Long-term safety and effectiveness of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation ablation using a porous tip contact force-sensing catheter from the SMART SF trial.

Purpose: The prospective, multicenter SMART SF trial demonstrated the acute safety and effectiveness of the 56-hole porous tip irrigated contact force (CF) catheter for drug-refractory paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF) ablation with a low primary adverse event rate (2.5%), leading to FDA approval of the catheter. Here, we are reporting the long-term effectiveness and safety results that have not yet been reported.

[A clinical study of antiviral therapy for patients with compensated hepatitis C cirrhosis].

To investigate the effect of antiviral therapy on the progression of liver cirrhosis and related predictive factors through a retrospective analysis of patients with compensated hepatitis C cirrhosis. The patients with compensated hepatitis C cirrhosis who were treated in our hospital from 2004 to 2015 were divided into sustained virologic response (SVR) group, non-SVR (NSVR) group, and untreated group. The baseline features of patients with or without liver cirrhosis were compared to identify the predictive factors for the progression of liver cirrhosis.

Are we missing non-motor seizures in Parkinson's disease? Two case reports.

Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) is predominantly recognized for its motor symptoms, but patients struggle from a morbid and heterogeneous collection of non-motor symptoms (NMS-PD) that can affect their quality of life even more. NMS-PD is a rather generalized term and the heterogeneity and non-specific nature of many symptoms poses a clinical challenge when a PD patient presents with non-motor complaints that may not be NMS-PD.

Case Presentation: We report two patients with idiopathic PD who presented with acute episodes of cognitive changes.

Sustainability of improvements in perinatal teamwork and safety climate.

The purposes of this study were to describe changes in perinatal nurse (n = 70) and physician (n = 88) perceptions of teamwork and safety climate after implementing a 6-month Crew Resource Management training program and compare responses between nurses and physicians. The Teamwork and Safety Climate Survey was administered prior to and 1 year after the intervention. There were significant improvements in nurse and physician perceptions of teamwork and safety climate; however, physicians perceived teamwork more positive than nurses.