Chlorhexidine and gauze and tape dressings for central venous catheters: a randomized clinical trial

OBJECTIVE:

to assess the effectiveness of the chlorhexidine antimicrobial dressing in comparison to the gauze and tape dressing in the use of central venous catheters.

METHOD:

a randomized clinical trial was conducted in the intensive care and adult semi intensive care units of a university hospital in the south of Brazil. The subjects were patients using short-term central venous catheters, randomly assigned to the intervention (chlorhexidine antimicrobial dressing) or control (gauze and micro porous tape) groups.

RESULTS:

a total of 85 patients were included: 43 in the intervention group and 42 in the control group. No statistically significant differences were found between dressings in regard to the occurrence of: primary bloodstream infections (p-value = 0.5170); local reactions to the dressing (p-value = 0.3774); and dressing fixation (p-value = 0.2739).

CONCLUSION:

both technologies are effective in covering central venous catheters in regard to the investigated variables and can be used for this purpose. Registry ECR: RBR-7b5ycz.     

Shoulder internal and external rotations torque steadiness in overhead athletes with and without impingement symptoms

ObjectivesThis study aimed to investigate torque steadiness of shoulder internal and external rotations in regularly training overhead athletes with and without impingement symptoms.DesignCross-sectional laboratory study.MethodsThree groups were evaluated: athletes with impingement symptoms (n = 21), asymptomatic athletes (n = 25) and non-athletes (n = 21). To assess torque steadiness, the participants performed 3 submaximal contractions (35% of peak torque) for 10 s each, with the arm at 90° of shoulder abduction and 90° of external rotation. The standard deviation, coefficient of variation, mean exerted torque and time to stability were measured from the steadiness trials.ResultsThe standard deviation of internal rotation was higher in asymptomatic athletes than in non-athletes (p < 0.01); however, there was no difference between the athletes with impingement symptoms and the other groups. The other variables presented no differences among the groups.ConclusionsHigher torque fluctuation of shoulder internal rotation in asymptomatic athletes may point to neuromuscular adaptations related to throwing training. However, the steadiness patterns of athletes with impingement symptoms did not differ from those of asymptomatic athletes or non-athletes.     

Retinal vascular occlusion and SARS-CoV-2 vaccination

Graefe's Archive for Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology - To assess the clinical and retinal imaging features of patients in whom retinal vascular occlusion (VO) had developed in temporal...     

Sample size and costs estimate in epidemiological survey of dental caries

This study aimed to analyze how the prevalence and the distribution of dental caries influence the sample size in epidemiological surveys, and how much are the costs. Secondary data of oral health surveys in 12-year-old schoolchildren from Bauru in 1976, 1984, 1990, 1994, and 2001, and from Piracicaba in 2001 and 2005 were studied. Sample sizes were estimated taking into account the mean DMFT and standard deviation of each survey, establishing sampling errors of 1%, 2%, 5%, and 10%. Costs were estimated considering permanent material, consumption material and human resources. The sample size in both towns needed to be increased, ranging from 119 in 1976 to 1,118 in 2001 in Bauru, and from 954 in 2001 to 1,252 in 2005 in Piracicaba, when a sampling error of 10% was considered. The cost of dental caries surveys was verified considering different sampling errors. This cost depends on how acceptable is the margin of difference between the true mean and the one found in the survey. In conclusion, the reduction in the prevalence of dental caries has determined the need for increase in sample size and in costs for conducting the surveys.     

Diagnosis of secondary caries in esthetic restorations: influence of the incidence vertical angle of the X-ray beam

The aim of this study was to evaluate the accuracy on the diagnosis of secondary caries-like lesions simulated on esthetic restorations of different materials, changing the incidence vertical angle (IVA) of the x-ray beam. Twenty human teeth received MOD inlay preparations. In the experimental group (n=10), a round cavity was made in the floor of the proximal box to simulate the caries-like lesion. All teeth were restored with 3 composite resins (Charisma, Filtek-Z250 and TPH-Spectrum) at 3 moments. Two radiographic images were acquired with 0o and 10o IVA. Ten observers evaluated the images using a 5-point confidence scale. Intra- and interobserver reliability was analyzed with the Interclass Correlation Coefficient and the diagnostic accuracy was evaluated using the area under the ROC curve (A(z)), Friedman test and Wilcoxon test (α=0.05). Higher accuracy values were obtained with 10o IVA (A(z)=0.66, Filtek-Z250>A(z)=0.56, TPH-Spectrum) compared to 0o (A(z)=0.55, Charisma>A(z)=0.37, TPH-Spectrum), though without statistically significant difference (p>0.05). The detection of secondary caries-like lesions simulated on esthetic restorations of different materials suffered no negative influence by changing the IVA of the x-ray beam.     

Male subjects with early-stage knee osteoarthritis do not present biomechanical alterations in the sagittal plane during stair descent

Patients with osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee show a loss of functional independence due to difficulty performing tasks that require high demand of the knee joint, such as descending stairs. However, it is unclear how muscular and biomechanical changes were present in patients with OA in the early stages. Thus, the purpose of this study was to analyze the kinetics, kinematics and muscle activation of men with early-stage knee OA during stair descent and compare them with a healthy control group. We evaluated 31 volunteers who were divided into two groups. The Osteoarthritis Group (OAG) included 17 men with grade I or II knee OA (53 ± 6 years) and the Control Group (CG) included 14 healthy men (50 ± 6 years). We performed a kinematic evaluation of stair descent in the sagittal plane in order to analyze knee flexion angles. Electromyography (EMG) of the vastus lateralis muscle was also performed and the vertical ground reaction force was measured. The WOMAC questionnaire was administered to all volunteers. Statistical analysis consisted of the nonparametric Mann-Whitney U test for intergroup comparisons of all variables (p>0.05). There were no significant kinematic, kinetic or EMG differences between groups. For the WOMAC, the intergroup differences were significant in all three sections (pain: p=0.001, stiffness: p=0.008 and function: p=0.0005). In men with knee OA grade I or II, the stair decent is preserved in the sagittal plane, indicating that at these stages of the disease the functional adaptations are not expressed.     

Accuracy of the pacemaker event recorder versus Holter‐ECG to detect both symptomatic and asymptomatic ventricular arrhythmias

1 Background

Although new pacemakers can register cardiac rhythm, few studies were performed evaluating their accuracy in diagnosing ventricular arrhythmias (VA). This study aimed to assess the correlation and agreement between the pacemaker's monitor and the ambulatory Holter in detecting VA.

2 Methods and results

We studied 129 patients with pacemakers, mean age 68.6 ± 19.1 years, 54.8% female. Once Holter monitoring was connected, the pacemakers’ event counters were reset and clocks of both systems were synchronized to register electrocardiograms (ECG) simultaneously. Pacemakers were programmed to detect the lowest ventricular rate and lowest number of sequential beats allowed in their event monitors. After 72 hours, Holter and pacemakers records were analyzed. VA was defined in Holter and event monitor, respectively, as: isolated premature ventricular complexes: “PVC”; pairs: “couplets”; nonsustained ventricular tachycardia (NSVT): “triplets”—3 beats; “runs”—4–8 or > 8 beats, and high ventricular rates (“HVR”)—3–4 beats. Spearman correlations evaluated whether pacemaker and Holter identified the same parameters. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) and respective 95% confidence intervals were calculated to assess the concordance between methods. The agreement between both systems was low, except for “triplet” and three beats NSVT (ICC = 0.984). The correlation for more than 10 PVC/h was moderate (Kappa = 0.483). When the pacemaker was programmed to detect HVR sequences of three beats lower than 140 bpm (< 140/3), the correlation with NSVT was perfect (r = 1) and agreement was also quite high (ICC = 0.800).

3 Conclusions

Pacemakers' event monitors underestimate the occurrence of ventricular arrhythmias detected by Holter. Standardization of pacemakers’ algorithms is required before using this function for patients' clinical follow‐up.     

Tacrolimus and quality of life after kidney transplantation--a multicenter study

Kidney transplantation is currently the treatment of choice for end-stage renal disease. Although new immunosuppressive drugs have been introduced into clinical practice, the effect of such medication on quality of life (QoL) in transplant recipients is still unclear. The present study analyzes the impact of tacrolimus-based immunosuppression on QoL in a representative sample of adult kidney transplant recipients from Rio Grande do Sul, a Brazilian southern state. This was a cross-sectional multicenter study which used the SF-36 Health Survey for measuring QoL. The effect of tacrolimus on QoL was adjusted for possible confounders using multiple linear regression. A total of 272 patients (from 11 different centers) were evaluated, 48 of them were treated with tacrolimus. Transplant patients in use of tacrolimus presented significant higher scores in the physical component summary of SF-36 than non-users (49.1+/-8.3 vs. 46.1+/-8.7; p=0.03), and such difference was noted in the physical functioning and general health subscales (81.5+/-17.1 and 74.7+/-21.8; 74.6+/-22.3 and 67.1+/-22.3 for users and non-users of tacrolimus, respectively, p<0.05). The effect of tacrolimus remained significant after adjustment for age, gender, skin color and time since transplantation (coeff.: 2.83; 95% CI: 0.05-5.6, p=0.045). The association between tacrolimus-based immunosuppression and better perception of physical functioning and general health for renal transplant patients represents a significant finding as it may influence therapeutical decisions and contribute to maximize kidney transplantation benefits.