Support for Informal Caregivers in Canada: A Scoping Review from a Hospice and Palliative/End-of-Life Care Lens.

Informal caregivers (ICs) providing care for those at the end-of-life face physical, psycho-social, emotional, and/or financial challenges. However, there is a paucity of research towards the effectiveness of available interventions for this vulnerable population. The purpose of this scoping review was to investigate the availability and efficacy of interventions for ICs providing hospice and palliative/end-of-life care in Canada.

Informal Caregiving for People With Life-Limiting Illness: Exploring the Knowledge Gaps.

People with life-limiting illness are increasingly having more care provided to them by informal caregivers (ICs) such as family members and friends. Although there is a substantial amount of literature surrounding informal caregiving, there is a paucity of research from a hospice palliative care angle. To address this knowledge gap, this scoping review explored the effects of/challenges to informal caregiving at the end of life in Canada.

High 30-day readmission rates associated with Clostridiumdifficile infection.

Background: Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is a leading cause of community-onset and healthcare-associated infection, with high recurrence rates, and associated high morbidity and mortality. We report national rates, leading causes, and predictors of hospital readmission for CDI.

Methods: Retrospective study of data from the 2013 Nationwide Readmissions Database of patients with a primary diagnosis of CDI and re-hospitalization within 30-days.

Primary lymph node gastrinoma. A diagnosis of exclusion. A case for duodenotomy in the setting of a negative imaging for primary tumor: A case report and review of the literature.

Introduction: Zollinger-Ellison syndrome (ZES) is caused by uninhibited secretion of gastrin from a gastrinoma. Gastrinomas most commonly arise within the wall of the duodenum followed by the pancreas. Primary lymph node gastrinomas have also been reported in the literature.

Esophageal intramural pseudodiverticulosis, a rare cause of food impaction: case report and review of the literature.

Esophageal intramural pseudodiverticulosis (EIPD) is a rare, benign condition of uncertain etiology and pathogenesis, which usually presents with either progressive or intermittent dysphagia. Acute presentation with food impaction, requiring emergency esophago-gastroduodenoscopy (EGD), is rare. We report a case of EIPD presenting as food bolus impaction in an elderly black female.

Bed detection for monitoring system in hospital wards.

Patient monitoring system has been providing a means for caregivers to regularly observe patients' condition in a multiple intensive care units from a single remote location in hospitals. In addition, the system may provide an addition layer of care, which includes software tools that support analysis of patients' vital signs, trends etc. To allow visual surveillance, cameras are installed in the patient wards.

Early predictors of severe lower gastrointestinal bleeding and adverse outcomes: a prospective study.

Background & Aims: Unlike in upper tract bleeding, prognostic factors for ongoing or recurrent bleeding from the lower gastrointestinal tract have not been well-defined. The aim of this study was to identify risk factors for severe lower gastrointestinal bleeding and for significant adverse outcomes.

Methods: All patients seeking attention at a university emergency department for gastrointestinal bleeding were prospectively identified during a 3-year period.

Ultrasound biomicroscopy in scleritis.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the usefulness of ultrasound biomicroscopy (UBM) for detecting and following up scleritis and episcleritis.

Design: The study design was a case series.

Participants: Patients with scleral inflammatory diseases (n = 16) were examined.

[Pterygium excision with intra-operative administration of low dosage mitomycin C].

Pterygium excision with postoperative instillation of mitoymcin C (MMC, 0.4 mg/ml) is encouraging because of the technical simplicity and low recurrence rates, but serious postoperative complications have been described (scleral necrosis, corneal perforation, glaucoma, cataract). The authors studied the efficacy and safety of pterygium excisions with a single intraoperative application of low-dose MMC (0.

The inability of a diabetogenic virus to induce diabetes mellitus in athymic (nude) mice.

The effect of a known diabetogenic M-strain encephalomyocarditis (EMC)-virus in athymic nude mice (lacking the thymus-dependent lymphocyte system), and in heteroxygous littermates and homozygous normal mice of the background strain (C57/B16) was investigated. While by 3 weeks 4 out of 4 surviving virus-inoculated littermates and 9 out of 9 inoculated normal mice developed diabetes mellitus, none of the 7 surviving virus-inoculated nude mice became diabetic. Virus was isolated from all inoculated animals, including non-diabetic nude mice.