Artificial Intelligence and the Simulationists.

The recent introduction of ChatGPT, an advanced, easy-to-use, and freely available artificial intelligence (AI) program, created new possibilities across many industries and professions including healthcare simulation. ChatGPT has the potential to streamline healthcare simulation-based education while also providing insights for the scenario development process that conventional case development may miss. However, there are issues related to accuracy, relevance, and structure of the products produced by the ChatGPT AI program.

Seven-year efficacy and safety outcomes of Bulkamid for the treatment of stress urinary incontinence.

Aims: Bulking agents are a minimally invasive treatment option for women with stress urinary incontinence (SUI) or stress-predominant mixed urinary incontinence (MUI). The aim of this study was to evaluate long-term efficacy and safety following treatment with Bulkamid as a primary procedure for SUI or stress-predominant MUI.

Methods: This was an Institutional Review Board-approved single-center retrospective study of female patients with SUI or stress-predominant MUI who had undergone injection with Bulkamid since 2005 and had completed 7 years of follow up.

Reduced plasmalogen concentration as a surrogate marker of oxidative stress in elderly septic patients.

Severe sepsis is reportedly accompanied by oxidative stress with a depletion of antioxidant defense. We estimated plasmalogen vinyl ether bond (PVEB) levels in blood plasma of 20 elderly patients with initial severe sepsis, serving as a sensitive surrogate marker of oxidative stress, and compared them with standard markers, i.e.

Study of telomere length and different markers of oxidative stress in patients with Parkinson's disease.

Background: Many studies have shown that short telomere length (TL) is associated with high oxidative stress and various age-related diseases. Parkinson's disease (PD) is an age-related disease, and although its pathogenic mechanism is uncertain, oxidative stress is believed to be implicated in this pathology. The aim of this case-control study was to assess both TL and the different markers of oxidative stress in elderly patients with PD compared to age control subjects.

A grief team within a healthcare system.

Grief is an emotion experienced by many nurses upon the death of a patient, and, far too often, the nurse may not know how to deal effectively with his or her grief. This article describes the development of a grief team within a hospital setting to assist nurses in coping with grief.

Enhanced external counterpulsation.

Ischemic heart disease that is refractory or resistant to medical management is a concern to health team members, patients, and their families. These patients are limited in their abilities to perform activities of daily living and often find it difficult to exercise which negatively affects their quality of life. Some patients are confined to bed rest due to these limitations.

Effect of borage oil consumption on fatty acid metabolism, transepidermal water loss and skin parameters in elderly people.

Human skin is not able to biosynthesize gamma-linolenic acid (GLA, 18:3omega6) from the precursor linoleic acid (LA), or arachidonic acid (AA) from dihomo-gamma-linolenic acid (DHGLA). Dietary supplementation with GLA-rich seed oil of borage skips the step of hepatic 6-desaturation of fatty acids (FA) and, therefore, compensates the lack of these essential FA in conditions with impaired activity of delta 6-desaturase. Twenty-nine healthy elderly people (mean age 68.

Death, dying, and the ICU nurse.

Death is a natural progression from life. Most nurses will be exposed to the physical and emotional effects of this experience as they care for a dying patient. The nurse is taught how to provide support for the patient and family as they proceed through the stages of grief.

Decreased concentrations of serum phospholipid plasmalogens indicate oxidative burden of uraemic patients undergoing haemodialysis.

Experimental evidence indicates that uraemic patients undergoing haemodialysis are subject to increased oxidative stress. Plasmalogens are a phospholipid subclass found in cell membranes and plasma lipoproteins, which may work as an endogenous antioxidant. Using gas chromatography, we measured reduced portions of fatty aldehyde dimethyl acetals (16:0 DMA and 18:0 DMA, representing derivatives of plasmalogens) in fatty acid patterns of fasting serum phospholipids from 30 patients with chronic renal failure (CRF) receiving repeated ambulatory haemodialysis, as compared to 99 normal control subjects (CS).

Age-associated changes in integral cholesterol and cholesterol sulfate concentrations in human scalp hair and finger nail clippings.

In contrast to surface lipids originating from the sebaceous glands, membrane-forming integral lipids occur in keratinized tissues of skin, and skin appendages like fingernail plates or scalp hair. After removal of lipids of sebaceous origin by exhaustive solvent extraction, lyophilizing and hydrolyzing fingernail plate and scalp hair samples, fractions of integral cholesterol (CH) and cholesterol sulfate (CS) were quantified using gas chromatography. We studied these bound lipids and the serum lipids of 70 healthy subjects, aged 20.

Plasmalogen levels in serum from patients with impaired carbohydrate or lipid metabolism and in elderly subjects with normal metabolic values.

The precise role played by plasmalogen phospholipids (PL) of lipoproteins and cell membranes is not well understood. However, they might act as endogenous antioxidants in defending cell membranes and lipoproteins from reactive oxygen species. A decline of plasmalogen concentrations has been observed in some tissues in normal aging and in some pathologic conditions.

Role of plasmalogens in the enhanced resistance of LDL to copper-induced oxidation after LDL apheresis.

Extracorporeal reduction of plasma low density lipoproteins (LDLs) by LDL apheresis was shown to attenuate the proatherogenic influences of LDL, such as impairment of vasodilation and increased monocyte adhesion to the endothelium. In 16 patients with familial hypercholesterolemia, we analyzed whether LDL apheresis by the heparin precipitation procedure affected the oxidative resistance of LDL. Plasma LDL cholesterol concentrations were reduced by 65% after the apheresis.

The biological significance of plasmalogens in defense against oxidative damage.

The phospholipid class of plasmalogens is ubiquitously found in considerable amounts as a constituent of mammalian cell membranes and of plasma lipoproteins. Plasmalogens are more susceptible to oxidative reactions compared to their fatty acid ester analogues, due to the reactivity of their enolether function. Studies on plasmalogen-deficient cell lines lead to the proposal that these ether lipids serve as endogenous antioxidants.

Plasmalogen phospholipids - facts and theses to their antioxidative qualities.

Fatty aldehyde dimethyl acetals (DMA) derived from plasma and erythrocyte membrane plasmalogen phospholipids of 109 donors, aged 25-91 years, were measured as weight percent of total phospholipid fatty acids and DMA. The age range from 70 to 90 years (n = 82) was divided into age groups of five years each. Cumulative distributions of the DMA values of these age groups, when compared with those of 17 younger persons (aged 25-41 years), revealed a tendency to higher DMA values in the youngest age group, and to lower values in the oldest one.

Pelviscopic Survey in Eastern Germany.

In 1994 a survey conducted in eastern Germany reported 27,595 pelviscopies from 101 clinics and 3307 hysteroscopies from 53 clinics. Clinics reported 129 serious complications by pelviscopy that required laparotomy or second-look laparoscopy. The complication rate was 4.

[Gemfibrozil in the elderly. Effects on lipid metabolism].

Methods: Twenty patients with mixed hyperlipidemia type IIb were treated for two weeks with the lipid lowering agent gemfibrozil at a dose of 900 mg/day. The mean age of the 10 younger ambulatory patients was 32.3 +/- 4.

Effective lovastatin therapy in elderly hypercholesterolemic patients - an antioxidative impact?

The effect of 3 months lovastatin therapy on serum lipids, apolipoproteins, alpha-tocopherol and red cell membrane fatty acid pattern was assessed in twelve elderly ambulatory patients (mean age 70.9+/-8.0 years) with hypercholesterolemia type IIa according to Fredrickson.

Plasmalogen phospholipids in plasma lipoproteins of normolipidemic donors and patients with hypercholesterolemia treated by LDL apheresis.

Recent evidence indicates that plasmalogen phospholipids are particularly sensitive to oxidation and may possess antioxidative properties. Approximately 4.4%-5.

[Symptoms of ovarian failure after hysterectomy in premenopausal women. A retrospective study based on postoperative perception of 245 women].

A total of 437 patients who had undergone hysterectomy in the department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Heinrich Braun Clinic, Zwickau, between 1982 and 1992 were asked about vegetative and psychological problems after the operation. All were under 42 years old and had at least one ovary left intact. In all, 245 women returned the questionnaires.

[Tubal sterilization in the new unified Germany--results of a survey].

A total of 4 statistical reviews of pelviscopic surgery had been issued in the Federal Republic of Germany until 1988. The five new federal states started such reviewing first in 1989 by quoting the number of tubal sterilization at 800. Our study, covering the period from May 31, 1991 to June 01, 1992 reveals an increase in pelviscopic surgery up to 20,000 with upward tendency.

[Development of gynecologic endoscopy in Germany--a statistical overview 1989 to 1993].

The first statistical report on pelvioscopy/laparoscopy of total Germany covers a five years period from 1989, 01.01 to 1993 31.12.