A reduced glycine-to-taurine ratio of conjugated serum bile acids signifies an adaptive mechanism and is an early marker of outcome in acute respiratory distress syndrome.

The accumulation of Bile Acids (BA) in serum is a common finding in critically ill patients and has been found in patients with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), where liver and biliary function could be essentially affected by the underlying disease process and subsequent therapeutic measures. We hypothesized that the glycine-to-taurine conjugation ratio (G/T-ratio) is predictive of outcome in ARDS patients and would support our previously published hypothesis that the BA profile reflects a (mal-) adaptive response of bile acid production when suffering from a disease or syndrome such as ARDS. In 70 patients with ARDS, we determined conjugated BA fractions from protein precipitated serum samples using a LC-MS/MS method and calculated the G/T-ratios, which were then compared with a healthy control group.

Determination of individual bile acids in acute respiratory distress syndrome reveals a specific pattern of primary and secondary bile acids and a shift to the acidic pathway as an adaptive response to the critical condition.

Objectives: Cholestasis and elevated serum bile acid levels are common in critically ill patients. This study aims to define the specific pattern of bile acids associated with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and the changes in pattern over time.

Methods: Prospective observational study.

Guidelines and recommendations for ensuring Good Epidemiological Practice (GEP): a guideline developed by the German Society for Epidemiology.

Objective: To revise the German guidelines and recommendations for ensuring Good Epidemiological Practice (GEP) that were developed in 1999 by the German Society for Epidemiology (DGEpi), evaluated and revised in 2004, supplemented in 2008, and updated in 2014.

Methods: The executive board of the DGEpi tasked the third revision of the GEP. The revision was arrived as a result of a consensus-building process by a working group of the DGEpi in collaboration with other working groups of the DGEpi and with the German Association for Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology, the German Society of Social Medicine and Prevention (DGSMP), the German Region of the International Biometric Society (IBS-DR), the German Technology, Methods and Infrastructure for Networked Medical Research (TMF), and the German Network for Health Services Research (DNVF).

Developing an Extended Model of the Relation between Work Motivation and Health as Affected by the Work Ability as Part of a Corporate Age Management Approach.

Due to demographic changes, the employee structure in companies is changing dramatically. It will be necessary to offer employees suitable, age-adequate jobs. As one of its foremost goals, optimized business management strategies must create conditions for guaranteeing a person’s health, work ability, and work motivation.

The Impact of Work Ability on Work Motivation and Health: A Longitudinal Study Based on Older Employees.

Objective: Work participation is determined by work motivation and work ability with health as a significant component. Within the lidA-study, we explore the impact of work ability on work motivation and health with consideration of further influencing factors.

Methods: Four thousand one hundred nine older employees were interviewed two times (t0 = 2011, t1 = 2014).

Insurees' preferences in hospital choice-A population-based study.

In Germany, the patient himself makes the choice for or against a health service provider. Hospital comparison websites offer him possibilities to inform himself before choosing. However, it remains unclear, how health care consumers use those websites, and there is little information about how preferences in hospital choice differ interpersonally.

Introduction of the HAM-Nat examination--applicants and students admitted to the Medical Faculty in 2012-2014.

Background/aim: In the 2012/13 winter semester, the Magdeburg Medical Faculty introduced a test of knowledge for the selection of applicants. The Hamburg Assessment Test for Medicine - Natural Sciences (HAM-Nat) comprises a multiple-choice test with questions on the aspects of biology, physics, chemistry and mathematics relevant to medicine, which was specifically developed for the selection of medicine applicants. The aim is to study how the HAM-Nat influences student selection, the reasons why students decide to take the test as part of their application procedure and what expectations they have of their course of study.

Winning is not enough: ventral striatum connectivity during physical aggression.

Social neuroscience studies have shown that the ventral striatum (VS), a highly reward-sensitive brain area, is activated when participants win competitive tasks. However, in these settings winning often entails both avoiding punishment and punishing the opponent. It is thus unclear whether the rewarding properties of winning are mainly associated to punishment avoidance, or if punishing the opponent can be additionally gratifying.

Theory and practice in medical education--expectations and development of skills experienced by students of human medicine compared with students in other disciplines.

Aim: The aim of this article is to compare students of human medicine (HM) with students specialising in the MINT disciplines (mathematics, computer science, natural sciences and engineering), the humanities and social sciences as well as law and economic sciences with regard to their expectations of their university study and career and the areas of competence where they feel they have been supported by their education. We present in detail issues particularly relevant to prospective physicians, which are discussed with the main focus on the "theoretical and practical orientation of medical education".

Methods: We used the database in the Public Use File of the "11th Student Survey", a written survey of randomly selected students studying at 25 German tertiary institutions during the 2009/2010 winter term, which was supplied by the Tertiary Education Research working group at the University of Constance.

Effects of psychiatric comorbidity on costs in patients undergoing disc surgery: a cross-sectional study.

Background Context: Back pain presents a significant cause of health care costs and lost productivity. In most cases, conservative treatment will be sufficient, but in the most severe cases, disc surgery is indicated.

Purpose: To analyze the effect of psychiatric comorbidity on health care costs and lost productivity in patients with back pain undergoing disc surgery.

A priori risk and optimal test accuracy in prenatal diagnostics.

The prevalence of fetal chromosome anomalies rises exponentially with the age of the pregnant woman. The risk of fetal anomalies can be specified using biochemical screening tests such as the triple test. This test substantially reduces the number of amniocenteses and proportionally the number of procedure-related miscarriages.