Evaluation of an interprofessional education program involving medical and pharmacy students: a mixed-method study.

Background: Effective pharmacotherapy requires strong collaboration between physicians and pharmacists, highlighting the need for interprofessional education (IPE) in university curricula. This study evaluated the impact of an IPE program on medical and pharmacy students, focusing on their perceived development of interprofessional collaborative competencies, perceived learning outcomes, and clinical collaboration perceptions.

Methods: A mixed-method approach was employed to evaluate an IPE program that consisted of three mandatory activities with increased complexity and autonomy, that were integrated into the medical and pharmacy students' curricula.

Students' perspective on the Dutch National Pharmacotherapy Assessment, a national survey study among final-year medical students.

Introduction: The Dutch National Pharmacotherapy Assessment (DNPA) was introduced in 2013 to improve clinical pharmacology and therapeutics (CPT) education. This study investigated final-year medical students' perceived motivation and level of preparation for the DNPA in different scenarios: mandatory vs. non-mandatory, and traditional high-stakes assessment programme vs.

The impact of summative, formative or programmatic assessment on the Dutch National Pharmacotherapy Assessment: a retrospective multicentre study.

Background: The Dutch National Pharmacotherapy Assessment (DNPA), which focuses on assessing medication safety and essential drug knowledge, was introduced to improve clinical pharmacology and therapeutics education in the Netherlands. This study investigated how the performance of final-year medical students on the DPNA was affected by the assessment programme (traditional with summative or formative assessment, and programmatic assessment).

Methods: This multicentre retrospective longitudinal observation study (2019-2023) involved final-year medical students from four medical schools in the Netherlands.

The Dutch list of essential drugs for undergraduate medical education: A modified Delphi study.

Aims: Prescribing errors among junior doctors are common in clinical practice because many lack prescribing competence after graduation. This is in part due to inadequate education in clinical pharmacology and therapeutics (CP&T) in the undergraduate medical curriculum. To support CP&T education, it is important to determine which drugs medical undergraduates should be able to prescribe safely and effectively without direct supervision by the time they graduate.

Do we become better prescribers after graduation: A 1-year international follow-up study among junior doctors.

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate how the prescribing knowledge and skills of junior doctors in the Netherlands and Belgium develop in the year after graduation. We also analysed differences in knowledge and skills between surgical and nonsurgical junior doctors.

Methods: This international, multicentre (n = 11), longitudinal study analysed the learning curves of junior doctors working in various specialties via three validated assessments at about the time of graduation, and 6 months and 1 year after graduation.

CXCL10 Is a Circulating Inflammatory Marker in Patients with Advanced Heart Failure: a Pilot Study.

Chemokines are involved in the remodeling of the heart; however, their significance as biomarkers in heart failure is unknown. We observed that circulating CXCR3 receptor chemokines CXCL9 and CXCL10 in a rat model of heart failure were increased 1 week after myocardial infarction. CXCL10 was also increased in both remote and infarcted regions of the heart and remained elevated at 16 weeks; CXCL9 was elevated in the remote area at 1 week.

Improving membrane based multiplex immunoassays for semi-quantitative detection of multiple cytokines in a single sample.

Background: Inflammatory mediators can serve as biomarkers for the monitoring of the disease progression or prognosis in many conditions. In the present study we introduce an adaptation of a membrane-based technique in which the level of up to 40 cytokines and chemokines can be determined in both human and rodent blood in a semi-quantitative way. The planar assay was modified using the LI-COR (R) detection system (fluorescence based) rather than chemiluminescence and semi-quantitative outcomes were achieved by normalizing the outcomes using the automated exposure settings of the Odyssey readout device.

Pressure overload-induced right ventricular failure is associated with re-expression of myocardial tenascin-C and elevated plasma tenascin-C levels.

Background: We investigated whether (1) monocrotaline(MCT)-induced right ventricular (RV) dilatation is associated with re-expression of myocardial tenascin-C (TNC), (2) elevated plasma TNC levels can be used as a marker of ventricular dilatation, and (3) MCT-induced RV dilatation is associated with alterations of other remodeling-related proteins.

Methods: Rats were treated with MCT in low dose (30 mg/kg, MCT30, n=10) to induce compensated RV hypertrophy, in high dose (80 mg/kg, MCT80, n=11) to induce RV failure, and with saline as control (CONT, n=9). After 4 weeks, RV function was assessed.

Myocardial collagen metabolism in failing hearts before and during cardiac resynchronization therapy.

Background: In patients with heart failure cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) leads to reverse ventricular remodelling.

Aim: To evaluate whether myocardial collagen metabolism in patients with heart failure is implicated in adverse ventricular remodelling and response to CRT.

Methods: Collagen synthesis and degradation were assessed from the concentrations of aminoterminal propeptides of type I and type III collagen (PINP and PIIINP) and carboxyterminal telopeptide of type I collagen (ICTP), respectively, in serum of 64 patients with heart failure before and after 6 months of CRT.

Activation of signaling molecules and matrix metalloproteinases in right ventricular myocardium of rats with pulmonary hypertension.

Pulmonary hypertension induces right ventricular (RV) overload, which is transmitted to cardiomyocytes via integrins that activate intracellular messengers, including focal adhesion kinase (FAK) and neuronal nitric oxide synthase (NOS1). We investigated whether RV hypertrophy (RVH) and RV failure (RVF) were associated with activation of FAK, NOS1, and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). Rats were treated without (RVC) or with a low dose of monocrotaline (30mg/kg) to induce RVH, and with a high dose (80mg/kg) to induce RVF.

Reverse ventricular remodelling after cardiac resynchronization therapy is associated with a reduction in serum tenascin-C and plasma matrix metalloproteinase-9 levels.

Background: In heart failure patients, cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) leads to reverse ventricular remodelling.

Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate whether changes in levels of circulating biomarkers of extracellular matrix metabolism correlate with the response to CRT.

Methods And Results: Clinical parameters, left ventricular (LV) volumes, and circulating levels of tenascin-C (TNC), matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2), MMP-9, and amino-terminal propeptide of brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) were assessed in 64 patients at baseline and 6 months follow-up.

Characterization of right ventricular function after monocrotaline-induced pulmonary hypertension in the intact rat.

We characterized hemodynamics and systolic and diastolic right ventricular (RV) function in relation to structural changes in the rat model of monocrotaline (MCT)-induced pulmonary hypertension. Rats were treated with MCT at 30 mg/kg body wt (MCT30, n = 15) and 80 mg/kg body wt (MCT80, n = 16) to induce compensated RV hypertrophy and RV failure, respectively. Saline-treated rats served as control (Cont, n = 13).

Partial and delayed release of troponin-I compared with the release of lactate dehydrogenase from necrotic cardiomyocytes.

Although the troponins are the serum proteins most frequently used nowadays to diagnose myocardial infarction, controversy continues about whether troponins are released later from infarcted myocardium than the cytoplasmic enzymes used previously, like lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). The present study compared the release kinetics of troponin-I (TnI) and LDH from necrotic cardiomyocytes in vitro. Cardiomyocytes prepared from neonatal rat ventricles were grown for 3 days.