Safety of excluding acute pulmonary embolism based on an unlikely clinical probability by the Wells rule and normal D-dimer concentration: A meta-analysis

Introduction

The Wells clinical decision rule (CDR) and D-dimer tests can be used to exclude pulmonary embolism (PE). We performed a meta-analysis to determine the negative predictive value (NPV) of an “unlikely” CDR (≤ 4 points) combined with a normal D-dimer test and the safety of withholding anti-coagulants based on these criteria.

Methods

Prospective studies that withheld anti-coagulant treatment from patients with clinically suspected PE and an “unlikely” CDR in combination with a normal D-dimer concentration without performing further tests were searched for in Medline, Cochrane and Embase. Primary endpoints were the recurrence rate of venous thromboembolism (VTE) and PE-related mortality during 3-months follow-up.

Results

Four studies including 1660 consecutive patients were identified. The pooled incidence of VTE after initial exclusion of acute PE based on an “unlikely” CDR and normal D-dimer was 0.34% (95%CI 0.036-0.96%), resulting in a NPV of 99.7% (95%CI: 99.0-99.9%, random effects-model). The risk for PE related mortality was very low: 1/1660 patients had fatal PE (0.06%, 95%CI 0.0017-0.46%).

Conclusion

Acute PE can be safely excluded in patients with clinically suspected acute PE who have an “unlikely” probability and a negative D-dimer test and anticoagulant treatment can be withheld. There is no need for additional radiological tests in these patients to rule out PE.     

Health disparities in medication adherence between African-Americans and Caucasians with epilepsy

Objective

The goal of this study was to determine whether racial disparities exist with respect to adherence to antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) in patients with epilepsy.

Method

We reviewed the pharmacy and clinical records of 108 patients with epilepsy who were part of the indigent care program at Shands–Jacksonville. We determined the medication possession ratio (MPR) for each patient and obtained other demographic and clinical variables. Using univariate analysis we determined which variables were associated with the MPR and used multiple linear regression to determine those that best predicted the MPR.

Results

Compared with Caucasians, African-Americans had poorer (lower) MPRs (0.872 for Caucasians vs 0.796 for African-Americans, P = 0.02). Age, gender, high school education, epilepsy classification, seizure freedom, number of AEDs, AED copayment scheme, and number of refills were not significantly affected by race. On stepwise multiple linear regression, race alone best predicted the MPR.

Conclusion

Compared with Caucasians, African-Americans have significantly poorer AED adherence, as measured by the MPR.     

河北省南和县农村卒中患者二级预防药物依从性及其相关因素分析

目的 分析河北省南和县农村卒中患者应用二级预防抗血小板药物、他汀类药物和降压药物的服 药依从性现状，并探讨其影响因素。 方法 本研究使用群组随机对照试验“南和县实用创新型脑卒中防治项目”的基线调查数据。该横 断面调查于2017年7月抽取位于5个镇的50个村，每村抽取符合纳入和排除标准的卒中患者开展问卷 调查及体格检查。问卷主要信息包括：社会人口学信息、患病史、社会支持、服药依从性等。患者服 药依从性根据Morisky Green Levine量表评测。采用多因素Logistic回归分析法分析患者抗血小板药物、 他汀类药物和降压药物服药依从性的影响因素。 结果 共纳入1299例卒中患者，平均年龄65.7±8.2岁，男性746例（57.4%）。服用抗血小板类、他汀 类、降压药物的患者分别占依照诊断史估测应服药人数的72.0%（852/1184）、28.4%（340/1197）和 91.1%（1030/1131）。服药患者中，药物依从率分别为63.0%（537/852）、63.5%（216/340）和62.6% （645/1030）。多因素分析显示，自我感知照护需求低的患者（OR 0.58，95%CI 0.45～0.75，P＜0.001）， 服用抗血小板药物依从性好；有卒中复发史患者（OR 2.09，95%CI 1.17～3.71，P =0.013）服用他汀类 药物依从性差，无吸烟史患者（OR 0.43，95%CI 0.19～0.97，P =0.043）服用他汀类药物依从性好。 年龄较大（OR 0.97，95%CI 0.95～0.99，P =0.004）、服2种以上药物（OR 0.54，95%CI 0.39～0.75， P ＜0.001）、自我感知照护需求低（OR 0.58，95%C I 0.40～0.84，P =0.004）及无吸烟史患者 （OR 0.63，95%CI 0.41～0.84，P =0.046）服用降压类药物依从性好。 结论 河北省南和县农村卒中患者二级预防合理用药率较低，服药患者依从性不佳，服药依从性 与患者年龄、吸烟史、卒中复发史、服药数量、自我感知照护需求等因素相关。     

Impulse control disorders in chronic migraine with medication overuse after onabotulinumtoxinA: A single-center prospective cohort study

Chronic migraine (CM) with medication overuse headache (MOH) is one of the most common and disabling chronic headache disorders associated with both frequencies of use of medication and behavioral alterations, including psychopathology and psychological drug dependence. Several previous studies on large patient samples have demonstrated the efficacy of Onabotulinum toxin A (OnabotA) on physical symptomatology treatment of headache, but effects on behavioral alterations remain still debate. Our study investigated the effects of OnabotA on psychiatric comorbidities and on quality of life of patients with CM and MOH that failed on traditional therapies. OnabotA was injected, according to the PREEMPT paradigm, 40 patients with CM and MOH and data on headache-related impairment, before and after the OnabotA injections were collected from the patient’s headache diaries. Data on depressive, anxiety symptomatology and impulse control disorders also were collected by means of self-report scales and a semi-structured interview. After six months, patients with CM and MOH showed a significant decrease in monthly headache attacks (from 19.3 ± 5.9 to 11.8 ± 8.5, p = 0.003), monthly headache days (from 23 ± 8.9 to 11.1 ± 6.2, p = 0.001), numbers of analgesics used per month (from 18.2 ± 6.3 to 8.5 ± 4.7, p < 0.0001). The anxiety symptomatology (p ≤ 0.003) and impulse control disorders (from 30% to 10%), but not depressive symptomatology (p = 0.81), were significantly reduced from throughout the study. The treatment with OnabotA proved beneficial effects on anxiety symptomatology and on impulse control disorders in our clinical practice with CM and MOH and further studies should shed light in larger patient samples on long-term behavioural effects.     

Radiomics for classification of bone mineral loss: A machine learning study

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to develop predictive models to classify osteoporosis, osteopenia and normal patients using radiomics and machine learning approaches.Materials and methodsA total of 147 patients were included in this retrospective single-center study. There were 12 men and 135 women with a mean age of 56.88 ± 10.6 (SD) years (range: 28–87 years). For each patient, seven regions including four lumbar and three femoral including trochanteric, intertrochanteric and neck were segmented on bone mineral densitometry images and 54 texture features were extracted from the regions. The performance of four feature selection methods, including classifier attribute evaluation (CLAE), one rule attribute evaluation (ORAE), gain ratio attribute evaluation (GRAE) and principal components analysis (PRCA) along with four classification methods, including random forest (RF), random committee (RC), K-nearest neighbor (KN) and logit-boost (LB) were evaluated. Four classification categories, including osteopenia vs. normal, osteoporosis vs. normal, osteopenia vs. osteoporosis and osteoporosis + osteopenia vs. osteoporosis were examined for the defined seven regions. The classification model performances were evaluated using the area under the receiver operator characteristic curve (AUC).ResultsThe AUC values ranged from 0.50 to 0.78. The combination of methods RF + CLAE, RF + ORAE and RC + ORAE yielded highest performance (AUC = 0.78) in discriminating between osteoporosis and normal state in the trochanteric region. The combinations of RF + PRCA and LB + PRCA had the highest performance (AUC = 0.76) in discriminating between osteoporosis and normal state in the neck region.ConclusionThe machine learning radiomic approach can be considered as a new method for bone mineral deficiency disease classification using bone mineral densitometry image features.     

基于手机应用程序的居家用药管理对肺移植受者依从性及生存质量的影响

目的探讨"肺病与移植管理"App结合1日药盒用药法居家用药管理方案对肺移植受者自我管理、用药依从性及生存质量的影响。 方法选取2019年1至6月无锡市人民医院肺移植中心门诊随访的73例肺移植受者进行自我管理、用药依从性及生存质量的问卷调查。成立用药随访管理小组，制订肺移植受者居家用药管理方案。予肺移植受者"肺病与移植管理"APP结合1日药盒用药法居家用药管理方案干预3个月后再次对其进行问卷调查，比较干预前后受者自我管理、自我效能、用药依从性及生存质量差异。采用配对t检验比较"肺病与移植管理"App结合1日药盒用药法居家用药管理方案干预前后肺移植受者自我管理、自我效能、用药依从性和生存质量得分，P<0.05为差异有统计学意义。 结果干预3个月后，受者自我管理、认知性症状管理实践、用药依从性、生存质量及生理方面生存质量得分分别为(37±7)、(16±3)、(7.0±1.0)、(154±26)和(77±14)分，均高于干预前[(33±9)、(13±6)、(6.5±1.1)、(141±30)和(67±17)分]，差异均有统计学意义(t＝-0.609、-3.383、-12.864、-2.818和3.586，P均<0.05)。干预前后受者自我效能、运动锻炼、与医师的沟通、症状管理、疾病共性管理和心理方面生存质量得分差异均无统计学意义(t＝-1.972、-0.609、-1.486、-1.747、-1.746和1.487，P均>0.05)。干预前用药依从性好、中和差受者分别有16、41和16例，干预后分别为27、40和6例。 结论基于移动健康平台制订的居家用药管理方案可提高肺移植受者自我管理、用药依从性及生理方面的生存质量。     

Qualitative analysis of clinician experience in utilising the BuRN Tool (Burns Risk assessment for Neglect or abuse Tool) in clinical practice

Introduction

The BuRN-Tool (Burns Risk assessment for Neglect or abuse Tool) is a clinical prediction tool (CPT) aiding the identification of child maltreatment in children with burn injuries. The tool has been derived from systematic reviews and epidemiological studies, validated and is under-going an implementation evaluation. Clinician opinion on the use of this CPT is a key part of its evaluation.

MK10型脱险服上浮速度与时间变化规律的研究

在快速上浮脱险过程中,自由上浮是减压的唯一手段,当艇员处于大深度海水压力下时,上浮速度的变化曲线、平衡时间等成为艇员能否安全脱险的重要因素.笔者利用数值计算的方法,参考由试验结果得出的与水流条件有关的经验参数,对潜水员着MK10型脱险服时的上浮规律进行了建模分析,计算不同体质量艇员的上浮速度、加速度、平衡时间等,为MKIO型脱险服上浮规律的研究提供参考.

Abstract：

Free ascent is the only way of decompression in the course of free ascent escape. When one is under high pressure, the ascent rate, the time required for the equalization of pressure are most important factors for the success of an escape. In our study, model analyses were made on the ascent of the escapee wearing the MK10 immersion suit by using mathematical methods and consulting empirical data derived from experimental results about water current. Then, ascent rate, acceleration and the time required for the equalization of pressure were calculated, which could be used for reference in the study of the ascent rule of the escapee wearing the MK10 immersion suit.     

Combined pharmacological and short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy for probable medication overuse headache: a pilot study

We studied the effects of short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy (STPP) and pharmacological therapy in 26 consecutive patients with probable medication overuse headache (pMOH). Patients underwent a standard in-patient detoxification protocol, lasting a mean of 7 days. Eleven patients overused non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), five a combination of NSAIDs and triptans, four triptans, four a combination of NSAIDs, and three triptans and ergot derivates. Preventive therapy was initiated during detoxification. The STPP protocol comprised the Brief Psychodynamic Investigation (BPI) and psychoanalysis-inspired psychotherapy. All patients (groups A and B) underwent the BPI and pharmacological therapy. Half of the patients (group B) also not randomly underwent psychoanalysis-inspired psychotherapy. We found a significant interaction between time and group for headache frequency and medication intake. At 12-month follow-up, a statistically greater decrease in headache frequency and medication intake was observed in group B than in group A ( P  = 0.0108 and P  = 0.0097, respectively). The relapse rate was much lower in group B patients at both 6 and 12 months [15.3%, odds ratio (OR) 0.11, P  = 0.016, and 23%, OR 0.18, P  = 0.047, respectively] than in group A. The risk of developing chronic migraine (CM) during follow-up was higher in group A than in group B at 6 (OR 2.0, P  = 0.047) and 12 months (OR 2.75, P  = 0.005). Our study suggests that STPP in conjunction with drug withdrawal and prophylactic pharmacotherapy relieves headache symptoms in pMOH, reducing both long-term relapses and the burden of CM.