The effect of physician solicitation approaches on ability to identify patient concerns

CONTEXT: Studies showing that physicians often interrupt the patient's opening statement assume that this compromises data collection. OBJECTIVE: To explore the association between such interruptions and physician accuracy in identifying patient concerns. DESIGN: This study replicates the Beckman-Frankel methodology and adds exit interviews to assess physician understanding. The authors audiotaped a convenience sample of 70 encounters and surveyed both parties following the visit. SETTING: A community-based ambulatory clinic. PARTICIPANTS: Internal medicine residents (77%) and attending physicians and their adult, English-speaking patients who were primarily low income and ethnic minority. OUTCOME MEASURE: The Index of Understanding measures patient-physician problem list concordance. It is the percentage of patient problems, obtained on exit, that the physician correctly identifies. RESULTS: In 26% of the visits, patients were allowed to complete their agenda without interruption; in 37% the physicians interrupted; and in 37% no inquiry about agenda was made in the first 5 minutes. Neither physician experience nor their assessment of time pressure or medical difficulty was associated with these rates. Exit interviews showed no significant difference in Index of Understanding between those involving completion of agenda (84.6%) and those involving patient interruption (82.4%) (P=.83). But when the physician did not solicit an agenda, the concordance was 59.2%, significantly lower than either the completion (P=.014) or the interruption group (P=.013). CONCLUSION: Interruption as defined by Beckman-Frankel does not curtail ability to identify patient concerns, but failure to ask for the patient's agenda associates with a 24% reduction in physician understanding.     

急性缺血性卒中影像学检查的建议——美国心脏协会的科学声明（上）

卒中是一种常见、严重的疾病,仅美国每年的新发病例就高达795000例,并已成为全世界人类死亡和残疾的主要病因。10年前,重组型组织纤溶酶原激活剂（recombinant tissue plasminogen activator,rt—PA）被批准用于治疗急性缺血性卒中。rt—PA应用指南建议,应在卒中发病后3h内静脉给予rt—PA,给药前应行头部CT检查,排除颅内出血。     

急性缺血性卒中影像学检查的建议——美国心脏协会的科学声明（中）

2．3核磁共振血管成像（MRA） 2．3．1背景和方法：在头部MRI检查中常结合MRA,用于急性卒中患者病情评估以指导治疗决策的制定^[19]。日前,有几种不同的MRA技术用于脑血管成像,包括二维时间飞跃（timeof-flight,TOF）序列、三维TOF序列、     

A five-drug remission induction regimen with intensive consolidation for adults with acute lymphoblastic leukemia: cancer and leukemia group B study 8811

The goal of this phase II multicenter clinical trial was to evaluate a new intensive chemotherapy program for adults with untreated acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and to examine prospectively the impact of clinical and biologic characteristics on the outcome. One hundred ninety-seven eligible and evaluable patients (16 to 80 years of age; median, 32 years of age) received cyclophosphamide, daunorubicin, vincristine, prednisone, and L-asparaginase; 167 patients (85%) achieved a complete remission (CR), 13 (7%) had refractory disease, and 17 (9%) died during induction. A higher CR rate was observed in younger patients (94% for those < 30 years old, 85% for those 30 to 59 years old, and 39% for those > or = 60 years old, P < .001) and in those who had a mediastinal mass (100%) or blasts with a T-cell immunophenotype. Eighty percent of B-lineage and 97% of T-cell ALL patients achieved a CR (P = .01). The coexpression of myeloid antigens did not affect the response rate or duration. Seventy percent of those with cytogenetic or molecular evidence of the Philadelphia (Ph) chromosome and 84% of those without such evidence achieved a CR (P = .11). Patients in remission received multiagent consolidation treatment, central nervous system prophylaxis, late intensification, and maintenance chemotherapy for a total of 24 months. After a median follow-up time of 43 months, the median survival for all 197 patients is 36 months; the median remission duration for the 167 CR patients is 29 months. Favorable pretreatment characteristics relative to remission duration or survival are younger age, the presence of a mediastinal mass or lymphadenopathy, a white blood cell count (WBC) less than 30,000/microL, L1 morphology, T or TMy immunophenotype, and the absence of the Ph chromosome. The estimates of the proportion surviving at 3 years are 69% for patients less than 30 years old, 39% for those 30 to 59 years old, 89% for those who had a mediastinal mass, 59% with WBC less than 30,000/microL, 63% with L1 morphology, 69% for T or TMy antigen expression, and 62% for those who lack the Ph chromosome. Fifteen patients (8%) had no unfavorable prognostic factors and have an estimated probability of survival at 5 years of 100% (95% confidence interval, 77% to 100%). This intensive chemotherapy regimen produces a high remission rate and a high proportion of durable remissions in adults with ALL.     

Immunophenotypic analysis of reticulocytes in paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria

The hematologic disorder paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) occurs following an acquired somatic mutation in the Piga gene within a bone marrow stem cell. The progeny of this mutated cell cannot synthesize glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchors, with a resultant deficiency in surface expression of all GPI-linked proteins. The protean clinical manifestations of PNH presumably result from the deficiency of these GPI-linked surface proteins. To explain the observation that neutrophils are affected at a significantly higher percentage than circulating erythrocytes and to analyze the proliferative rates of erythroid production in PNH, we studied 25 patients using flow cytometry. The fluorescent dye thiazole orange was used to detect reticulocytes, and CD59 monoclonal antibody was used to identify GPI-deficient cells. In contrast to the mature circulating erythrocytes, the percentage of abnormal reticulocytes was similar to the percentage of affected neutrophils. However, the vast majority of reticulocytes was completely GPI-deficient, ie, were type III cells, even in patients with only modest numbers of circulating type III erythrocytes. In addition, greater than 5% type II reticulocytes were identified in only 3 patients, although greater than 5% type II mature erythrocytes were identified in 10 of 25 patients. The results show that the erythroid and neutrophil bone marrow precursors have an equivalent proliferative advantage in PNH. The data also have important implications for the origin of type-II erythrocytes in PNH.     

apoB基因EcoRI、XbaI、MspI及apoAI基因-75bp、+83bp位点多态性与哈萨克族冠心病的相关性

目的:分析载脂蛋白B(apoB)基因EcoRI、XbaI、MspI位点和载脂蛋白AI(apoAI)基因-75bp、+83bp位点多态性与哈萨克族人冠心病的关系.方法:采用聚合酶链式反应-限制性片段长度多态性分析法检测185例哈萨克族冠心病患者和216例哈萨克族非冠心病对照者的这些位点多态性.结果:①TC、TG及apoA...     

Induction of apoptotic cell death in chronic lymphocytic leukemia by 2- chloro-2'-deoxyadenosine and 9-beta-D-arabinosyl-2-fluoroadenine

2-Chloro-2'-deoxyadenosine (CldAdo) and 9-beta-D-arabinosyl-2- fluoroadenine (F-ara-A) have shown marked activity in the treatment of indolent lymphoid malignancies. Based on the susceptibility of various lymphocyte populations to apoptosis, we investigated whether CldAdo or F-ara-A would induce this process in lymphocytes from patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). In vitro exposure of leukemic lymphocytes to CldAdo or F-ara-A for 24 to 72 hours elicited features of apoptosis visible by light and electron microscopy. Analysis of DNA integrity showed DNA cleavage into nucleosomal-sized multimers. Using a quantitative assay, drug-induced DNA fragmentation was both time and dose dependent. Inhibition of active macromolecular synthesis did not prevent drug-induced fragmentation; however, both drug-induced and spontaneous DNA fragmentation were prevented by intracellular calcium chelation. In vitro culture with phorbol ester generally decreased drug- induced DNA cleavage. After prolonged incubation, CLL cells exhibited spontaneous cleavage; albeit, at significantly lower rates than drug- treated cells. Heterogeneity was observed for spontaneous and drug- induced DNA fragmentation and was significantly lower in B-leukemic cells obtained from patients with high-risk and refractory disease. We conclude that CldAdo and F-ara-A are potent inducers of apoptotic death in CLL and that this feature correlates with the disease status.     

Elevated platelet count as a cause of abnormal von Willebrand factor multimer distribution in plasma

Twelve of 19 patients with myeloproliferative disorders showed a decrease of absence of the largest multimers of plasma von Willebrand factor (vWF) that correlated with elevated platelet counts but not with leukocyte counts. This suggested that platelets, rather than leukocytes, may be associated with the pathogenesis of the acquired vWF abnormality seen in these patients. To examine the hypothesis further, we studied 12 patients with reactive thrombocytosis after splenectomy. Increased platelet count (> 5 x 10(11)/L) after splenectomy was associated with vWF abnormalities indistinguishable from those detected in patients with myeloproliferative disorders. Accordingly, there was an inverse correlation between proportion of large vWF multimers and platelet, but not leukocyte, number: normalization of the platelet count was accompanied by restoration of a normal vWF multimeric pattern. These findings suggest that an increase in the number of platelets circulating in blood may favor the adsorption of larger vWF multimers onto the platelet membrane, resulting in their removal from the circulation and subsequent degradation.