Publications by authors named "Meijers J"

Invasive bone tumors pose a significant healthcare challenge, often requiring systemic chemotherapy and limb salvage surgery. However, these strategies are hampered by severe side effects, complex post-resection bone defects, and high local recurrence rates. To address this, we developed dual-functional bone substitute biomaterials by functionalizing commercially available bone substitute granules (Bio-Oss® and MBCP®+) with the established anticancer agent cisplatin.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Patients with thrombophilia show a higher incidence of VTE due to a disturbance in the hemostatic system. Hereditary thrombophilia can be identified by laboratory diagnostics, however most guidelines advise against thrombophilia testing in the majority of the patients with VTE, since the outcome rarely affects clinical decisions for the treatment. In this article we describe two cases in which hereditary thrombophilia testing could be considered.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This exploratory interview study investigated nursing staff members' perspectives on the fundamentals of end-of-life communication with older people as part of advance care planning in home care, nursing home, and hospital settings. Separate semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 nursing staff members about their experiences, opinions, and preferences before, during, and after end-of-life conversations. Overall themes clustering the fundamentals include preconditions such as feeling comfortable talking about the end of life and creating space for open communication.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Innovative small-scale facilities for dementia focus on providing quality of life and maintaining the functional abilities of residents while offering residents a home for life. To fulfill the home-for-life principle, palliative care approaches are necessary to maintain quality of life in these facilities. Few studies have reported on how palliative care is provided to residents in small-scale facilities.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Life-long vitamin K antagonist (VKA) therapy is recommended as a standard of care in antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) patients with thrombosis. Concerns have been raised about the validity of international normalized ratio (INR) measurements in lupus anticoagulant (LA)-positive APS patients because LA may interfere with phospholipid-dependent coagulation tests and could elevate INR measurements.

Objectives: Here, we aimed to determine the interference of antigen-specific monoclonal and isolated patient antibodies with LA activity on INR measurements.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: This study aimed to assess the effect of integrated palliative care (IPC) on potentially inappropriate end- of-life care and healthcare-costs in the last 30 days of life in the Netherlands.

Methods: Nationwide health-insurance claims data were used to assess potentially inappropriate end-of-life care (≥2 emergency room visits; ≥2 hospital admissions; >14 days hospitalization; chemotherapy; ICU admission; hospital death) and healthcare-costs in all deceased adults in IPC regions pre- and post- implementation and in those receiving IPC compared to a 1:2 matched control group.

Results: In regions providing IPC deceased adults (n = 37,468) received significantly less potentially inappropriate end-of-life care post-implementation compared to pre-implementation (26.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Aims: To describe the co-creation of the 'Desired Dementia Care Towards End of Life' (DEDICATED) approach to improve person-centred palliative care for individuals with dementia and to describe the experiences of healthcare professionals during the approach's implementation.

Methods: A needs assessment, comprising both qualitative and quantitative studies, informed palliative care needs of healthcare professionals, family caregivers and individuals with dementia. The approach was co-created with healthcare and education professionals, guided by the findings.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Emotional and behavioural disturbances accompanying neurocognitive disorders may sometimes lead to a criminal offence. Our knowledge of this specific forensic subpopulation is lagging behind the knowledge on, and attention for, 'classic' psychiatric disorders in forensic populations.

Aims: To gain knowledge on the prevalence and characteristics of individuals with neurocognitive disorders in the forensic population.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Interprofessional collaboration (IPC) is essential for high-quality palliative care (PC) for persons with dementia. The aim of this scoping review was to identify IPC approaches in palliative dementia care and explore the elements constituting these approaches. We performed a search in PubMed, CINAHL, and PsychINFO using the Joanna Briggs Institute Reviewers' manual and PRISMA guidelines, and conducted content analysis of the included articles.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study focuses on developing a palliative care goals model for individuals with dementia, emphasizing the importance of psychosocial and spiritual aspects at the end of life.
  • An international Delphi study, involving researchers and a diverse panel, rated various care goals to reach consensus on the model's components, which includes comfort, control, identity, and grief support.
  • The resulting model reflects the evolving needs of dementia patients and families, but there was no agreement on adding life prolongation as a goal, indicating a need for further exploration in this area.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Factor (F)XI can be activated by proteases, including thrombin and FXIIa. The interactions of these enzymes with FXI are transient in nature and therefore difficult to study.

Objectives: To identify the binding interface between thrombin and FXI and understand the dynamics underlying FXI activation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Calibration of prothrombin time (PT) in terms of international normalized ratio (INR) has been outlined in "Guidelines for thromboplastins and plasmas used to control oral anticoagulant therapy" (World Health Organization, 2013). The international standard ISO 17511:2020 presents requirements for manufacturers of in vitro diagnostic (IVD) medical devices (MDs) for documenting the calibration hierarchy for a measured quantity in human samples using a specified IVD MD. The objective of this article is to define an unequivocal, metrologically traceable calibration hierarchy for the INR measured in plasma as well as in whole blood samples.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: Pulmonary emboli (PE) contribute substantially to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) related mortality and morbidity. Immune cell-mediated hyperinflammation drives the procoagulant state in COVID-19 patients, resulting in immunothrombosis. To study the role of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) in the procoagulant state of COVID-19 patients, we performed a functional bioassay and related outcomes to the occurrence of PE.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Nursing staff is ideally positioned to play a central role in end-of-life communication as part of advance care planning for older people. However, this requires specific skills and competences. Only fragmented knowledge is available concerning important fundamentals in end-of-life communication performed by nursing staff.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Imprisonment is a common punishment in most countries. Goals of imprisonment are often not only retribution, but also prevention. Specific prevention aims to reduce the risk of reoffending of the imprisoned offender.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Aim: A prospective design was used to investigate the relationship of current psychiatric symptoms of incarcerated people with serious mental illness (SMI) and aggressive behavior on a penitentiary ward for crisis intervention.

Methods: One hundred sixty detainees with SMI, detained in a high-security penitentiary psychiatric facility, were screened every 2 weeks with the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale-Extended (BPRS-E) by trained clinicians, to ensure that the data on psychiatric symptoms were up-to-date. Aggressive behavior was registered with the Staff Observation Aggression Scale-Revised.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background:  Procarboxypeptidase B2 (proCPB2 or TAFI) is a zymogen that after activation cleaves C-terminal basic residues from peptides or proteins with many identified targets. A splice variant of CPB2 has been found in the brain lacking essential residues for its carboxypeptidase function. The aim was to determine CPB2 expression in the brain and effects of CPB2 deficiency ( ) on behavior.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Interprofessional collaboration (IPC) within and during movements between care settings is crucial for optimal palliative dementia care. The objective of this study was to explore the experiences of persons with dementia regarding collaboration with and between healthcare professionals (HCPs) and their perceptions of a possible future move to the nursing home (NH) in palliative dementia care. We conducted a cross-sectional qualitative study and performed semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of persons with dementia living at home ( = 18).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The acquired thrombotic risk factor known as lupus anticoagulant (LA) interferes with laboratory clotting assays and can be caused by autoantibodies against β2-glycoprotein I (β2GPI) and prothrombin. LA is associated with activated protein C (APC) resistance, which might contribute to thrombotic risk in patients with antiphospholipid syndrome. How antibodies against β2GPI and prothrombin cause APC resistance is currently unclear.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: To develop a prediction model for the development of hypertension in the decade following pre-eclampsia in women who were normotensive shortly after pregnancy.

Methods: This was a longitudinal cohort study of formerly pre-eclamptic women attending a university hospital in The Netherlands between 1996 and 2019. We developed a prediction model for incident hypertension using multivariable logistic regression analysis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Antithrombotic therapy is inevitably associated with a risk for bleeding and these bleeding complications can be life-threatening. Recently, specific reversal agents were developed for the direct factor Xa and thrombin inhibitors (DOACs). However, next to the fact that these agents are relatively expensive, the use of selective reversal agents complicates treatment of bleeding patients in practice.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF