Pain Relief Interventions in Australian Livestock Husbandry: A Review of Animal Welfare and Pain Duration.

In veterinary medicine and livestock production, ensuring good animal husbandry is vital for the physical and emotional wellbeing of animals under our care. Pain poses challenges for assessment and mitigation, especially in species unable to express pain overtly. This review examines current pain mitigation interventions in routine husbandry, focuses on the duration of pain after procedures and implications for animal welfare.

Tocilizumab in patients hospitalised with COVID-19 pneumonia: Efficacy, safety, viral clearance, and antibody response from a randomised controlled trial (COVACTA).

Background: In COVACTA, a randomised, placebo-controlled trial in patients hospitalised with coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19), tocilizumab did not improve 28-day mortality, but shortened hospital and intensive care unit stay. Longer-term effects of tocilizumab in patients with COVID-19 are unknown. Therefore, the efficacy and safety of tocilizumab in COVID-19 beyond day 28 and its impact on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) clearance and antibody response in COVACTA were investigated.

Comparison of HR-pQCT- and microCT-based finite element models for the estimation of the mechanical properties of the calcaneus trabecular bone.

The calcaneus bone is formed of extensive trabecular bone and is therefore well suited to be used as an example of loaded bone to establish the ability of combining microfinite element (microFE) technique with high-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HR-pQCT) in determining its mechanical properties. HR-pQCT is increasingly used as a tool for in vivo bone clinical research, but its use has been limited to the distal radius and tibia. The goal of this study was to determine the applicability of HR-pQCT-derived microFE models of the calcaneus trabecular bone with 82 μm voxel size with reference to higher-resolution microCT-based models taken as gold standard.

Prevalence of active Charcot disease in the East Midlands of England.

Aims: To undertake a prospective point prevalence study of the prevalence of active Charcot neuro-inflammatory osteoarthropathy (Charcot disease) in a circumscribed part of England and to audit the time elapsing between disease onset and first diagnosis.

Methods: The prevalence of active Charcot disease of the foot during a single month was assessed by specialist foot care teams at seven secondary care services in the East Midlands region of England.

Results: A total of 90 cases were identified, representing 4.

Validation of calcaneus trabecular microstructure measurements by HR-pQCT.

Objective: Assessment of calcaneus microstructure using high-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HR-pQCT) might be used to improve fracture risk predictions or to assess responses to pharmacological and physical interventions. To develop a standard clinical protocol for the calcaneus, we validated calcaneus trabecular microstructure measured by HR-pQCT against 'gold-standard' micro-CT measurements.

Methods: Ten human cadaveric feet were scanned in situ using HR-pQCT (isotropic 82μm voxel size) at 100, 150 and 200ms integration times, and at 100ms integration time following removal of the calcaneus from the foot (ex vivo).

Priorities for research in miscarriage: a priority setting partnership between people affected by miscarriage and professionals following the James Lind Alliance methodology.

Objectives: To identify and prioritise important research questions for miscarriage.

Design: A priority setting partnership using prospective surveys and consensus meetings following methods advocated by the James Lind Alliance.

Setting: UK.

Differences between patients' and clinicians' research priorities from the Anaesthesia and Peri-operative Care Priority Setting Partnership.

The James Lind Alliance Anaesthesia and Peri-operative Care Priority Setting Partnership was a recent collaborative venture bringing approximately 2000 patients, carers and clinicians together to agree priorities for future research into anaesthesia and critical care. This secondary analysis compares the research priorities of 303 service users, 1068 clinicians and 325 clinicians with experience as service users. All three groups prioritised research to improve patient safety.

The effects of parathyroid hormone peptides on the peripheral skeleton of postmenopausal women. A systematic review.

Given current developments in anabolic therapy for bone, we wished to document the effects of the only currently available anabolic therapy, parathyroid hormone (PTH) peptides, on the peripheral skeleton of postmenopausal women. We undertook a systematic review of English articles using MEDLINE, Scopus and the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register (final update 28th March 2016). Additional studies were identified through searches of bibliographies.

Maternal Physiologic Renal Pelvis Dilatation in Pregnancy: Sonographic Reference Data.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to produce sonographic reference data for maternal renal pelvis dilatation in asymptomatic pregnant women.

Methods: A prospective cross-sectional study was undertaken on pregnant women presenting for outpatient obstetric imaging. For each side, the renal length and axial anteroposterior diameter of the renal pelvis were measured.

Identifying research priorities in anaesthesia and perioperative care: final report of the joint National Institute of Academic Anaesthesia/James Lind Alliance Research Priority Setting Partnership.

Objective: To identify research priorities for Anaesthesia and Perioperative Medicine.

Design: Prospective surveys and consensus meetings guided by an independent adviser.

Setting: UK.

National and regional asthma programmes in Europe.

This review presents seven national asthma programmes to support the European Asthma Research and Innovation Partnership in developing strategies to reduce asthma mortality and morbidity across Europe. From published data it appears that in order to influence asthma care, national/regional asthma programmes are more effective than conventional treatment guidelines. An asthma programme should start with the universal commitments of stakeholders at all levels and the programme has to be endorsed by political and governmental bodies.

Using a Systems Pharmacology Approach to Study the Effect of Statins on the Early Stage of Atherosclerosis in Humans.

More than 100,000 people have participated in controlled trials of statins (lowering cholesterol drugs) since the introduction of lovastatin in the 1980s. Meta-analyses of this data have shown that statins have a beneficial effect on treated groups compared to control groups, reducing cardiovascular risk. Inhibiting the HMG-CoA reductase in the liver, statins can reduce cholesterol levels, thus reducing LDL levels in circulation.

Patient-reported side effects, concerns and adherence to corticosteroid treatment for asthma, and comparison with physician estimates of side-effect prevalence: a UK-wide, cross-sectional study.

Background: Non-adherence to corticosteroid treatment has been shown to reduce treatment efficacy, thus compromising asthma control.

Aims: To examine the experiences of treatment side effects, treatment concerns and adherence to inhaled (ICS) and oral corticosteroids (OCS) among people with asthma and to identify the degree of concordance between clinician estimates of side effects and the prevalence reported by patients.

Methods: Asthma UK members were sent validated questionnaires assessing treatment concerns, experiences of side effects and adherence.

Anisotropic colloidal transport and periodic stick-slip motion in cholesteric finger textures.

We have investigated the mobility of discoidal colloidal particles sedimenting within cholesteric finger textures formed by mixtures of the nematic liquid crystal 4-cyano-4'-pentylbiphenyl (5CB) and the chiral dopant 4-(2-methylbutyl)-4'-cyanobiphenyl (CB15) with cholesteric pitch p between 24 and 114 μm. The nickel disks, with radius 17 μm and thickness 300 nm, displayed varied transport behavior that depended on the size of the pitch and the orientation of the gravitational force with respect to the cholesteric axis. In textures with small pitch (p < 40 μm), the disks moved perpendicular to the axis irrespective of the orientation of gravity as a result of an elastic retarding force that prevented motion along the axis.

Conducting retrospective impact analysis to inform a medical research charity's funding strategies: the case of Asthma UK.

Background: Debate is intensifying about how to assess the full range of impacts from medical research. Complexity increases when assessing the diverse funding streams of funders such as Asthma UK, a charitable patient organisation supporting medical research to benefit people with asthma. This paper aims to describe the various impacts identified from a range of Asthma UK research, and explore how Asthma UK utilised the characteristics of successful funding approaches to inform future research strategies.

Cystic fibrosis screening at the Greenville Hospital System.

The cost effectiveness of prenatal screening for cystic fibrosis needs to be reexamined. This will require further study. At the time prenatal screening for CF carrier status was initiated, newborn screening for cystic fibrosis was not commonly available.

Weight loss composition: the effects of exercise following obesity surgery as measured by bioelectrical impedance analysis.

Background: Sudden weight loss following bariatric operations for morbid obesity, such as the duodenal switch (DS), can result in a concurrent decrease in lean body mass. Several methods for tracking body composition, such as bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), are available to monitor these changes. One method to offset the negative effects of sudden weight loss on body mass composition may be exercise.

Language of sport fans: sportugese revisited.

In 1959, Tannenbaum and Noah reported that sports writers and readers possessed a better understanding of sport terminology than nonreaders. The current investigation extended Tannenbaum and Noah's research using current sport terms. A positive relationship between understanding sport terminology, extent of team identification, strength of sport fandom, and self-proclaimed sport knowledge was hypothesized.

Advances in the prevention of injuries and their effect on emergency medical services.

Much attention has been focused on the response to victims of injuries in the last two decades. During those twenty years, tremendous strides have been made in the medical community's ability to meet the needs of patients in the acute phase of treatment for traumatic injuries. Recent research has reflected these advances in treatment as well as equipment design and development that enable rapid response and access to the injured.

The incidence of awareness, and amnesia for perioperative events, after cardiac surgery with lorazepam and fentanyl anesthesia.

One hundred patients (mean age 59 +/- 10 years) were premedicated with morphine, 0.15 mg/kg, and scopolamine, 0.008 mg/kg.

Relationship between progesterone suppression and pregnancy in rats.

Four luteolytic agents were administered to groups of pregnant rats to examine the quantitative relationship between serum progesterone levels and the maintenance of pregnancy. Each agent inhibited progesterone in a dose-dependent manner, however only three, azastene, thiosemicarbazone and dihydrotestosterone, adversely affected pregnancy. A statistical analysis of the data suggests that, regardless of the mechanism of action of a particular luteolytic agent, a treatment-induced depression of serum progesterone to concentrations less than 45% of that of the controls on day 11 of pregnancy is incompatible with pregnancy maintenance.