The conference programme for MEDICA 2013, International Trade Fair with Congress
A 24-strong panel of judges have awarded one of this year
Hundreds of medical devices at the UK Ministry of Defence
An electronic decision support tool helped to reduce deaths from pneumonia in four hospital emergency departments in a new study.
Although guidelines for treating pneumonia exist, it is often difficult for these to be fully implemented in an emergency setting. The researchers therefore developed an electronic tool, linked to a patient’s medical record. Unlike a paper guideline, the tool automatically extracts data that predict the severity of pneumonia. The tool then provides recommendations regarding where the patient should be admitted to, which diagnostic tests are best to use and which antibiotics are most appropriate.
Researchers from Intermountain Healthcare and the University of Utah in the USA tested the effectiveness of the tool on pneumonia patients in seven emergency departments. The first group of 2,308 patients were analysed before the electronic tool was used. A later group of 2,450 patients were assessed when four of the seven emergency departments used the electronic tool.
In both groups the researchers looked at hospital admission rates, length of hospital stay, deaths, secondary hospitalisation rates and adherence to guidelines.
The results showed a significant reduction in death rates in the emergency departments where the tool was used. Crude inpatient mortality rate fell from 5.3% to 3.5% and, after adjusting for severity, the relative risk of death was reduced by 25%.
EurekAlert
Researchers from the University of Dundee have developed a new strategy for prescribing antibiotics that could reduce patient harm and help combat the rise in antibiotic resistance.
A new study found that a new prescribing protocol could significant reduce potential misuse of antibiotics.
The research followed over 500 patients with lower respiratory tract infections during the course of one year. The new prescribing protocol included automatic stop dates, with time limits on prescriptions depending on the severity of an infection, coupled with support from pharmacists to ensure that antibiotics were issued with stop dates that were clearly visible for patients.
During the first half of the 12-month trial, researchers monitored patients’ current duration of antibiotic use. In the second half, patients receiving antibiotics followed the new prescribing strategy. During both phases of this study, researchers monitored antibiotic side-effects, including new symptoms occurring during the period of antibiotic exposure that were potentially caused by the antibiotics. They also monitored patients’ length of stay in hospital and death rates.
The study found that when the new protocol was followed, there was a near 20 per cent reduction in antibiotic use and an associated 40 per cent reduction in antibiotic-related side-effects.
Dr Matthew Lloyd, lead author from the University’s School of Medicine, said, ‘The threat from growing resistance to antibiotics is increasing, which is in part attributable to inappropriately lengthy courses of antibiotics.
‘Our study aimed to implement a simple system for preventing patients taking antibiotics for longer than they should. The results were promising and found that through prescribing automatic stop dates and working with our multidisciplinary colleagues, we can help prevent this problem and reduce patient harm.’ University of Dundee
Whole-body MRI may serve as a valuable non-invasive tool for assessing the risk of heart attack and stroke in diabetic patients, according to a new study.
Diabetes is a metabolic disease characterised by an increased concentration of glucose in the blood. There are 347 million diabetic patients worldwide, and the World Health Organization projects that diabetes will be the seventh leading cause of death by 2030.
Patients with diabetes are known to develop atherosclerosis, or thickening of the arterial walls, at an accelerated rate, resulting in a higher incidence of major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events (MACCE), such as a heart attack or stroke. However, there are wide variations in the degree of risk for adverse events among diabetic patients.
In recent years, whole-body MRI has emerged as a promising means to assess the cardiovascular systems of people with diabetes.
‘One of the major advantages of whole-body MRI in this population is that the technique itself is not associated with radiation exposure, and larger body areas can be covered without increased risk, especially in younger patients,’ said Fabian Bamberg, M.D., M.P.H., from the Department of Radiology at Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, Germany. ‘As such, MRI can be used to evaluate the whole-body degree of disease burden that is not clinically apparent yet.’
Dr. Bamberg and colleagues studied the predictive value of whole-body MRI for the occurrence of MACCE in 65 patients with diabetes. The patients underwent a contrast-enhanced whole-body MRI protocol, including brain, cardiac and vascular sequences. The researchers then conducted follow-up inquiries to assess the rate of MACCE in the study group.
Follow-up information was available for 61 patients. After a median of 5.8 years, 14 patients had experienced MACCE. Patients who had detectable vascular changes on whole-body MRI faced a cumulative MACCE risk rate of 20 percent at three years, and 35 percent at six years. None of the patients with a normal whole-body MRI went on to experience MACCE.
The findings point to a role for whole-body MRI as an accurate prognostic tool for diabetic patients that could speed effective treatments to those at risk, Dr. Bamberg said. Radiological Society of North America
The human brain is exquisitely adept at linking seemingly random details into a cohesive memory that can trigger myriad associations
A new analysis concludes that large numbers of patients in advanced stages of kidney disease are inappropriately being prescribed statins to lower their cholesterol
A new study suggests that people with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) are perceived to appear more alert, more youthful and more attractive after at least two months of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy.
‘This study showed that independent human raters
A new type of coronavirus, the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus, MERS-CoV, was first found a year ago in a patient who died. It took several months before it was discovered that a new virus had emerged. New cases have been reported from Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates). France, Germany, Italy, Tunisia and the United Kingdom have reported imported cases coming from the Middle East. The virus has since been identified in just over 90 patients infected in the Middle East of which approximately 50% have died.
The new virus is closely related to the SARS coronavirus, which caused a global SARS outbreak ten years ago, spreading particularly in China, Hong Kong and Canada, before it faded out due to the usual public health tools of isolation and quarantine.
Similar to SARS, the new virus causes a severe, double-sided pneumonia and a high proportion of patients also experience kidney failure. The majority of cases have been found in Saudi Arabia, but cases have been seen in the United Arab Emirates and Jordan as well as Germany, France, Italy, Tunisia and the United Kingdom.
To limit the outbreak and reduce the risk of new cases, patients with MERS-CoV should be identified and treated before they have infected others or at least infected as few as possible.
A recent paper published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases reviews the experience with different treatment modalities of SARS. SARS corona virus is a corona virus similar to MERS corona virus, also resulting in pneumonia as the most significant sign. It is therefore likely that treatments which worked on the SARS corona virus will also work at the MERS corona virus.
EurekAlert
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