Usefulness of the optic nerve sheath ultrasound in patients with cessation of cerebral flow.

Unlabelled: Optic nerve sheath diameter (ONSD) ultrasound has proven to be a useful tool for the detection of intracranial hypertension (IH). The DVNO values, in patients with cessation of cerebral blood flow (CCBF), has not been clarified yet.

Objective: Establish an association between DVNO and CFSC in neurocritical patients admitted to an ICU.

Usefulness of the optic nerve sheath ultrasound in patients with cessation of cerebral flow.

Unlabelled: Optic nerve sheath diameter (ONSD) ultrasound has proven to be a useful tool for the detection of intracranial hypertension (IH). The ONSD values, in patients with cessation of cerebral blood flow (CCBF), has not been clarified yet.

Objective: Establish an association between ONSD and CCBF in neurocritical patients admitted to an ICU.

Development of a predictive model of hospitalization in primary care patients with heart failure.

Background: Heart failure (HF) is the leading cause of hospitalization in people over age 65. Predictive hospital admission models have been developed to help reduce the number of these patients.

Aim: To develop and internally validate a model to predict hospital admission in one-year for any non-programmed cause in heart failure patients receiving primary care treatment.

Disability and quality of life in heart failure patients: a cross-sectional study.

Background: Although both hospitalization and mortality due to heart failure (HF) have been widely studied, less is known about the impact of HF on disability and quality of life.

Aim: To assess the degree of disability and quality of life in HF patients attended at family medicine centres.

Design And Setting: Cross-sectional study of a cohort of HF patients attended at family medicine centres.

Natural History of Parkinson's Disease in the Province of Segovia: Disability in a 20 Years Longitudinal Study.

Background: Parkinson's disease mainly affects the elderly population causing a progressive functional disability with motor, psychic, and cognitive deterioration.

Objective: This study was carried out to evaluate disability caused by Parkinson's disease by analyzing the median time to reach Hoehn and Yahr stage III and to investigate predictor variables based on a 20-year longitudinal follow-up study.

Methods: We examined 273 patients with Parkinson's disease recruited between 1978 and 1998.

Disability transitions after 30 months in three community-dwelling diagnostic groups in Spain.

Background: Little is known about changes in disability over time among community-dwelling patients. Accordingly, this study sought to assess medium-term disability transitions.

Patients And Methods: 300 chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), chronic heart failure and stroke patients living at home in Madrid were selected from general practitioner lists.

Heart failure in primary care: co-morbidity and utilization of health care resources.

Background: In order to ensure proper management of primary care (PC) services, the efficiency of the health professionals tasked with such services must be known. Patients with heart failure (HF) are characterized by advanced age, high co-morbidity and high resource utilization.

Objective: To ascertain PC resource utilization by HF patients and variability in the management of such patients by GPs.

Comorbidity in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in family practice: a cross sectional study.

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is frequent and often coexists with other diseases. The aim of this study was to quantify the prevalence of COPD and related chronic comorbidity among patients aged over 40 years visiting family practices in an area of Madrid.

Methods: An observational, descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted in a health area of the Madrid Autonomous Region (Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid).

Comorbidity patterns in patients with chronic diseases in general practice.

Introduction: Healthcare management is oriented toward single diseases, yet multimorbidity is nevertheless the rule and there is a tendency for certain diseases to occur in clusters. This study sought to identify comorbidity patterns in patients with chronic diseases, by reference to number of comorbidities, age and sex, in a population receiving medical care from 129 general practitioners in Spain, in 2007.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in a health-area setting of the Madrid Autonomous Region (Comunidad Autónoma), covering a population of 198,670 individuals aged over 14 years.

ICF disability measured by WHO-DAS II in three community diagnostic groups in Madrid, Spain.

Objective: The planning, provision and monitoring of medical and support services for patient groups with chronic ailments may require disability assessment and registration. The purpose of this study was to assess disability in three groups of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), chronic heart failure (CHF) or stroke.

Methods: Convenience samples of consecutive patients diagnosed with COPD (102), CHF (99), and stroke (99) were taken from 1,053 primary care users in the southern area of the autonomous region of Madrid.

Heart failure in the family practice: a study of the prevalence and co-morbidity.

Background: Heart failure (HF) is a health problem that particularly affects the elderly population. Its onset is associated with other chronic diseases, a circumstance that makes it a challenge for health care services. The aim of this study is to quantify the prevalence of HF in family medicine offices and describe the chronic co-morbidity associated with it.

Impact of patient-general practitioner short-messages-based interaction on the control of hypertension in a follow-up service for low-to-medium risk hypertensive patients: a randomized controlled trial.

The evaluation in real-life settings of services for the follow-up and control of hypertensive patients is a complex intervention, which still needs analysis of the roles, tasks, and resources involved in the basic items: patient, healthcare professional, and the interaction between the two. To evaluate the impact of patient-general practitioner (GP) short-messages-based interaction, isolated from other items, on the degree of hypertension control in the follow-up of medium-to-low-risk patients in primary care, a randomized controlled trial has been performed: 38 GPs enrolled 285 hypertensive patients who recorded the results of self-blood-pressure (BP) monitoring, heart rate, and body weight, and completed an optional questionnaire in an identical manner over a six-month period. The telemedicine group (TmG) sent the data to a telemedicine-based system that enabled patient-GP interaction; the control group (CG) recorded the data on paper and could only deliver it to their GP personally in the routine visits.

Palliative performance status, heart rate and respiratory rate as predictive factors of survival time in terminally ill cancer patients.

To determine which symptoms, signs, and characteristics that define the patient's functional status predict the survival time in terminally ill cancer patients, a prospective longitudinal study was conducted with terminally ill cancer patients followed by a Home Care Support Team. Patients were followed up with at least weekly visits until death, collecting variables at each visit. A Cox multivariate regression analysis took into account all the follow-ups in the same patient.