Promotion of knowledge transfer and retention in year 2 medical students using an online training exercise

Advances in Health Sciences Education - It was recently shown that novice medical students could be trained to demonstrate the speed-to-diagnosis and diagnostic accuracy typical of System-1-type...     

Bioethics for clinicians: 23. Disclosure of medical error

ADVERSE EVENTS AND MEDICAL ERRORS ARE NOT UNCOMMON. In this article we review the literature on such events and discuss the ethical, legal and practical aspects of whether and how they should be disclosed to patients. Ethics, professional policy and the law, as well as the relevant empirical literature, suggest that timely and candid disclosure should be standard practice. Candour about error may lessen, rather than increase, the medicolegal liability of the health care professionals and may help to alleviate the patient's concerns. Guidelines for disclosure to patients, and their families if necessary, are proposed.     

Liver transplantation in a patient after COVID-19 – Rapid loss of antibodies and prolonged viral RNA shedding

To date, little is known about the duration and effectiveness of immunity as well as possible adverse late effects after an infection with SARS-CoV-2. Thus it is unclear, when and if liver transplantation can be safely offered to patients who suffered from COVID-19. Here, we report on a successful liver transplantation shortly after convalescence from COVID-19 with subsequent partial seroreversion as well as recurrence and prolonged shedding of viral RNA.     

Prism adaptation and brain damage

Brain damaged (BD), psychiatric (P), and normal (N) groups were compared on adaptability to prism-displaced vision. Although no difference among the groups was found on compensatory pre-post shifts of felt limb position (“proprioceptive shift”), the BD group manifested significantly less shift in target-pointing accuracy (“negative aftereffect”) than either of the other two groups. The latter result suggests that brain damaged individuals are, in general, unable to acquire the “cognitive” component of adaptation which results from consistently accurate target-pointing performance during the prism-exposure period. Frontal and non-frontal BD Ss adapted equally on proprioceptive shift, while the non-frontals evidenced significantly less negative aftereffect. It was suggested that this result and the fact that frontals adapted equally (on all measures) with the N group had implications for Teuber's “corollary discharge” hypothesis.     

Electrical Analysis of Fresh,Excised Human Skin: A Comparison with Frozen Skin

Samples of human allograft skin prepared without freezing ("fresh skin) were found to have electrical and sodium ion transport properties which differed only slightly from those of skin which had been similarly treated but stored frozen (frozen skin). The fresh skin samples were less permeable to sodium ions during passive diffusion and less conductive than frozen skin at low current levels. They were more permselective for sodium versus chloride during constant-current iontophoresis and showed slightly more asymmetry in their current–voltage properties. Overall, the electrical behavior of the two tissues was similar enough to support the use of frozen tissue in iontophoresis studies. However, caution should be exercised when considering the use of frozen skin for applications, such as those based on electroosmosis, where the observed differences could have a major impact on the results.     

Laser energy threshold for thermal vascular injury in a port-wine stain skin model

Monte Carlo simulation of laser energy deposition in a port-wine stain (PWS) skin model and numerical solution of the thermal diffusion equation have been used to calculate threshold energies for thermal injury of PWS blood vessels for different vessel sizes and laser pulse durations. It has been assumed that an average vessel temperature rise of 65 C causes thermal injury to the blood vessel. The result is that for a certain combination of wavelength, pulse duration and incident energy density, only a limited range of blood vessel sizes can be injured optimally. Higher energy densities are required to injure smaller vessels with the same pulse duration, spot size and wavelength. This gives support to the mechanisms of selective photothermolysis suggested previously by Anderson and Parrish, although their model was based on the cooling behaviour of instantaneously heated vessels. The authors hypothesize that different laser parameter settings that match the individual PWS vessel anatomy during treatment will be used in the future, instead of many treatments with the same laser parameters. This could lead to less treatment sessions and to an improved predictability of clinical results.     

Guanine to adenine mutations in patients with lattice corneal dystrophy Nachweis einer Punktmutation im Keratoepithelin-Gen

Background: Lattice dystrophy is an autosomal-dominantly inherited disease. A mutation of the gene coding for kerato-epitheline has been found in patients with this stromal dystrophy. In codon 124 a Guanine to Adenine mutation of the nucleotide 417 has been described. We looked for this mutation in a family with lattice dystrophy treated in our clinic.     

Prostate Specific Antigen Density Versus Prostate Specific Antigen Slope as Predictors of Prostate Cancer in Men with Initially Negative Prostatic Biopsies

Purpose

We determined if prostate specific antigen (PSA) density and PSA slope alone or in combination could be used to predict which men with persistently elevated serum PSA and prior negative prostate biopsies will have prostate cancer on repeat evaluation.

Materials and Methods

In our PSA-1 data base we identified 327 men 50 years old or older with an initially negative prostate biopsy who had persistent PSA elevation, and compared those who did and did not have prostate cancer on subsequent serial prostatic biopsy.

Results

Of 70 men with a PSA density of 0.15 or more and PSA slope of 0.75 ng./ml. or more annually compared to 83 with a PSA density of less than 0.15 and PSA slope of less than 0.75 ng./ml. annually 32 (46 percent) and only 11 (13 percent), respectively, had prostate cancer on subsequent prostate biopsies (p less than 0.0001). In a hierarchical logistic regression analysis PSA density and PSA slope were predictive of prostate cancer on subsequent biopsy (p = 0.001 and 0.03, respectively). PSA density of 0.15 or more alone or PSA slope of 0.75 ng./ml. or more annually alone as the indicator for repeat biopsy would have missed 35 and 40 percent of cancers, respectively.

Conclusions

In men with persistently elevated serum PSA after an initially negative prostate biopsy, PSA density and PSA slope alone or in combination provide useful predictive information about the results of repeat prostate biopsies. However, these parameters are not sufficiently sensitive to identify all patients with detectable prostate cancer.     

Endoscopic Treatment of Vesicoureteral Reflux with Collagen: Preliminary Report and Cost Analysis

Purpose

We determined therapeutic and operative cost efficacy of endoscopic collagen injection for vesicoureteral reflux.

Materials and Methods

We performed a multicenter study of 10 male and 23 female sequential patients (45 renal units) with vesicoureteral reflux and a surgical indication. Patients were skin tested with collagen and when negative, they underwent endoscopic injection. Renal ultrasound/ cystography was done 3 months after treatment. Cost analysis was performed at 1 institution.

Results

Reflux was grade I in 2 renal units, II in 18, III in 15 and IV in 10. The majority of cases were single systems with primary reflux. We performed 1 treatment in 32 renal units, 2 in 6, 3 in 6 and 4 in 1. Cure was evident in 31 of 38 renal units (81.6 percent) and 21 of 27 patients (78 percent) 3 months after the last injection. Patient morbidity was minimal. Operative cost per renal unit was $1,599.68 for collagen injection and $9,144.47 for reimplantation.

Conclusions

Endoscopic injection of collagen is effective treatment for vesicoureteral reflux. Furthermore, it causes minimal morbidity and may effect cost savings in health care management.     

Role of mesenchymal-epithelial interactions in mammary gland development

The mammary gland is a hormone-target organ derived from epidermis and develops as a result of reciprocal mesenchymal-epithelial interactions. The induction of mammary differentiation from indifferent epidermal cells by mammary mesenchyme implies induction of the complement of hormone receptors characteristic of normal mammary epithelium in cells of the epidermis. Considering the facts that mammary epithelial differentiation is induced by mammary mesenchyme and that certain aspects of hormone response (androgen-induced mammary regression) are inextricably linked to mesenchymal-epithelial interactions, it is evident that the biology of the mammary gland arises from and is maintained via cell-cell interactions. As a corollary, perturbation of stromal-epithelial interactions in adulthood may play a role in mammary carcinogenesis and in turn may provide opportunities for differentiation therapy.