Background: Pharmacy services at surgical pre-assessment clinics and on inpatient wards are well-documented, but services to theatre appear comparatively under-developed. High-risk and high-cost medicines are used routinely in theatre; pharmacists are well-qualified to optimise their use and improve patient care.
Aim: To determine the range, extent and nature of pharmacy services to theatre internationally, and to describe any reported outcomes of these services.
Objective: To predict pharmacotherapy for NOWS based on factors available shortly after birth.
Study Design: A multi-center, retrospective study of 1377 opioid exposed newborns between 2016 and 2017 dichotomized based on pharmacologic treatment (N = 665 treated, N = 712 not treated) was conducted. A multilevel mixed-effect logistic regression model that considered cluster effect from sites determined significant maternal and newborn factors associated with pharmacotherapy, which were combined in a nomogram to predict probability of treatment for infants at each participating site.
Background: Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is present in 40-80% of patients with cardiovascular morbidity and is associated with adverse effects on cardiovascular health. Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) maintains airway patency during sleep and is hypothesised to improve cardiac function. In the present study, we report on the impact of 12 weeks of CPAP and improvements in echocardiographic parameters of the right ventricle (RV).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMarine microeukaryotes have evolved diverse cellular features that link their life histories to surrounding environments. How those dynamic life histories intersect with the ecological functions of microeukaryotes remains a frontier to understand their roles in essential biogeochemical cycles. Choanoflagellates, phagotrophs that cycle nutrients through filter feeding, provide models to explore this intersection, for many choanoflagellate species transition between life history stages by differentiating into distinct cell types.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe report a virus infecting Entomophthora muscae, a behavior-manipulating fungal pathogen of dipterans. The virus, which we name Berkeley Entomophthovirus, is a positive-strand RNA virus in the iflaviridae family of capsid-forming viruses, which are mostly known to infect insects. The viral RNA is expressed at high levels in fungal cells in vitro and during in vivo infections of Drosophila melanogaster, and virus particles can be seen intracellularly in E.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFParkinson's Disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative movement disorder characterized by dopamine (DA) cell loss in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc). As PD progresses, patients display disruptions in gait such as changes in posture, bradykinesia, and shortened stride. DA replacement via L-DOPA alleviates many PD symptoms, though its effects on gait are not well demonstrated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRoss River virus (RRV), the most medically and economically important arbovirus in Australia, has been the most prevalent arbovirus infections in humans for many years. Infected humans and horses often suffer similar clinical symptoms. We conducted a prospective longitudinal study over a 3.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFParkinson's disease (PD) is characterized by the accumulation of misfolded alpha-synuclein (α-syn) protein, forming intraneuronal Lewy body (LB) inclusions. The α-syn preformed fibril (PFF) model of PD recapitulates α-syn aggregation, progressive nigrostriatal degeneration and motor dysfunction; however, little is known about the time course of PFF-induced alterations in basal and evoked dopamine (DA). In vivo microdialysis is well suited for identifying small changes in neurotransmitter levels over extended periods.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Med Educ Curric Dev
November 2023
Objectives: The Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) Diversity Review 2021 found that premedical school students from ethnic minority backgrounds were dissuaded from pursuing a surgical career. Gloucestershire is in the bottom 20% of disadvantaged counties; there is no widening participation (WP) scheme in the county. We implemented a fully inclusive WP scheme in Gloucester, with means of accessing virtual and face-to-face work experience, to enhance the equity of work experience.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: This systematic scoping review aimed to describe the content of post-operative rehabilitation programmes, and outcome measures selection following stabilisation surgery for traumatic anterior shoulder dislocation (TASD).
Methods: An electronic search of Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL and AMED was conducted (2000-2021). Any cohort or clinical trial of patients receiving post-operative TASD rehabilitation were included.
Objectives: Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) is widely used in breast cancer, but there is no consensus on the Chinese medicine (CM) syndromes in the different conventional treatment stages (preoperative, postoperative, chemotherapy, radiation therapy and endocrine therapy) of early breast cancer. This Delphi study aimed to achieve expert consensus on the CM syndromes, signs and symptoms, and the Chinese herbal formulae for early breast cancer.
Methods: Thirty senior CM clinicians with expertise in managing breast cancer were enrolled.
Objectives: Integrin α1β1 protects against osteoarthritis (OA) when it is upregulated in the superficial zone of cartilage in the early stages of disease. However, the mechanism behind this protection is unknown. Integrin α1β1 moderates transforming growth factor β receptor II (TGFBR2) signalling, a critical regulator of chondrocyte anabolic activity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCilia allowed our protistan ancestors to sense and explore their environment, avoid predation, and capture bacterial prey. Regulated ciliogenesis was likely critical for early animal evolution, and in modern animals, deploying cilia in the right cells at the right time is crucial for development and physiology. Two transcription factors, RFX and FoxJ1, coordinate ciliogenesis in animals but are absent from the genomes of many other ciliated eukaryotes, raising the question of how the regulation of ciliogenesis in animals evolved.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: The slow pace of change in respect of increasing the diversity of medical students suggests powerful actors are reproducing practices to support the status quo. Opening up medicine to embrace diversity thus requires the deconstruction of entrenched processes and practices. The first step in doing so is to understand how the actor-network of widening participation and access to medicine (WP/WA) is constructed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFComplement Ther Med
September 2023
Objectives: This study aimed to examine the effect of acupuncture on symptoms and health-related quality of life in patients with endometriosis.
Methods: Nine biomedical databases were searched to April 2022 to identify randomized controlled trials of acupuncture and/or moxibustion used alone or as adjunct to guideline-recommended pharmacotherapy for the treatment of endometriosis. One reviewer extracted data and another verified the data.
Background: Breech presentation at term can cause complications during birth and increase the chance of caesarean section. Moxibustion (a type of Chinese medicine which involves burning a herb close to the skin) at the acupuncture point Bladder 67 (BL67) (Chinese name Zhiyin), located at the tip of the fifth toe, has been proposed as a way of changing breech presentation to cephalic presentation. This is an update of a review first published in 2005 and last published in 2012.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: This study aimed to investigate the feasibility of implementing a manual therapy technique (muscle energy technique, MET) protocol in a hospital pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) program for patients with moderate to severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Please cite this article as: Baxter DA, Coyle ME, Hill CJ, Worsnop C, Shergis JL. Muscle energy technique for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: A feasibility study.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCurr Pharm Teach Learn
March 2023
Introduction: As the world has rapidly changed during the COVID-19 pandemic, doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) students' overall well-being has been prioritized. This study aimed to evaluate PharmD students' well-being and perceived academic engagement when moved involuntarily to a majority asynchronous and virtual curriculum during the 2020-2021 academic year in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, this study aimed to assess demographic predictors relating student well-being and academic engagement.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFParkinson's Disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by motor symptoms that result from loss of nigrostriatal dopamine (DA) cells. While L-DOPA provides symptom alleviation, its chronic use often results in the development of L-DOPA-induced dyskinesia (LID). Evidence suggests that neuroplasticity within the serotonin (5-HT) system contributes to LID onset, persistence, and severity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Deformation imaging represents a method of measuring myocardial function, including global longitudinal strain (GLS), peak atrial longitudinal strain (PALS) and radial strain. This study aimed to assess subclinical improvements in left ventricular function in patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) by comparing GLS, PALS and radial strain pre and post procedure.
Methods: We conducted a single site prospective observational study of 25 patients undergoing TAVI, comparing baseline and post-TAVI echocardiograms.