A 69-year-old female patient with known recurrence of esophageal cancer presented with fever and elevated inflammatory markers. In the recent past, a suspicious mediastinal lymph node had been biopsied via bronchoscopy. Consequently, a lymph node abscess developed, leading to blood stream infection (pathogen: Streptococcus anginosus) via a fistula into the superior vena cava.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHigh-frequency electrical stimulation therapy (gastric electrical stimulation, GES) is a treatment option for gastroparesis of various genesis. The best indication and prognostic parameters have not yet been conclusively determined.Retrospective analysis of all gastroparesis patients implanted with a GES device between 2011 and 2020.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: The Munich Breathlessness Service (MBS) significantly improved control of breathlessness measured by the Chronic Respiratory Questionnaire (CRQ) Mastery in a randomized controlled fast track trial with waitlist group design spanning 8 weeks in Germany. This study aimed to assess the within-trial cost-effectiveness of MBS from a societal perspective.
Methods: Data included generic (5-level version of EQ-5D) health-related quality of life and disease-specific CRQ Mastery.
Objective: To characterize remote rural Brazilian municipalities according to their logic of insertion into socio-spatial dynamics, discussing the implications of these characteristics for health policies.
Methods: Starting from the category of analysis - the use of the territory - a typology was elaborated, with the delimitation of six clusters. The clusters were compared using socioeconomic data and the distance in minutes to the metropolis, regional capital, and sub-regional center.
Background: Physical activity (PA) is a proven strategy to prevent chronic diseases and reduce falls. Furthermore, it improves or at least maintains performance of activities of daily living, and thus fosters an independent lifestyle in older adults. However, evidence on the association of PA with relevant subgroups, such as older adults with utilization of long-term care (LTC), is sparse.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe article analyzes singularities of the Primary Health Care (PHC) organization in rural remote municipalities (RRM) in the Amazon under the influence of rivers and discusses challenges for comprehensive care in the Unified Health System (SUS). This is a qualitative and quantitative study of multiple cases in seven RRM through the analysis of interviews with managers, visits to services and secondary data. The RRM of the fluvial Amazon are small, with a sparse, dispersed population living in conditions of social vulnerability.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Brown adipose tissue (BAT) serves to produce heat by nonshivering thermogenesis. Activation of BAT increases energy expenditure and is seen as a putative strategy to treat obesity. There are conflicting data on the capacity for cold-induced thermogenesis in individuals with higher BMI.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The number of people using long-term care (LTC) is increasing steadily, hence, demand for adequate services is rising. The purpose of this exploratory study was to identify relevant gender-linked determinants for utilization of LTC in community-dwelling older adults.
Methods: We examined 4077 females (52.
Background: The effectiveness of the Munich Breathlessness Service (MBS), integrating palliative care, respiratory medicine and physiotherapy, was tested in the BreathEase trial in patients with chronic breathlessness in advanced disease and their carers.
Methods: BreathEase was a single-blinded randomised controlled fast-track trial. The MBS was attended for 5-6 weeks; the control group started the MBS after 8 weeks of standard care.
Background: Cognitive impairment in older adults causes a high economic and societal burden. This study assesses the cost-effectiveness of the multicomponent, non-pharmacological MAKS treatment vs. "care as usual" in German day care centers (DCCs) for community-dwelling people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or mild to moderate dementia over 6 months.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Clin Endocrinol Metab
May 2020
Context: Cold exposure (CE) has been shown to enhance energy expenditure by activating brown adipose tissue thermogenesis and metabolism in humans. However, it remains to be elucidated if there are gender-specific differences in cold-induced thermogenesis and metabolism.
Objective: To study the impact of mild CE on resting energy expenditure (REE) and metabolism in males compared with females.
Previous research has suggested that personality and cognitive functions are essential in the emergence of persistent aggressive antisocial behaviors and that character maturity could be an important protective factor against these behaviors. The aims of this study were (1) to determine associations between personality traits, intellectual ability, and executive function in young male violent offenders, and (2) to investigate differences in intellectual ability and executive function between groups of violent offenders with low, medium, and high character maturity. A cohort of 148 male violent offenders (18-25 years of age) participated in this study.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Angiodysplasia (AD) is a common source of gastrointestinal bleeding. Yet, little is known about factors forwarding bleeding in these vascular malformations. The presented study aims to determine risk factors for bleeding that occurs only in patients with symptomatic, but not with asymptomatic, AD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: AIM TO VALIDATE: the questionnaire on health-related resource use in an elderly population (FIMA).
Methods: Self-reported health care use of 1,552 participants was validated against medical claims data. Reliability was measured by intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), sensitivity, specificity, and Cohen's Kappa.
Objectives: Vertigo is a common reason for primary care consultations, and its diagnosis and treatment consume considerable medical resources. However, limited information on the specific cost of vertigo is currently available. The aim of this study is to analyse the health care costs of vertigo and examine which individual characteristics would affect these costs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: To date, there has been a dearth of scientifically tested, established intervention concepts focussed on supporting informal caregivers and embedded in routine health care structures. The aim of this study was to assess effects of a brief telephone intervention for caregivers of persons with cognitive impairment (PCIs) on caregivers' depressiveness and subjective burden.
Methods: A two-arm cluster-randomised controlled intervention study was carried out at 32 German day-care centres.
Background: Societies around the world face the burden of an aging population with a high prevalence of chronic conditions. Thus, the demand for different types of long-term care will increase and change over time. The purpose of this exploratory study was to identify determinants for utilization and transitions of long-term care in adults older than 65 years by using Andersen's Behavioral Model of Health Services Use.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Adherence to recommendations and medication is deemed to be important for effectiveness of case management interventions. Thus, reasons for non-adherence and effects on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) should be fully understood. The objective of this research was to identify determinants of non-adherence to medication and recommendations, and to test whether increased adherence improved HRQoL in patients after myocardial infarction (MI) in a case management intervention.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: A number of non-pharmacological methods are available to help elderly people with cognitive impairment. Unstructured and non-evidencebased interventions are commonly used. The multicomponent therapy MAKS (a German acronym for Motor, Activities of daily living, Cognitive, Social) has already been evaluated in nursing homes; in this study, we investigated its use in day care centers (DCCs).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis article is an abridged version of the AWMF mould guideline "Medical clinical diagnostics of indoor mould exposure" presented in April 2016 by the German Society of Hygiene, Environmental Medicine and Preventive Medicine (), in collaboration with the above-mentioned scientific medical societies, German and Austrian societies, medical associations and experts. Indoor mould growth is a potential health risk, even if a quantitative and/or causal relationship between the occurrence of individual mould species and health problems has yet to be established. Apart from allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA) and mould-caused mycoses, only sufficient evidence for an association between moisture/mould damage and the following health effects has been established: allergic respiratory disease, asthma (manifestation, progression and exacerbation), allergic rhinitis, hypersensitivity pneumonitis (extrinsic allergic alveolitis), and increased likelihood of respiratory infections/bronchitis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: It is the wish of both people with cognitive impairment and their informal caregivers for the impaired person to live at home for as long as possible. This is also in line with economic arguments about health. The existing structure of day-care services for the elderly can be used to achieve this.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: To assess the 3-year cost-effectiveness of a nurse-based case management intervention in elderly patients with myocardial infarction from a societal perspective.
Methods: The intervention consisted of one home visit and quarterly telephone calls in the first year, and semi-annual calls in the following 2 years. The primary effect measures were quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs), on the basis of the EuroQol five-dimensional questionnaire (EQ-5D-3L) and adjusted life-years from patients' self-rated health states according to the visual analogue scale (VAS-ALs).