Pulmonary hypertension in Spanish patients with systemic sclerosis. Data from the RESCLE registry.

Introduction: Our objective was to evaluate the pulmonary hypertension (PH) data for Spanish patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc), define the PH types and determine the associated factors.

Method: Descriptive study of PH-related data from the multicentre RESCLE registry. Estimated systolic pulmonary artery pressure (esPAP), measured via echocardiogram was considered elevated if ≥ 35 mmHg.

The changing epidemiology of invasive pneumococcal disease after PCV13 vaccination in a country with intermediate vaccination coverage.

Background: We studied the impact of 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) on the incidence of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) and serotype distribution in a region with intermediate levels of vaccination (around 64% in children aged <2 years).

Methods: Surveillance data on IPD cases reported by microbiologists participating in the Microbiological Reporting System of Catalonia during 2006-2014 were analysed. We compared estimated incidence rate (IR) ratios for serotypes included in PCV7, PCV10non7, PCV13non10 and non-PCV13 between the PCV7 (2006-2009) and PCV13 periods (2010-2014).

Underdiagnosis of psychiatric disorders in people with intellectual disabilities: Differences between psychiatric disorders and challenging behaviour.

Background And Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess the level of mental disorders and challenging behaviour in individuals with intellectual disability (ID) supported by specialized services, but without a prior psychiatric diagnosis, and to compare the levels of different disorders depending on the severity of ID.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional study ( = 142) of population with ID. Inclusion criteria were the following: adult patients with ID and with no previous psychiatric diagnosis prior to this survey.

Telestroke in Catalonia: Increasing Thrombolysis Rate and Avoiding Interhospital Transfers.

Objectives: The study aimed to evaluate the impact of a telestroke network on acute stroke care in Catalonia, by measuring thrombolysis rates, access to endovascular treatment, and clinical outcome of telestroke patients in a population-based study.

Methods: Telestroke network was implemented on March 2013 and consists of 12 community hospitals and 1 expert stroke neurologist 24 h/7 day, covering a population of 1.3 million inhabitants.

Potentially inappropriate medication in palliative care patients according to STOPP-Frail criteria.

Background: Potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) are common in palliative care patients, but no specific tools have been used to determine these PIMs.

Objective: To evaluate the prevalence of PIMs according to specific tool 'STOPP-Frail', related factors with its existence and clinical consequences.

Methods: This is a post hoc analysis from a 10-month prospective cross-sectional study.

Ethical Challenges of Early Identification of Advanced Chronic Patients in Need of Palliative Care: The Catalan Experience.

Palliative care must be early applied to all types of advanced chronic and life limited prognosis patients, present in all health and social services. Patients' early identification and registry allows introducing palliative care gradually concomitant with other measures. Patients undergo a systematic and integrated care process, meant to improve their life quality, which includes multidimensional assessment of their needs, recognition of their values and preferences for advance care planning purposes, treatments review, family care, and case management.

Correction to: First clinical symptom as a prognostic factor in systemic sclerosis: results of a retrospective nationwide cohort study.

When first published, this article inadvertently listed the RESCLE investigators individually within the author list. The names should instead have been listed within the Acknowledgements section only. The corrected author list and the updated Acknowledgements section are presented in this Correction.

Patient-Centered Prescription Model to improve therapeutic adherence in patients with multimorbidity.

To date, interventions to improve medication adherence in patients with multimorbidity have shown modest and inconsistent efficacy among  available studies. Thereby, we should define new approaches aimed at improving medication adherence tailored to effective prescribing, with a multidisciplinary approach and patient-centered.In this regard, the Patient-Centered Prescription Model has shown its usefulness on improving appropriateness of drug treatments in patients with clinical complexity.

Molecular characterization of OXA-48 carbapenemase-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae strains after a carbapenem resistance increase in Catalonia.

Introduction: To characterize OXA-48 carbapenemase-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae strains isolated after an increase in carbapenem resistance in Catalonia.

Methodology: K. pneumoniae identification, antimicrobial susceptibility studies, the Modified Hodge Test method, amplification of antimicrobial resistance genes (against β-lactamases, quinolones and aminoglycosides), molecular typing (by PFGE and MLST), conjugation assays, plasmid characterization (PBRT-PCR and Southern blot), a description of mobile genetic elements and statistical analysis were done.

[Regional protocol for adjusting the therapeutic intensity. Southern Metropolitan Area of Barcelona].

The identification of patients with advanced and complex chronic diseases, and the fragmentation of care towards the end of life, requires the drawing up a long-term therapeutic plan. This should take into account the values and preferences of the patients, as well as the vital and functional prognosis. Having an adjustment tool for determining the diagnostic and therapeutic effort is helpful in the continuity of care, as well as in decision-making in the transitions and dynamic changes of patients as they approach the end of life process.

Update on the management of Helicobacter pylori infection. Position paper from the Catalan Society of Digestology.

More than 30 years after its discovery, Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection remains the most common cause of gastric and duodenal diseases. H.

Validation of the Spanish and Catalan versions of the Health of the Nation Outcome Scale for Children and Adolescents (HoNOSCA).

Outcome measurement in outpatient and day-care mental health facilities for children and adolescents in Spain remains limited, in part due to a lack of validated scales. To address this issue, we translated HoNOSCA (glossary, score sheet, self-rated questionnaire, and parent/legal guardian questionnaire) into Spanish and Catalan using a reverse translation approach. We ascertained the validity and psychometric quality of the HoNOSCA in Spanish by assessing correlation with the Children's Global Assessment Scale (C-GAS).

Usefulness of the Trabecular Bone Score for assessing the risk of osteoporotic fracture.

Introduction And Objectives: The trabecular bone score (TBS) is an imaging technique that assesses the condition of the trabecular microarchitecture. Preliminary results suggest that TBS, along with the bone mineral density assessment, could improve the calculation of the osteoporotic fracture risk. The aim of this study was to analyse TBS values and their relationship with the clinical characteristics, bone mineral density and history of fractures of a cohort of posmenopausal women.

Interstitial lung disease in systemic sclerosis: data from the spanish scleroderma study group.

Objectives: To evaluate the clinical characteristics of patients with interstitial lung disease (ILD) in the setting of a large cohort of systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients, and to analyse the differences according to the SSc subtype (following the modification of classification criteria of the American College of Rheumatology for SSc proposed by LeRoy and Medsger), factors are associated with moderate-to-severe impairment of lung function, as well as mortality and causes of death.

Methods: A descriptive study was performed, using the available data from the Spanish Scleroderma Study Group.

Results: Twenty-one referral centers participated in the registry.

Rate of adverse events of gastroduodenal snare polypectomy for non-flat polyp is low: A prospective and multicenter study.

Aim: To evaluate the rate of adverse events (AEs) during consecutive gastric and duodenal polypectomies in several Spanish centers.

Methods: Polypectomies of protruded gastric or duodenal polyps ≥ 5 mm using hot snare were prospectively included. Prophylactic measures of hemorrhage were allowed in predefined cases.

The impact of axillary ultrasound with biopsy in overtreatment of early breast cancer.

Purpose: (a) To compare the axillary tumor burden detected by fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) versus sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB). (b) To evaluate the relationship between axillary tumor burden and the number of suspicious lymph nodes detected by axillary ultrasonography (US). (c) To calculate the false-positive and false-negative rates for FNAC in patients fulfilling ACOSOG Z0011 criteria.

Hepatobiliary involvement in systemic sclerosis and the cutaneous subsets: Characteristics and survival of patients from the Spanish RESCLE Registry.

Objective: To assess the prevalence and causes of hepatobiliary involvement (HBI) in systemic sclerosis (SSc), to investigate the clinical characteristics and prognosis of SSc patients with HBI (SSc-HBI) and without HBI (SSc-non-HBI), and to compare both groups according to the cutaneous SSc subsets.

Methods: In all, 1572 SSc patients were collected in the RESCLE registry up to January 2015, and all hepatobiliary disturbances were recorded. We investigated the HBI-related characteristics and survival from the entire SSc cohort and according to the following cutaneous subsets: diffuse cutaneous SSc (dcSSc), limited cutaneous SSc (lcSSc), and SSc sine scleroderma (ssSSc).

First clinical symptom as a prognostic factor in systemic sclerosis: results of a retrospective nationwide cohort study.

The objective of the study is to determine the importance of the mode of onset as prognostic factor in systemic sclerosis (SSc). Data were collected from the Spanish Scleroderma Registry (RESCLE), a nationwide retrospective multicenter database created in 2006. As first symptom, we included Raynaud's phenomenon (RP), cutaneous sclerosis, arthralgia/arthritis, puffy hands, interstitial lung disease (ILD), pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), and digestive hypomotility.

Influence of antibody profile in clinical features and prognosis in a cohort of Spanish patients with systemic sclerosis.

Objectives: To assess the clinical manifestations and prognosis of Spanish patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) according to their immunological profile.

Methods: From the Spanish Scleroderma Study Group or RESCLE (Registro de ESCLErodermia as Spanish nomenclature) Registry we selected those patients in which anti-centromere (ACA), anti-topoisomerase I (ATA), and anti-RNA polymerase III (ARA) antibodies had been determined, and a single positivity for each SSc specific antibody was detected. Demographic, clinical, laboratory, and survival data were compared according to the serologic status of these antibodies.

Clinical and epidemiological differences between men and women with systemic sclerosis: a study in a Spanish systemic sclerosis cohort and literature review.

Objectives: The low overall prevalence of systemic sclerosis (SSc) and the low proportion of male patients have resulted in a scarcity of studies assessing sex differences in Ssc patients, and contradictory results have often been show among those studies that have been performed.

Methods: A prospective study was conducted with the Spanish RESCLE register to analyse the influence of gender on survival of SSc patients.

Results: In total, 1506 SSc patients (1341 women, 165 men) were recruited from 21 centres.

Hydrosurgery as a safe and efficient debridement method in a clinical wound unit.

Objective: Hydrosurgical debridement allows removal of non-viable tissue, preserving healthy tissues. This study was designed to analyse whether hydrosurgery, used in a clinical wounds unit, is an effective and safe method that may reduce debridement time.

Methods: Patients' wounds had the following characteristics: wounds with devitalised tissue needing rapid debridement, wounds with cavities, or non-healing wounds.

A case-control study of psychosocial factors and their relationship to impairment and functionality in multiple sclerosis.

The stress effect on multiple sclerosis remains unclear. Moderating psychosocial factors may be involved. This study compares some of them in people with multiple sclerosis and healthy controls, and their association with disease parameters.