Can virtual-reality simulation ensure transthoracic echocardiography skills before trainees examine patients?

Objectives: This study aimed to develop and gather the validity evidence for a standardised simulation-based skills test in transthoracic echocardiography and to establish a credible pass/fail score.

Methods: Experts developed a virtual-reality simulator test in cardiology, medical education and simulation-based education. Thirty-six physicians with different experiences in transthoracic echocardiography completed the test at Odense University Hospital, Denmark.

Integrated parasite management: path to sustainable control of fishborne trematodes in aquaculture.

Fishborne zoonotic trematodes (FZT) are an emerging problem and there is now a consensus that, in addition to wild-caught fish, fish produced in aquaculture present a major food safety risk, especially in Southeast Asia where aquaculture is important economically. Current control programs target communities at risk through mass drug administration. However, we argue that treatment alone will not reduce the risk from eating infected fish and that sustainable effective control must adopt an integrated FZT control approach based on education, infrastructure improvements, and management practices that target critical control points in the aquaculture production cycle identified from a thorough understanding of FZT and host biology and epidemiology.

[Large liver cyst with compression of the inferior vena cava causing massive deep vein thrombosis].

A 69-year-old female was admitted to hospital on suspicion of left-sided deep vein thrombosis (DVT). DVT stretching to the distal part of the vena cava inferior (VCI) was confirmed on computed tomography and ultrasound which also revealed a large cyst with compression of VCI. The patient had no predisposition or risk factors to venous thromboembolic disease.

Fish-borne trematodes in cultured Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) and wild-caught fish from Thailand.

Fish-borne zoonotic trematode (FZT) infections affect the health of more than 18 million people around the world, particularly in Asian countries. Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) is a white meat fish that has an increasing national and international market. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of FZT metacercarial infections in Nile tilapia from cage and pond aquaculture systems and in wild-caught fish from Suphan Buri, Nakhon Pathom and Chachoengsao provinces, Thailand.

Risks for fishborne zoonotic trematodes in tilapia production systems in Guangdong province, China.

Guangdong province is the most important region for tilapia culture in China. However, it is also an endemic region for fishborne zoonotic trematodes (FZT), which pose a risk to human food safety and health. A study was designed to assess the status of trematode parasite infections in tilapia aquaculture systems as an indicator of potential risks from FZT associated with consumption of tilapia.

Relationship between snail population density and infection status of snails and fish with zoonotic trematodes in Vietnamese carp nurseries.

Background: Fish-borne zoonotic trematodes (FZT) are a food safety and health concern in Vietnam. Humans and other final hosts acquire these parasites from eating raw or under-cooked fish with FZT metacercariae. Fish raised in ponds are exposed to cercariae shed by snail hosts that are common in fish farm ponds.