Valores de referencia de la translucencia intracraneal

Objective

To determine reference ranges for intracranial translucency (ICT) in our population.

Material and methods

To assess the relationship between crown-rump length (CRL) and ICT, we performed a linear regression analysis of 471 singleton pregnancies without associated anomalies.

Results

ICT was measured in 98.9%. ICT had a normal distribution with a standard deviation of 0.4139. The mean was 2.0502 mm (0,9-3.6 mm), and the 5% and 95% percentiles corresponded to 1.4 mm and 2.7 mm. ICT had a linear correlation with CRL (ICT: 0.0125 + 1.2628 * CRL; R2: 0,055 P <.0001). The estimated ICT was calculated for the 5th percentile (1.2628 + 0.0125 * LCC) − 0.6505. The intraclass correlation coefficient was 0,816 (0606-0921 CI: 95%).

Conclusions

Measurement of the fourth ventricle during first trimester ultrasound examination is feasible and is simple to perform. An extended neurological evaluation should be carried out if measurements are above the 95th percentile or below the 9th percentile.     

Cinco paradojas de la promoción de la salud

The World Health Organization states that health promotion is a key strategy to improve health, and it is conceived as a global process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health. Health promotion does not focus solely on empowering individuals dealing with their knowledge, attitudes and skills, but it also takes political, social, economic and environmental aspects influencing health and wellbeing into account. The complexity of applying these concepts is reflected in the five paradoxes in health promotion; these arise in between the rhetoric in health promotion and implementation. The detected paradoxes which are described herein involve the patient versus the person, the individual versus the group, disease professionals versus health professionals, disease indicators versus health indicators, and health as an expense versus health as an investment. Making these contradictions explicit can help determine why it is so complex to put the concepts related to health promotion into practice. It can also help to put forward aspects that need further work if health promotion is to put into practice.     

Site-Specific Clinical Evaluation of the Luminex xTAG Gastrointestinal Pathogen Panel for Detection of Infectious Gastroenteritis in Fecal Specimens

We evaluate the clinical performance of the Luminex xTAG gastrointestinal (GI) pathogen in vitro diagnostic (IVD) assay in a comparison between clinical and public health laboratories. The site reproducibility study showed 98.7% sensitivity with high positive and negative agreement values (96.2% and 99.8%, respectively), while assay performance against confirmatory methods resulted in 96.4% sensitivity with similar positive and negative agreement values (90.1% and 99.5%, respectively). High-throughput detection of multiple GI pathogens improved turnaround time, consolidated laboratory workflow, and simplified stool culture practices, thus reducing the overall cost and number of specimens processed.     

Motivational interviewing as a smoking cessation strategy with nurses: An exploratory randomised controlled trial

Background

Despite the important role that health professionals have in reducing tobacco use, many have a smoking habit themselves. The prevalence of smoking is particularly high among nurses.

Objective

To test the efficacy, acceptability and feasibility of a motivational interviewing (MI) based smoking cessation intervention with nurses.

Design

Two group parallel experimental design with random allocation to groups.

Setting

A large teaching hospital in the North of Spain.

Participants

Nurses who smoked (n = 30) were randomised into two groups: motivational interviewing based intervention (n = 15) and usual care (n = 15).

Methods

Motivational interviewing based intervention consisted of four individual MI sessions. Usual care consisted of brief advice. Variables considered to assess efficacy were biochemically verified smoking cessation, mean cigarettes smoked, stages of change, self-efficacy and depression score. Variables to assess acceptability and feasibility included participant satisfaction, adherence to MI, and duration of sessions. Data were collected at: baseline, end of intervention and three months after the end of the intervention.

Results

At three month follow up, compared with the control group, more nurses in the intervention group had quit (absolute difference 33.3%; 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.6–58.2). In the nurses who did not quit, there was no significant difference between the intervention and control groups in the number of cigarettes smoked per day, although progress in the stages of change was greater in the intervention group compared to the control group. Measures of acceptability and feasibility indicated good satisfaction with the intervention, with high levels of attendance and completion.

Conclusion

This study found a beneficial effect of motivational interviewing on nurses’ smoking cessation. The intervention was acceptable for nurses and a number of aspects were identified that need to be considered prior to conducting a larger scale in order to optimise the intervention. Using MI might be a novel approach to the problem of health professionals who smoke.     

Rolling-circle amplification for the detection of active porcine circovirus type 2 DNA replication in vitro

Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) infections in pigs have diverse clinical presentations and are considered economically important diseases worldwide. However, despite intensive research, the early pathogenesis of PCV2 and the primary target cells for PCV2 infections and replication are still unknown. Rolling-circle amplification (RCA) is an amplification technique for small, circular DNA templates that essentially mimics rolling-circle replication in vitro. In this study, the amplification of PCV2-specific DNAs using randomly primed RCA has been demonstrated. This novel approach has circumvented the normal requirement for conventional virus isolation procedures for the characterization of PCV2 DNAs from clinical samples. In addition, the potential utility of a strand-specific derivative of RCA was further investigated. Specifically, strand-specific RCA for the detection of active virus replication following the amplification of complementary sense PCV2 DNAs, which occur as double-stranded replicative intermediates that are present only during de novo viral DNA replication both in vitro and in vivo has been demonstrated.     

Predictors of Smoking Cessation Among College Students in a Pragmatic Randomized Controlled Trial

Prevention Science - An effective strategy to quit smoking should consider demographic aspects, smoking-related characteristics and psychological factors. This study examined potential predictors...     

The potential advantages and disadvantages of introducing interprofessional education into the healthcare curricula in Spain

The complexity of contemporary clinical practice demands that increasingly skilled high quality health and social care is provided to individuals. However, the failure of health and social care professionals to work collaboratively has been widely reported in the international literature. Hence, interprofessional education has been suggested as a means of improving both interprofessional understanding and respect across a diverse range of practice disciplines. In this way, functional barriers can be challenged or broken down; teamwork enhanced and healthcare outcomes improved. Lack of conclusive evidence to substantiate the above healthcare benefits has been attributed to weak methodological approaches when evaluating such educational initiatives. In Spain barriers to implementing interprofessional education are potentially less challenging. Recent legislative demands following the Bologna Agreement on European Higher Education is compelling Spanish higher education institutes to engage in radical educational reforms. Consequently, this paper examines some of the advantages and disadvantages of introducing interprofessional education into health and social care curricula in Spain to see when and how interprofessional initiatives might be assimilated into the health care curricula. In this way lessons learned from a thorough review of the relevant literature might help to inform such educational reforms across mainland Europe and beyond.     

The public image of nursing: a profession to learn about

Nursing is a profession that has suffered from public stereotyping for a long time. It has been viewed historically as a female profession, under the orders of doctors and without its own field of competence. Major changes have occurred in the discipline over the last decade that directly affect the profession. As a result, this review of the literature has tried to identify the image of nursing held by the population, the prevailing stereotypes related to it, and what the public considers that nurses do. Eight categories emerged from the thematic analysis that can help in explaining the view that society has of nursing and the evolution it has undergone. It seems that the public is predominantly ignorant of the essence and focus of the discipline, which is none other than care of the person, family or community. It is also a little known profession as society does not fully acknowledge that nurses have their own field of competence, autonomy and independence. There is still a tendency to consider nursing as a profession inferior to medicine, closely related to "tasks", and there is trust in its carrying out those activities that have been traditionally associated with it. However, it is coming to be perceived as a profession that is less related to femininity and that involves greater preparation than in the past.