Critical care dependency tool: monitoring the changes.

The critical care patient dependency system (CCPD) is a factorial patient acuity system developed in 1993 by Ferguson and Harris-Ingall' for use in adult critical care areas. It was developed specifically to help determine Australian nursing cost weights and was utilised to collect data from nine Sydney critical care units from October 1992 until May 1993. The St. George Hospital (SGH) general intensive care unit, one of the nine participating hospitals, continues to use and collect data with the CCPD. This paper describes the instrument and compares data on Australian national diagnosis related groups (ANDRGs), collected during the original study, to ANDRG information on the critical care population 3 and 6 years later. In addition, the paper examines and compares the demographics of the SGH critical care patient population, patient acuity (based upon CCPD patient scores) and intensive care nursing clinical practices collected over a 3 month period in 1996 and again in 1999. Demographic and patient acuity data for SGH in 1993 are unavailable and so comparisons were unable to be made. The findings demonstrate changes in the management of critically ill patients, especially in relation to ventilation management, wound care and invasive monitoring practices; this resulted in shifts to the nursing workload. For this reason, the instrument is useful in providing nurse managers with information about patient dependencies and nursing work.     

冠心病合并2型糖尿病患者血脂检测

目的:观察冠心病(CHD)合并2型糖尿病患者血脂水平的变化,并探讨CHD合并2型糖尿病的危险性与脂质代谢紊乱间的相关性.方法:检测CHD组患者29(男18,女11)例,年龄40～70(平均55.2)岁;CHD合并2型糖尿病组[CHD伴非胰岛素依赖型糖尿病(NIDDM)]患者22(男12,女10)例,年龄41～70(平均56.5)岁;正常对照组[健康献血员31(男17,女14)例,年龄38～50(平均43.5)岁]的血脂水平.结果:CHD伴NIDDM组患者总胆固醇(TC),三酰甘油(TG),低密度脂蛋白胆固醇(LDLC)和载脂蛋白B(ApoB)水平明显高于CHD组患者[TC:(5.87±1.02)mmol/Lvs(4.10±1.13)mmol/L;TG:(2.10±1.05)mmol/Lvs(1.13±0.85)mmol/L;LDLC:(4.23±0.97)mmol/Lvs(2.97±0.90)mmol/L;ApoB:(0.90±0.18)mmol/Lvs(0.58±0.19)mmol/L,均P<0.01],但CHD伴NIDDM组患者高密度脂蛋白胆固醇(HDLC),载脂蛋白A1(ApoA1)水平明显低于CHD组患者[HDLC(0.71±0.12)mmol/Lvs(0.94±0.16)mmol/L,ApoA1:(0.73±0.19)mmol/Lvs(1.03±0.20)mmol/L,均P<0.01].结论:CHD合并2型糖尿病患者在脂质代谢紊乱方面存在更多致CHD的危险因素,应重视这类患者的血脂检测并及时纠正脂质代谢紊乱,以降低CHD的危险性.     

Association among physical, psychiatric and socioeconomic conditions and WHOQOL-Bref scores

The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of psychiatric morbidity, depression, cognitive deficit, number of self-reported illnesses and socio-demographic variables on the WHOQOL-Bref domain scores. WHOQOL-Bref domain scores are substantially affected by psychiatric morbidity and income. Depression, the number of self-reported illnesses and the female gender also explain the variability of other domains to a lesser extent.     

How In Vitro Assays Contribute to Allergy Diagnosis

Diagnosis of allergic disorders is based upon the clinical history of the disease, the immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibody response, and the allergen exposure. During the last decade, many changes have occurred in the in vitro diagnostic tests used in daily practice. The most important one is the use of allergenic molecules, which helps to define severe profile of allergy and/or to better understand cross-reactivity. The correlation between IgE sensitization and bronchial or nasal response in provocation tests is not so clear, which implies that such tests are still helpful in allergy diagnosis. In order to strengthen the link between a real allergen exposure and allergic symptoms, environmental allergen load assessment can be performed. For clinicians, it appears obvious to know the pollen count to treat their patients; however, they rarely measure the allergen load in the indoor environment, while nowadays home-tests (semi-quantitative or quantitative) make the assessment very easy. In the future, assessment of the environmental exposure (preferably with an indoor technician) of an allergic patient should take into account not only the allergens but also the other indoor pollutants, which could enhance respiratory symptoms in allergic patients.     

Pain in desmoid-type fibromatosis: Prevalence,determinants and prognosis value

The aim of this study is to evaluate the prevalence, determinants and prognostic value of pain at diagnosis in patients with desmoid-type fibromatosis (DF). We selected patients from the ALTITUDES cohort (NCT02867033), managed by surgery, active surveillance or systemic treatments, with pain assessment at diagnosis. Patients were invited to fill QLQ-C30 questionnaire and Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale. Determinants were identified using logistic models. Prognostic value on event-free survival (EFS) was evaluated using the Cox model. Overall, 382 patients were included in the current study (median age: 40.2 years; 117 men). The prevalence of pain was 36%, without significant difference according to first-line treatment (P = .18). In the multivariate analysis, pain was significantly associated with tumor size >50 mm (P = .013) and tumor site (P < .001); pain was more frequent in the neck and shoulder locations (odds ratio: 3.05 [1.27-7.29]). Pain at baseline was significantly associated with poor quality of life (P < .001), depression (P = .02), lower performance status (P = .03) and functional impairment (P = .001); we also observed a nonsignificant association with anxiety (P = .10). In the univariate analysis, baseline pain was associated with poor EFS; the 3-year EFS was 54% in patients with pain compared to 72% in those without pain. After adjustment for sex, age, size and line of treatment, pain was still associated with poor EFS (hazard ratio: 1.82 [1.23-2.68], P = .003). One third of recently diagnosed patients with DF experienced pain, especially those with larger tumors and neck/shoulder locations. Pain was associated with unfavorable EFS after adjustment for the confounders.