Randomized Evaluation of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and Graded Exercise Therapy for Post-Cancer Fatigue.

Context: Cancer-related fatigue is prevalent and disabling. When persistent and unexplained, it is termed post-cancer fatigue (PCF). Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and graded exercise therapy (GET) may improve symptoms and functional outcomes.

Dietary Modeling of Foods for Advanced CKD Based on General Healthy Eating Guidelines: What Should Be on the Plate?

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a major public health problem with significant clinical, societal, and psychosocial burdens. Nutrition therapy has been an integral part of the medical management of patients with CKD for more than a century, with the main goals of preserving kidney function and preventing complications. Nutrition abnormalities may emerge well before dialysis therapy is initiated and are associated with poor outcomes.

Representativeness of Honeypot Trial Participants to Australasian PD Patients.

Background: The HONEYPOT trial failed to establish the superiority of exit-site application of Medihoney compared with nasal mupirocin prophylaxis for the prevention of peritonitis in peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients. This study aimed to assess the representativeness of the patients in the HONEYPOT trial to the Australian and New Zealand PD population.

Methods: This study compared baseline characteristics of the 371 PD patients in the HONEYPOT trial with those of 6,085 PD patients recorded on the Australia and New Zealand Dialysis and Transplant (ANZDATA) Registry.

Similarities and Differences in Nurse-Reported Care Rationing Between Critical Care, Surgical, and Medical Specialties.

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the similarities and differences in elements of nursing care that are commonly rationed in the critical care, medical, and surgical specialties within an acute hospital environment.

Methods: Registered nurses who provide bedside nursing care within the medical, surgical, and critical specialties at a single center were invited to anonymously complete the self-administered MISSCARE questionnaire. The frequency of rationing for each individual care element within the 4 broader care groups (assessment, intervention-individual needs, intervention-basic care, and planning) of the MISSCARE questionnaire was determined.

Mycophenolate mofetil is an effective and safe option for the management of systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease: results from the Australian Scleroderma Cohort Study.

Objectives: To report the efficacy and tolerability of mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) and azathioprine (AZA) in the management of systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease (SSc-ILD).

Methods: Patients in the Australian Scleroderma Cohort Study treated with at least 3 months of MMF or AZA for SSc-ILD confirmed on high resolution computed tomography (HRCT) chest were identified and their pulmonary function tests (PFTs) retrieved. Individuals with available results for T-1 (12 months prior to treatment commencement), T0 (date of treatment commencement) and at least one subsequent time point were included in the drug efficacy analysis.

Protein-controlled versus restricted protein versus low protein diets in managing patients with non-dialysis chronic kidney disease: a single centre experience in Australia.

Nutrition has been an important part of medical management in patients with chronic kidney disease for more than a century. Since the 1970s, due to technological advances in renal replacement therapy (RRT) such as dialysis and transplantation, the importance of nutrition intervention in non-dialysis stages has diminished. In addition, it appears that there is a lack of high-level evidence to support the use of diet therapy, in particular the use of low protein diets to slow down disease progression.

Randomised comparison of two skin preparation methods in foot and ankle surgery.

Background: Foot and ankle surgery has an increased incidence of post-operative surgical site infections. The aim of this study was to examine the efficacy and efficiency of an alternative method of surgical site preparation for foot and ankle surgery.

Method: Fifty-one volunteers were recruited for this study which compared standard gauze painting using 2% chlorhexidine with 70% alcohol to immersion of the foot and ankle in a non-sterile bag filled with 60mL of the same solution and rubbing all skin surfaces (bag immersion method).

The ICU Mobility Scale Has Construct and Predictive Validity and Is Responsive. A Multicenter Observational Study.

Rationale: The ICU Mobility Scale (IMS) is a measure of mobility milestones in critically ill patients.

Objectives: This study aimed to determine the validity and responsiveness of the IMS from a prospective cohort study of adults admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU).

Methods: Construct and predictive validity were assessed by comparing IMS values at ICU discharge in 192 patients to other variables using Spearman rank correlation coefficient, Mann-Whitney U tests, and logistic regression.

Lower serum fibroblast activation protein shows promise in the exclusion of clinically significant liver fibrosis due to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in diabetes and obesity.

Unlabelled: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is common in diabetes and obesity but few have clinically significant liver fibrosis. Improved risk-assessment is needed as the commonly used clinical-risk algorithm, the NAFLD fibrosis score (NFS), is often inconclusive.

Aims: To determine whether circulating fibroblast activation protein (cFAP), which is elevated in cirrhosis, has value in excluding significant fibrosis, particularly combined with NFS.

Long term results of RFA to lung metastases from colorectal cancer in 157 patients.

Introduction: We evaluated the long-term outcomes of 157 patients receiving radiofrequency ablation (RFA) to colorectal cancer (CRC) lung metastases.

Methods: A total of 434 lesions were ablated in 199 procedures over 14 years. Thirty-two out of the 157 patients underwent multiple procedures.

Chronic total occlusions - Current techniques and future directions.

Chronic total occlusions (CTOs) of coronary arteries represent a common and significant challenge to interventional cardiology. Medical therapy is often regarded as an adequate long term strategy in the management of these lesions with surgical intervention for refractory symptoms. Extensive collateralisation is used as a marker of distal coronary perfusion, further reinforcing non-invasive strategies.

Development of mast cells and importance of their tryptase and chymase serine proteases in inflammation and wound healing.

Mast cells (MCs) are active participants in blood coagulation and innate and acquired immunity. This review focuses on the development of mouse and human MCs, as well as the involvement of their granule serine proteases in inflammation and the connective tissue remodeling that occurs during the different phases of the healing process of wounded skin and other organs. The accumulated data suggest that MCs, their tryptases, and their chymases play important roles in tissue repair.

Impingement is not impingement: the case for calling it "Rotator Cuff Disease".

Historically, many causes have been proposed for rotator cuff conditions. The most prevalent theory is that the rotator cuff tendons, especially the supraspinatus, make contact with the acromion and coracoacromial ligament, resulting in pain and eventual tearing of the tendon. However, more recent evidence suggests that this concept does not explain the changes in rotator cuff tendons with age.

Spontaneous low pressure headache - a review and illustrative patient.

Low pressure headache typically occurs as a complication of dural puncture. "Spontaneous" low pressure headache is a relatively rare but under-recognised cause of intractable headache. Clinical suspicion of this condition warrants imaging of the brain to confirm the diagnosis; spinal imaging may be needed to identify the site of the leak.

The role of nitric oxide in tendon healing.

Nitric oxide (NO) is a small free radical that is generated by a family of enzymes called the nitric oxide synthases (NOS). There are 3 isoforms of NOS: endothelial NOS (eNOS), brain or neuronal NOS (bNOS), and inducible NOS (iNOS). In experiments performed during the last 20 years, we have shown that NO is induced by all 3 isoforms of NOS after tendon injury and that NOS activity is upregulated in tendinopathy.

Azoospermia and paternal autosomal ring chromosomes: case report and literature review.

Two men of the same family presented with ring chromosome 22 and azoospermia. The literature on all autosomal ring chromosomes and semen abnormalities was reviewed. Autosomal ring chromosomes were often associated with a low sperm count.

Immunocytochemical characterisation of cultures of human bladder mucosal cells.

Background: The functional role of the bladder urothelium has been the focus of much recent research. The bladder mucosa contains two significant cell types: urothelial cells that line the bladder lumen and suburothelial interstitial cells or myofibroblasts. The aims of this study were to culture these cell populations from human bladder biopsies and to perform immunocytochemical characterisation.

Evidence-based guidelines for the nutritional management of adult kidney transplant recipients.

Objective: The present article summarizes the key recommendations of the evidence-based guidelines developed for the nutritional management of adult kidney transplant recipients.

Background And Methods: Nutrition interventions play an important role in preventing and managing common health problems associated with renal transplantation such as obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Two sets of guidelines were developed by a working group of renal dietitians and nephrologists.

Bowel preparation affects the amplitude and spatiotemporal organization of colonic propagating sequences.

Background: Colonic manometry is performed using either colonoscopically assisted catheter placement, after bowel preparation, or nasocolonic intubation of the unprepared bowel. There has been little systematic evaluation of the effects of bowel cleansing upon colonic propagating pressure wave sequences.

Methods: Eight healthy volunteers underwent nasocolonic placement of a water-perfused silicone catheter which recorded pressures at 16 recording sites each spaced 7.

Ectopic nephrogenic rests in children: the clinicosurgical implications.

Introduction/background: Ectopic nephrogenic rests (ENR) are rare. The incidental discovery of these lesions in children has particular clinicosurgical implications, especially given the association between ENR and the development of extrarenal Wilms' tumors (ERWT).

Methodology: We reviewed the hospital records of patients with ERWT and ENR treated at our hospital over a 10-year period to identify those patients with histopathologically confirmed ENR and/or ERWT.

Spatio-temporal analysis reveals aberrant linkage among sequential propagating pressure wave sequences in patients with symptomatically defined obstructed defecation.

Available evidence implicates abnormal colonic contractility in patients suffering from constipation. Traditional analysis of colonic manometry focuses on the frequency, extent and amplitude of propagating sequences (PS). We tested the hypotheses that the spatio-temporal linkage among sequential PSs exists throughout the healthy human colon and is disrupted during constipation.

Evidence for oesophageal visceral hypersensitivity and aberrant symptom referral in patients with globus.

We tested the hypotheses that globus patients demonstrate oesophageal visceral hypersensitivity and aberrant viscerosomatic referral of oesophageal stimuli. Oesophageal visceral perception was assessed by oesophageal balloon distension and electrical stimulation in nine patients with globus and compared with 11 healthy controls. Oesophageal perception and pain thresholds were determined.

Imaging of therapy-induced apoptosis using (99m)Tc-HYNIC-annexin V in thymoma tumor-bearing mice.

The primary focus of this study was to assess the potential of (99m)Tc-HYNIC-Annexin V for in vivo imaging of apoptosis after systemic chemotherapy and "more localized" radiotherapy in nude mice bearing thymoma tumors and correlating it with TUNEL staining. (99m)Tc-HYNIC-Annexin V was administered intravenously to tumor-bearing mice (n = 25) before and after therapy. Mice were then imaged at 4 hours postinjection, and the animals were subsequently sacrificed.

A comparison of epinephrine and norepinephrine in critically ill patients.

Objective: To determine whether there was a difference between epinephrine and norepinephrine in achieving a mean arterial pressure (MAP) goal in intensive care (ICU) patients.

Design: Prospective, double-blind, randomised-controlled trial.

Setting: Four Australian university-affiliated multidisciplinary ICUs.

Mesenteric panniculitis causing ischemic bowel: a case report.

This is the first publication of a rare benign tumor; mesenteric panniculitis causing acute on chronic ischemic bowel injury.