Dissemination and evaluation of the European League Against Rheumatism recommendations for the role of the nurse in the management of chronic inflammatory arthritis: results of a multinational survey among nurses, rheumatologists and patients.

Objectives: The aims of this study were to disseminate, assess agreement with, assess the application of and identify potential barriers for implementation of the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) recommendations for the role of nurses in the management of chronic inflammatory arthritis (CIA) using a survey of nurses, rheumatologists and patients.

Methods: A Web-based survey was distributed across Europe and the USA using snowball sampling. Levels of agreement and application were assessed using a 0-10 rating scale (0 = none, 10 = full agreement/application).

Sinonasal involvement in systemic vasculitides and cocaine-induced midline destructive lesions: Diagnostic controversies.

Multiple systemic diseases produce various clinical manifestations in the sinonasal area. They usually appear as difficult-to-diagnose disease processes with slow, atypical clinical courses. The aim of this study was to evaluate the sinonasal manifestations of systemic vasculitides, highlighting key points for diagnosis and differential diagnosis with other pathological entities, especially cocaine-induced midline destructive lesions (CIMDL).

Delirium is a predictor of in-hospital mortality in elderly patients with community acquired pneumonia.

Community acquired pneumonia (CAP) is a common reason for hospitalization and death in elderly people. Many predictors of in-hospital outcome have been studied in the general population with CAP. However, data are lacking on the prognostic significance of conditions unique to older patients, such as delirium and the coexistence of multiple comorbidities.

Validation of the educational needs assessment tool as a generic instrument for rheumatic diseases in seven European countries.

Objectives: To validate the educational needs assessment tool (ENAT) as a generic tool for assessing the educational needs of patients with rheumatic diseases in European Countries.

Methods: A convenience sample of patients from seven European countries was included comprising the following diagnostic groups: ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis, systemic sclerosis, systemic lupus erythematosus, osteoarthritis (OA) and fibromyalgia syndrome. Translated versions of the ENAT were completed through surveys in each country.

The role of ultrasound elastographic techniques in chronic liver disease: current status and future perspectives.

This review illustrates the state of the art clinical applications and the future perspectives of ultrasound elastographic methods for the evaluation of chronic liver diseases, including the most widely used and validated technique, transient elastography, followed by shear wave elastography and strain imaging elastography. Liver ultrasound elastography allows the non-invasive evaluation of liver stiffness, providing information regarding the stage of fibrosis, comparable to liver biopsy which is still considered the gold standard; in this way, it can help physicians in managing patients, including the decision as to when to start antiviral treatment. The characterization of focal liver lesions and the prognostic role of the elastographic technique in the prediction of complications of cirrhosis are still under investigation.

The nurse's role in addressing unmet treatment and management needs of patients with rheumatoid arthritis: Delphi-based recommendations.

Purpose: Evaluate nurse's role in management of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Methods: Modified Delphi with two rounds of questionnaires, followed by in-person meeting. International group of 12 nurses experienced with RA patients receiving biologic therapy.

Breaking heart: chronobiologic insights into takotsubo cardiomyopathy.

A considerable amount of evidence has shown that the major acute cardiovascular diseases, ie, myocardial infarction, sudden cardiac death, stroke, pulmonary embolism, and rupture or dissection of aortic aneurysms do not occur randomly in time, but exhibit specific temporal patterns in their onset, according to time of day, month or season, and day of the week. This contributes to the definition of "chronorisk", where several factors, not harmful if taken alone, are capable of triggering unfavorable events when presenting all together within the same temporal window. This article reviews the actual knowledge about time of onset of takotsubo cardiomyopathy.

Phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitor treatment for erectile dysfunction in patients with end-stage renal disease receiving dialysis or after renal transplantation.

Introduction: The phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE5) inhibitors are generally well tolerated and effective for treating erectile dysfunction (ED), including in patients with significant comorbidity. Because of this benign safety profile, investigators have used PDE5 inhibitors to treat patients with ED and severe renal disease or those who have received renal transplants.

Aim: To assess safety and efficacy of PDE5 inhibitors in patients receiving dialysis or renal transplants.

"What, diagnosis?" Between Bayes and biases.

I conducted a personal survey, completely informal, asking groups of doctors during training courses to give me in writing, in a strictly anonymous fashion, a brief operative description of diagnosis. The majority were unfocused and confusing regarding the process and nobody mentioned any probability-based criteria. Objectively, diagnosis is a difficult concept and rich with implications: this is the heart of medical activity and few doctors are able to define it correctly.

Nasal ciliary beat frequency and beat pattern in retinal ciliopathies.

Purpose: The cilium in photoreceptors appears ultrastructurally very similar to the nasal ciliated epithelium. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the nasal ciliary beat frequency and beat pattern in patients with retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and Usher syndrome type II and compare it with that of healthy control subjects.

Methods: A prospective, comparative control study.

Cytological and tissue eosinophilia correlations in nasal polyposis.

Background: Eosinophils are possibly the most important inflammatory cells in the pathogenesis of chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyposis. Eosinophilic nasal mucosal infiltration is characteristic of nasal polyposis. The aim of this work was to study the possibility of correlations between cytological and tissue eosinophilia in patients with nasal polyposis and with the stage of the disease.

Cilia motility and structure in primary and secondary ciliary dyskinesia.

Background: Primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) is a clinically uniform entity, although cilia motility and structure can vary among patients, making diagnosis difficult. Chronic sinusitis, bronchiectasis, sinus hypoplasia, secretory otitis media, and low fertility are common in PCD patients. The aim of this work was to correlate nasal ciliary activity with clinical and structural abnormalities in PCD.

Multicentric recurrent parotid pleomorphic adenoma in a child.

Mixed tumours of the parotid gland are rare in childhood and recurrence of this tumour is infrequent. Some authors report a higher rate of recurrence with some histological subtypes, like hypocellular variant. Female sex and young age at initial treatment are also risk factor for recurrence.

Nosocomial infection and related risk factors in a general surgery service: a prospective study.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to quantify the frequency of nosocomial infection in the general surgery service of a tertiary-care hospital and to identify associated risk factors.

Methods: A prospective, longitudinal, descriptive and analytical study was made from January 1995 to December 1998 of a clinical cohort of 2794 patients who underwent a surgical procedure with a post-surgery stay of more than 48 h. The criteria for infection were those defined by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the USA.

Near fatal asthma and psychopathological characteristics: a group-control study.

Psychological factors may play a role in asthma. In particular, emotional upsets have been correlated with fatal asthma attacks, and an abnormal personality attitude is considered to be a risk factor in fatal asthma. Moreover, some authors have recently reported favourable asthma outcome in patients with severe asthma and psychiatric abnormalities, when psychoactive treatment was initiated.

Immotile cilia syndrome: nasal mucociliary function and nasal ciliary abnormalities.

We present 17 patients with a typical symptomatology of immotile cilia syndrome, seven of them with complete situs inversus. Firstly, a study of the nasal mucociliary transport was made by means of the radioisotopic technique with serum albumin-Tc99m. In all cases there was absence of transport.

Gastric juice and analysis of basal and stimulated secretion following treatment with rice-bran oil.

In determining whether rice-bran oil (RBO) has antisecretory activity, we induced stress ulcers in 20 Wistar rats (10 controls; 10 animals given 0.2 ml/day RBO orally for 4 days prior to ulcer induction). In turn, we analyzed gastric juice for histamine, pepsin, H+ concentration ([H+]) and output volume.

Factors of prognostic value in long-term survival of colorectal cancer patients.

We have studied 191 protocolized colorectal cancer patients, analyzing the prognostic factors described in the literature as being important to long-term survival. Of the data studied, sex, age, duration of symptoms, tumor location, tumor extension within the circumference of the bowel lumen, and the surgical technique employed, all showed differences in terms of five-year survival, but without reaching statistical significance. The factors with statistically significant prognostic value were first symptoms, occlusion, perforation, primary tumor size and configuration, lymph node involvement, degree of wall infiltration, presence of emboli, degree of differentiation and Scarff index.