Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine hesitancy was one of the main global public health threats. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 crisis and its associated risks only reinforced this hesitancy. This study aimed to identify to what extent the COVID-19 vaccination affected confusion around vaccination in general, its change and any associated factors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFaculty development in medical simulation is a growing need, given the increased use of simulation-based learning in healthcare. Training of trainers is demanding and resource-consuming; therefore, there is a need for accessible, practical, and resource-saving solutions enabling efficient faculty development. For that purpose, we investigated whether a massive open online course (MOOC) could meet these challenges.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Convalescent plasma (CP) reduced the mortality in COVID-19 induced ARDS (C-ARDS) patients treated in the CONFIDENT trial. As patients are immunologically heterogeneous, we hypothesized that clusters may differ in their treatment responses to CP.
Methods: We measured 20 cytokines, chemokines and cell adhesion markers using a multiplex technique at the time of inclusion in the CONFIDENT trial in patients of centers having accepted to participate in this secondary study.
Objective: This study aimed to map the Lequesne index onto the EuroQol 5 Dimension (EQ-5D-5L) utility index for patients with knee osteoarthritis.
Methods: Baseline data from a previous randomized controlled trial were used; 461 patients were involved in the mapping development, and 230 in the validation phase. Various modeling techniques, including generalized linear models, tobit, and beta regression, were used.
Objective: Considering methodological difficulties and inconsistent results of previous studies on it, the objective was to describe the change in nursing student self-esteem over time and its predictors, using a sound theoretical framework and relevant tools to measure and analyse the data.
Method: Cohort study. Self-esteem and related factors were assessed in nursing students in a 4-year bachelor's program at the beginning of each academic year from 2017 to 2019 and at the end of the academic year in May 2020, using he revised version of Self-liking/Self-competence scale of Tafarodi and Swann.
Background: 2-[F]fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose ([F]FDG) positron emission tomography combined with low-dose computed tomography (PET/CT) can be used at diagnosis to identify myeloma-defining events and also provides prognostic factors. The aim of this study was to assess the prognostic significance of baseline [F]FDG PET/CT visual IMPeTUs (Italian myeloma criteria for PET Use)-based parameters and/or total metabolic tumor volume (TMTV) in a single-center population of patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma (NDMM) eligible for transplantation.
Methods: Patients with MM who underwent a baseline [F]FDG PET/CT were retrospectively selected from a large internal database of the University Hospital of Liege (Liege, Belgium).
Background: The use of virtual reality (VR) in healthcare education is on the increase. In disaster medicine, it could be a solution to the cost and logistic constraints for a "full-scale" scenarios. However, VR is mainly designed for single players, which is not appropriate for the objectives pursued in disaster medicine.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnn Allergy Asthma Immunol
July 2024
Background: Although asthma is often seen as an eosinophilic disease associated with atopy, patients with noneosinophilic asthma represent a substantial part of the population with asthma.
Objective: To apply an unsupervised clustering method in a cohort of 588 patients with noneosinophilic asthma (sputum eosinophils < 3%) recruited from an asthma clinic of a secondary care center.
Methods: Our cluster analysis of the whole cohort identified 2 subgroups as cluster 1 (n = 417) and cluster 2 (n = 171).
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic immensely impacted care provision, including quality of care in general practice. This paper aimed: (1) to assess how Belgian general practices acted upon the six dimensions of quality of care during COVID-19; (2) to study differences between the three Belgian regions; and (3) to benchmark the performance of the Belgian practices against the performance in other European countries.
Methods: The data collected from 479 Belgian practices during 2020-2021 using an online survey as part of the international cross-sectional PRICOV-19 study were analyzed.
Background: Randomised controlled trials have shown that benralizumab, an anti-interleukin-5 receptor monoclonal antibody, reduces exacerbations and oral corticosteroid dose and improves asthma control and lung function in severe eosinophilic asthma. The aim of this study was to confirm results of randomised controlled trials in real life in a population of 73 patients with severe eosinophilic asthma treated with benralizumab for at least 12 months.
Methods: Patients underwent careful monitoring of asthma exacerbations, exhaled nitric oxide fraction, lung function, asthma control and quality of life questionnaire responses and sputum induction, and gave a blood sample at baseline, after 6 months and then every year.
Background: Passive immunization with plasma collected from convalescent patients has been regularly used to treat coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). Minimal data are available regarding the use of convalescent plasma in patients with Covid-19-induced acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).
Methods: In this open-label trial, we randomly assigned adult patients with Covid-19-induced ARDS who had been receiving invasive mechanical ventilation for less than 5 days in a 1:1 ratio to receive either convalescent plasma with a neutralizing antibody titer of at least 1:320 or standard care alone.
Primary ciliary dyskinesia is a heterogeneous, inherited motile ciliopathy in which respiratory cilia beat abnormally, and some ultrastructural ciliary defects and specific genetic mutations have been associated with particular ciliary beating alterations. Ciliary beating can be evaluated using digital high-speed videomicroscopy (DHSV). However, normal reference values, essential to assess ciliary beating in patients referred for a PCD diagnostic, vary between centres, as minor variations in protocols might influence ciliary beating.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEpidemiological studies aim to assess associations between diseases and risk factors. Such investigations involve a large sample size and require powerful analytical methods to measure the effects of risk factors, resulting in a long analysis time. In this study, chemical exposure markers were detected as the main variables strongly affecting two components coming from a principal component analysis (PCA) exploration of the metabolomic data generated from urinary samples collected on a cohort of about 500 individuals using direct introduction coupled with a Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance instrument.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To assess the safety of "on-table" extubation after minimally-invasive heart valve surgery.
Design: A single-center retrospective observational study.
Setting: At a tertiary referral academic hospital.
Objectives: The authors aimed to develop a simple prediction score to help identify patients at high risk of low-cardiac-output syndrome after adult cardiac surgery.
Design: A single-center, retrospective, observational study.
Setting: At a tertiary hospital.
Objectives: The effect and safety of Nasafytol, a food supplement combining curcumin, quercetin, and Vitamin D, on hospitalized COVID-19-positive patients as support to standard of care were to be assessed.
Methods: This exploratory, open-label, randomized, controlled trial was carried out among hospitalized adults with COVID-19 infection. Participants were randomly assigned to receive Nasafytol or Fultium control.
Objectives: Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), particularly neck and low back pain, constitute a major public health issue worldwide with a heavy morbidity and economic impact. However, the relationships between the stomatognathic system and MSDs are subjected to debate, data sorely lacking. The study objective was to investigate the association between bruxism (BR) and MSDs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Describing Safety-Related Events (SREs) in a radiotherapy (RT) department and comparing WHO-CFICPS (World Health Organization's Conceptual Framework For The International Classification For Patient Safety) and PRISMA (Prevention and Recovery Information System for Monitoring and Analysis) methods for classifying SREs.
Methods: From February 2017 to October 2020, two Quality Managers (QMs) randomly classified 1173 SREs using 13 incident types of WHO-CFICPS. The same two QMs, reclassified the same SREs according to 20 PRISMA incident codes.
Conflict in Yemen has displaced millions and destroyed health infrastructure, resulting in the world's largest humanitarian disaster. The objective of this paper is to examine mortality in Yemen to determine whether it has increased significantly since the conflict began in 2015 compared to the preceding period. We analysed 91 household surveys using the Standardized Monitoring and Assessment of Relief and Transitions methodology, covering 2,864 clusters undertaken from 2012-2019, and deaths from Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project database covering the conflict period 2015-2019.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Although asthma is a common disease, its diagnosis remains a challenge in clinical practice with both over- and underdiagnosis. Here, we performed a prospective observational study investigating the value of symptom intensity scales alone or combined with spirometry and exhaled nitric oxide fraction ( ) to aid in asthma diagnosis.
Methods: Over a 38-month period we recruited 303 untreated patients complaining of symptoms suggestive of asthma (wheezing, dyspnoea, cough, sputum production and chest tightness).