy body dementia, comprising both dementia with Lewy bodies and Parkinson's disease dementia, is challenging to manage because of a complex symptom profile and lack of clear evidence-based management guidelines.

Objectives: We assessed the feasibility of undertaking a cluster randomized study of the introduction of an evidence-based management toolkit for Lewy body dementia, assessing the outcomes for patients and carers as secondary measures.

Methods: We randomized 23 memory/dementia, movement disorder, or nonspecialist secondary care services to the management toolkit or usual care.

Clinical diagnosis of Lewy body dementia.

Background: Lewy body dementia, consisting of both dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and Parkinson's disease dementia (PDD), is considerably under-recognised clinically compared with its frequency in autopsy series.

Aims: This study investigated the clinical diagnostic pathways of patients with Lewy body dementia to assess if difficulties in diagnosis may be contributing to these differences.

Method: We reviewed the medical notes of 74 people with DLB and 72 with non-DLB dementia matched for age, gender and cognitive performance, together with 38 people with PDD and 35 with Parkinson's disease, matched for age and gender, from two geographically distinct UK regions.

Advance care plans and hospitalized frail older adults: a systematic review.

Introduction: Frail older people are known to have low rates of advance care planning (ACP). Many frail patients prefer less aggressive treatment, but these preferences are often not known or respected. Frail patients often have multiple hospital admissions, potentially providing opportunities for ACP.

Clinical prevalence of Lewy body dementia.

Background: The prevalence of dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and dementia in Parkinson's disease (PDD) in routine clinical practice is unclear. Prevalence rates observed in clinical and population-based cohorts and neuropathological studies vary greatly. Small sample sizes and methodological factors in these studies limit generalisability to clinical practice.

It is time to abandon age-based emergency weight estimation in children! A failed validation of 20 different age-based formulas.

Aim: When children's weight cannot be measured during medical emergencies, it must be estimated, as weight is required for many interventions. Age-based formulas are the oldest weight estimation systems in children, but have been shown to be very inaccurate in many studies. This aim of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of age- and length-based formulas and to see if a measure of body habitus could be used to improve the performance of these formulas.

The clinical and cost effectiveness of a Breathlessness Intervention Service for patients with advanced non-malignant disease and their informal carers: mixed findings of a mixed method randomised controlled trial.

Background: Breathlessness is the most common and intrusive symptom of advanced non-malignant respiratory and cardiac conditions. The Breathlessness Intervention Service (BIS) is a multi-disciplinary complex intervention, theoretically underpinned by a palliative care approach, utilising evidence-based non-pharmacological and pharmacological interventions to support patients with advanced disease in managing their breathlessness. Having published the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of BIS for patients with advanced cancer and their carers, we sought to establish its effectiveness, and cost effectiveness, in advanced non-malignant conditions.

Is a specialist breathlessness service more effective and cost-effective for patients with advanced cancer and their carers than standard care? Findings of a mixed-method randomised controlled trial.

Background: Breathlessness is common in advanced cancer. The Breathlessness Intervention Service (BIS) is a multi-disciplinary complex intervention theoretically underpinned by a palliative care approach, utilising evidence-based non-pharmacological and pharmacological interventions to support patients with advanced disease. We sought to establish whether BIS was more effective, and cost-effective, for patients with advanced cancer and their carers than standard care.

Case management and long-term conditions: the evolution of community matrons.

It is now 10 years since the NHS Improvement Plan described a new clinical role for nurses and introduced the concept of community matrons for long-term conditions. This included conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, dementia, neurological conditions, heart failure, stroke and people with long and enduring mental illness. Despite initial concerns and scepticism about the role, community matrons continue to work with people to provide advanced clinical nursing care, often within a case-management model.