Single stage versus two-stage orthoplastic management of bone infection.

Introduction: Bone infection cases with major soft tissue loss have conventionally been treated with a staged orthoplastic approach, addressing the infection first followed by definitive management to achieve bony stability and soft tissue cover. In the last few decades, specialist centers have advocated for single stage bony stabilization with soft tissue coverage. We aimed to investigate the outcomes of patients that underwent a single stage versus a two-stage orthoplastic intervention.

Coding accuracy for Parkinson's disease hospital admissions: implications for healthcare planning in the UK.

Objectives: Hospital Episode Statistics data are used for healthcare planning and hospital reimbursements. Reliability of these data is dependent on the accuracy of individual hospitals reporting Secondary Uses Service (SUS) which includes hospitalisation. The number and coding accuracy for Parkinson's disease hospital admissions at a tertiary centre in Birmingham was assessed.

Diagnostic test accuracy of informant-based tools to diagnose dementia in older hospital patients with delirium: a prospective cohort study.

Background: delirium and dementia co-exist commonly in hospital. Older people with delirium have high rates of undiagnosed dementia, but delirium affects the use of cognitive testing in dementia diagnosis. Novel methods to detect dementia in delirium are needed.

Undiagnosed long-term cognitive impairment in acutely hospitalised older medical patients with delirium: a prospective cohort study.

Background: delirium and dementia are common in the general hospital, being present in nearly 50% of older unselected admissions to hospital. Cognitive impairment is a risk factor for delirium, but the prevalence of previously undiagnosed cognitive impairment (dementia or mild cognitive impairment) in patients with delirium is unknown.

Methods: we performed a prospective cohort study of people over 70 years admitted to hospital with delirium to establish the prevalence of previously unrecognised prior cognitive impairment.

Polyclonal free light chains: a biomarker of inflammatory disease or treatment target?

Free light chains are proteins produced by B lymphocytes during the process of antibody synthesis. Their production, as a reflection of B cell activation, can give insight into the activity of the adaptive immune system. In recent years, an automated immunoassay that provides quantitative measurement of free light chains in the serum has been developed.