Therapy professionals in critical care: A UK wide workforce survey.

Introduction: National guidelines suggest recommended staffing levels for therapies. The aim of this study was to capture information on existing staffing levels, roles and responsibilities and service structures.

Methods: An observational study using online surveys distributed to 245 critical care units across the United Kingdom (UK).

Protected therapy services for critical care: A subanalysis of the UK-wide workforce survey.

Background: The existing United Kingdom (UK) allied health professional (AHP) workforce in critical care does not meet national standards, with widespread variation in the source of funding, service availability, and regularity of input.

Objectives: The aim of this subanalysis was to determine the impact of protected services on the involvement of AHPs on direct and nondirect aspects of patient care.

Methods: This is a subanalysis of the previously published AHPs in critical care UK-wide workforce survey, an observational study using online surveys distributed to 245 critical care units across the UK.

Exploration of therapists' views of practice within critical care.

Introduction: Therapists are increasing recognised as core members of the critical care multiprofessional team. Each therapy profession provides specialist assessments and interventions, but also work collaboratively across the rehabilitation pathway. Despite inclusion in several national guidance documents, there remains a lack of evidence regarding the perceived role of therapists working within critical care, the unique contributions of each profession and opinion on the day-to-day tasks and responsibilities of each therapy profession.

HtrA1 inhibits mineral deposition by osteoblasts: requirement for the protease and PDZ domains.

HtrA1 is a secreted multidomain protein with serine protease activity. In light of increasing evidence implicating this protein in the regulation of skeletal development and pathology, we investigated the role of HtrA1 in osteoblast mineralization and identified domains essential for this activity. We demonstrate increased HtrA1 expression in differentiating 2T3 osteoblasts prior to the appearance of mineralization.

Identification and characterization of vascular calcification-associated factor, a novel gene upregulated during vascular calcification in vitro and in vivo.

Objective: Vascular calcification, with its increasing clinical sequelae, presents an important and unresolved dilemma in cardiac and vascular practice. We aimed to identify molecules involved in this process to develop strategies for treatment or prevention.

Methods And Results: Using subtractive hybridization, a novel cDNA, designated vascular calcification-associated factor (VCAF), has been isolated from a bovine retinal pericyte cDNA library generated during the differentiation and mineralization of these cells in vitro.

A novel and highly conserved collagen (pro(alpha)1(XXVII)) with a unique expression pattern and unusual molecular characteristics establishes a new clade within the vertebrate fibrillar collagen family.

The type XXVII collagen gene codes for a novel vertebrate fibrillar collagen that is highly conserved in man, mouse, and fish (Fugu rubripes). The pro(alpha)1(XXVII) chain has a domain structure similar to that of the type B clade chains (alpha1(V), alpha3(V), alpha1(XI), and alpha2(XI)). However, compared with other vertebrate fibrillar collagens (types I, II, III, V, and XI), type XXVII collagen has unusual molecular features such as no minor helical domain, a major helical domain that is short and interrupted, and a short chain selection sequence within the NC1 domain.