An Expanded Self‐Medication Hypothesis Based on Cognitive‐Behavioral Determinants for Heroin Abusers in Taiwan: A Cross‐Sectional Study

Background: This study proposed and examined an expanded self‐medication hypothesis (eSMH) model based on cognitive behavioral determinants, including the direct effects of negative emotional states, positive outcome expectancies and refusal self‐efficacy on heroin use, and the mediating roles of positive outcome expectancies and refusal self‐efficacy between negative emotional states and heroin use. Methods: A total of 360 male heroin abusers were recruited from a drug abuse treatment center in Taiwan. Participants were asked to complete a set of questionnaires on frequency of heroin use, anxious/depressive mood, positive outcome expectancies, and refusal self‐efficacy. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the eSMH model. Results: Results showed that the eSMH model displayed proper goodness‐of‐fit. Positive outcome expectancies and negative emotional status were significant predictors of heroin use, whereas refusal self‐efficacy was not a significant predictor. Additionally, positive self‐efficacy was a mediator between negative emotional status and heroin use. Conclusion: Results support a reduced eSMH model and suggest a significant role of positive self‐efficacy in the relationship between negative affective states and heroin use. This relationship should be examined in the longitudinal study, and should be given clinical consideration in treatment of individuals struggling with heroin abuse and negative affective states. (Am J Addict 2012;21:S43–S48)     

Clinical and economic burden of wound care in the tropics: a 5‐year institutional population health review

The aim of this study is to evaluate the clinical and economic burden of wound care in the Tropics via a 5‐year institutional population health review. Within our data analysis, wounds are broadly classified into neuro‐ischaemic ulcers (NIUs), venous leg ulcers (VLUs), pressure injuries (PIs), and surgical site infections (SSIs). Between 2013 and 2017, there were a total of 56 583 wound‐related inpatient admissions for 41 461 patients, with a 95.1% increase in wound episodes per 1000 inpatient admissions over this period (142 and 277 wound episodes per 1000 inpatient admissions in 2013 and 2017, respectively). In 2017, the average length of stay for each wound episode was 17.7 days, which was 2.4 times that of an average acute admission at our institution. The average gross charge per wound episode was USD $12 967. Among the 12 218 patients with 16 674 wound episodes in 2017, 71.5% were more than 65 years of age with an average Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) of 7.2. Half (51.9%) were moderately or severely frail, while 41.3% had two or more wound‐related admission episodes. In 2017, within our healthcare cluster, the gross healthcare costs for all inpatient wound episodes stand at USD $216 million within hospital care and USD $596 000 within primary care. Most NIU patients (97.2%) had diabetes and they had the most comorbidities (average CCI 8.4) and were the frailest group of patients (44.9% severely frail). The majority of the VLU disease burden was at the specialist outpatient setting, with the average 1‐year VLU recurrence rate at 52.5% and median time between healing and recurrence at 9.5 months. PI patients were the oldest (86.5% more than 65 years‐old), constituted the largest cohort of patients with 3874 patients at an incidence of 64.6 per 1000 admissions in 2017, and have a 1‐year all‐cause mortality rate of 14.3%. For SSI patients, there was a 125% increase of 14.2 SSI wound episodes per 1000 inpatient admissions in 2013 to 32.0 in 2017, and a 413% increase in wound‐related 30‐day re‐admissions, from 40 in 2013 (4.1% of all surgeries) to 205 (8.3% of all surgeries) in 2017. The estimated gross healthcare cost per patient ranges from USD $15789–17 761 across the wound categories. Similar to global data, there is a significant and rising trend in the clinical and economic burden of wound care in Tropics.     

An essential review of Singapore’s response to out-of-hospital cardiac arrests: improvements over a ten-year period

Care for patients who experience out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) has rapidly evolved in the past decade. Increased sophistication of care in the community, emergency medical services (EMS) and hospital setting is associated with improved patient-centred outcomes. Notably, Utstein survival doubled from 11.6% to 23.1% between 2011 and 2016. These achievements involved collaboration between policymakers, clinicians and researchers, and were made possible by a strategic interplay of policy, research and implementation. We review the development and current state of OHCA in Singapore using primary population-based data from the Pan-Asian Resuscitation Outcomes Study and an unstructured search of research databases. We discuss the roles of important milestones in policy, community, dispatch, EMS and hospital interventions. Finally, we relate these interventions to relevant processes and outcomes, such as the relationship between the strategic implementation of bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation and placement of automated external defibrillator with return of spontaneous circulation, survival to discharge and survival with favourable neurological outcomes.     

Maternal thyroid function during gestation is related to breech presentation at term

Objective To study the relationship between suboptimal maternal thyroid function during gestation and breech presentation at term. Design Prospective follow‐up study during three trimesters of gestation. Patients A total of 1058 Dutch Caucasian healthy pregnant women were prospectively followed from 12 weeks gestation until term (≥37 weeks) delivery. Measurements Maternal thyroid parameters [TSH, free T4 (FT4) and auto‐antibodies to thyroid peroxidase] were assessed at 12, 24 and 36 weeks gestation as well as foetal presentation at term. Results At term, 58 women (5·5%) presented in breech. Compared with women with foetuses in the cephalic position, those women who presented in breech at term had significantly higher TSH concentrations, but only at 36 weeks gestation (P = 0·007). No between group differences were obtained for FT4 level at any assessment. The prevalence of breech presentation in the subgroup of women with TSH ≥ 2·5 mIU/l (90th percentile) at 36 weeks gestation was 11%, compared with 4·8% in the women with TSH < 2·50 mIU/l (P = 0·006). Women with TSH below the 5th percentile had no breech presentations. Breech position was significantly and independently related to high maternal TSH concentration (≥2·5 mIU/l) at 36 weeks gestation (O.R.: 2·23, 95% CI: 1·14–4·39), but not at 12 and 24 weeks gestation. Conclusions Women with TSH levels above 2·5 mIU/l during end gestation are at risk for breech presentation, and as such for obstetric complications.     

The first report of a patient with interrupted inferior vena cava,multiple post-renal veins and azygos-hemiazygos continuation

The first case of a patient with interrupted inferior vena cava, four post-renal veins and an azygoshemiazygos continuation is presented. The complicated anomalies were omphalocele and atrial septal defect. Cine-magnetic resonance imaging and cardiac catheterization showed an anomalous retroaortic left innominate vein, azygos-hemiazygos continuation in the prerenal portion, arch formed renal vein in the renal portion and four embryonic vessels in the post-renal portion. Combination of these anomalies in the major venous system suggested that the inferior vena cava had failed to form and that the bilateral embryonic venous system, postcardinal and supracardinal veins persisted to be the systemic venous channels.     

CHIR-258 is efficacious in a newly developed fibroblast growth factor receptor 3-expressing orthotopic multiple myeloma model in mice.

PURPOSE: The ectopically expressed and deregulated fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 (FGFR3) results from a t(4;14) chromosomal translocation that occurs in approximately 15% of multiple myeloma (MM) patients and confers a particularly poor prognosis. This study assesses the antimyeloma activity of CHIR-258, a small-molecule inhibitor of multiple receptor tyrosine kinases that is currently in phase I trials, in a newly developed FGFR3-driven preclinical MM animal model. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: We developed an orthotopic MM model in mice using a luciferase-expressing human KMS-11-luc line that expresses mutant FGFR3 (Y373C). The antimyeloma activity of CHIR-258 was evaluated at doses that inhibited FGFR3 signaling in vivo in this FGFR3-driven animal model. RESULTS: Noninvasive bioluminescence imaging detected MM lesions in nearly all mice injected with KMS-11-luc cells, which were mainly localized in the spine, skull, and pelvis, resulting in frequent development of paralysis. Daily oral administration of CHIR-258 at doses that inhibited FGFR3 signaling in KMS-11-luc tumors in vivo resulted in a significant inhibition of KMS-11-luc tumor growth, which translated into a significant improvement in animal survival. CONCLUSIONS: Our data provide a relevant preclinical basis for clinical trials of CHIR-258 in FGFR3-positive MM patients.