Effects of peer-education training on cardiopulmonary resuscitation knowledge and skill retention of secondary school students: a feasibility study.

Objectives: The need for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training dissemination in the community could be resolved by mass school training programmes. However, the availability of instructors remains an unsolved problem. Our purpose was to investigate the effects of three different instructor types: healthcare professionals, schoolteachers and peer students, on CPR skills retention of secondary school students 6 months after training.

Extreme desert dust storms and COPD morbidity on the island of Crete.

Introduction And Objectives: Short-term extreme increases in desert-derived particulate-matter with aerodynamic diameter below 10 μm (PM) may affect emergency department (ED) visits due to COPD exacerbations.

Research Question: Our aim was to identify the effect of extreme increases in desert-derived PM on ED visits for dyspnea and COPD exacerbations and on the related hospital admissions.

Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of dyspnea-related ED visits and hospital admissions in Heraklion, Crete, during four consecutive storms of desert-derived PM that happened during March 2018.

Basic life support skill retention by medical students: a comparison of two teaching curricula.

Aim: In December 2005 the new guidelines for resuscitation were released and a new curriculum for the teaching of basic life support (BLS) was adopted. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of the new guidelines and teaching curriculum on the BLS skill retention of medical students 1 year following their initial training.

Methods: The study was conducted in two consecutive academic years and compared BLS skill retention of two groups of medical students in their fourth year of medicine.

Hypomagnesaemia associated with diabetes mellitus may cause laryngospasm.

This report describes the case of a female diabetic patient who experienced two episodes of severe laryngospasm during maintenance of anaesthesia and also 1 h post-operatively. The most probable diagnosis considered was severe hypomagnesaemia with concomitant hypocalcaemia confirmed by electrolyte measurements. The association between hypomagnesaemia and laryngospasm is discussed.