How prepared are rural and remote health care practitioners to provide evidence-based management for people with chronic lung disease?

Objective: To investigate the existing experience, training, confidence and knowledge of rural/remote health care practitioners in providing management for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Design:   Descriptive cross-sectional, observational survey design using a written anonymous questionnaire. This study formed part of a larger project evaluating the impact of breathe easy walk easy (BEWE), an interactive education and training program for rural and remote health care practitioners.

Therapeutic options for the treatment of hypertension in children and adolescents.

Primary hypertension in children is increasing in prevalence with many cases likely going undiagnosed. The prevalence is currently estimated at between 3%-5% in the United States and may be higher in certain ethnic groups. Primary hypertension, once felt to be rare in children, is now considered to be about five times more common than secondary hypertension.

Narrative skill and syntactic complexity in school-age children with and without late language emergence.

Background: Children who do not produce single words by the expected age have been described as 'late talkers' or as demonstrating 'late language emergence' (LLE). Although their short-term growth in vocabulary is often strong, longer-term consequences of LLE remain in dispute. It has been argued that the majority of school-age children who had LLE move into the average range for narrative production, though studies have not examined narrative comprehension.

Pediatric analgesic clinical trial designs, measures, and extrapolation: report of an FDA scientific workshop.

Analgesic trials pose unique scientific, ethical, and practical challenges in pediatrics. Participants in a scientific workshop sponsored by the US Food and Drug Administration developed consensus on aspects of pediatric analgesic clinical trial design. The standard parallel-placebo analgesic trial design commonly used for adults has ethical and practical difficulties in pediatrics, due to the likelihood of subjects experiencing pain for extended periods of time.

Pulmonary rehabilitation in Australia: a national survey.

Objective: To determine the current structure and content of pulmonary rehabilitation programs in Australia.

Design: A cross sectional, observational design using a purpose designed anonymous written survey.

Setting And Participants: The National database of Pulmonary Rehabilitation Programs maintained by the Australian Lung Foundation was used to identify all known programs in all states and territories of Australia (n=193).

Quantification of serum fentanyl concentrations from umbilical cord blood during ex utero intrapartum therapy.

Fetal IM injection of fentanyl is frequently performed during ex utero intrapartum therapy (EXIT procedure). We quantified the concentration of fentanyl in umbilical vein blood. Thirteen samples from 13 subjects were analyzed.

DW4TR: A Data Warehouse for Translational Research.

The linkage between the clinical and laboratory research domains is a key issue in translational research. Integration of clinicopathologic data alone is a major task given the number of data elements involved. For a translational research environment, it is critical to make these data usable at the point-of-need.

Prospective randomized observer-blinded study comparing the analgesic efficacy of ultrasound-guided rectus sheath block and local anaesthetic infiltration for umbilical hernia repair.

Background: Umbilical hernia repair, a common day-surgery procedure in children, is associated with considerable postoperative discomfort. Possible modes of postoperative analgesia for umbilical hernia repair are rectus sheath block (RSB) and local anaesthetic infiltration of the surgical site (LAI).

Methods: We undertook an observer-blinded, randomized, prospective, observational study to compare the efficacy of ultrasound-guided RSB and LAI in providing postoperative analgesia for umbilical hernia repair.

A qualitative assessment of a community pharmacy cognitive pharmaceutical services program, using a work system approach.

Background: Although lack of time, trained personnel, and reimbursement have been identified as barriers to pharmacists providing cognitive pharmaceutical services (CPS) in community pharmacies, the underlying contributing factors of these barriers have not been explored. One approach to better understand barriers and facilitators to providing CPS is to use a work system approach to examine different components of a work system and how the components may impact care processes.

Objectives: The goals of this study were to identify and describe pharmacy work system characteristics that pharmacists identified and changed to provide CPS in a demonstration program.

Uncommon presentation of rare disorder-duodenal ulcer secondary to invasive pancreatic primitive neuroectodermal tumor: case report and review of the literature.

The authors report an unusual presentation of a rare tumor in childhood, a pancreatic primitive neuroectodermal tumor invading the duodenum leading to anemia. A review of intra-abdominal primitive neuroectodermal tumors is discussed.

Perioperative management of children undergoing craniofacial reconstruction surgery: a practice survey.

Objective/aims:   To assess current practices in the management of children undergoing craniofacial surgery and identify areas of significant practice variability with the intent to direct future research.

Background:   The perioperative management of infants and children undergoing craniofacial reconstruction surgery can be challenging because of the routine occurrence of significant blood loss with associated morbidity. A variety of techniques have been described to improve the care for these children.

Adverse effects of biologics: a network meta-analysis and Cochrane overview.

Background: Biologics are used for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and many other conditions. While the efficacy of biologics has been established, there is uncertainty regarding the adverse effects of this treatment. Since serious risks such as tuberculosis (TB) reactivation, serious infections, and lymphomas may be common to the biologics but occur in small numbers across the various indications, we planned to combine the results from biologics used in many conditions to obtain the much needed risk estimates.

Influence of gynecologic oncologists on the survival of patients with endometrial cancer.

Purpose: Despite a lack of evidence for survival benefit, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology has recommendations for referral to gynecologic oncologists for the treatment of endometrial cancer. Therefore, we propose to determine the influence of gynecologic oncologists on the treatment and survival of patients with endometrial cancer.

Patients And Methods: Data were obtained from Medicare and Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) databases from 1988 to 2005.

Dietary vitamin D exposure prevents obesity-induced increase in endometrial cancer in Pten+/- mice.

The possibility that dietary vitamin D(3) (VD(3)) exposure inhibits endometrial carcinogenesis in an animal model and modifies the enhanced risk of endometrial carcinoma associated with obesity was investigated. At 4 weeks of age, Pten(+/-) and wild-type mice were each divided into four treatment groups and fed AIN93G control diet, or AIN93G-based diet containing either 25,000 international units of VD(3) per kilogram of diet, 58% fat to induce obesity (high fat), or high fat and 25,000 international units of VD(3) per kilogram of diet. Mice were kept on these diets until they were sacrificed at week 28.

A GOG 210 aCGH study of gain at 1q23 in endometrioid endometrial cancer in the context of racial disparity and outcome.

The goal of this study was to identify recurrent regions of genomic gain or loss in endometrial cancer of the endometrioid type in the context of racial disparities in mortality for this disease. Array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) analysis was performed on 80 frozen primary tumors from the Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG)-210 bank using the RPCI 19K BAC arrays. The 80 patients included 20 African American (AA) Stage I, 20 White (W) Stage I, 20 African American (AA) Stage IIIC/IV, and 20 White (W) Stage IIIC/IV.

Fecal egg counts after anthelmintic administration to aged horses and horses with pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction.

Objective: To determine effects of pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction (Cushing's disease) and age on fecal egg count and time to egg reappearance after anthelmintic treatment in horses residing in similar environments.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Animals: 29 healthy horses (4 to 35 years old) and 13 horses with PPID (13 to 33 years old).

Abatacept for rheumatoid arthritis: a Cochrane systematic review.

Objective: To perform a systematic review of efficacy and safety of abatacept in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Methods: We searched the Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, EMBASE, ACP Journal Club, and Biosis Previews for randomized controlled trials (RCT) comparing abatacept alone or in combination with disease modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARD)/biologics to placebo or other DMARD/biologics in patients with RA. Two reviewers independently assessed search results, risk of bias, and extracted data.

Abatacept for rheumatoid arthritis.

Background: Abatacept inhibits the co-stimulation of T cells and disrupts the inflammatory chain of events that leads to joint inflammation, pain, and damage in rheumatoid arthritis.

Objectives: To assess the efficacy and safety of abatacept in reducing disease activity, pain, and improving function in people with rheumatoid arthritis.

Search Strategy: We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (The Cochrane Library 2007, Issue 1), MEDLINE (from 1966), EMBASE (from 1980), ACP Journal Club (from 2000), and Biosis Previews (from 1990) in March 2007 and December 2008.