Development and testing of a generic patient decision aid for end-of-life care.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to develop and test a patient decision aid for end-of-life care to be used when some or all life-sustaining treatments have been withheld or withdrawn.

Methods: A multi-professional, multi-sectorial group together with patients and relatives used a systematic process to develop and test the patient decision aid, including alpha and beta testing.

Results: Healthcare professionals, patients and relatives were involved in the development and testing.

NatIonal Danish endocarditis stUdieS - Design and objectives of the NIDUS registry.

Aims: The NatIonal Danish endocarditis stUdieS (NIDUS) registry aims to investigate the mechanisms contributing to the increasing incidence of infective endocarditis (IE) and to discover risk factors associated to the course, treatment and clinical outcomes of the disease.

Methods: The NIDUS registry was created to investigate a nationwide unselected group of patients hospitalized for IE. The National Danish healthcare registries have been queried for validated IE diagnosis codes (International Classification of Disease, 10 edition [ICD-10]: DI33, DI38, and DI398).

Two novel prehabilitation apps to help patients stop smoking and risky drinking prior to hip and knee arthroplasty.

Purpose: Daily smoking or risky drinking increases the risk of complications after surgery by ~50%. Intensive prehabilitation aimed at complete cessation reduces the complication rate but is time-consuming. The purpose of this study was to carry out preoperative pilot tests (randomized design) of the feasibility (1A) and validation (1B) of two novel prehabilitation apps, habeat® (Ha-app) or rehaviour® (Re-app).

Limitation of life-sustaining treatment and patient involvement in decision-making: a retrospective study of a Danish COVID-19 patient cohort.

Background: The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the risk of an extensive overload of the healthcare systems have elucidated the need to make decisions on the level of life-sustaining treatment for patients requiring hospitalisation. The purpose of the study was to investigate the proportion and characteristics of COVID-19 patients with limitation of life-sustaining treatment decisions and the degree of patient involvement in the decisions.

Methods: A retrospective observational descriptive study was conducted in three Danish regional hospitals, looking at all patients ≥ 18 years of age admitted in 2020 with COVID-19 as the primary diagnosis.

Failure of non-sedation strategy in critically ill, mechanically ventilated patients - a retrospective, post-hoc analysis of the NONSEDA trial.

Purpose: There is a growing awareness on minimizing sedation in ICUs. In the NONSEDA trial 700 critically ill patients were randomized to light sedation or non-sedation during mechanical ventilation. Approximately 40% of patients randomized to non-sedation needed sedation.

Conditions and strategies to meet the challenges imposed by the COVID-19-related visiting restrictions in the intensive care unit: A Scandinavian cross-sectional study.

Objectives: To examine conditions and strategies to meet the challenges imposed by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-related visiting restrictions in Scandinavian intensive care units.

Research Methodology/design: A cross-sectional survey.

Setting: Adult intensive care units in Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

Causes of spontaneous sow deaths in the farrowing units of 10 Danish sow herds.

This study established the causes and timing of spontaneous sow deaths in the farrowing units of ten Danish sow herds. Herds participated for seven to 15 months during 2018-19. We received data (production data and detailed information on the sows that died) on a total of 126 sows.

Reference programme: diagnosis and treatment of headache disorders and facial pain. Danish Headache Society, 3rd edition, 2020.

Headache and facial pain are among the most common, disabling and costly diseases in Europe, which demands for high quality health care on all levels within the health system. The role of the Danish Headache Society is to educate and advocate for the needs of patients with headache and facial pain. Therefore, the Danish Headache Society has launched a third version of the guideline for the diagnosis, organization and treatment of the most common types of headaches and facial pain in Denmark.

Affective and non-affective cognition in patients with bipolar disorder type I and type II in full or partial remission: Associations with familial risk.

Background: The upcoming conversion of the ICD-11 will subdivide patients with bipolar disorder (BD) into BD type I (BD-I) and BD type II (BD-II). This study aimed to investigate whether cognitive impairments could aid as objective cognitive biomarkers for recently diagnosed BD subtypes by comparing cognitive profiles between BD subtypes, their unaffected relatives (UR), and healthy controls (HC).

Methods: The sample included 76 patients with BD-I, 149 patients with BD-II, 28 UR of patients with BD-I (UR-I), 50 UR of patients with BD-II (UR-II) and 168 HC from the Bipolar Illness Onset study, who were assessed with an extensive non-affective and affective cognitive test battery.

Practice Recommendations for End-of-Life Care in the Intensive Care Unit.

Topic: A substantial number of patients die in the intensive care unit, so high-quality end-of-life care is an important part of intensive care unit work. However, end-of-life care varies because of lack of knowledge of best practices.

Clinical Relevance: Research shows that high-quality end-of-life care is possible in an intensive care unit.

Family ratings of ICU care. Is there concordance within families?

Purpose: To examine heterogeneity of quality-of-care ratings within families and to examine possible predictors of concordance.

Materials And Methods: We examined two aspects of agreement within families: response similarity and the amount of exact concordance in responses in a cohort of Danish ICU family members participating in a questionnaire survey (the European Quality Questionnaire: euroQ2).

Results: Two hundred seventy-four family respondents representing 122 patients were included in the study.

Research protocol of two concurrent cluster-randomized trials: Real-life Effect of a CAMPaign with Measles Vaccination (RECAMP-MV) and Real-life Effect of a CAMPaign with Oral Polio Vaccination (RECAMP-OPV) on mortality and morbidity among children in rural Guinea-Bissau.

Background: Measles and oral polio vaccinations may reduce child mortality to an extent that cannot be explained by prevention of measles and polio infections; these vaccines seem to have beneficial non-specific effects. In the last decades, billions of children worldwide have received measles vaccine (MV) and oral polio vaccine (OPV) through campaigns. Meanwhile the under-five child mortality has declined.

Trends and recommendations for critical care nursing research in the Nordic countries: Triangulation of review and survey data.

Background: Priorities for critical care nursing research have evolved with societal trends and values. In the 1980s priorities were the nursing workforce, in 1990s technical nursing, in 2000s evidence-based nursing and in 2010s symptom management and family-centred care.

Objectives: To identify current trends and future recommendations for critical care nursing research in the Nordic countries.

Identifying improvement opportunities for patient- and family-centered care in the ICU: Using qualitative methods to understand family perspectives.

Purpose: The purposes of the study were to provide richer context for families' quantitative assessments of the quality of ICU care, and to describe further quality areas of importance for family members.

Materials And Methods: Free-text comments from 1077 family members of 920 patients focusing on family evaluation of ICU quality of care were analyzed using content analysis. Twenty-one Danish and Dutch ICUs participated from October 2014 to June 2015.

Efficacy of a tool to predict short-term mortality in older people presenting at emergency departments: Protocol for a multi-centre cohort study.

Background: Prognostic uncertainty inhibits clinicians from initiating timely end-of-life discussions and advance care planning. This study evaluates the efficacy of the CriSTAL (Criteria for Screening and Triaging to Appropriate aLternative care) checklist in emergency departments.

Methods: Prospective cohort study of patients aged ≥65 years with any diagnosis admitted via emergency departments in ten hospitals in Australia, Denmark and Ireland.

Radiotherapy for prostate cancer - Does daily image guidance with tighter margins improve patient reported outcomes compared to weekly orthogonal verified irradiation? Results from a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Novel cancer drugs are subject to strict scientific evaluation of safety and efficacy and usually undergo a cost effectiveness analysis before approval for use in clinical practice. For new techniques in radiotherapy (RT) such as image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT), this is often not the case. We performed a randomized controlled trial to compare daily cone beam computer tomography (CBCT) IGRT with reduced planning target volume (PTV) margins vs weekly orthogonal portal imaging with conventional PTV margins.

Protein Determination-Method Matters.

The reported protein content of foods depends on the analytical method used for determination, making a direct comparison between studies difficult. The aim of this study was to examine and compare protein analytical methods. Some of these methods require extraction preceding analysis.

Quality of dying and death in the ICU. The euroQ2 project.

Purpose: Knowledge of families' perspective of quality of intensive care unit (ICU) care is important, especially with regard to end-of-life (EOL) care. Adaptation of the US-developed "Quality of dying and death questionnaire" (QODD) to a European setting is lacking. The primary aim of this study is to examine the euroQODD's usability and its assessments of EOL care in a cohort of Danish and Dutch family members.

Satisfaction with quality of ICU care for patients and families: the euroQ2 project.

Background: Families' perspectives are of great importance in evaluating quality of care in the intensive care unit (ICU). This Danish-Dutch study tested a European adaptation of the "Family Satisfaction in the ICU" (euroFS-ICU). The aim of the study was to examine assessments of satisfaction with care in a large cohort of Danish and Dutch family members and to examine the measurement characteristics of the euroFS-ICU.

Adjuvant Cyclophosphamide and Docetaxel With or Without Epirubicin for Early TOP2A-Normal Breast Cancer: DBCG 07-READ, an Open-Label, Phase III, Randomized Trial.

Purpose Administration of anthracycline and taxane therapy in the adjuvant setting is considered a standard for breast cancer. We evaluated a non-anthracycline-based regimen in TOP2A-normal patients. Patients and Methods In this multicenter, open-label, phase III trial, 2,012 women with early TOP2A-normal breast cancer and at least one high-risk factor were randomly assigned to receive six cycles of docetaxel (75 mg/m) and cyclophosphamide (600 mg/m) every 3 weeks (DC) or three cycles of epirubicin (90 mg/m) and cyclophosphamide (600 mg/m) followed by three cycles of docetaxel (100 mg/m; EC-D).

Preclinical and Clinical Studies on Antioxidative, Antihypertensive and Cardioprotective Effect of Marine Proteins and Peptides-A Review.

High seafood consumption has traditionally been linked to a reduced risk of cardiovascular diseases, mainly due to the lipid lowering effects of the long chained omega 3 fatty acids. However, fish and seafood are also excellent sources of good quality proteins and emerging documentation show that, upon digestion, these proteins are sources for bioactive peptides with documented favorable physiological effects such as antioxidative, antihypertensive and other cardioprotective effects. This documentation is mainly from in vitro studies, but also animal studies are arising.

Enzymatic Pre-Treatment Increases the Protein Bioaccessibility and Extractability in Dulse (Palmaria palmata).

Several common protein extraction protocols have been applied on seaweeds, but extraction yields have been limited. The aims of this study were to further develop and optimize existing extraction protocols and to examine the effect of enzymatic pre-treatment on bioaccessibility and extractability of seaweed proteins. Enzymatic pre-treatment of seaweed samples resulted in a three-fold increase in amino acids available for extraction.