Prognosis Communication in Heart Failure: Experiences and Preferences of End-Stage Heart Failure Patients and Care Partners.

Background: Patients with heart failure (HF) overestimate survival compared with model-predicted estimates, but the reasons for this discrepancy are poorly understood. We characterized how patients with end-stage HF and their care partners understand prognosis and elicited their preferences around prognosis communication.

Methods: We conducted in-depth, semistructured interviews with patients with end-stage HF and their care partners between 2021 and 2022 at a tertiary care center in Michigan.

The Hidden Burden: Qualitative Differences in How URiM Students Experience the Clinical Microenvironment.

Introduction: It is well documented that medical students who identify as underrepresented in medicine are more likely to encounter social challenges in the clinical environment. Successful navigation of these challenges requires a social and emotional agility that is unmeasured in traditional metrics of success. The effects of this requirement has not yet been explored.

Barriers to colorectal cancer screening in Ghana: a qualitative study of patients and physicians.

Purpose: The incidence of colorectal cancer (CRC) in Ghana has increased eightfold since the 1960s. In 2011, national guidelines were set forth recommending all patients aged 50-70 years old undergo annual CRC screening with fecal occult blood testing (FOBT), but adherence to these guidelines is poor and screening rates remain low for unclear reasons.

Methods: We performed semi-structured interviews with 28 Ghanaians including physicians (n = 14) and patients (n = 14) from the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi, Ghana, to better understand the factors driving screening adherence and perceived barriers identified in an earlier quantitative study.

Pragmatic Mentoring Strategies for the Busy Surgeon Scientist.

Objective: The value of research mentorship in academic medicine is well-recognized, yet there is little practical advice for how to develop and sustain effective mentoring partnerships. Gaining research skill and mentorship is particularly critical to success in academic surgery, yet surgeon scientists are challenged in their mentorship efforts by time constraints and lack of education on how to mentor. To address this gap, this study explored the strategies that award-winning faculty mentors utilize in collaborating with their medical student mentees in research.

[Influenza and its complications].

Influenza is viral acute respiratory illness. During winter season flu occurs in local epidemics of various magnitude. Influenza causes substantial loss of workdays, human suffering, and significant mortality rate in population, despite the existing treat ment and effective vaccination.

'What I Wish My Surgeon Knew': A Novel Approach to Promote Empathic Curiosity in Surgery.

Objective: Physician empathy is associated with a variety of superior patient and physician outcomes. Teaching physicians to practice empathic curiosity is challenging however, and relatively few efficient and effective methods have been proposed toward this end. The goal of this study was to evaluate the impact and feasibility of a novel approach to foster empathic curiosity during surgical training.

[Microglial activation and GFAP astroglial immunopositivity in drug abusers].

Introduction: The neurotoxicity brought about by application of toxic and psychotropic substances is accompanied by an activation of astroglial and microglial cells in the brain.

Materials And Method: We investigated clinically 42 patients addicted to psychotropic substances (hospitalised in the Motol Teaching Hospital). The NSE, S1OOB, and manganese concentrations in the blood were measured in the patients.

[Viral hepatitis at the beginning of the 21st century--value of liver biopsy in the context of development of new non-invasive diagnostic methods and in relation to the modern therapy of chronic viral hepatitis].

The rapid progress in the development of virostatic agents over the past 15 years has changed chronic viral hepatitis from causally incurable diseases to diseases that may be treated or even cured. But, the treatment is a long-term process and it remains very expensive. Therefore, it is important to establish the correct diagnosis with the exact stratification of the disease (in terms of serological findings, regarding the activity of the inflammation and alterations of liver parenchyma) to determine the appropriate treatment schedule.

[Infectious diseases in problem drug users hospitalized in the infectious ward of the Motol University Hospital in 2002-2005].

Background: To survey infectious diseases in intravenous drug users and to provide basic information on disease course in this subpopulation.

Material And Methods: A retrospective study of all inpatient intravenous drug users, from 2002 to 2005. The obtained data were sorted according to the main diagnosis and final results of chronic infections were achieved by outpatient follow-up.

[Infectious diseases of drug users in the Czech Republic].

Background: Prevalence of drug users in Czech Republic remains stable in the last years (about 22 to 38 thousands). Two thirds of drug users administer the drug intravenously, what is the most risky way of application. It is also why the number of infectious diseases in that community has not decreased.

Detection of group A streptococcal antigen directly from throat swabs with a ten-minute latex agglutination test.

Results obtained with the Culturette brand 10-Minute Group A Strep ID system were compared with culture results to measure the ability of this system to detect group A streptococci directly from more than 800 throat swabs. Our study showed a sensitivity of 92.4% and a specificity of 92.