Introduction: Stroke can have profound psychosocial health implications. These constructs are often overlooked and undertreated yet can be as devastating as the physical, functional, and cognitive consequences after stroke.
Aim: This scientific statement aims to evaluate 5 important aspects of psychosocial health (depression, stress, anxiety, fatigue, and quality of life) after a stroke to provide a framework for related nursing care across the poststroke continuum.
Background: The European University Hospitals Alliance (EUHA) recognises the need to move from the classical approach of measuring key performance indicators (KPIs) to an anticipative approach based on predictable indicators to take decisions (Key Decision Indicators, KDIs). It might help managers to anticipate poor results before they occur to prevent or correct them early.
Objective: This paper aims to identify potential KDIs and to prioritize those most relevant for high complexity hospitals.
Background: The appropriate choice of perioperative sedation during endovascular thrombectomy for ischemic stroke is unknown. Few studies have evaluated the role of nursing-administered conscious sedation supervised by a trained interventionalist.
Objective: To compare the safety and efficacy of endovascular thrombectomy for ischemic stroke performed with nursing-administered conscious sedation supervised by a trained interventionalist with monitored anesthesia care supervised by an anesthesiologist.
Stroke center certification has evolved at a rapid pace and is now available at 4 different levels of service in the United States. Although certification standards provide guidance on stroke center process elements, lack of guidance on structural components such as workforce, staffing, and unit operations has resulted in heterogeneous services among hospitals credentialed at the same stroke center level. Such heterogeneity challenges public expectations and transparency about actual service capabilities within American stroke centers and in some cases may foster leniency in credentialing agency certification methods.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Many reports have described a decrease in the numbers of patients seeking medical attention for typical emergencies during the COVID-19 pandemic. These reports primarily relate to urban areas with widespread community transmission. The impact of COVID-19 on nonurban areas with minimal community transmission is less well understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Current strategies for preventing severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection are limited to nonpharmacologic interventions. Hydroxychloroquine has been proposed as a postexposure therapy to prevent coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), but definitive evidence is lacking.
Methods: We conducted an open-label, cluster-randomized trial involving asymptomatic contacts of patients with polymerase-chain-reaction (PCR)-confirmed Covid-19 in Catalonia, Spain.
Background: No effective treatments for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) exist. We aimed to determine whether early treatment with hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) would be efficacious for outpatients with COVID-19.
Methods: Multicenter open-label, randomized, controlled trial conducted in Catalonia, Spain, between 17 March and 26 May 2020.
In December 2019, a conference entitled "Europe That Protects: Safeguarding Our Planet, Safeguarding Our Health" was held in Helsinki. It was co-organized by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, the Finnish Environment Institute and the European Commission, under the auspices of Finland's Presidency of the EU. As a side event, a symposium organized as the final POLLAR (Impact of air POLLution on Asthma and Rhinitis) meeting explored the digital transformation of health and care to sustain planetary health in airway diseases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Accurate risk adjustment is crucial for healthcare management and benchmarking.
Purpose: We aimed to compare the performance of classic comorbidity functions (Charlson's and Elixhauser's), of the All Patients Refined Diagnosis Related Groups (APR-DRG), and of the Queralt Indices, a family of novel, comprehensive comorbidity indices for the prediction of key clinical outcomes in hospitalized patients.
Material And Methods: We conducted an observational, retrospective cohort study using administrative healthcare data from 156,459 hospital discharges in Catalonia (Spain) during 2018.
Objectives: To determine the changes in the pattern of death of patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) throughout 20 years.
Methods: Data were collected from the Spanish Scleroderma Registry (RESCLE), retrospective multicentre database from 1990 to 2009. SSc-related and SSc-non related causes of death were assessed.
Objectives: Drug interactions, poor adherence to medication and high-risk sexual behaviour may occur in individuals with HIV using recreational drugs. Thus, we aimed to assess the prevalence of recreational drugs use and to explore its clinical impact in HIV patients on treatment.
Methods: Observational, cross sectional, study conducted in a 700 bed university hospital, Barcelona, Spain.
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccination is recommended for all susceptible chronic pre-hemodialysis and hemodialysis patients. This study assessed the immunogenicity of HBV vaccines (adjuvanted and non-adjuvanted) in chronic kidney disease patients vaccinated at the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona (Spain) between January 2007 and July 2012. In addition, the costs for the health system were evaluated accor-ding to the proportion of vaccine responders after receiving either vaccine.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To analyse the perception, use and satisfaction of a group of immigrants living in Barcelona taking into account their gender, origin and social class.
Design: Cross sectional study.
Location: City of Barcelona, Spain.
Background: The financing of antiretroviral therapy (ART) is generally determined by the cost incurred in the previous year, the number of patients on treatment, and the evidence-based recommendations, but not the clinical characteristics of the population.
Objective: To establish a score relating the cost of ART and patient clinical complexity in order to understand the costing differences between hospitals in the region that could be explained by the clinical complexity of their population.
Methods: Retrospective analysis of patients receiving ART in a tertiary hospital between 2009 and 2011.
Background: Adherence problems, interactions and higher rate of risk activities have been observed in HIV individuals using recreational drugs. Our aim was to describe recreational drug use in both HIV individuals and general population in Europe, and to assess at what extent HIV guidelines address this issue.
Methods: Data on recreational drug use across Europe were obtained from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction for the general population, and through Pubmed search.
Acute human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection (AHI) refers to the period between viral transmission and development of an adaptive immune response to HIV antigens (seroconversion) usually lasting 6-8 weeks. Rare cases have been described in which HIV-infected patients fail to seroconvert and instead, develop rapid HIV-mediated clinical decline. We report the case of a Mozambican woman with AHI and malaria coinfection who showed atypical seroconversion and experienced rapid deterioration and death within 14 weeks of diagnosis with AHI.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPeak age at onset of systemic sclerosis (SSc) is between 20 and 50 years, although SSc is also described in both young and elderly patients. We conducted the present study to determine if age at disease onset modulates the clinical characteristics and outcome of SSc patients. The Spanish Scleroderma Study Group recruited 1037 patients with a mean follow-up of 5.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Intermittent Preventive Treatment (IPTp) and insecticide treated nets (ITNs) are recommended malaria in pregnancy preventive interventions in sub-Saharan Africa. Despite their cost-effectiveness and seemingly straight-forward delivery mechanism, their uptake remains low. We aimed at describing perceptions of pregnant women regarding malaria and the recommended prevention interventions to understand barriers to uptake and help to improve their effectiveness.
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