Improving Hospital Palliative Care Between COVID-19 Waves: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

Context: A specialist palliative care service in an acute hospital characterized care patterns during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. There were delayed referrals for minoritized ethnic groups. COVID-19 treatments (dexamethasone, anticoagulation, remdesivir) alongside service changes were introduced in the second wave.

Circulating fibrocyte levels correlate with left ventricular mass in middle-aged healthy adults without hypertension.

Background: Fibrocytes, circulating bone-marrow derived cells that differentiate into fibroblasts and myofibroblasts, are a major source of hypertensive arterial fibrosis and correlate with left ventricular (LV) mass in subjects with hypertension. We tested whether circulating fibrocytes levels correlate with LV mass in middle-aged adults without hypertension.

Methods: We measured peripheral blood fibrocyte levels and their activated phenotypes in 13 middle-aged, non-hypertensive adults and performed cardiac magnetic resonance imaging to assess LV mass.

Anisocoria in patients with hyperhidrosis: A case series for the primary care physician.

The differential diagnosis for anisocoria is broad and ranges from benign to life-threatening causes. Often, patients with new onset anisocoria present to their primary care physician, an urgent care center, or an emergency room. As such, it is important for non-ophthalmologist physicians to be familiar with its common causes.