Education and age affect skill acquisition and retention in lay rescuers after a European Resuscitation Council CPR/AED course

Objectives

To examine whether education and age affect skill acquisition and retention in lay rescuers after a European Resuscitation Council (ERC) CPR/AED course.

Background

Because of the importance of bystander CPR/AED skills in the setting of cardiac arrest, acquisition and retention of resuscitation skills has gained a great amount of interest.

Methods

The ERC CPR/AED course format for written and practical evaluation was used. Eighty lay people were trained and evaluated at the end of the course, as well as at one, three, and six months.

Results

Retention of CPR/AED skills improved over time, recording the lowest practical scores at one month after initial training and the lowest written scores at initial training. In practical evaluation scores, when examined longitudinally, age presented a significant adverse effect and higher background education presented a non-significant positive effect. Moreover, regarding written evaluation scores, when examined longitudinally, education presented a significant positive effect while age did not significantly correlate with written scores.

Conclusions

Education and age affected retention of CPR/AED skills in lay rescuers. Also, our results suggest that the ERC CPR/AED course format may be poorly designed to discriminate between participants with different levels of practical and written resuscitation skills and merit a thorough investigation in future studies.     

Concurrent validity and reliability of cephalometric analysis using smartphone apps and computer software

Objectives:To assess the diagnostic accuracy of two smartphone cephalometric analysis apps compared with Viewbox software.Materials and Methods:Pretreatment digital lateral cephalograms of 50 consecutive orthodontic patients (20 males, 30 females; mean age, 19.1 years; SD, 11.7) were traced twice using two apps (ie, CephNinja and OneCeph), with Viewbox used as the gold standard computer software program. Seven angular and two linear measurements, originally derived from Steiner cephalometric analysis, were performed.Results:Regarding validity, intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) ranged from .903–.983 and .786–.978 for OneCeph vs Viewbox and CephNinja vs Viewbox, respectively. The ICC values for intratool reliability ranged from .647–.993. None of the CephNinja measurements was below the recommended cutoff values of ICCs for reliability.Conclusions:OneCeph has a high validity compared with Viewbox, while CephNinja is the best alternative to Viewbox regarding reliability. Smartphone apps may have a great potential in supplementing traditional cephalometric analysis.     

Cardiopulmonary exercise testing in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: An update on its clinical value and applications

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a debilitating disorder, characterized by airflow limitation, exercise impairment, reduced functional capacity and significant systemic comorbidity, which complicates the course of the disease. The critical inspiratory constraint to tidal volume expansion during exercise (that may be further complicated by the presence of dynamic hyperinflation), abnormalities in oxygen transportation and gas exchange abnormalities are the major pathophysiological mechanisms of exercise intolerance in COPD patients, and thus, exercise testing has been traditionally used for the functional evaluation of these patients. Compared to various laboratory and field exercise tests, cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) provides a thorough assessment of exercise physiology, involving the integrative respiratory, cardiovascular, muscle and metabolic responses to exercise. This review highlights the clinical utility of CPET in COPD patients, as it provides important information for the determination of the major factors that limit exercise among patients with several comorbidities, allows the assessment of the severity of dynamic hyperinflation, provides valuable prognostic information and can be used to evaluate the response to several therapeutic interventions.     

Effect of Mechanically Treated Recycled Aggregates on the Long Term Mechanical Properties and Durability of Concrete

The objective of this research was to study the effect of an optimal mechanical treatment method to reduce the mortar adhered on recycled aggregates (RCA) on the long-term mechanical properties and durability of concretes containing RCA at different replacement levels. It was found that concretes incorporating treated RCA exhibited sharper and more significant increase on 90- and 365-day compressive strengths than any other investigated mixture. The same mixtures also benefitted from a ‘shrinkage-controlling’ effect, where strains and mass losses were reduced by almost 15% and 10%, respectively, compared to the reference concrete. While sulfate resistance and carbonation resistance are predominantly defined by the hydration products available within the cement paste and not to a large extent by the aggregate type and quality, the incorporation of either treated or untreated RCA in concrete did not appear to expose RACs to significant durability threats.     

MitoExtra SuperGen

SuperGen Inc is developing a cyclodextrin-based reformulation of mitomycin C (MitoExtra) for the potential treatment of gastic, pancreatic, breast lung and colorectal cancers. In April 2002, the NDA was pending approval from the US FDA after a March 2002 filing of a final response including data from a phase II trial [447618]. MitoExtra is a proprietary reformulation of the approved anticancer drug mitomycin C. SuperGen's reformulation is based on technology designed to improve the handling characteristics and safety profile of mitomycin C and other anticancer drugs by enhancing the drug's stability in solution form and 'shielding' it at the injection site [205482]. In a phase II study in patients with advanced solid tumors, MitoExtra showed no evidence of diminished efficacy or unexpected toxicity [447618]. In April 2000, SuperGen' was issued US-06048845, protecting the company's proprietary Extra technology platform [363494].     

A new stop codon mutation (Y52X) in the myophosphorylase gene in a Greek patient with McArdle's disease.

We identified a novel stop codon mutation in the myophosphorylase gene in a Greek patient with typical symptoms of McArdle's disease. This is the first genetic study of myophosphorylase deficiency in a Greek family, showing that the proband was a compound heterozygous for the common "caucasian" mutation (R49X) and a new nonsense mutation (Y52X), both within exon 1. The new point mutation, a C-to-G transversion at codon 52, converts an encoded tyrosine to a stop codon. Our study confirms that the R49X is also present in the Greek population. The Y52X may represent a private mutation or a common mutation among Greeks. Our data further expand the already remarkable genetic heterogeneity of McArdle's disease. The prevalence of the Y52X mutation in Greek patients with McArdle's disease remains to be determined.     

Primary aortojejunal fistula due to foreign body: a rare cause of gastrointestinal bleeding

Primary and secondary aortoenteric fistulae are infrequent causes of gastrointestinal bleeding. We report a rare case of a 49-year-old man with bleeding due to an aortojejunal fistula caused by a foreign body. This is the fifth case in the literature in which a foreign body was found to be associated with the development of an aortoenteric fistula. Our patient presented with two herald bleeds with an interval time of 1 week; in previous cases, only one herald bleed has been reported. In addition to the usual resuscitation measures, the patient was treated with primary repair of the small-intestine defect and replacement of the aneurysm with a prosthetic aortic graft. He remains in excellent health thereafter.     

Regional differences in mortality in Greece (1984–2004): The case of Thrace

Background  

Mortality differences at national level can generate hypothesis on possible causal association that could be further investigated. The aim of the present study was to identify regions with high mortality rates in Greece.