Exploring perceived helpfulness of health services in men and women with dementia and care partners: A cross-sectional analysis.

The aim of this study was to examine the association of sex/gender and other factors with the perceived helpfulness of the diagnostic process and post-diagnostic services by persons with dementia and care partners. We conducted secondary cross-sectional analysis of surveys from the 'Cognisance' project. Sex/gender and other factors (e.

Building a composite score for patient self-report of flare in osteoarthritis: a comparison of methods with the Flare-OA-16 questionnaire.

Objectives: This study aims to compare methods of constructing a composite score for the Flare-OA-16 self-reported questionnaire.

Methods: Participants with knee and hip osteoarthritis (OA) completed a validated 16-item questionnaire assessing five domains of flare. Three estimation methods were compared: (i) second-order confirmatory factor analysis (CFA); (ii) logistic regression, according to the participant's self-report of flare (yes/no); and (iii) Rasch method, with weighted scores in each dimension.

Recombinant Acetylcholine Receptor Immunization Induces a Robust Model of Experimental Autoimmune Myasthenia Gravis in Mice.

Myasthenia gravis (MG) is a prototypical autoimmune disease of the neuromuscular junction (NMJ). The study of the underlying pathophysiology has provided novel insights into the interplay of autoantibodies and complement-mediated tissue damage. Experimental autoimmune myasthenia gravis (EAMG) emerged as a valuable animal model, designed to gain further insight and to test novel therapeutic approaches for MG.

Assessing domain match and feasibility of candidate instruments matching with OMERACT endorsed domains to measure flare in knee and hip osteoarthritis.

Purpose: To evaluate the domain match (truth) and feasibility of candidate instruments assessing flare in knee and hip osteoarthritis (OA) according to the identified domains.

Material And Methods: From a literature review (575 papers), instruments were selected and evaluated using the truth and feasibility elements of the OMERACT Filter 2.2.

The adult heart requires baseline expression of the transcription factor Hand2 to withstand right ventricular pressure overload.

Aims: Research on the pathophysiology of right ventricular (RV) failure has, in spite of the associated high mortality and morbidity, lagged behind compared to the left ventricle (LV). Previous work from our lab revealed that the embryonic basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor heart and neural crest derivatives expressed-2 (Hand2) is re-expressed in the adult heart and activates a 'foetal gene programme' contributing to pathological cardiac remodelling under conditions of LV pressure overload. As such, ablation of cardiac expression of Hand2 conferred protection to cardiac stress and abrogated the maladaptive effects that were observed upon increased expression levels.

Specialist approaches to prognostic counseling in isolated REM sleep behavior disorder.

Objectives/background: Most middle-aged and older adult patients with isolated (idiopathic) REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD) eventually develop parkinsonism, dementia with Lewy bodies, or multiple system atrophy. We aimed to describe the current sleep medicine specialist approach toward RBD prognostic counseling, and to determine physician beliefs and characteristics that impact provision of counseling.

Patients/methods: We surveyed 70 sleep medicine physicians with RBD expertise for demographic information, counseling practices, and their beliefs and understandings concerning the association between RBD and synucleinopathies, among other questions.

Managing Allergic Rhinitis in the Pharmacy: An ARIA Guide for Implementation in Practice.

The paradigm of how we manage allergic rhinitis is shifting with a growing understanding that it is a complex process, requiring a coordinated effort from healthcare providers and patients. Pharmacists are key members of these integrated care pathways resolving medication-related problems, optimizing regimens, improving adherence and recommending therapies while establishing liaisons between patients and physicians. Community pharmacists are the most accessible healthcare professionals to the public and allergic rhinitis is one of the most common diseases managed by pharmacists.

Interventions Delivered in the Community Pharmacy to Manage Allergic Rhinitis- A Systematic Review of the Literature.

Pharmacists have a valuable role in the management of allergic rhinitis (AR) at the community pharmacy level. This role has been reported extensively in numerous papers. However, a systematic review of the available literature and a comprehensive analysis of the outcomes has not been published.

Neonatal Vitamin D Status and Risk of Asthma in Childhood: Results from the D-Tect Study.

Background: low vitamin D status in pregnancy can influence the offspring's lung function and contribute to childhood asthma development. The objective of this study was to examine the influence of neonatal vitamin D status on the development of asthma among children age 3-9 years in a large population sample.

Method: in a case-cohort study utilizing a Danish biobank and register data we examined the association between neonatal 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentrations and incidence of asthma among children aged 3-9 years.

US Food and Drug Administration Safety Advisories and Reporting to the Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS).

Background: The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other major regulators regularly issue safety advisories about licensed drugs with new adverse effects that have been documented through observational studies, clinical trials, and spontaneously reported adverse drug events.

Objective: To assess the possible effects of a representative group of FDA Drug Safety Communications on the reporting of the specific adverse effect featured in the advisory on new cases reported to the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS).

Methods: We examined 16 FDA Drug Safety Communications issued from 2010 to 2015 that had not previously been the focus of advisories from regulators in the UK, Canada, or Australia.

Thinking about thinking about time.

Hoerl & McCormack (H&M) discuss the possible function of meta-representations in temporal cognition but ultimately take an agnostic stance. Here we outline the fundamental role that we believe meta-representations play. Because humans know that their representations of future events are just representations, they are in a position to compensate for the shortcomings of their own foresight and to prepare for multiple contingencies.

A national study on the use of opioid analgesics in dentistry.

The aim of this study was to assess the frequency of opioid analgesics prescribed by Brazilian dentists, potential regional differences and their association with socioeconomic and health-related factors. Data for all opioid prescriptions by dentists was obtained from the 2012 database of the National Controlled Substances Management System, regulated by the Brazilian Health Surveillance Agency. The number of defined daily doses (DDD) and DDDs per 1,000 inhabitants per day for each Brazilian state were calculated as the primary outcomes.

Trends in age-related disease burden and healthcare utilization.

Aging is a strong risk factor for many chronic diseases. However, the impact of an aging population on the prevalence of chronic diseases and related healthcare costs are not known. We used a prevalence-based approach that combines accurate clinical and drug prescription data from Health Search CSD-LPD.

Differentially expressed microRNAs in experimental cerebral malaria and their involvement in endocytosis, adherens junctions, FoxO and TGF-β signalling pathways.

Cerebral malaria (CM) is the most severe manifestation of infection with Plasmodium, however its pathogenesis is still not completely understood. microRNA (miRNA) have been an area of focus in infectious disease research, due to their ability to affect normal biological processes, and have been shown to play roles in various viral, bacterial and parasitic infections, including malaria. The expression of miRNA was studied following infection of CBA mice with either Plasmodium berghei ANKA (causing CM), or Plasmodium yoelii (causing severe but non-cerebral malaria (NCM)).

Health Beliefs and Experiences of a Health Promotion Intervention Among Psychiatric Patients With Substance Use: An Interview Study.

We aimed to explore beliefs about physical health from the perspective of patients with concurrent mental illness and substance use and to explore how a health promotion intervention influenced their personal agency for changing health-related behaviour. Our findings were that patients' beliefs were focused on their present day state of health and that patients had strategies to normalize their health and health-related behaviour. Health promotion to this group of patients should be tailored to fit their particular beliefs.

International consensus (ICON) on treatment of Ménière's disease.

Objective: To present the international consensus for recommendations for Ménière's disease (MD) treatment.

Methods: Based on a literature review and report of 4 experts from 4 continents, the recommendations have been presented during the 21st IFOS congress in Paris, in June 2017 and are presented in this work.

Results: The recommendation is to change the lifestyle, to use the vestibular rehabilitation in the intercritic period and to propose psychotherapy.

Reflecting on twenty years of Masculinities: an interview with Raewyn Connell.

Raewyn Connell is very well known for her work on social theory and gender studies, and more specifically on masculinities. She was one of the founders of masculinities research and her 1995 book Masculinities is considered one of the most important references on the topic. Connell's concept of hegemonic masculinity has been particularly influential and has attracted much debate.

A comparison of in-hospital acute myocardial infarction management between Portugal and the United States: 2000-2010.

Objective: To compare healthcare in acute myocardial infarction (AMI) treatment between contrasting health systems using comparable representative data from Europe and USA.

Design: Repeated cross-sectional retrospective cohort study.

Setting: Acute care hospitals in Portugal and USA during 2000-2010.

Influence of allocation concealment and intention-to-treat analysis on treatment effects of physical therapy interventions in low back pain randomised controlled trials: a protocol of a meta-epidemiological study.

Introduction: Meta-epidemiological studies examining the influence of methodological characteristics, such as allocation concealment and intention-to-treat analysis have been performed in a large number of healthcare areas. However, there are no studies investigating these characteristics in physical therapy interventions for patients with low back pain. The aim of this study is to investigate the influence of allocation concealment and the use of intention-to-treat analysis on estimates of treatment effects of physical therapy interventions in low back pain clinical trials.

Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Critical Illness-Related Corticosteroid Insufficiency (CIRCI) in Critically Ill Patients (Part I): Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) and European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM) 2017.

Objective: To update the 2008 consensus statements for the diagnosis and management of critical illness-related corticosteroid insufficiency (CIRCI) in adult and pediatric patients.

Participants: A multispecialty task force of 16 international experts in critical care medicine, endocrinology, and guideline methods, all of them members of the Society of Critical Care Medicine and/or the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine.

Design/methods: The recommendations were based on the summarized evidence from the 2008 document in addition to more recent findings from an updated systematic review of relevant studies from 2008 to 2017 and were formulated using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) methodology.