Areas of improvement for colorectal cancer screening: Results of a screening initiative for 10,000 health care employees in Austria.

Participation in and quality of colorectal cancer (CRC) screening varies greatly and it is unclear how much of CRC screening guideline quality metrics reach patients. The aims of this prospective observational study were to provide data from everyday practice in Austria. All employees aged ≥ 50 years were invited and received a stool-based-test (FIT (cut-off 25 mcg Hb/g) and M2PK), which could be dropped off at the workplace.

Impact of active placebo controls on estimated drug effects in randomised trials: a systematic review of trials with both active placebo and standard placebo.

Background: An estimated 60% of pharmacological randomised trials use placebo control interventions to blind (i.e. mask) participants.

Adherence to guidelines in patients with non-variceal upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGIB) - results from a retrospective single tertiary center registry.

Background: Guidelines for the management of upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGIB) are regularly published, yet little is known concerning adherence to recommendations in practice.

Objectives: We aimed to assess adherence to European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ESGE) recommendations in patients with non-variceal UGIB.

Materials And Methods: All hospitalized patients with an esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) performed due to suspected non-variceal UGIB at our department were included in a prospective registry.

Factors Affecting the Learning Curve in the Endoscopic Ultrasound-Guided Sampling of Solid Pancreatic Lesions: A Prospective Study.

Background/aims: Endosonography is associated with a long learning curve. We aimed to assess variables that may influence the diagnostic outcomes in endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration/biopsy (EUS-FNA/B) of solid pancreatic tumors regarding the level of endoscopists' experience.

Methods: Consecutive patients undergoing EUS-guided puncture of solid pancreatic tumors (eight endosonographers, including six trainees) were prospectively enrolled.

Glycated hemoglobin concentrations of red blood cells minimally increase during storage under standard blood banking conditions.

Background: Few and inconsistent data exist describing the effect of storage duration on glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) concentrations of red blood cells (RBCs), impeding interpretation of HbA1c values in transfused diabetic patients. Hence the aim of this study was to evaluate to what extent HbA1c concentrations of RBCs change during the maximum allowed storage period of 42 days.

Study Design And Methods: Blood was drawn from 16 volunteers, leukofiltered, and stored under standard blood banking conditions.

The Twist of the Achilles Tendon - Associations of Torsions in the Lower Extremity.

Achilles tendinopathy and rupture of the Achilles tendon (AT) are frequent pathologies. Even though they may be associated with the twisted morphology of the AT, quantitative data on the extent of the twist of the entire AT are not available. The aim of this study was to investigate the torsion of the AT based on its individual parts and to evaluate a possible correlation with the torsion of the long bones of the lower extremity.

Midazolam as an active placebo in 3 fentanyl-validated nociceptive pain models.

The use of inactive placebos in early translational trials of potentially analgesic compounds is discouraged because of the side-effect profiles of centrally acting analgesics. Therefore, benzodiazepines are used, although their use has not been validated in this context. Whether benzodiazepines confound the results of acute pain tests is unknown.

A brief, high-dose remifentanil infusion partially reverses neuropathic pain in a subgroup of post herpetic neuralgia patients.

Mechanism-based therapy for chronic pain is desperately needed. Recent basic science research demonstrated that remifentanil can reverse long-term potentiation at C-fiber synapses in the dorsal horn of rats. In this exploratory, single group study, patients with chronic post-herpetic pain were treated with a single, one-hour, high-dose remifentanil infusion.

Rovsing sign revisited-effects of an erroneous translation on medical teaching and research.

Objective: To investigate whether Rovsing sign in the diagnosis of appendicitis is described and applied inaccurately in the current literature, scientific papers, and books; quantify the problem; and investigate the cause of this error.

Background: The method of eliciting Rovsing sign is not described uniformly throughout the literature.

Methods: PubMed, MEDLINE, and Embase searches were conducted, and 1178 individual studies were searched for the use of Rovsing sign.

Kidney biopsy in patients with glomerulonephritis: is the earlier the better?

Background: Interventional diagnostic procedures are established for several diseases in medicine. Despite the KDOQI guideline recommendation for histological diagnosis of kidney disease to enable risk stratification, its optimal time point has not been evaluated. We have therefore analyzed whether histological diagnosis of glomerulonephritis (GN) at an early stage of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is associated with different outcome compared to diagnosis at a more advanced stage.