Optimizing Care for Adults with Congenital Heart Disease: Results of a Conjoint Analysis Based on a Nationwide Sample of Patients Included in the German National Register.

(1) Background: Congenital heart disease (CHD) requires lifelong specialized care. Failure to follow up and gaps in care are common in this group and lead to increased morbidity/mortality. We evaluated patients' perceived needs and expectations regarding specialized care using state-of-the-art statistical and market research techniques based on a nationwide sample of CHD patients.

Determination of dialysis dose: a clinical comparison of methods.

Background: Guidelines recommend regular measurements of the delivered hemodialysis dose Kt/V. Nowadays, automatic non-invasive online measurements are available as alternatives to the conventional method with blood sampling, laboratory analysis, and calculation.

Methods: In a prospective clinical trial, three different methods determining dialysis dose were simultaneously applied: Kt/V(Dau) (conventional method with Daugirdas' formula), Kt/V(OCM) [online clearance measurement (OCM) with urea distribution volume V based on anthropometric estimate], and Kt/V(BCM) [OCM measurement with V measured by bioimpedance analysis (Body Composition Monitor)].

Increasing pressure ulcer rates and changes in delivery of care: a retrospective analysis at a University Clinic.

Aim: To evaluate the relation between pressure ulcers and delivery of care.

Background: No decrease of pressure ulcer rates could be recognised in acute hospital care, despite intensive efforts in prevention. Furthermore, reports show increasing rates.

Two multicenter, 8-week, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group studies evaluating the efficacy and tolerability of amlodipine and valsartan in combination and as monotherapy in adult patients with mild to moderate essential hypertension.

Background: Patients with hypertension may require combination therapy to attain the blood pressure targets recommended by US and European treatment guidelines. Combination therapy with a calcium channel blocker and an angiotensin II-receptor blocker would be expected to provide enhanced efficacy.

Objectives: Two studies were conducted to compare the efficacy of various combinations of amlodipine and valsartan administered once daily with their individual components and placebo in patients with mild to moderate essential hypertension (mean sitting diastolic blood pressure [MSDBP] >/=95 and < 110 mm Hg).

Problem focused integration of information, quality and process management with empirical research: The example of the Essen Interdisciplinary Pressure Ulcer Project.

Issues of information management, quality management, process management, and empirical research are often seen independently from each other. In the Essen interdisciplinary pressure ulcer project, they were integrated to establish a synergy between quality of care, economics and research. The electronic documentation of events and supplementary information was done with the hospital wide patient administration system.

COMBO-FISH for focussed fluorescence labelling of gene domains: 3D-analysis of the genome architecture of abl and bcr in human blood cells.

Structural analysis and nanosizing of gene domains requires not only high-resolution microscopy but also improved techniques of fluorescence labelling strongly focussed on the gene domains. To investigate the architecture of abl and bcr in blood cell nuclei forming the Philadelphia chromosome in CML, we applied COMBO-FISH using specifically colocalising combinations of triple strand forming oligonucleotide probes for abl on chromosome 9 and bcr on chromosome 22. Each probe set consisting of 31 homopyrimidine oligonucleotides was computer selected from the human genome database.

Pressure ulcers in secondary care: incidence, prevalence, and relevance.

Objective: To compare point and period prevalence rates.

Design: Descriptive, cohort, cross-sectional survey.

Participants: From a cohort of 25,075 cases, information on pressure ulcer status on admission was recorded for 20,283 cases.

Development of a long-acting insulin analog using albumin fusion technology.

The primary therapeutic goal for the treatment of diabetes is maintenance of a long-term, near-normoglycemic condition and prevention of the onset or progression of the complications associated with the disease. Although several analogs of human insulin have been developed, the currently prescribed long-acting insulin analogs do not provide a stable basal glycemia for more than a few hours. Here, we report the development of Albulin, a long-acting insulin analog obtained by direct gene fusion of a single-chain human insulin to human serum albumin.

An integrated functional genomics screening program reveals a role for BMP-9 in glucose homeostasis.

A coordinated functional genomics program was implemented to identify secreted polypeptides with therapeutic applications in the treatment of diabetes. Secreted factors were predicted from a diverse expressed-sequence tags (EST) database, representing >1,000 cDNA libraries, using a combination of bioinformatic algorithms. Subsequently, approximately 8,000 human proteins were screened in high-throughput cell-based assays designed to monitor key physiological transitions known to be centrally involved in the physiology of type 2 diabetes.