Healthcare workers' informal uses of mobile phones and other mobile devices to support their work: a qualitative evidence synthesis.

Background: Healthcare workers sometimes develop their own informal solutions to deliver services. One such solution is to use their personal mobile phones or other mobile devices in ways that are unregulated by their workplace. This can help them carry out their work when their workplace lacks functional formal communication and information systems, but it can also lead to new challenges.

Depression was associated with younger age, female sex, obesity, smoking, and physical inactivity, in 1027 patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes: a Swedish multicentre cross-sectional study.

Background: Depression is a risk factor for type 2 diabetes (T2D) and cardiovascular disease (CVD). The aims were to explore the prevalence of depression, anxiety, antidepressant use, obesity, Hemoglobin A1c > 64 mmol/mol, life-style factors, pre-existing CVD, in patients with newly diagnosed T2D; to explore associations with depression; and to compare with Swedish general population data.

Methods: Multicentre, cross-sectional study.

Digital diagnostics from Tanzania: Beyond mere technological fixing?

Digital and data-driven technologies are increasingly being deployed in healthcare systems around the world, and used by individuals seeking to improve their health. Major global health institutions, from the WHO to the Gates Foundation, are arguing for their importance in the building of healthcare futures across the world. For critics, however, the broad enthuasiam for digital health has raised the question of whether too much faith is being put in minimal, 'technological fixes' driven by the market for problems that have intractable social determinants.

Presence of microorganisms in children with pharyngotonsillitis and healthy controls: a prospective study in primary healthcare.

Purpose: Most studies on paediatric pharyngotonsillitis focus on group A streptococci. This study, however, analyses a broad spectrum of bacteria and viruses related to paediatric pharyngotonsillitis and evaluates their associated clinical symptoms and courses.

Methods: This observational prospective study in primary healthcare includes 77 children aged < 15 with a sore throat and 34 asymptomatic children, all of whom were sampled from the tonsils with an E-swab for analysis with culture and PCR for 14 bacteria and 15 viruses.

Predicting the use of antibiotics after initial symptomatic treatment of an uncomplicated urinary tract infection: analyses performed after a randomised controlled trial.

Objective: To predict antibiotic use after initial treatment with ibuprofen using data from a randomised controlled trial comparing ibuprofen to pivmecillinam in the treatment of women with symptoms of an uncomplicated urinary tract infection (UTI).

Setting: 16 sites in a primary care setting in Norway, Sweden and Denmark.

Participants: Data from 181 non-pregnant women aged 18-60 presenting with symptoms of uncomplicated UTI, initially treated with ibuprofen.

Different antibiotic regimes in men diagnosed with lower urinary tract infection - a retrospective register-based study.

Objective: To compare the proportion of therapy failure, recurrence and complications within 30 days after consultation between men diagnosed with lower urinary tract infection (UTI) treated with narrow-spectrum antibiotics (nitrofurantoin or pivmecillinam) and broad-spectrum antibiotics (fluoroquinolones or trimethoprim or trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole).

Design: A retrospective cohort study based on data derived from electronic medical records between January 2012 and December 2015.

Setting: Primary health care and hospital care in five different counties in Sweden.

Ibuprofen versus pivmecillinam for uncomplicated urinary tract infection in women-A double-blind, randomized non-inferiority trial.

Background: Although uncomplicated urinary tract infections (UTIs) are often self-limiting, most patients will be prescribed antibiotic treatment. We assessed whether treatment with ibuprofen was non-inferior to pivmecillinam in achieving symptomatic resolution by day 4, with a non-inferiority margin of 10%.

Methods And Findings: This was a randomized, controlled, double-blind non-inferiority trial.

Adherence to national diabetes guidelines through monitoring quality indicators--A comparison of three types of care for the elderly with special emphasis on HbA1c.

Aim: To compare adherence to Swedish guidelines for diabetes care between elderly people living at home with or without home health care, and residents of nursing homes.

Methods: Medical records of 277 elderly people aged 80 and older, with known diabetes in a Swedish municipality, were monitored using quality indicators to evaluate processes and outcomes.

Results: Monitoring, in accordance to diabetes guidelines, of HbA1c, lipids, blood pressure and foot examinations was lower among residents of nursing homes (p < 0.

Antibiotic prescribing in primary care by international medical graduates and graduates from Swedish medical schools.

Background: Studies of antibiotic prescribing related to diagnosis comparing prescribers trained abroad with those trained in Sweden are lacking.

Objectives: To determine whether general practices (GPs) and GP residents trained abroad had different prescribing patterns for antibiotics for common infections than those trained in Sweden using retrospective data from electronic patient records from primary health care in Kalmar County, Sweden.

Methods: Consultations with an infection diagnosis, both with and without the prescription of antibiotics to 67 GPs and residents trained in Western Europe outside Sweden and other countries, were compared with a matched control group trained in Sweden.

Does the frequency of respiratory tract infections help to identify humoral immunodeficiencies in a primary health-care cohort?

Background: Primary immune deficiency (PID) due to humoral defects is associated with recurrent respiratory tract infections (RTIs). Reliable clinical warning signs of PID would facilitate early diagnosis and thereby reduce long-term complications. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the accuracy of the warning sign, 'four or more antibiotic-treated RTIs annually for 3 or more consecutive years,' for detecting PID among adults in a primary health-care setting.

Spontaneously draining acute otitis media in children: an observational study of clinical findings, microbiology and clinical course.

Objectives: To study the outcome of acute otitis media (AOM) with otorrhoea in children managed initially without antibiotics, in relation to bacterial and clinical findings, and to identify those who may benefit from antibiotics.

Methods: Otherwise healthy, not otitis prone children aged 2-16 y, presenting with AOM with spontaneous otorrhoea, were recruited from primary care and followed at selected ear, nose and throat (ENT) clinics. Specimens for bacterial investigations were obtained; symptoms were registered on a daily basis.

Use of rapid diagnostic tests and choice of antibiotics in respiratory tract infections in primary healthcare--a 6-y follow-up study.

The aim of this retrospective study of electronic patient records in primary health care in Kalmar County, Sweden, was to describe consultations for respiratory tract infections (RTIs) in relation to age, choice of antibiotics and the use of rapid diagnostic tests. During the period 1999-2005, 240,445 visits for RTI were recorded. Children aged <2 y and especially those aged 2-16 y with acute otitis media (AOM), showed decreasing consultations between 2000 and 2005.

Trends in number of consultations and antibiotic prescriptions for respiratory tract infections between 1999 and 2005 in primary healthcare in Kalmar County, Southern Sweden.

Unlabelled: BACKGROUND. Respiratory tract infections (RTIs) comprise the most common indication for consulting a general practitioner and obtaining an antibiotic prescription.

Objective: To study changes in the number of visits, diagnoses, and antibiotic prescriptions for RTI in primary healthcare during the period 1999-2005.

Evaluation of phenoxymethylpenicillin treatment of acute otitis media in children aged 2-16.

Objective: To study the clinical recovery from acute otitis media (AOM) in children, 2-16 years of age, managed with or without treatment with phenoxymethylpenicillin (PcV).

Design: An open, prospective randomized trial. Children aged between 2 and 16 years, presenting with one- or double-sided AOM (without perforation) with symptom duration of less than four days, were included.

Microangiopathy in primary hyperlipoproteinemia.

The microvascular basement membrane thickness were investigated by electron microscope within skeletal muscle of 17 untreated patients with primary hyperlipoproteinemia. The average of minimal basement membrane thickness of hyperlipidemic patients were significantly different (p < 0.001) from that of the controls (127 +/- 44.

[Ultrastructural and histological studies on type I osteogenesis imperfecta].

The results of 3 bone biopsies in patients with Sillence I. type of osteogenesis imperfecta are described. The biopsy material was examined with light microscope histomorphometric and various electron microscopic methods.

Colloidal bismuth subcitrate causes sustained release of gastric mucosal prostaglandin E2.

Gastric application of high doses of colloidal bismuth subcitrate (CBS) stimulates mucosal prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) production, which is considered part of the mechanism by which the drug accelerates peptic ulcer healing. Whether therapeutic, orally administered, doses of CBS cause a sustained stimulation of prostaglandin production is not known. We have, therefore, determined gastric luminal release of PGE2 during 'steady-state' perfusion of the stomach with CBS (10 mg/ml; isotonic mannitol 5 ml/min) and 4 h after the last oral dose of the drug (240 mg b.

Ultrastructural changes of human amniotic cells induced by natural human interferon-alpha.

Human interferon-alpha (Hu-IFN alpha) and phorbol myristate acetate (PMA), a direct activator of protein kinase C (PK-C), induce the translocation of protein kinase C from the cytosol to the membrane fraction. By the use of transmission (TEM) and scanning (SEM) electron microscopy we have shown that treatment of human amniotic cells (UAC) with Hu-IFN alpha resulted in profound changes in the shape, volume and ultrastructure of the cells. Most treated cells had enlarged nuclei with marginal condensation of chromatin.

Gap junctions between human T-colony cells.

T-cell colonies formed in liquid or semisolid cultures of stimulated human blood mononuclear cells were investigated under electron microscope. Typical gap junctions with five-layered structure were demonstrated between colony cells embedded in water miscible resin. The overall thickness of the junctional zones was less than 25 nm.

Calcium pyrophosphate crystals in intermittent hydrarthrosis.

A 49-year-old female presented with intermittent hydrarthrosis affecting the right knee. Numerous calcium pyrophosphate crystals were demonstrated in synovial fluid aspirated from the knee.

Combined 1H-NMR and vacuum dehydration study of rat muscles.

Combined NMR and the vacuum dehydration method were used to study the state of water in rat muscle. Comparative studies were carried out on muscles of young and old mature white rats. The spin-lattice relaxation time was measured as a function of water content.

Ultrastructural study of neuromuscular and vascular changes in connective-tissue diseases.

Ultrastructural changes of the neuromuscular and microvascular systems were investigated in muscle biopsies obtained from patients with rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, dermato- and polymyositis and progressive systemic sclerosis. Myofibrillar degeneration, Z-disc streaming, mitochondrial abnormalities, alteration of the T system and sarcoplasmic reticulum were the main ultrastructural alterations observed in biopsy material. At the same time, severe peripheral nerve-fibre lesions were also observed.

Ultrasound diagnosis of carcinoma of the urachus.

In a 48-year-old man with dysuria and microscopic haematuria, pyelography, cystoscopy and bimanual bladder palpation showed no definite abnormality. Because of continued symptoms, ultrasound scanning of the abdomen was done three months later. The examination revealed a tumour in close relation to the top of the bladder.

[Virus-like particles in cultures of rheumatoid synovial cells].

Cultures of synovial cells from 8 patients with classical or determined rheumatoid arthritis and 3 patients with non-rheumatoid arthrosis were examined electron microscopically. Cells of the monolayer formed upon prolonged incubation of tissue pieces had the conventional ultrastructure of synovial cells. In 2 out of 8 cultures of rheumatoid synovial cells after 14 days of incubation, budding virus-like particles with the external diameter of 100-120 nm were observed.