Safety and effectiveness of ustekinumab in elderly Crohn's disease patients.

Objective: Anti-tumour necrosis factor (TNF) agents are associated with increased infection risk among elderly IBD patients, but little is known about non anti-TNF biologics in this cohort. We examined the safety and effectiveness of ustekinumab in elderly Crohn's patients.

Methods: This retrospective multi-centre cohort study included Crohn's patients ≥60-years old who commenced ustekinumab.

Understanding and developing procedures for video-based assessment in medical education.

Introduction: Novel uses of video aim to enhance assessment in health-professionals education. Whilst these uses presume equivalence between video and live scoring, some research suggests that poorly understood variations could challenge validity. We aimed to understand examiners' and students' interaction with video whilst developing procedures to promote its optimal use.

Qualitative evidence syntheses: Assessing the relative contributions of multi-context and single-context reviews.

Aims: To examine the strengths and weaknesses of multi-context (international) qualitative evidence syntheses in comparison with single-context (typically single-country) reviews. We compare a multi-country synthesis with single-context syntheses on facility-based delivery in Nigeria and Kenya.

Design: Discussion paper.

Neural pathways of maternal responding: systematic review and meta-analysis.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has increasingly been employed to establish whether there is a specific brain neural network dedicated to maternal responsiveness. We undertook systematic review and meta-analysis of all studies in which healthy new mothers were exposed to visual stimuli of own versus other infants to determine the quality of evidence for a dedicated maternal neural network. Systematic literature review revealed a pattern of specific neural responses commonly induced by visual infant paradigms.

Rash and hepatitis within days of starting a new antiretroviral regimen: nevirapine hypersensitivity, secondary syphilis or both?

We report a case in which an HIV-positive man developed general malaise, skin rash and biochemical hepatitis within days of starting a nevirapine-based antiretroviral treatment regimen. At the same time, his syphilis serology proved positive. We discuss the diagnostic dilemma: was this a nevirapine hypersensitivity reaction, secondary syphilis or both?

Major histocompatibility complex class I and II expression in idiopathic inflammatory myopathy.

Introduction: We sought to study the intensity and pattern of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) I and II expression in muscle from patients with biopsy-proven idiopathic inflammatory myositis (IIM) including the subgroups, polymyositis (PM), dermatomyositis (DM), and inclusion body myositis (IBM).

Methods: A total of 120 muscle biopsies (61 PM, 14 DM, and 45 IBM) were immunostained for MHC I and II. Staining was graded as follows.

NHS abortion services: referral pathways and outcomes.

The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of the different referral pathways to accessing abortion services. It was a retrospective observational study comparing abortion referral processes in two district hospitals. The results showed that 149 patients self-accessed the NHS abortion service in group A compared with group B of 365 formally referred patients.