Assessment and improvement of the quality of radiotherapy treatment planning CT images using a clinically validated phantom based method and a multicentre intercomparison.

Purpose: To develop a phantom method of image quality assessment for radiotherapy planning CT protocols (head and neck (H&N) and prostate) and validate results against clinical image quality. Test with data from different scanners and suggest protocol adjustments.

Methods: Macros measured patient water-equivalent diameter and noise from clinical CT images.

Focus on people, the rest will follow.

Background: The Staff College: Leadership in Healthcare (Staff College) annual lectures were launched in 2013, with Sir Robert Francis QC delivering the first lecture following his recent report into Mid Staffs.In 2015, the lecture was dedicated to the Staff College founder and visionary leader, Professor Aidan Halligan. In 2021, Dr Navina Evans CBE, at that time Chief Executive, Health Education England, and now also Chief Workforce Officer, NHS England, was invited to give The Staff College: Leadership in Healthcare annual keynote lecture.

Hidden morbidity: The results of a collaborative community chronic obstructive pulmonary disease screening initiative.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) often goes unrecognised resulting in people living with the disease without a diagnosis. We investigated the characteristics, symptom burden and flow of participants in a community COPD screening initiative. Screening was undertaken during four events over 2-weeks.

The Impact of Scripted Pain Education on Patient Satisfaction in Outpatient Abdominal Surgery Patients.

Purpose: Practice guidelines for acute pain management in perioperative patients recommend providing consistent perioperative pain education that includes medication and behavioral techniques to control pain. However, literature indicates that most nurses deliver patient education based on personal preferences, time limitations, and availability of teaching aids. The purpose of this study was to evaluate patient satisfaction with scripted preoperative pain management education for patients undergoing outpatient abdominal surgery.

Integrated Comprehensive Care - A Case Study in Nursing Leadership and System Transformation.

Calls for transformational change of our healthcare system are increasingly clear, persuasive and insistent. They resonate at all levels, with those who fund, deliver, provide and receive care, and they are rooted in a deep understanding that the system, as currently rigidly structured, most often lacks the necessary flexibility to comprehensively meet the needs of patients across the continuum of care. The St.

External beam radiation therapy with or without low-dose-rate brachytherapy: Analysis of favorable and unfavorable intermediate-risk prostate cancer patients.

Purpose: To compare the tumor control and toxicity in men with intermediate-risk prostate cancer treated with either external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) or EBRT plus low-dose-rate brachytherapy (combo-RT).

Methods And Materials: Between 1995 and 2012, 579 men with intermediate-risk prostate cancer were treated with either EBRT (n = 388) or combo-RT (n = 191). Outcomes assessed included biochemical recurrence-free survival (bRFS), distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS), and cumulative incidence of genitourinary (GU) and gastrointestinal toxicity.

Vessel-sparing Radiotherapy for Localized Prostate Cancer to Preserve Erectile Function: A Single-arm Phase 2 Trial.

Background: Erectile dysfunction remains the most common side effect from radical treatment of localized prostate cancer. We hypothesized that the use of vessel-sparing radiotherapy, analogous to the functional anatomy approach of nerve-sparing radical prostatectomy (RP), would improve erectile function preservation while maintaining tumor control for men with localized prostate cancer.

Objective: To determine erectile function rates after vessel-sparing radiotherapy.

Expansion/de-expansion tool to quantify the accuracy of prostate contours.

Purpose: Accurate delineation of the prostate gland on computed tomography (CT) remains a persistent challenge and continues to introduce geometric uncertainty into the planning and delivery of external beam radiotherapy. We, therefore, developed an expansion/de-expansion tool to quantify the contour errors and determine the location of the deviations.

Methods And Materials: A planning CT scan and magnetic resonance imaging scan were prospectively acquired for 10 patients with prostate cancer.

Agreement between temporal artery, oral, and axillary temperature measurements in the perioperative period.

This study examined agreement in temperature readings preoperatively and postoperatively between temporal artery and electronic oral/axillary thermometers as well as the seconds required to obtain temperature readings across the three measuring modes. Using a repeated measures design, 86 adult subjects had temporal artery, oral, and axillary temperatures taken upon admission to the surgical area and upon admission to the PACU. Findings indicated best agreement both preoperatively and postoperatively between the oral mode of the electronic thermometer and the temporal artery thermometer, followed by agreement between oral and axillary modes of the electronic thermometer, and the least agreement between the temporal artery and axillary readings.

Greater postimplant swelling in small-volume prostate glands: implications for dosimetry, treatment planning, and operating room technique.

Purpose: Postimplant prostatic edema has been implicated in suboptimal permanent implants, and smaller prostates have been reported to have worse dosimetric coverage. In this study we compare the degree of postimplant edema between larger and smaller prostates and examine the effects of prostate size on the dose delivered to 90% of the prostate (D90).

Methods And Materials: From September 2003 to February 2006, 105 hormone-naive patients underwent permanent prostate brachytherapy with (125)I Rapid Strand (Oncura Inc.

Evidenced-based clinical practice guideline for management of newborn pain.

Aim: To facilitate the uptake of evidence and to reduce the evidence practice gap for management of newborn pain through the development of a clinical practice guideline.

Method: An audit of practice and an appraisal of clinical practice guidelines were undertaken to establish current practices and guideline availability for the management of newborn pain in 23 hospitals in Australia. Guidelines were appraised using the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation instrument.

Radiographic and anatomic basis for prostate contouring errors and methods to improve prostate contouring accuracy.

Purpose: Use of highly conformal radiation for prostate cancer can lead to both overtreatment of surrounding normal tissues and undertreatment of the prostate itself. In this retrospective study we analyzed the radiographic and anatomic basis of common errors in computed tomography (CT) contouring and suggest methods to correct them.

Methods And Materials: Three hundred patients with prostate cancer underwent CT and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Synthesis and characterization of the nitrides of platinum and iridium.

Transition metal nitrides are of great technological and fundamental importance because of their strength and durability and because of their useful optical, electronic, and magnetic properties. We have evaluated a recently synthesized platinum nitride (PtN) that was shown to have a large bulk modulus, and we propose a structure that is isostructural with pyrite and has the stoichiometry PtN2. We have also synthesized a recoverable nitride of iridium under nearly the same conditions of pressure and temperature as PtN2.

Genome sequence of the Brown Norway rat yields insights into mammalian evolution.

The laboratory rat (Rattus norvegicus) is an indispensable tool in experimental medicine and drug development, having made inestimable contributions to human health. We report here the genome sequence of the Brown Norway (BN) rat strain. The sequence represents a high-quality 'draft' covering over 90% of the genome.

The genome sequence of the malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae.

Anopheles gambiae is the principal vector of malaria, a disease that afflicts more than 500 million people and causes more than 1 million deaths each year. Tenfold shotgun sequence coverage was obtained from the PEST strain of A. gambiae and assembled into scaffolds that span 278 million base pairs.

Bedside assessment of heel lance pain in the hospitalized infant.

Objective: To evaluate a method of pain assessment to be used for hospitalized infants requiring blood test by a heel lance procedure.

Design: Observational study evaluating pain measurement and interrater reliability of pain measurement in hospitalized infants.

Setting: A Level III neonatal unit and a cardiac surgical unit at a major pediatric teaching hospital.

Whole-genome shotgun assembly and analysis of the genome of Fugu rubripes.

The compact genome of Fugu rubripes has been sequenced to over 95% coverage, and more than 80% of the assembly is in multigene-sized scaffolds. In this 365-megabase vertebrate genome, repetitive DNA accounts for less than one-sixth of the sequence, and gene loci occupy about one-third of the genome. As with the human genome, gene loci are not evenly distributed, but are clustered into sparse and dense regions.

A comparison of whole-genome shotgun-derived mouse chromosome 16 and the human genome.

The high degree of similarity between the mouse and human genomes is demonstrated through analysis of the sequence of mouse chromosome 16 (Mmu 16), which was obtained as part of a whole-genome shotgun assembly of the mouse genome. The mouse genome is about 10% smaller than the human genome, owing to a lower repetitive DNA content. Comparison of the structure and protein-coding potential of Mmu 16 with that of the homologous segments of the human genome identifies regions of conserved synteny with human chromosomes (Hsa) 3, 8, 12, 16, 21, and 22.