Unlabelled: In the era of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, surgeons and medical staff are often at a high risk of infection in the operating room, especially when the patient is spontaneously breathing. In this study, we examined the minimum requirements for personal protective equipment with double surgical masks to potentially reduce unnecessary waste of supplies.
Methods: Two mannequins were each connected to a test lung machine simulating a surgeon and patient with spontaneous breathing.
Antimicrobial drug resistance is one of the major threats to global health. It has made common infections increasingly difficult or impossible to treat, and leads to higher medical costs, prolonged hospital stays and increased mortality. Infection rates due to multidrug-resistant organisms (MDRO) are increasing globally.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFReassessing the continuing need for and choice of antibiotics by using an antibiotic "time out'' program may reduce unnecessary treatment. This study aimed to explore the effect of an antibiotic stewardship program (ASP) on the antibiotics consumption, incidence of resistant bacterial infections and overall hospital mortality in a tertiary medical center during the study period 2012-2014. An ASP composed of multidisciplinary strategies including pre-prescription approval and post-approval feedback and audit, and a major "time out'' intervention (shorten the default antibiotic prescription duration) usage was introduced in year 2013.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Medical students in Taiwan start their clerkship in their fifth year. A lack of early clinical exposure can mean they have a lack of medical professionalism and collaborative practice. This study investigates whether early engagement in hospital-based clinical practice could improve their understanding of these requirements.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) manifests symptoms as common etiologies of respiratory tract infections (RTIs). During the pandemic of COVID-19, identifying the etiologies correctly from patients with RTI symptoms was crucial in not only disease control but preventing healthcare system from collapsing. By applying sensitive PCR-based molecular assays, we detected the etiologic agents and delineated the epidemiologic picture of RTIs in the early phase of COVID-19 pandemic.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: This study aimed to evaluate whether the role-play (RP) of real patients by medical students as part of interactive clinical reasoning training can improve medical students' clinical performance.
Methods: A total of 26 medical students volunteered to portray real patients within this program and were treated as the RP group while the other 72 students as the non-RP group. In the interactive morning meeting, the medical students practiced how to approach the RP student as if they were encountering a real patient.
BMC Med Educ
May 2020
Background: The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) core competencies (CC) in general medicine-based primary care are essential for junior medical trainees. In this country, a regular faculty development (FD) program aimed at training faculty in instructing (teaching and assessing) these CC had operated. However, leadership was not emphasized.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFClostridioides difficile infection (CDI) is a major enteric disease associated with antibiotic use and a leading cause of hospital-acquired infections worldwide. This is the first guideline for treatment of CDI in Taiwan, aiming to optimize medical care for patients with CDI. The target audience of this document includes all healthcare personnel who are involved in the medical care of patients with CDI.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Late onset depression (LOD) often occurs in the context of vascular disease and may be associated with risk of dementia. Aspirin is widely used to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke. However, its role in patients with LOD and risk of dementia remains inconclusive.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: For patient safety, this study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of additional objective structured clinical examination (OSCE)-based medical simulation courses to establish the "emergency-stabilization" subcompetency of postgraduate first year (PGY-1) residents.
Methods: In the simulation course, trainees were randomly divided into three groups: intervention, regular, and control group as Trios-OSCE trainees, Single-OSCE trainees, or OSCE observers (feedback-givers) after attending the pre-OSCE common simulation workshop. Three PGY-1 residents rotated through the Trios OSCE long-station together, while single PGY-1 residents rotated through regular OSCE alone and the control group gave feedback after observation of their peers' OSCE performance.
Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol
November 2018
Hepatorenal syndrome (HRS), a severe complication of advanced cirrhosis, is defined as hypoperfusion of kidneys resulting from intense renal vasoconstriction in response to generalized systemic arterial vasodilatation. Nevertheless, the mechanisms have been barely investigated. Cumulative studies demonstrated renal vasodilatation in portal hypertensive and compensated cirrhotic rats.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Patients with multiple myeloma are generally immune-compromised either due to pronounced depression in primary antibody responses or because of anti-myeloma therapy. Infection is a major risk factor for early deaths among these patients. The impact of blood stream infections (BSI) on newly diagnosed myeloma patients has been less studied.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCatheter-related blood stream infection (CRBSI) is a major complication in hemodialysis patients. We assessed the efficacy of systemic daptomycin (DPT) plus DPT antibiotic lock therapy (DPT-ALT) for catheter salvage in patients with Gram-positive CRBSIs. This is a retrospective study of hemodialysis patients with tunneled and cuffed hemodialysis catheters.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Patients in intensive care units (ICUs) are especially prone to colonization and infection by carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae. We conducted a multicenter investigation to study the clinical and microbiological characteristics of patients with carbapenem nonsusceptible Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli in ICUs of Taiwanese hospitals.
Methods: Patients with carbapenem nonsusceptible K.
Disseminated Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) infection is rarely seen in patients without acquired immune deficiency syndrome. A disseminated MAC infection presenting with symptoms that mimic tumor metastasis had not previously been reported. Few disseminated MAC infections have been reported, and all image patterns in these cases indicated destructive lesions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: To determine whether the susceptibilities and the trends of nonsusceptibility of imipenem, meropenem, sulbactam, and colistin differed among Acinetobacter baumannii, Acinetobacter genomic species 3 (AGS 3), and Acinetobacter genomic species 13TU (AGS 13TU) over 11 years.
Methods: A total of 1,039 nonduplicate blood isolates of A baumannii complex from bacteremic patients between 1997 and 2007 were collected at Taipei Veterans General Hospital and were identified to the species level using a multiplex polymerase chain reaction method and sequence analysis of 16S-23S intergenic spacer. The minimal inhibitory concentrations of antibiotics were determined by the agar dilution method.
Background/purpose: Recent medical literature suggests that use of fluoroquinolones (FQs) might be associated with the delayed diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB). The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of radiographic evidence of prior pulmonary TB infection on empiric antibiotic choice in cases of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), as well as the effect of antibiotic regimens on clinical outcome.
Methods: A total of 280 patients with CAP between 1 May and 31 December 2007 were included in the study and their medical records were retrospectively reviewed.
Bone marrow necrosis (BMN) is a rare clinicopathologic entity caused by hypoxemia after failure of the microcirculation, which frequently manifests with bone pain, fever, and peripheral cytopenia. In most reported cases of BMN resulting from miliary tuberculosis (TB), the presence of marrow granulomas, pulmonary infiltrates and/or extrapulmonary involvement is common. We report a female patient with extensive BMN from miliary TB, whose initial presentation was only severe peripheral cytopenia with extensive marrow necrosis, with neither evident pulmonary manifestations nor granulomas in the marrow biopsy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Microbiol Immunol Infect
October 2009
Background And Purpose: Diabetes mellitus is an important risk factor for Klebsiella pneumoniae liver abscess, but many patients with pyogenic liver abscess (PLA) do not have diabetes. This study was conducted to compare the clinical characteristics and prognostic factors of K. pneumoniae PLA with that caused by other organisms in non-diabetic patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Microbiol Immunol Infect
February 2009
Background And Purpose: Acinetobacter junii is a human pathogen but A. junii infection is rarely reported. This study aimed to delineate the characteristics of A.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAeromonas peritonitis remains a rare condition. In this study we describe the clinical features of primary and secondary Aeromonas peritonitis, and compare the differences between these two diseases entities. Patients with Aeromonas peritonitis were identified from microbiological and medical records during the period between March 1994 and March 2003.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Microbiol Immunol Infect
June 2006
Background And Purpose: Central venous catheter (CVC) infection is a common problem during hospitalization and nosocomial bloodstream infection in these patients is associated with increased morbidity, mortality, and health care cost. This prospective study examined the risk factors of CVC-related infections.
Methods: During a 6-month period, a total of 281 patients who underwent central venous catheterization after general surgery were enrolled.
Background And Purpose: Serodiagnosis of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection typically requires repeatedly reactive positive screening test followed by Western blot (WB) assay. When WB assay result is indeterminate, the results of follow-up WB assay may remain inconclusive. This study evaluated use of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and particle agglutination test (PAT) as sequential screening tests with WB assay for the diagnosis of HIV infection.
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