Community immersion project to enhance medical students understanding of the health needs of the most vulnerable in the community.

Aim: A group of eight fourth year medical students formed the 'UBMS public health crew' to conduct a community immersion project within elderly ethnic minority communities. The aim of the study was to understand their health perceptions regarding influenza vaccinations and learn about the enablers and barriers in accessing the vaccination.

Methodology: Interviews were held by the students at community lunch clubs with the help of questionnaires.

Screening-guided spironolactone treatment of subclinical left ventricular dysfunction for heart failure prevention in at-risk patients.

Aims: Subclinical left ventricular dysfunction (LVD) is a prelude to symptomatic heart failure (HF). We hypothesised that screening-guided treatment with spironolactone would prevent incident HF in at-risk patients.

Methods And Results: We randomised asymptomatic, community-dwelling subjects aged ≥65 years old, with at least one non-ischaemic HF risk factor (hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus or obesity) to echocardiography-guided therapy or usual care.

The rOSCE: A remote clinical examination during COVID lockdown and beyond.

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. The COVID-19 pandemic has created a challenge for all medical educators.

Ambulatory electrocardiography and serum cardiac troponin I measurement in 21 dogs envenomated by the European adder (Vipera berus).

Background: Envenomation by the European adder (Vipera berus) is common in dogs in Europe. Cardiac arrhythmias occur but clinical studies of envenomated dogs are limited.

Objectives: To describe arrhythmias in dogs within 48 hours of envenomation, and investigate associations between arrhythmia grade, serum troponin I (cTnI), and snakebite severity score (SS score).

Clinical prioritisation questions: A novel assessment tool to encourage tolerance of uncertainty?

Uncertainty is a common and increasingly acknowledged problem in clinical practice. Current single best answer (SBA) style assessments test areas where there is one correct answer, and as the approach to assessment impacts on the approach to learning, these exams may poorly prepare our future doctors to handle uncertainty. We therefore, need to modify our approach to assessment to emphasize reasoning and introduce the possibility of more than one 'correct' answer.

Consumer Neuroscience and Digital/Social Media Health/Social Cause Advertisement Effectiveness.

This research investigated the use of consumer neuroscience to improve and determine the effectiveness of action/emotion-based public health and social cause (HSC) advertisements. Action-based advertisements ask individuals to 'do something' such as 'act', 'share', make a 'pledge' or complete a 'challenge' on behalf of a brand, such as doing 'something good, somewhere, for someone else'. Public health messages as noncommercial advertisements attempt to positively change behavioural intent or increase awareness.

Validity of very short answer versus single best answer questions for undergraduate assessment.

Background: Single Best Answer (SBA) questions are widely used in undergraduate and postgraduate medical examinations. Selection of the correct answer in SBA questions may be subject to cueing and therefore might not test the student's knowledge. In contrast to this artificial construct, doctors are ultimately required to perform in a real-life setting that does not offer a list of choices.

Effects of sample handling on serum N-terminal proB-type natriuretic peptide concentration in normal dogs and dogs with heart disease.

Objectives: To determine whether serum N-terminal B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) concentration in normal dogs, and dogs with heart disease, is affected by freezing, or by sample ageing when stored at room temperature.

Animals, Materials And Methods: Thirty six dogs with heart disease and ten normal dogs. Serum NT-proBNP was measured within 60 min of sample collection.

Effect of remote ischaemic preconditioning on myocardial injury in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery: a randomised controlled trial.

Background: Whether remote ischaemic preconditioning, an intervention in which brief ischaemia of one tissue or organ protects remote organs from a sustained episode of ischaemia, is beneficial for patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery is unknown. We did a single-blinded randomised controlled study to establish whether remote ischaemic preconditioning reduces myocardial injury in these patients.

Methods: 57 adult patients undergoing elective coronary artery bypass graft surgery were randomly assigned to either a remote ischaemic preconditioning group (n=27) or to a control group (n=30) after induction of anaesthesia.

(6R)-5,6,7,8-tetrahydro-L-biopterin and its stereoisomer prevent ischemia reperfusion injury in human forearm.

Objective: 6R-5,6,7,8-tetrahydro-L-biopterin (6R-BH4) is a cofactor for endothelial nitric oxide synthase but also has antioxidant properties. Its stereo-isomer 6S-5,6,7,8-tetrahydro-L-biopterin (6S-BH4) and structurally similar pterin 6R,S-5,6,7,8-tetrahydro-D-neopterin (NH4) are also antioxidants but have no cofactor function. When endothelial nitric oxide synthase is 6R-BH4-deplete, it synthesizes superoxide rather than nitric oxide.