Publications by authors named "Laing D"

Aim: The paper explores the barriers and enablers for international nurses who are assimilating to new healthcare systems in the United Kingdom and implications for the global healthcare context.

Background: The worldwide shortage of nurses has led to high levels of global mobility. It is therefore essential to acknowledge the international nature of healthcare and the diversity of experience within the nursing workforce.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Importance: Neonatal hypoglycemia is an important preventable cause of neurodevelopmental impairment, but there is a paucity of evidence to guide treatment.

Objective: To evaluate whether early, low-dose oral diazoxide for severe or recurrent neonatal hypoglycemia reduces time to resolution of hypoglycemia.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This 2-arm, placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial was conducted from May 2020 to February 2023 in tertiary neonatal units at 2 New Zealand hospitals.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Diazoxide is a potential candidate for the treatment of transitional hypoglycaemia in infants. A clinical trial is currently underway to investigate whether low-dose oral diazoxide is beneficial for severe or recurrent transitional neonatal hypoglycaemia (the NeoGluCO Study, registration ANZCTR12620000129987). The present study aimed to develop and validate the parameters for quantifying diazoxide from neonatal plasma samples, and to assess the stability of extemporaneously prepared diazoxide suspensions to support the NeoGluCO Study.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Infants with severe or recurrent transitional hypoglycaemia continue to have high rates of adverse neurological outcomes and new treatment approaches are needed that target the underlying pathophysiology. Diazoxide is one such treatment that acts on the pancreatic β-cell in a dose-dependent manner to decrease insulin secretion.

Methods And Analysis: Phase IIB, double-blind, two-arm, parallel, randomised trial of diazoxide versus placebo in neonates ≥35 weeks' gestation for treatment of severe (blood glucose concentration (BGC)<1.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Currently, no method has been developed for rehabilitating olfaction in anosmic patients following a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Here a method for rehabilitation is described which is based on a recent finding that the human posterior pyriform cortex (PPC) generates predictive odor "search images" in advance of an encounter with an olfactory stimulus. The search image enhances perceptual sensitivity and allows the odor it represents to be identified without input occurring from the olfactory receptors or bulbs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Home care services are increasing across Canada and in other developed nations. There has been increased pressure on home care programs to not only accept more clients more rapidly but also work more efficiently. Case management is an approach through which clients access and receive home care.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The state of development of the sense of taste in humans during the first few months of life is only partially understood. Since taste plays a critical role in the feeding and nutrition of infants a better understanding of taste development during early life is required. Currently, information about the sense of taste in pre-verbal infants is obtained by analysis of videotaped facial expressions using the Baby FACS coding system.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Malnutrition is common in both adult and pediatric patients undergoing treatment for cancer. Patients commonly attribute difficulties maintaining food intake to an altered taste developed during treatment. This review summarizes what is known about taste and smell dysfunction in patients with undergoing chemotherapy as their main treatment modality.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Taste loss may contribute to the loss of appetite in children with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and other serious medical conditions that result in malnutrition. Traditional methods for measurement of taste loss commonly use aqueous tastant solutions that can induce nausea, vomiting, or even pain in the mouth. An alternative is to measure fungiform papillae density on the anterior tongue since this correlates with taste sensitivity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Reduced or altered taste and smell function may occur as a side-effect of cancer therapy. This can lead to altered nutrient and energy intake. Some studies have suggested that taste and smell dysfunction can persist many years after treatment completion but this has not been previously assessed in survivors of childhood cancer.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The anterior region of the human tongue ceases to grow by 8-10 years of age and the posterior region at 15-16 years. This study was conducted with 30 adults and 85 children (7-12 year olds) to determine whether the cessation of growth in the anterior tongue coincides with the stabilization of the number and distribution of fungiform papillae (FP) on this region of the tongue. This is important for understanding when the human sense of taste becomes adult in function.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The intensive conditioning regimens of a pediatric blood and marrow transplant (BMT) can limit voluntary intake leading to a risk of malnutrition. Poor dietary intake is likely multi-factorial with a change in taste and smell function potentially being one contributing factor limiting intake, though this is not well studied. This research aimed to assess the taste and smell function of a cohort of pediatric BMT patients.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Aim: To assess the prevalence and type of taste disorders in Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children matched for age, gender and living in the same general and educational environment.

Methods: Taste function was assessed in 432 Aboriginal (n = 166) and non-Aboriginal (n = 266) children aged 8-12 years from six public schools in a rural township using a three-choice taste identification test and a cross-sectional design.

Results: The prevalence of taste disorders was very high and significantly more common in Aboriginal (20/166; 12.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A major problem for patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) is the maintenance of adequate nutrition to maintain normal growth. The hypotheses that poor nutrition could be due to smell and/or taste dysfunction has been pursued in several studies with contradictory results. None, however, investigated whether inadequate nutrition is due to CF patients having different liking for foods compared to healthy children and whether liking can be linked to specific changes in smell or taste function.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Loss of appetite and poor growth are common in children with chronic kidney disease (CKD), and changes in smell and/or taste function may be responsible, but the hypothesis has not been proven. This aims of this prospective age- and gender-controlled study were to determine whether: (1) changes in smell and taste function occur in children with CKD; (2) smell or taste dysfunction are associated with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR); (3) there is an association between smell or taste loss and body mass index (BMI). The study cohort consisted of 72 children of whom 20 were CKD stage 3-5 patients, 12 were CKD stage 2 patients, 20 were clinical controls (CC) and 20 were healthy children (HC).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Odorants can be perceived via the nose during an inhalation or sniff (orthonasal perception) and via the mouth, nasopharynx and nasal cavity during mastication or drinking (retronasal perception). Previous data suggest that orthonasal perception provides a more efficient route with greater difficulty being reported when detecting [Halpern BP. Retronasal and orthonasal smelling.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: Determine the suitability of three tests based on the identification of familiar odors and tastes for the clinical assessment of olfaction and gustation in children.

Study Design And Setting: A total of 232 children aged 5 to 7 years from Sydney public schools and 56 adults aged 18 to 51 years participated in a cross-sectional study.

Results: The children demonstrated they can identify the majority of the 16 test odorants and 4 common tastes that describe gustatory function.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM), a severe form of middle ear infection, affects most Australian Aboriginal children with up to 50% in some communities suffering hearing loss as a consequence. To date, there is no information on whether repeated exposure to the pathogens that characterize CSOM and that are present in the upper respiratory airway affect olfactory function. Accordingly, this study aimed to determine whether 1) there was a high prevalence of olfactory loss in Aboriginal children and 2) hearing loss is a predictor of olfactory loss.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The aim of the study was to investigate trigeminal function in children compared with that of adults. Trigeminal sensitivity was assessed using a lateralization task where participants were requested to identify the side of the nose to which an odorous stimulus was presented. The ability to localize the sensation is largely based on trigeminal function.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The study investigated the potential for facial electromyography (EMG) to be used as a clinical tool for measuring the responses of children to pleasant and unpleasant smell and taste stimuli. Responses in the zygomaticus major and levator labii muscles to 4 odorants and 4 tastants were recorded from 34 children aged 6-9 years. The results indicated that EMG activities in the 2 muscles discriminated between pleasant and unpleasant stimuli within each modality in a manner that indicated that the children perceived the hedonic qualities of the stimuli in a manner similar to that reported for adults.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The olfactory information processing abilities of children undergo changes during early life. The aims of the present study were to describe these changes and to probe for their electrophysiological correlates. These aims were investigated in two experiments.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The aim of the present study was to assess component interaction in the perception of the 2 aldehydes butanal and heptanal when presented in binary mixtures to rats. A further aim was to develop a behavioral paradigm for testing suppression of components in mixtures using rodent subjects. Thirsty rats were initially trained to discriminate between the 2 aldehydes butanal and heptanal in an olfactometer using a go/no-go discrimination task.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The team approach to case management (CM) has proven to be an effective method of providing quality outcomes, reducing fragmentation of care, improving communication, and reducing cost. Often CM teams consist of the patient, family/caregiver, physician, case manager, other health care personnel, clergy, home health agencies, employers, and health-plan administrators. This article focuses on the CM process implemented within a former TRICARE region to bridge the gap between the primary care manager (PCM) and CM.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF