Publications by authors named "MacNeill S"

Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) prevalence is steadily increasing, in part due to increased multimorbidity in our aging global population. When progression to kidney failure cannot be avoided, people need unbiased information to inform decisions about whether to start dialysis, if or when indicated, or continue with holistic person-centred care without dialysis (conservative kidney management). Comparisons suggest that while there may be some survival benefit from dialysis over conservative kidney management, in people aged 80 years and over, or with multiple health problems or frailty, this may be at the expense of quality of life, hospitalisations, symptom burden and preferred place of death.

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Background: Emollients and topical corticosteroids (TCS) prevent and treat flares in eczema. However, topical treatment use is poorly recorded and reported in clinical trials. There is no clear consensus of how best to capture and summarise topical treatment use.

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Background: Conservative therapies are recommended as initial treatment for male lower urinary tract symptoms. However, there is a lack of evidence on effectiveness and uncertainty regarding approaches to delivery.

Objective: The objective was to determine whether or not a standardised and manualised care intervention delivered in primary care achieves superior symptomatic outcome for lower urinary tract symptoms to usual care.

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Background: Herpes zoster (shingles) is normally diagnosed clinically. Timely diagnosis is important so that antiviral treatment can be started soon after rash onset.

Aim: To assess whether a practice-level educational intervention, aimed at non-clinical patient-facing staff, improves the timely assessment of patients with shingles.

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Objectives: To estimate the cost-effectiveness of a primary care intervention for male lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) compared with usual care.

Design: Economic evaluation alongside a cluster randomised controlled trial from a UK National Health Service (NHS) perspective with a 12-month time horizon.

Setting: Thirty NHS general practice sites in England.

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The sliding clamp PCNA is a key player in eukaryotic genome replication and stability, acting as a platform onto which components of the DNA replication and repair machinery are assembled. Interactions with PCNA are frequently mediated via a short protein sequence motif known as the PCNA-interacting protein (PIP) motif. Here we describe the binding mode of a PIP motif peptide derived from C-terminus of the PolD3 protein from the thermophilic ascomycete fungus , a subunit of both DNA polymerase δ (Pol δ) and the translesion DNA synthesis polymerase Pol ζ, characterised by isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) and protein X-ray crystallography.

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Background: Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are commonly prescribed to manage anxiety in adults with an autism diagnosis. However, their effectiveness and adverse effect profile in the autistic population are not well known. This trial aims to determine the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the SSRI sertraline in reducing symptoms of anxiety and improving quality of life in adults with a diagnosis of autism compared with placebo and to quantify any adverse effects.

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Background: The main determinant of emollient effectiveness is whether it is used, which in turn is linked with user satisfaction.

Objectives: To compare parental satisfaction with emollient type for the treatment of childhood eczema.

Methods: Secondary analysis of data from the Best Emollients for Eczema (BEE) trial was undertaken.

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Objective: To determine whether a standardised and manualised care intervention in men in primary care could achieve superior improvement of lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) compared with usual care.

Design: Cluster randomised controlled trial.

Setting: 30 National Health Service general practice sites in England.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to compare the effectiveness and acceptability of four commonly used emollients (lotion, cream, gel, ointment) for treating childhood eczema, highlighting the need for clearer options due to previous inconsistencies.
  • Conducted in primary care settings in England, the study enrolled 550 children aged 6 months to 12 years with mild eczema, using a randomised clinical trial design and collecting both quantitative and qualitative data.
  • The main outcome focused on evaluating changes in eczema severity over 16 weeks, with secondary measures including quality of life assessments and family impact, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of treatment effects.
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During the reductive evolution of obligate intracellular parasites called microsporidia, a tiny remnant mitochondrion (mitosome) lost its typical cristae, organellar genome, and most canonical functions. Here, we combine electron tomography, stereology, immunofluorescence microscopy, and bioinformatics to characterise mechanisms of growth, division, and inheritance of this minimal mitochondrion in two microsporidia species (grown within a mammalian RK13 culture-cell host). Mitosomes of (2-12/cell) and (14-18/nucleus) displayed incremental/non-phasic growth and division and were closely associated with an organelle identified as equivalent to the fungal microtubule-organising centre (microsporidian spindle pole body; mSPB).

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Context: A 25-pound weight limit is currently set on containerized instrumentation sets by the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) and the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI), in order to reduce strain on the staff and ensure that the sets are not too crowded in order to preserve sterilization and drying of the instruments. This is pushing companies to reduce the weight and number of instrumentation sets for the operating room. One solution has been to explore the viability of new, lighter materials such as Onyx.

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Context: With the growing number of robotic knee arthroplasties being performed, new outcomes must be analyzed to provide a database for comparing robotic and nonrobotic surgeries. These results can be utilized in the future to properly assess the significance of utilizing robotic technology in the operating room regarding patient outcomes and cost.

Objectives: The aims of this study are to: (1) analyze adverse outcomes from robotic-assisted knee arthroplasty and its relation to sex, body mass index (BMI), and age; and (2) explore any possible differences in outcomes among robotic-assisted unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) and robotic-assisted total knee arthroplasty (TKA).

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Background: Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment for depression. Self-directed online CBT interventions have made CBT more accessible at a lower cost. However, adherence is often poor and, in the absence of therapist support, effects are modest and short-term.

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Background: It is unclear if ambient temperature changes affect eczema. It is also unclear if people with worse disease are more susceptible to weather-related flares, or specific types of emollient offer protection.

Objectives: To investigate the effect of short-term temperature variations on eczema symptoms in children.

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Background: The UK's living-donor kidney transplant (LDKT) activity falls behind that of many other countries internationally, with less than 20% of those eligible receiving a LDKT each year. Certain individuals with kidney disease in the UK appear to be particularly disadvantaged in accessing a LDKT; the most socioeconomically deprived people with kidney disease are 60% less likely to receive a LDKT than the least deprived. Improving equity in living-donor kidney transplantation has been highlighted as an international research priority.

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DNA polymerase δ (Pol δ) is a key enzyme for the maintenance of genome integrity in eukaryotic cells, acting in concert with the sliding clamp processivity factor PCNA (proliferating cell nuclear antigen). Three of the four subunits of human Pol δ interact directly with the PCNA homotrimer via a short, conserved protein sequence known as a PCNA interacting protein (PIP) motif. Here, we describe the identification of a PIP motif located towards the N terminus of the PolD4 subunit of Pol δ (equivalent to human p12) from the thermophilic filamentous fungus Chaetomium thermophilum and present the X-ray crystal structure of the corresponding peptide bound to PCNA at 2.

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Background: Women with stress urinary incontinence (SUI) experience urine leakage with physical activity. Currently, the interventional treatments for SUI are surgical, or endoscopic bulking injection(s). However, these procedures are not always successful, and symptoms can persist or come back after treatment, categorised as recurrent SUI.

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Background: More than a third of the 65,000 people living with kidney failure in the UK attend a dialysis unit 2-5 times a week to have their blood cleaned for 3-5 h. In haemodialysis (HD), toxins are removed by diffusion, which can be enhanced using a high-flux dialyser. This can be augmented with convection, as occurs in haemodiafiltration (HDF), and improved outcomes have been reported in people who are able to achieve high volumes of convection.

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Background: To our knowledge, there are no trials comparing emollients commonly used for childhood eczema. We aimed to compare the clinical effectiveness and safety of the four main emollient types: lotions, creams, gels, and ointments.

Methods: We did a pragmatic, individually randomised, parallel group, phase 4 superiority trial in 77 general practice surgeries in England.

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Background: Emollients are used as maintenance therapy for all severities of eczema but there is a lack of head-to-head comparisons of effectiveness and acceptability.

Aim: To determine the validity of a self-report questionnaire designed to assess user satisfaction with a given emollient and to report the findings.

Methods: Data were analysed from the Choice of Moisturiser for Eczema Treatment trial, which compared four emollient types (Aveeno lotion, Diprobase cream, Doublebase gel and Hydromol ointment) in children aged < 5 years with clinically diagnosed eczema.

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Background: Little is known about trends in prescribing of anxiolytics (antidepressants, benzodiazepines, beta-blockers, anticonvulsants, and antipsychotics) for treatment of anxiety. Several changes may have affected prescribing in recent years, including changes in clinical guidance.

Aim: To examine trends in prescribing for anxiety in UK primary care between 2003 and 2018.

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Background: Non-IgE-mediated Cow's Milk Allergy (CMA) has a prevalence of less than 1% in children. Guidelines developed to help non-specialists diagnose CMA may lead to misattribution of normal symptoms and contribute to overdiagnosis of CMA. We sought to establish the frequency of symptoms during infancy associated with non-IgE-mediated CMA, using the international Milk Allergy in Primary Care (iMAP) guideline as representative of CMA guidelines more generally.

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Introduction: Young people in out-of-home care have often experienced trauma, such as direct maltreatment or witnessing violence. There is good evidence that rates of mental health difficulties are high in this group, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a trauma-specific mental health outcome. There remains less evidence to guide how to effectively address elevated PTSD symptoms (PTSS) in these young people, particularly in ways that are feasible and scalable for stretched social-care and mental health services.

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