Strain Echocardiography in Acute COVID-19 and Post-COVID Syndrome: More than Just a Snapshot.

Speckle-tracking echocardiography (STE) has become an established, widely available diagnostic method in the past few years, making its value clear in cases of COVID-19 and the further course of the disease, including post-COVID syndrome. Since the beginning of the pandemic, many studies have been published on the use of STE in this condition, enabling, on the one hand, a better understanding of myocardial involvement in COVID-19 and, on the other, a better identification of risk to patients, although some questions remain unanswered in regard to specific pathomechanisms, especially in post-COVID patients. This review takes a closer look at current findings and potential future developments by summarising the extant data on the use of STE, with a focus on left and right ventricular longitudinal strain.

The ELSA trial: single versus combinatory effects of non-prohibited beta-2 agonists on skeletal muscle metabolism, cardio-pulmonary function and endurance performance-study protocol for a randomized 4-way balanced cross-over trial.

Background: Asthma and/or airway hyper-responsiveness (AHR) are common in elite endurance athletes with a high prevalence rate of beta-2 adrenoreceptor (beta-2) agonists use. Nevertheless, there are data on dose-dependent ergogenic effects of beta-2 agonists suggesting increased muscle strength, endurance and neuromuscular performance. Therefore, most beta-2 agonists belong to the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) list of prohibited substances and it is tempting to speculate that illegitimate use of beta-2 agonists might be a common practice to boost performance in competitive sports.

Significant differences in written assessments as a result of a blended learning approach used in a clinical examination course in internal medicine: a randomized controlled pilot study.

Taking a medical history and performing a physical examination represent basic medical skills. However, numerous national and international studies show that medical students and physicians-to-be demonstrate substantial deficiencies in the proper examination of individual organ systems. The objective of this study was to conduct a randomized controlled pilot study to see if, in the context of a bedside clinical examination course in internal medicine, an additional app-based blended-learning strategy resulted in (a) higher satisfaction, better self-assessments by students when rating their history-taking skills (b1) and their ability to perform physical examinations (b2), as well as (c) higher multiple-choice test scores at the end of the course, when compared to a traditional teaching strategy.