Twenty-Four-Hour Ambulatory Pulse Wave Analysis in Hypertension Management: Current Evidence and Perspectives

The predictive value of vascular biomarkers such as pulse wave velocity (PWV), central arterial pressure (CAP), and augmentation index (AIx), obtained through pulse wave analysis (PWA) in resting conditions, has been documented in a variety of patient groups and populations. This allowed to make appropriate recommendations in clinical practice guidelines of several scientific societies. Due to advances in technologies, largely operator-independent methods are currently available for estimating vascular biomarkers also in ambulatory conditions, over the 24 h. According to the acceptable accuracy and reproducibility of 24-h ambulatory PWA, it appears to be a promising tool for evaluating vascular biomarkers in daily life conditions. This approach may provide an opportunity to further improve the early cardiovascular screening in subjects at risk. However, concerning the clinical use of PWA over the 24 h in ambulatory conditions at the moment, there is no sufficient evidence to support its routine clinical use. In particular, long-term outcome studies are needed to show the predictive value of 24-h PWV, CAP, and AIx values, provided by these devices, over and beyond peripheral blood pressure, and to answer the many technical and clinical questions still open. To this regard, the VASOTENS Registry, an international observational prospective study recently started, will help providing answers on a large sample of hypertensive patients recruited worldwide.     

Esophageal intramural pseudodiverticulosis,an unusual cause of dysphagia: report of a case

Esophageal intramural pseudodiverticulosis (EIP) is a rare disorder of unknown etiology. On histopathology, it is characterized by dilation of the submucosal esophageal glands. The main presenting symptom is dysphagia to solid foods. Most patients diagnosed with EIP also have a history of diabetes mellitus, gastroesophageal reflux disease, esophageal candidiasis, or chronic alcohol and nicotine abuse. Yet, the exact pathophysiologic mechanism still remains unclear. The most frequent complication, occurring in 80 % of the patients, is esophageal stricture. The mainstay of therapy is directed towards symptom relief with administration of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) combined with antifungals and/or endoscopic dilations, if necessary. We report a case of a 69-year-old man who presented with a 9-month history of progressive dysphagia and a 25 kg-weight loss, with typical endoscopic findings of EIP and successful response to medical therapy with oral antifungals alone.     

Sixteen Chinese pediatric brucellosis patients onset of fever in non-epidemic areas and 8 developed with osteoarticular involvement

The purpose of this study is to summarize the manifestations, diagnosis, differential diagnosis, and treatment of childhood brucellosis in non-epidemic areas of China. A retrospective review of 16 admitted children patients with brucella’s disease who were diagnosed of brucellosis during the period from 2011 to 2016 was performed. Diagnostic criteria, clinical presentations, and outcomes were recorded. The most common symptom was fever. Osteoarticular involvement was found in 50% of the patients. They were infected by contacting with infected animals or consuming of unpasteurized milk or meat of sheep or goats, also. Standard agglutination test was positive in all patients and blood culture in 10 (62.5%) patients as well as medulloculture in 3 (18.8%) patients were positive. A combination of antibiotic treatment with rifampin plus cotrimoxazole showed good response and all clinical manifestations improved. Brucellosis is misdiagnosed frequently and should be considered in the differential diagnosis when patients do not respond to standard treatment. Blood culture, together with brucella serology test, is important and helpful in the diagnosis. MRI is a good method in differentiating those with symptoms of arthritis.     

Immunotherapy of biliary tract cancer

Biliary tract cancers (BTCs), which encompass intra- and extrahepatic cholangiocarcinomas as well as gallbladder carcinomas, are one of the most aggressive malignancies. Although the development of systemic chemotherapy approaches has made progress, the prognosis of BTC remains poor. Chronic inflammation plays an important role in the carcinogenesis of BTC, highlighting the immune etiology of this disease. Immunotherapy has emerged as a promising new modality of treatment for BTC. Here, we summarize the relevant tumor immunology of BTC and recently completed and ongoing clinical trials of immunotherapy for BTC.     

How do researchers decide early clinical trials?

Launch of clinical investigation represents a substantial escalation in commitment to a particular clinical translation trajectory; it also exposes human subjects to poorly understood interventions. Despite these high stakes, there is little to guide decision-makers on the scientific and ethical evaluation of early phase trials. In this article, we review policies and consensus statements on human protections, drug regulation, and research design surrounding trial launch, and conclude that decision-making is largely left to the discretion of research teams and sponsors. We then review what is currently understood about how research teams exercise this discretion, and close by laying out a research agenda for characterizing the way investigators, sponsors, and reviewers approach decision-making in early phase research.     

Healthcare practitioners’ personal and professional values

Personal and professional values of healthcare practitioners influence their clinical decisions. Understanding these values for individuals and across healthcare professions can help improve patient-centred decision-making by individual practitioners and interprofessional teams, respectively. We aimed to identify these values and integrate them into a single framework using Schwartz’s values model. We searched Medline, Embase, PsycINFO, CINAHL and ERIC databases for articles on personal and professional values of healthcare practitioners and students. We extracted values from included papers and synthesized them into a single framework using Schwartz’s values model. We summarised the framework within the context of healthcare practice. We identified 128 values from 50 included articles from doctors, nurses and allied health professionals. A new framework for the identified values established the following broad healthcare practitioner values, corresponding to Schwartz values (in parentheses): authority (power); capability (achievement); pleasure (hedonism); intellectual stimulation (stimulation); critical-thinking (self-direction); equality (universalism); altruism (benevolence); morality (tradition); professionalism (conformity); safety (security) and spirituality (spirituality). The most prominent values identified were altruism, equality and capability. This review identified a comprehensive set of personal and professional values of healthcare practitioners. We integrated these into a single framework derived from Schwartz’s values model. This framework can be used to assess personal and professional values of healthcare practitioners across professional groups, and can help improve practitioners’ awareness of their values so they can negotiate more patient-centred decisions. A common values framework across professional groups can support shared education strategies on values and help improve interprofessional teamwork and decision-making.     

Understanding Process in Group-Based Intervention Delivery: Social Network Analysis and Intra-entity Variability Methods as Windows into the “Black Box”

Although the majority of evidence-based programs are designed for group delivery, group process and its role in participant outcomes have received little empirical attention. Data were collected from 20 groups of participants (94 early adolescents, 120 parents) enrolled in an efficacy trial of a mindfulness-based adaptation of the Strengthening Families Program (MSFP). Following each weekly session, participants reported on their relations to group members. Social network analysis and methods sensitive to intraindividual variability were integrated to examine weekly covariation between group process and participant progress, and to predict post-intervention outcomes from levels and changes in group process. Results demonstrate hypothesized links between network indices of group process and intervention outcomes and highlight the value of this unique analytic approach to studying intervention group process.