Publications by authors named "Thornton C"

Background: Adverse medicine events (AMEs) are unintended effects that occur following administration of medicines. Up to 70% of AMEs are not reported to, and hence remain undetected by, health care professionals and only 6% of AMEs are reported to regulators. Increased reporting by consumers, health care professionals, and pharmaceutical companies to medicine regulatory authorities is needed to increase the safety of medicines.

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Background And Objectives: One-third of prescriptions prescribed by a pediatric emergency department (PED) are not filled by patients. Fill rates improve with an onsite outpatient pharmacy (OOP). We aimed to increase the percent of PED discharge prescriptions sent to the OOP during open hours from 8.

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Rhinosinusitis is a highly prevalent, inflammatory condition affecting the nose and paranasal sinuses, impacting an individual's quality of life with significant health care burden. Sinusitis is more frequent in females, and they typically present with more severe symptoms and worse quality of life scores. Males are more likely to present with nasal polyps and have higher objective scores on imaging studies.

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Background: Asynchronous communication via electronic modes (e-communication), including patient portals, secure messaging services, SMS text messaging, and email, is increasingly used to supplement synchronous face-to-face medical visits; however, little is known about its quality in pediatric settings.

Objective: This review aimed to summarize contemporary literature on pediatric caregivers' experiences with and perspectives of e-communication with their child's health care team to identify how e-communication has been optimized to improve patient care.

Methods: A scoping review following the Arksey and O'Malley methodological framework searched PubMed, CINAHL, Embase, and Web of Science using terms such as "Electronic Health Records" and "Communication" from 2013 to 2023 that discussed caregiver experiences and perspectives of e-communication with their child's health care provider.

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Treatment-associated differences in Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Pa) density in sputum have been used as a response biomarker in clinical trials of cystic fibrosis (CF) therapies. Although most studies have included placebo-treated groups as comparators, variability of Pa density in untreated individuals has rarely been reported. We measured day-to-day differences in Pa density in 267 sputum sample pairs collected from 13 adults with CF during days in which no changes in antibiotic therapy occurred.

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Background: Bronchiectasis is a complex, chronic disease with geographic and ethnic diversity. While the most substantial cohort studies have been conducted in Europe and the USA, Canada also faces considerable challenges. The comprehensive Canadian Bronchiectasis and Nontuberculous Mycobacterial (NTM) Registry aims to 1) outline the clinical characteristics and natural history of bronchiectasis in Canada, 2) identify risk factors contributing to disease progression within Canadians, 3) integrate comprehensive clinical information to better understand the phenotypes of bronchiectasis and 4) support the development of large-scale, randomised controlled trials in Canada.

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Background: Neonates with suspected sepsis are commonly treated with gentamicin, an aminoglycoside. These antibiotics are associated with high risk of ototoxicity, including profound bilateral deafness, in people with the m.1555A>G mitochondrial genetic variant.

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Background: Reporting of adverse drug events (ADEs) to regulatory authorities remains low, particularly among consumers.

Objectives: To explore stakeholders' views on the development and use of a digital platform to improve ADE reporting by consumers to the regulatory authority in Australia, i.e.

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Background: Haemophilus influenzae is prevalent within the airways of persons with cystic fibrosis (pwCF). H. influenzae is often associated with pulmonary exacerbations (PEx) in pediatric cohorts, but in adults, studies have yielded conflicting reports around the impact(s) on clinical outcomes such as lung function decline.

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Introduction: The ability to bioprint facial cartilages could revolutionise reconstructive surgery, but identifying the optimum cell source remains one of the great challenges of tissue engineering. Tissue specific stem cells: chondroprogenitors, have been extracted previously using preferential adhesion to fibronectin based on the expression of CD49e: a perceived chondroprogenitor stem cell marker present on <1% of cartilage cells. This study sought to determine whether these fibronectin-adherent chondroprogenitor cells could be exploited for cartilage tissue engineering applications in isolation, or combined with differentiated chondrocytes.

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Quantifying finger kinematics can improve the authors' understanding of finger function and facilitate the design of efficient prosthetic devices while also identifying movement disorders and assessing the impact of rehabilitation interventions. Here, the authors present a study that quantifies grasps depicted in taxonomies during selected Activities of Daily Living (ADL). A single participant held a series of standard objects using specific grasps which were used to train Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) for each of the four fingers individually.

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Chronobiological rhythms, such as the circadian rhythm, have long been linked to neurological disorders, but it is currently unknown how pathological processes affect the expression of biological rhythms in the brain. Here, we use the unique opportunity of long-term, continuous intracranially recorded EEG from 38 patients (totalling 6338 hours) to delineate circadian (daily) and ultradian (minute to hourly) rhythms in different brain regions. We show that functional circadian and ultradian rhythms are diminished in pathological tissue, independent of regional variations.

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Clinical trials often demonstrate treatment efficacy through change in forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV), comparing single FEV measurements from post- versus pre-treatment timepoints. Day-to-day variation in measured FEV is common for reasons such as diurnal variation and intermittent health changes, relative to a stable, monthly average. This variation can alter estimation of associations between change in FEV and baseline in predictable ways, through a phenomenon called regression to the mean.

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Background: Mucormycosis is an aggressive, invasive fungal infection caused by moulds in the order Mucorales. Early diagnosis is key to improving patient prognosis, yet relies on insensitive culture or non-specific histopathology. A pan-Mucorales specific monoclonal antibody (mAb), TG11, was recently developed.

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is a highly adaptable opportunistic pathogen capable of exploiting barriers and immune defects to cause chronic lung infections in conditions such as cystic fibrosis. In these contexts, host immune responses are ineffective at clearing persistent bacterial infection, instead driving a cycle of inflammatory lung damage. This review outlines key components of the host immune response to chronic infection within the lung, beginning with initial pathogen recognition, followed by a robust yet maladaptive innate immune response, and an ineffective adaptive immune response that propagates lung damage while permitting bacterial persistence.

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Background: Exponential increases in Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program enrollment have come with a rapid rise in the number of capstone projects conducted in clinical environments. However, misaligned priorities between students, faculty, and clinician leaders have created significant challenges.

Purpose: Identify opportunities to strengthen collaboration between academic and clinical stakeholders to better support DNP projects and education.

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Article Synopsis
  • Researchers studied how important it is to fully remove areas of the brain that cause seizures during surgery for patients who can't control their epilepsy with medicine.
  • They looked at data from 63 patients and found that most had a lot of the problem areas taken out, but it didn't seem to help them avoid seizures afterward.
  • The study concluded that just removing the seizure areas isn't enough to guarantee no more seizures, suggesting that there might be other reasons for seizures after surgery.
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Background: A commonly used guideline for community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is the joint American Thoracic Society and Infectious Diseases Society of America practice guideline. We aimed to investigate the effect of guideline-concordant therapy in the treatment of CAP.

Methods: We systematically searched MEDLINE, Embase, CENTRAL, Web of Science, and Scopus from 2007 to December 2023.

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Article Synopsis
  • - Human fungal infections, often overlooked in research, account for over 1.5 million deaths annually, and recent studies have shed light on the complex interactions between fungi and their human hosts.
  • - Researchers are uncovering how fungi evade the immune system and contribute to serious health issues, while simultaneously highlighting emerging antifungal drug resistance as a significant threat.
  • - The review emphasizes the need for more effective immunotherapeutic strategies, while also addressing future challenges such as drug resistance and new pathogens emerging due to advancements in medicine.
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World Health Organisation data suggest that up to 99% of the global population are exposed to air pollutants above recommended levels. Impacts to health range from increased risk of stroke and cardiovascular disease to chronic respiratory conditions, and air pollution may contribute to over 7 million premature deaths a year. Additionally, mounting evidence suggests that in utero or early life exposure to particulate matter (PM) in ambient air pollution increases the risk of neurodevelopmental impairment with obvious lifelong consequences.

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