Background: Transgender or gender diverse patients present with health care needs as it relates to gender-affirming care, psychosocial support, and medication access. Considering this, medical education strategies should be implemented to train the next generation of Internal Medicine physicians in this area.
Methods: We adopted Kern's six step approach to curriculum design to create and implement an educational curriculum for teaching Internal Medicine residents about transgender patients at a single academic institution in Canada (Kern et al, Curriculum Development for Medical Education, 2009).
Background: Leadless cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) is an emerging heart failure treatment. An implanted electrode delivers lateral or septal endocardial left ventricular (LV) pacing (LVP) upon detection of a right ventricular (RV) pacing stimulus from a coimplanted device, thus generating biventricular pacing (BiVP). Electrical efficacy data regarding this therapy, particularly leadless LV septal pacing (LVSP) for potential conduction system capture, are limited.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) ablation is the established gold standard therapy for patients with symptomatic drug refractory atrial fibrillation (AF). Advancements in radiofrequency (RF) ablation, have led to the development of the novel contact force-sensing temperature-controlled very high-power short-duration (vHPSD) RF ablation. This setting delivers 90 W for up to 4 seconds with a constant irrigation flow rate of 8 mL/min.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChronic kidney disease (CKD) and atrial fibrillation (AF) are associated with significant cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Recent studies have highlighted an increased prevalence and incidence of AF in patients with CKD. This article aims to provide a comprehensive review of current management strategies and considerations of treating atrial fibrillation with concomitant CKD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Improvement in the perioperative care has led to increased use of minimally invasive surgeries. Multiple physiological changes during minimally invasive surgeries are attributed to the creation of pneumoperitoneum.
Materials And Methods: One hundred and nine patients who underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy at a tertiary care hospital in north India meeting the inclusion and exclusion criteria were enrolled.
Telerehabilitation is an appealing service delivery option for optimising recovery. Internationally, the equity of telerehabilitation services for people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds has been questioned. Using a 31-item survey, our study explored the access, readiness and willingness of 260 patients receiving allied health services from a large tertiary health service located in Sydney, Australia, to use telerehabilitation for adults.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo fully harness the potential of abundant metal coordination complex photosensitizers, a detailed understanding of the molecular properties that dictate and control the electronic excited-state population dynamics initiated by light absorption is critical. In the absence of detectable luminescence, optical transient absorption (TA) spectroscopy is the most widely employed method for interpreting electron redistribution in such excited states, particularly for those with a charge-transfer character. The assignment of excited-state TA spectral features often relies on spectroelectrochemical measurements, where the transient absorption spectrum generated by a metal-to-ligand charge-transfer (MLCT) electronic excited state, for instance, can be approximated using steady-state spectra generated by electrochemical ligand reduction and metal oxidation and accounting for the loss of absorptions by the electronic ground state.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Laryngoscopy and tracheal intubation lead to sympathetic stimulation resulting in hemodynamic fluctuations. We compared local anesthetic ropivacaine 0.75% with alpha agonist dexmedetomidine through ultrasonic nebulization for direct local action of the drug in the airway.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) is the treatment of choice for cholelithiasis; however, there are procedural difficulties in determining preoperative detection of a difficult LC. The current methods using clinical and sonographic variables to identify difficult LCs have limitations to identify gallbladder adhesions which form the most common cause. We present a new method of evaluation using acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI)-based virtual touch imaging (VTI) for the detection and classification of these patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFQuantifying uncertainty of predictions has been identified as one way to develop more trustworthy artificial intelligence (AI) models beyond conventional reporting of performance metrics. When considering their role in a clinical decision support setting, AI classification models should ideally avoid confident wrong predictions and maximise the confidence of correct predictions. Models that do this are said to be well calibrated with regard to confidence.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: The rapid adoption of telehealth during the global pandemic has the potential to widen disparities for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) consumers. We explored the perspectives and experiences of CALD consumers accessing telehealth during the global pandemic and those of their healthcare providers.
Methods: A multistakeholder mixed-methods study involving two parallel samples comprising consumer-participants ( = 56) and healthcare provider-participants ( = 81).
Background: Culturally diverse communities face barriers managing chronic musculoskeletal pain conditions including navigation challenges, sub-optimal healthcare provider engagement and difficulty adopting self-management behaviours.
Objectives: To explore the feasibility and trends of effectiveness of implementing a cultural mentoring program alongside clinical service delivery.
Methods: This quasi-experimental controlled before-and-after multiple case study was conducted in three hospital-based services that provide treatment for patients with musculoskeletal pain.
Aims: There is little evidence of the impact of syncope in implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) patients in routine community hospital care. This single-centre retrospective study sought to evaluate the incidence and prognostic significance of syncope in consecutive ICD patients.
Methods And Results: Data were collected on consecutive patients undergoing first ICD implantation between January 2009 and December 2019.
Objectives: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is common and can cause significant morbidity and detriment to quality of life. Success rates for conventional catheter ablation are suboptimal in persistent AF (PsAF), especially when longstanding. Convergent hybrid ablation combines endoscopic surgical epicardial and endocardial catheter ablation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Very high power short duration (vHPSD) radiofrequency ablation (RFA) may reduce ablation times and improve patient tolerability, permitting pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) under mild conscious sedation (mCS) and promoting same day discharge (SDD).
Methods: First, a retrospective feasibility study was performed at 2 tertiary cardiac centres in the UK. Consecutive cases of first-time PVI using vHPSD ablation with 90 W lesions for up to 4 s were compared against cases performed using standard RF (sRF) and cryoballoon (Cryo) therapy.
Aims: Multi-lead pacing is a potential therapy to improve response to cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) by providing rapid activation of the myocardium from multiple sites. Here, we perform a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials to assess the efficacy of multi-lead pacing.
Methods And Results: A literature search was performed which identified 251 unique records.
Extreme events, such as those caused by climate change, economic or geopolitical shocks, and pest or disease epidemics, threaten global food security. The complexity of causation, as well as the myriad ways that an event, or a sequence of events, creates cascading and systemic impacts, poses significant challenges to food systems research and policy alike. To identify priority food security risks and research opportunities, we asked experts from a range of fields and geographies to describe key threats to global food security over the next two decades and to suggest key research questions and gaps on this topic.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe describe a patient with right coronary artery to coronary sinus fistula requiring surgical elimination. The decision process in managing fistulas depends on the size, site of origin, and symptoms caused by the fistula. We highlight the pivotal role of multimodality cardiovascular imaging in the diagnosis and management of coronary fistulas.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLeadless left bundle branch area pacing (LBBAP) represents the merger of two rapidly progressing areas in the field of cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT). It combines the attractive concepts of pacing the native conduction system to allow more physiological activation of the myocardium than conventional biventricular pacing, with the potential added benefits of avoiding long-term complications associated with transvenous leads via leadless left ventricular endocardial pacing. This perspective article will first review the evidence for the efficacy of leadless pacing in CRT.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The effect of chronic ischemic scar on repolarization is unclear, with conflicting results from human and animal studies. An improved understanding of electrical remodeling within scar and border zone tissue may enhance substrate-guided ablation techniques for treatment of ventricular tachycardia. Computational modeling studies have suggested increased dispersion of repolarization during epicardial, but not endocardial, left ventricular pacing, in close proximity to scar.
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