Innovative recruitment and clinical orientation programme to manage NHS junior doctor shortfall: A district hospital experience.

Background: International medical graduates (IMGs) contribute significantly towards the NHS care provision. No standardised clinical orientation programme (COP) for IMGs new to the NHS exists.

Objective: Our objective was to describe recruitment and retention strategies for junior doctors (JDs) in general medicine and develop a framework to anticipate outcomes of these interventions using the realist evaluation methodology.

Gestational diabetes-Predictors of response to treatment and obstetric outcome.

Objective: Evaluate patient characteristics that are predictors of treatment response and outcomes in gestational diabetes STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective cohort of 265 women with gestational diabetes treated with diet/metformin and/or insulin in a single centre over 2 years.

Results: Multinomial logistic regression showed that (after adjusting for age and ethnicity) women who were of normal weight were more likely to be on diet and women who were obese were more likely to be on metformin or metformin and insulin(p=0.014).

Polymorphisms of interleukin 4 receptor gene and interleukin 10 gene are not associated with Graves' disease in the UK.

Graves' disease (GD) is an autoimmune disorder of the thyroid gland and both environmental and genetic factors contribute to disease aetiology. Cytokines, such as interleukin 4 (IL-4) and interleukin 10 (IL-10), are involved in the immune response and may be implicated in the autoimmune disease process. Associations have been reported between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of IL-10 and the Ile50Val polymorphism of the IL-4 receptor gene (IL-4R) gene and atopy and autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis.

Association of the T-cell regulatory gene CTLA4 with susceptibility to autoimmune disease.

Genes and mechanisms involved in common complex diseases, such as the autoimmune disorders that affect approximately 5% of the population, remain obscure. Here we identify polymorphisms of the cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen 4 gene (CTLA4)--which encodes a vital negative regulatory molecule of the immune system--as candidates for primary determinants of risk of the common autoimmune disorders Graves' disease, autoimmune hypothyroidism and type 1 diabetes. In humans, disease susceptibility was mapped to a non-coding 6.

Polymorphism of the CTLA-4 gene is associated with autoimmune hypothyroidism in the United Kingdom.

The cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated-4 (CTLA-4) molecule plays an important role in immune regulation by downregulating activation of T cells by antigen-presenting cells. Polymorphisms of the CTLA-4 gene have been shown to be associated with susceptibility to a number of autoimmune diseases. Some, but not all, studies suggest association between the CTLA-4 gene and autoimmune hypothyroidism.