Alcoholic hepatitis 2010:A clinician’s guide to diagnosis and therapy

Alcoholic hepatitis(AH)remains a common and life threatening cause of liver failure,especially when it is severe.Although the adjective"acute"is frequently used to describe this form of liver injury,it is usually subacute and has been developing for weeks to months before it becomes clinically apparent.Patients with this form of alcoholic liver disease usually have a history of drinking heavily for many years.While certain aspects of therapy,mainly nutritional support and abstinence are well established,significant debate has surrounded the pharmacologic treatment of AH,and many institutions practice widely varying treatment protocols. In recent years a significant amount of literature has helped focus on the details of treatment,and more data have accumulated regarding risks and benefits of pharmacologic treatment.In particular,the efficacy of pentoxifylline has become increasingly apparent,and when compared with the risks associated with prednisolone,has brought this drug to the forefront of therapy for severe AH.This review will focus on the clinical and laboratory diagnosis and pharmacologic therapies that should be applied during hospitalization and continued into outpatient management.We conclude that the routine use of glucocorticoids for severe AH poses significant risk with equivocal benefit,and that pentoxifylline is a better,safer and cheaper alternative.While the full details of nutritional support lie beyond the scope of this article,nutrition is a cornerstone of therapy and must be addressed in every patient diagnosed with AH. Finally,while traditional psychosocial techniques play a major role in post-hospitalization care of alcoholics, we hope to make the medical clinician realize his or her role in reducing recidivism rates with early and frequent outpatient visits and with the use of baclofen to reduce alcohol craving.     

Why we need to care about the care: A longitudinal study linking the quality of residential dementia care to residents’ quality of life

BackgroundResidential dementia care staff are often the most important people in a resident’s social world. It is a symbiotic relationship and the work can involve highly emotional interactions as well as physical and technical demands. This study focused on narrowing down the most useful targets for intervention in quality of care (QOC) in order to improve quality of life (QOL) for people with dementia in residential care.MethodOver six months we followed: 247 older adults with dementia from 12 residential care facilities, their families/care partners (n = 225), managers (n = 12) and staff (n = 232). Facilities ranged from 10 to 137 beds, located across remote, rural and metropolitan areas. Measures: Staff surveys, family member and resident interviews, resident file audits, live resident and staff observations and organisational audits.ResultsThe QOC provided had an immediate impact on resident’s pain, depression, QOL scale score, Body Mass Index, ease/engagement with staff, and food and fluid intake. This influence was still evident six months later, with baseline QOC leading to improved ease and engagement with staff, QOL scores, and fluid intake. Restraint use featured heavily as a predictor of poor outcomes for residents. QOC did not significantly impact agitated behaviours, frailty, nor physical/verbal expressions of well-being.ConclusionsWhat staff do and the way they do it has a real and lasting impact on the QOL of residents. The most useful targets for improving QOL are: eradicating physical restraint and supporting and upskilling care staff so that they treat and interact empathetically and humanely with residents.     

Are HIV care providers talking with patients about safer sex and disclosure?: A multi-clinic assessment

OBJECTIVES: To examine HIV-positive patients' reports of whether HIV care providers ever talked with them about practicing safer sex and disclosing seropositive status to sex partners. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey (1998-1999) of HIV-positive men and women sampled randomly at six public HIV clinics in California. METHODS: Participants were interviewed and asked whether applicable clinic providers (physician, physician assistant, nurse practitioner, nurse, social worker, health educator, psychologist, psychiatrist) ever talked with them about safer sex or disclosure. Responses were analyzed by clinic site, HIV medical status (viral load), demographic, and behavioral variables (unprotected intercourse, non-disclosure). RESULTS: The sample (n = 839) included heterosexual men (n = 127), men who have sex with men (MSM; n = 607), and women (n = 105). Thirty-nine percent were white, 36% Hispanic, 17% black, and 8% other/mixed ethnicity. Overall, 71% reported that an applicable provider had talked with them at least once about safer sex (range across clinics, 52-94%); 50% reported discussion of disclosure (range across clinics, 31-78%). Discussion of safer sex was more prevalent with physicians than with other clinic staff. In multivariate analyses, in addition to significant clinic differences, MSM (versus heterosexual men) and whites (versus blacks or Hispanics) were less likely to receive prevention messages on these topics. Patients' behaviors (unsafe sex, non-disclosure) and HIV medical status were not independently associated with provider communication. CONCLUSIONS: HIV clinics differed substantially in the percentage of patients who reported that they received prevention messages from clinic staff. Care providers should assess and overcome barriers to providing prevention messages to patients.     

Why don't patients and physicians talk about end-of-life care? Barriers to communication for patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and their primary care clinicians

BACKGROUND: Patients with chronic and terminal disease frequently do not talk to their physicians about end-of-life care. Interventions to improve this communication have generally been unsuccessful, suggesting that important barriers to this communication must exist. OBJECTIVES: To determine the barriers to and facilitators of patient-clinician communication about end-of-life care and to identify barriers and facilitators that are more common among those patients who are least likely to discuss end-of-life care: minorities and injection drug users. METHODS: We conducted a prospective study of 57 patients with advanced acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and their primary care clinicians who were recruited from university and private clinics. Barriers to and facilitators of end-of-life communication were identified from a prior qualitative study and assessed for frequency and importance and for an association with the occurrence and quality of end-of-life communication. RESULTS: Clinicians identified more barriers than patients. Barriers identified by patients and clinicians fell into 3 categories of potential interventions: education about end-of-life care, counseling to help address end-of-life concerns, and health care system changes to facilitate patient-clinician communication. Although none of the patient-identified barriers was associated with the occurrence of communication, 2 clinician-identified barriers were associated with less communication: "the patient has not been very sick yet" and "the patient isn't ready to talk about end-of-life care." Nonwhite patients were more likely to identify the following 2 barriers than white patients: "I feel that if I talk about death, it could bring death closer" and "I don't like to talk about the care I want if I get very sick." CONCLUSIONS: The diversity of barriers and facilitators relevant to patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and their clinicians suggests that interventions to improve communication about end-of-life care must be focused on individual needs and must involve counseling interventions and health system changes in addition to education. Clinician barriers are more common and more strongly associated with the occurrence of end-of-life communication than patient barriers, suggesting that clinicians are an important target group for improving this communication.     

What do you need to know about mass spectrometry? A brief guide for endocrinologists

In routine hormonology, liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LCMS) is now an established technique for androgen, urinary cortisol and metanephrine assay. It has the undeniable advantage of great analytical specificity, but with sensitivity that clearly depends on financial investment in a very high-end spectrometer. We describe the general principles of LCMS and the routine applications so far developed in hormonology. The purpose is to familiarise endocrinologists with the techniques under development and their pros and cons.     

Empowering assisted living front-line care staffs to better care for alzheimer’s and dementia residents

Creating a feeling of empowerment among front-line care staff members may assist in better coping and achievement of quality care with a growing assisted living resident population who have Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of Dementia. The purpose of this qualitative research study was two fold in nature: (1) identify the training needs of front-line care staff members, and (2) create a training manual which would empower these front-line care staff workers to conduct their care duties in a more confident, effective, and sensitive manner. The first phase of this research was conducted with 24 front-line care staff in three assisted-living facilities in Illinois, New Mexico, and Florida, all women 18-69 years of age (M=36.8, SD=7.3), with 6 months to 10 years work experience in this job (M=2.19 years, SD=2.3 years). All reported that they had not received sufficient training in caring for this growing segment of the resident population. Based on responses to a needs-analysis questionnaire (n=24), a “Dementia-related Care Training” manual was developed. The following four themes emerged from needs analysis responses, and were the bases for the training modules: (1) experiencing the meaning of Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of Dementia, (2) acknowledging residents’ changing care needs over time, (3) realizing the importance of individualized care for residents, and (4) empowering front-line care staff members in the care process. The training manual was administered at the same three locations with some participants from the original sample (n=18), in order to receive feedback about the manual’s effectiveness and usefulness for a front-line care staff. Post-training feedback indicated that using such a training manual in an on-going manner would increase front-line care staffs’ job satisfaction and job commitment, as well as reduce job stress through better on-the-job coping skills learned. overseeing the licensing of all of the Brookdale owned and managed properties (67 total) throughout the United States. She also assists with staff training at the properties according in to state regulations. Ms Gurnik is a member of both ASA and LSN (Life Services Network). Her on-going research focuses on “quality of life” ageing issues related to caregiving, the workplace, retirement adjustment, and later-life education. Her area of specialty is industrial gerontology, the study of the ageing workforce.     

A clinician’s approach to clinical ethical reasoning

We offer a systematic strategy that situates clinical ethical reasoning within the paradigm of clinical reasoning. The trajectory of this strategy parallels clinical reasoning: a plain statement of the initial problem, careful gathering of data, a differential diagnostic assessment, and articulation and confirmation of a justified plan. This approach pays special attention to the goals of medical care, because so much depends on whether or not physician and patient share the same goals. This approach also addresses the heterogeneity of clinical problems that at first appear ethical and acknowledges the ethical pluralism that pervades clinical ethics.     

Editor’s note: A time to celebrate...

ON OUR OWN BEHALF

Editor’s note: A time to celebrate...     

A consumer’s guide for probiotics: 10 golden rules for a correct use

Probiotics are used all over the world as their beneficial effects on the human organism have been widely demonstrated. Certain probiotics can down-regulate production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and promote intestinal epithelial barrier functions, increasing an anti-inflammatory response and contributing to the host’s overall health. The main mechanisms by which probiotic microorganisms can interact with the host are by modulating the immune system and the epithelial cell functions and interacting with intestinal gut microbiota.To date, hundreds of different microorganisms are used for the formulation of numerous probiotic products; therefore, it is very difficult to choose the best probiotic product for specific or more general needs. Therefore, physicians are getting more and more confused due to the high number of commercial products which are often lacking healthy effects on the host. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to demonstrate the main characteristics that probiotic microorganisms and products should possess to have a positive impact on the host’s health. To this purpose, this review suggests “10 golden rules” or “commandments” that clinicians should follow to properly select the optimal probiotic product and avoid misidentifications, mislabelling and “pie in the sky” stories.     

Notch signaling in blood vessels: who is talking to whom about what?

It has become increasingly clear that the Notch signaling pathway plays a critical role in the development and homeostasis of the cardiovascular system. This notion has emerged from loss- and gain-of-function analysis and from the realization that several hereditary cardiovascular disorders originate from gene mutations that have a direct impact on Notch signaling. Current research efforts are focused on determining the specific cellular and molecular effects of Notch signaling. The rationale for this has stemmed from the clinical importance and therapeutic potential of modulating vascular formation during various disease states. A more complete appreciation of Notch signaling, as it relates to vascular morphogenesis, requires an in-depth knowledge of expression patterns of the various signaling components and a comprehensive understanding of downstream targets. The goal of this review is to summarize current knowledge regarding Notch signaling during vascular development and within the adult vascular wall. Our focus is on the genetic analysis and cellular experiments that have been performed with Notch ligands, receptors, and downstream targets. We also highlight questions and controversies regarding the contribution of this pathway to vascular development.