Action-Depicting Gestures and Morphosyntax: The Function of Gesture-Speech Alignment in the Conversational Turn.

The current study examines the role of action-depicting gestures in conversational turns by focusing on their semantic characteristics and temporal position in relation to their verbal affiliates (action verbs or more complex verb phrases). The data are video recordings of naturally occurring interactions in multilingual construction sites in Norway. The analysis distinguishes two modes of action depiction: generic depictions, which represent the action as a general type, and contextualized depictions, which in addition include deictic references to the spatio-material environment or iconic representations of the specific manner of action performance.

Code-switching in multilinguals with dementia: patterns across speech contexts.

The study investigates code-switching by multilingual persons with dementia in two different speech contexts, picture naming tests and spontaneous conversation. It combines a psycholinguistic perspective on cognitive and linguistic skills with a qualitative conversation analytic approach to understanding the functions and appropriateness of code-switching in social interaction. The analysis shows that code-switching is used as a resource for compensating for word-retrieval problems in both the naming tests and in word search sequences in conversation.

Lexical access in a bilingual speaker with dementia: Changes over time.

In this article, we explore the naming skills of a bilingual English-Norwegian speaker diagnosed with Primary Progressive Aphasia, in each of his languages across three different speech contexts: confrontation naming, semi-spontaneous narrative (picture description), and conversation, and at two points in time: 12 and 30 months post diagnosis, respectively. The results are discussed in light of two main theories of lexical retrieval in healthy, elderly speakers: the Transmission Deficit Hypothesis and the Inhibitory Deficit Theory. Our data show that, consistent with the participant's premorbid use of and proficiency in the two languages, his performance in his L2 is lower than in his L1, but this difference diminishes as the disease progresses.

Eliciting patient preferences in shared decision-making (SDM): Comparing conversation analysis and SDM measurements.

Objective: To explore how physicians bring up patient preferences, and how it aligns with assessments of shared decision-making.

Methods: Qualitative conversation analysis of physicians formulating hypotheses about the patient's treatment preference was compared with quantitative scores on SDM and 'patient preferences' using OPTION(5) and MAPPIN'SDM.

Results: Physicians occasionally formulate hypotheses about patients' preferences and then present a treatment option on the basis of that ("if you think X+we can do Y").

Patient involvement and language barriers: Problems of agreement or understanding?

Objective: This study aims to explicate efforts for realizing patient-centeredness (PCC) and involvement (SDM) in a difficult decision-making situation. It investigates what communicative strategies a physician used and the immediate, observable consequences for patient participation.

Methods: From a corpus of videotaped hospital encounters, one case in which the physician and patient used Norwegian as lingua franca was selected for analysis using conversation analysis (CA).

Negotiating treatment preferences: Physicians' formulations of patients' stance.

Eliciting patients' values and treatment preferences is an essential element in models of shared decision making, yet few studies have investigated the interactional realizations of how physicians do this in authentic encounters. Drawing on video-recorded encounters from Norwegian secondary care, the present study uses the fine-grained empirical methodology of conversation analysis (CA) to identify one conversational practice physicians use, namely, formulations of patients' stance, in which physicians summarize or paraphrase their understanding of the patient's stance towards treatment. The purpose of this study is twofold: (1) to explore what objectives formulations of patients' stance achieve while negotiating treatment and (2) to discuss these objectives in relation to core requirements in shared decision making.

Achievements in congenital heart defect surgery: a prospective, 40-year study of 7038 patients.

Background: This article presents an update of the results achieved by modern surgery in congenital heart defects (CHDs) over the past 40 years regarding survival and the need for reoperations, especially focusing on the results from the past 2 decades.

Methods And Results: From 1971 to 2011, all 7038 patients <16 years of age undergoing surgical treatment for CHD at Rikshospitalet (Oslo, Norway) were enrolled prospectively. CHD diagnosis, date, and type of all operations were recorded, as was all-cause mortality until December 31, 2012.

Psychiatric outcome after severe cardio-respiratory failure treated with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation: a case-series.

Background: Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is increasingly used to save patients with severe cardiopulmonary failure at high risk of dying, but the long-term psychiatric outcome of the treatment has not been studied.

Methods: Twenty-eight adults who survived ECMO were subjected to psychiatric assessment 5 years after ECMO by means of interviews (MINI-Neuropsychiatric Interview and Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale) and psychometrics [Neuroticism and social conformity (EPQ-N+L); General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale; Aggression Questionnaire, Toronto Alexithymia Scale, and Giessener somatic symptom checklist (GBB)].

Results: Fifteen patients (54%) suffered lifetime psychiatric disorders prior to ECMO.

Mediastinitis after coronary artery bypass grafting increases the incidence of left internal mammary artery obstruction.

Mediastinitis after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) gives a longstanding chronic inflammation and has a detrimental negative effect on long-term survival. For this reason, we aimed to study the effect of mediastinitis on graft patency after CABG. The epidemiologic design was of an exposed (mediastinitis, n = 41) versus non-exposed (non-mediastinitis, controls, n = 41) cohort with two endpoints: (i) obstruction of saphenous vein grafts (SVG) and (ii) obstruction of the internal mammary artery (IMA) grafts.

Mediastinitis after coronary artery bypass grafting: the effect of vacuum-assisted closure versus traditional closed drainage on survival and re-infection rate.

Mediastinitis is treated with either vacuum-assisted closure (VAC) or traditional closed drainage (TCD) with irrigation. The aim of the study was to determine the effect of the two treatments on mortality and re-infection rate in a source population, using 21 314 consecutive patients undergoing isolated coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) from January 1997 to October 2010. Median observation time was 2·9 years in the VAC group and 8·0 years in the TCD group.

The Scandinavian multicenter hemodynamic evaluation of the SJM Regent aortic valve.

Background: 112 patients who received small and medium sized St. Jude Regent heart valves (19-25 mm) at 7 Scandinavian centers were studied between January 2003 and February 2005 to obtain non-invasive data regarding the hemodynamic performance at rest and during Dobutamine stress echocardiography (DSE) testing one year after surgery.

Material And Methods: 46 woman and 66 men, aged 61.

Detection of left ventricular dysfunction by global longitudinal systolic strain in patients with chronic aortic regurgitation.

Background: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether global longitudinal strain measured by two-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography could detect incipient myocardial dysfunction in patients with chronic aortic regurgitation (AR). Disclosing left ventricular (LV) dysfunction is of decisive importance for optimal timing of surgery but challenging because of the altered loading conditions.

Methods: Forty-seven patients referred for aortic valve replacement because of chronic AR were studied, along with 31 healthy controls.

Mediastinitis after coronary artery bypass grafting risk factors and long-term survival.

Background: Mediastinitis is a severe complication of coronary artery bypass grafting. The aim of the present study was to determine incidence of mediastinitis, its risk factors, and its effect on early and long-term survival.

Methods: The study has a dual design, a case-control, and a retrospective cohort, using a source population of 18,532 consecutive patients who underwent coronary artery bypass grafting from January 1989 to December 2000.

Cost of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation: evidence from the Rikshospitalet University Hospital, Oslo, Norway.

Objective: The main objective is to describe and analyse hospital costs of the extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) procedure. STUDY SAMPLE AND METHODOLOGY: Between January and December 2007, 14 ECMO patients were consecutively included in the study. Costs at the patient level were registered prospectively, while overhead costs were registered retrospectively.

Surgical repair of postinfarction ventricular septal rupture: risk factors of early and late death.

Objective: The aim of the study was to identify risk factors of early and late death after surgical repair of postinfarction ventricular septal rupture.

Methods: During a 25-year period, from May 1981 to August 2006, 102 patients underwent repair of postinfarction ventricular septal rupture. Data were collected on clinical, angiographic, and echocardiographic findings; operative procedures; early morbidity; and survival time.

In vitro evaluation of PHISIO-coated sets for pediatric cardiac surgery.

Objectives: Phosphorylcholine coated cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) circuits for children have been available for some years, but conflicting results regarding the inflammatory response have been reported. Accordingly, we aimed to investigate the effect of phosphorylcholine coating on the inflammatory response.

Design: Ten coated and nine uncoated pediatric CPB sets were tested in an in vitro CPB circuit model.

Intracoronary shunt prevents ischemia in off-pump coronary artery bypass surgery.

Background: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the role of intracoronary shunt during off-pump coronary artery bypass surgery.

Methods: Fifty-six patients undergoing off-pump coronary artery bypass using the left internal mammary artery to bypass the left anterior descending coronary artery were randomly assigned to have the bypass performed with intracoronary shunt or by occlusive snaring. Ischemia during grafting was monitored by tissue Doppler.

Interleukin-6 may predict survival in extracorporeal membrane oxygenation treatment.

The cytokine network and its association with complement activation during cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) is complex. Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) differs from CPB in duration of days to weeks rather than hours. However, few studies have analyzed the levels of inflammatory mediators during ECMO treatment.

Syndecan-1 plasma levels during coronary artery bypass surgery with and without cardiopulmonary bypass.

The glycocalyx covering the endothelium is shed during ischemia and reperfusion. The shedding is accompanied by increased levels of the glycocalyx component syndecan-1 in the circulation. Our aim was to compare plasma levels of syndecan-1 in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), with or without the use of cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB).