Do hospitals attaining a public recognition for treating nurses fairly deliver better-quality health care? Evidence from cross-sectional analysis of California hospitals.

Aim: This study explored whether hospitals that allocate greater resources to their nursing staff provide better healthcare services than those that invest less in their nursing personnel.

Design: Cross-sectional logistic and tobit analyses.

Methods: We examined a sample of 314 California hospitals in 2017.

Synergistic effect of low handgrip strength and malnutrition on 4-year all-cause mortality in older males: A prospective longitudinal cohort study.

Background: No studies have yet examined the interrelationship of malnutrition and low handgrip strength in terms of mortality. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the potential synergistic effects of malnutrition and low handgrip strength on mortality among older adults living in a retirement community.

Methods: This prospective longitudinal cohort study recruited subjects aged 65 years and over from a veterans care home in Taiwan in 2013.

Gait Speed rather than Dynapenia Is a Simple Indicator for Complex Care Needs: A Cross-sectional Study Using Minimum Data Set.

The impact of dynapenia on the complexity of care for residents of long-term care facilities (LTCF) remains unclear. The present study evaluated associations between dynapenia, care problems and care complexity in 504 residents of Veterans Care Homes (VCHs) in Taiwan. Subjects with dynapenia, defined as low muscle strength (handgrip strength <26 kg), were older adults with lower body mass index (BMI), slow gait speed, and higher numbers of Resident Assessment Protocol (RAP) triggers.

Predicting symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage after intravenous thrombolysis: stroke territory as a potential pitfall.

Background: Stroke vascular territories may influence response to thrombolysis, although supporting data are limited. The aim of the study was to test the hypothesis that the current available prediction scores might inaccurately estimate the risk of symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage (SICH) after intravenous thrombolysis in patients with posterior circulation stroke.

Methods: We applied the Safe Implementation of Thrombolysis in Stroke (SITS) SICH risk score to data from four hospital-based stroke registries.

Unsedated transnasal percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy carried out by a single physician.

Aim: The present prospective observational study investigates the safety of transnasal percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (T-PEG) carried out by a single physician using an ultrathin endoscope.

Methods: A single endoscopist attempted the unsedated transnasal insertion of a 20-Fr PEG tube using a pull-method in 31 dysphagic patients: 11 females and 20 males aged 76.5±10.

[Guideline of neuropathic pain treatment and dilemma from neurological point of view].

Neuropathic pain is a complicated symptomatic disease as migraine in recent years. Not because the pain character differed from the nociceptive inflammatory symptoms but because of its complexity of mechanisms. Though peripheral sensitization, ectopic discharge, central sensitization, central re-organization and loss of inhibition play part of roles in mechanisms, however, based on this mechanistic treatment, the outcome still disappointed physicians and patients, exampled as central post-stroke central pain (CPSP).

Impact of nutritional status on long-term functional outcomes of post-acute stroke patients in Taiwan.

Nutritional status is important in stroke care, but little is known regarding to the prognostic role of nutritional status on long-term functional outcomes among stroke survivors. The main purpose of this study was to evaluate to the prognostic role of nutritional status on long-term functional outcomes among stroke survivors. Data of acute stroke registry in Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital were retrieved for analysis.

Lithium intoxication-induced acute parkinsonism complicated with hyperparathyroidism and nephrogenic diabetes insipidus: report of a case.

Objective: To describe a patient with lithium intoxication presenting as acute parkinsonism, adverse metabolic effects and nephrogenic diabetes insipidus (DI).

Case Report: We report a case of a 67-year-old woman with a bipolar affective disorder who was treated with lithium for 10 years. Under concomitant renal insufficiency and urinary tract infarction, she experienced progressive hand tremor, bradykinesia, and unsteady gait.

Familial hyperhomocysteinemia-related cerebral venous sinus thrombosis and pulmonary embolism: a case report.

Elevated plasma homocysteine levels are associated with an increased risk of deep vein thrombosis. Herein we report a case of familial hyperhomocysteinemia-related cerebral venous sinus thrombosis and pulmonary embolism in a 21-year-old man who presented with severe headache over bilateral frontal areas. Neurological examination revealed no evidence of focal neurological deficit.