Shared Decision-Making in Severe Aortic Stenosis: Experiences and Needs of Older Patients.

Background: The experiences and preferences of older patients regarding shared decision-making (SDM) for managing severe aortic stenosis (AS) and its impact on health outcomes are not well known.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to provide insight into the experiences, preferences, and needs for SDM of older patients with severe AS and the associations between perceived SDM levels and patients' quality of life, depression, and anxiety.

Methods: A descriptive, exploratory multiple-methods study was conducted using a survey, focus groups, and individual interviews with patients 70 years and older with severe AS.

Axial muscle-fibre orientations in larval zebrafish.

Most teleost fish propel themselves with lateral body waves powered by their axial muscles. These muscles also power suction feeding through rapid expansion of the mouth cavity. They consist of muscle segments (myomeres), separated by connective tissue sheets (myosepts).

Automated cell type annotation and exploration of single-cell signaling dynamics using mass cytometry.

Mass cytometry by time-of-flight (CyTOF) is an emerging technology allowing for in-depth characterization of cellular heterogeneity in cancer and other diseases. Unfortunately, high-dimensional analyses of CyTOF data remain quite demanding. Here, we deploy a bioinformatics framework that tackles two fundamental problems in CyTOF analyses namely (1) automated annotation of cell populations guided by a reference dataset and (2) systematic utilization of single-cell data for effective patient stratification.

Medium-Chain Triglycerides (MCTs) for the Symptomatic Treatment of Dementia-Related Diseases: A Systematic Review.

Pathomechanisms of dementias involve increasing damage to neuronal energy metabolism, resulting in degeneration-related insulin resistance and glucose hypometabolism. In this case, ketone bodies can provide an alternative energy source. Supplementation with medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs), which can induce ketogenesis, may alleviate brain energy deficits and improve neuronal function.

Abnormal Iron Status and Adverse Outcome After Elective Cardiac Surgery: A Prospective, Observational Multicenter Study.

Objectives: To investigate the incidence of preoperative abnormal iron status and its association with packed red blood cell (PRBC) transfusion, postoperative major complications, and new onset of clinically significant disability in patients undergoing elective cardiac surgery.

Design: A prospective, observational multicenter cohort study.

Setting: Three cardiac surgical centers in the Netherlands between 2019 and 2021.

Transition Readiness Into Adult Health Care in Children With Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

Background and aim Approximately 25% of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) cases are diagnosed before the age of 18 years. Compared to adults, pediatric IBD is more aggressive and progresses rapidly. It is important to have a well-structured transition process in place when patients are transferred from pediatric to adult care.

Preferences, Career Aspects, and Factors Influencing the Choice of Specialty by Medical Students and Interns in Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Background and objective Choosing a medical specialty is one of the most critical career decisions medical students and interns make. However, little is known about the factors these graduates consider when choosing their specialty. Our study assessed factors that medical students and interns consider when determining their specialty.

Trauma Patient Volume and the Quality of Care: A Scoping Review.

Background: Healthcare stakeholders in the Netherlands came to an agreement in 2022 to deal with present and future challenges in healthcare. Among others, this agreement contains clear statements regarding the concentration of trauma patients, including the minimal required number of annual severe trauma patients for Major Trauma Centers. This review investigates the effects of trauma patient volumes on several domains of the quality of healthcare.

Prevalence and Types of Otological Symptoms Presenting in COVID-19 Patients in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia: A Questionnaire-Based Study.

Background The clinical manifestations of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) can cause sensory dysfunction of taste, smell, and hearing. Otological symptoms may exceed hearing loss to ear pressure, tinnitus, and hyperacusis. Objective The objective of this study was to identify the prevalence and types of otological symptoms among patients diagnosed with COVID-19 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Advanced Practice Providers as Leaders of a Rapid Response Team: A Prospective Cohort Study.

In view of the shortage of medical staff, the quality and continuity of care may be improved by employing advanced practice providers (APPs). This study aims to assess the quality of these APPs in critical care. In a large teaching hospital, rapid response team (RRT) interventions led by APPs were assessed by independent observers and intensivists and compared to those led by medical residents MRs.

Determinants of quality of life in patients with hemorrhagic stroke, Saudi Arabia: A cross-sectional study.

Background: Previous studies demonstrated that stroke had an inverse impact on patients' physical, mental, and social quality of life.

Aim: To determine factors contributing to the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of Saudi hemorrhagic stroke survivors.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was done at King Abdulaziz University Hospital (KAUH), Jeddah, KSA, on adult stroke patients.

Shared decision-making in advance care planning among hospitalized older COVID-19 patients: a multicenter, retrospective cohort study.

Background: In the Netherlands, it is customary to discuss directives regarding resuscitation, intubation, and ICU-admission with patients and/or their relatives upon hospital-admission. The outcome of this discussion is documented in a code status. Ideally, these advance care planning (ACP)-related decisions are made by a patient (and/or their relatives) and a professional together in a shared decision-making (SDM) process, to improve patient satisfaction and prevent undesired care.

Bone Marrow-Derived Cells Contribute to the Maintenance of Thymic Stroma including TECs.

In paradox to critical functions for T-cell selection and self-tolerance, the thymus undergoes profound age-associated atrophy and loss of T-cell function, further enhanced by cancer therapies. Identifying thymic epithelial progenitor populations capable of forming functional thymic tissue will be critical in understanding thymic epithelial cell (TEC) ontogeny and designing strategies to reverse involution. We identified a new population of progenitor cells, present in both the thymus and bone marrow (BM) of mice, that coexpress the hematopoietic marker CD45 and the definitive thymic epithelial marker EpCAM and maintain the capacity to form functional thymic tissue.

Justice and the racial dimensions of health inequalities: A view from COVID-19.

In this paper, we take up the call to further examine structural injustice in health, and racial inequalities in particular. We examine the many facets of racism: structural, interpersonal and institutional as they appeared in the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK, and emphasize the relevance of their systemic character. We suggest that such inequalities were entirely foreseeable, for their causal mechanisms are deeply ingrained in our social structures.

Eradication of Resistant and Susceptible Aerobic Gram-Negative Bacteria From the Digestive Tract in Critically Ill Patients; an Observational Cohort Study.

Background: Selective Decontamination of the Digestive tract (SDD) aims to prevent nosocomial infections, by eradication of potentially pathogenic micro-organisms from the digestive tract.

Objectives: To estimate the rate of and the time to eradication of resistant vs. susceptible facultative aerobic gram-negative bacteria (AGNB) in patients treated with SDD.

Preoperative anaemia and outcome after elective cardiac surgery: a Dutch national registry analysis.

Background: Previous studies have shown that preoperative anaemia in patients undergoing cardiac surgery is associated with adverse outcomes. However, most of these studies were retrospective, had a relatively small sample size, and were from a single centre. The aim of this study was to analyse the relationship between the severity of preoperative anaemia and short- and long-term mortality and morbidity in a large multicentre national cohort of patients undergoing cardiac surgery.

Professionals' views on shared decision-making in severe aortic stenosis.

Objective: To provide insight into professionals' perceptions of and experiences with shared decision-making (SDM) in the treatment of symptomatic patients with severe aortic stenosis (AS).

Methods: A semistructured interview study was performed in the heart centres of academic and large teaching hospitals in the Netherlands between June and December 2020. Cardiothoracic surgeons, interventional cardiologists, nurse practitioners and physician assistants (n=21) involved in the decision-making process for treatment of severe AS were interviewed.

Who still needs the nation? Empire, identity and the British welfare state.

It is difficult to conceive of a re-imagination of "us" by focusing solely on the state, especially where the intended objective is to trouble the prevailing national project. If national projects, like racial projects, must be laboured at to be sustained, then in the case of Britishness we find a rich vein of contestation by those left out of its formal narration. It is on this point that the discussion will focus, beginning with a preliminary but unstated question that warrants explicit attention, namely: why re-make national projects at all?

CombiFlow: combinatorial AML-specific plasma membrane expression profiles allow longitudinal tracking of clones.

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) often presents as an oligoclonal disease whereby multiple genetically distinct subclones can coexist within patients. Differences in signaling and drug sensitivity of such subclones complicate treatment and warrant tools to identify them and track disease progression. We previously identified >50 AML-specific plasma membrane (PM) proteins, and 7 of these (CD82, CD97, FLT3, IL1RAP, TIM3, CD25, and CD123) were implemented in routine diagnostics in patients with AML (n = 256) and myelodysplastic syndrome (n = 33).

Long-term survival and health-related quality of life after in-hospital cardiac arrest.

Introduction: In-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) is an adverse event associated with high mortality. Because of the impact of IHCA more data is needed on incidence, outcomes and associated factors that are present prior to cardiac arrest. The aim was to assess one-year survival, patient-centred outcomes after IHCA and their associated pre-arrest factors.

Risk factors for adverse outcomes during mechanical ventilation of 1152 COVID-19 patients: a multicenter machine learning study with highly granular data from the Dutch Data Warehouse.

Background: The identification of risk factors for adverse outcomes and prolonged intensive care unit (ICU) stay in COVID-19 patients is essential for prognostication, determining treatment intensity, and resource allocation. Previous studies have determined risk factors on admission only, and included a limited number of predictors. Therefore, using data from the highly granular and multicenter Dutch Data Warehouse, we developed machine learning models to identify risk factors for ICU mortality, ventilator-free days and ICU-free days during the course of invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) in COVID-19 patients.