A new study in animals shows that using a compound to block the body
A shortened version of a questionnaire used by psychologists to assess risk factors for obsessive-compulsive disorder also may help determine the risk of depression and anxiety, according to a Baylor University study.
The revision may be a good fit for assessing the risk of mental health issues stemming from certain beliefs
When it comes to the cost and quality of hospital care, nurse tenure and teamwork matters. Patients get the best care when they are treated in units that are staffed by nurses who have extensive experience in their current job, according to a study from researchers at Columbia University School of Nursing and Columbia Business School.
The review of more than 900,000 patient admissions over four years at hospitals in the Veterans Administration Healthcare System is the largest study of its kind to link nurse staffing to patient outcomes. The researchers analysed payroll records for each nurse and medical records for each patient to see how changes in nurse staffing impacted the length of stay for patients. Because length of stay is increased by delays in delivery of appropriate care and errors in care delivery, a shorter length of stay indicates that the hospital provided better treatment. At the same time, a shorter length of stay also makes care more cost-effective. The study found that a one-year increase in the average tenure of RNs on a hospital unit was associated with a 1.3 percent decrease in length of stay.
‘Reducing length of stay is the holy grail of hospital management because it means patients are getting higher quality, more cost-effective care,’ says senior study author Patricia Stone, PhD, RN, FAAN, Centennial Professor of Health Policy at Columbia Nursing. ‘When the same team of nurses works together over the years, the nurses develop a rhythm and routines that lead to more efficient care. Hospitals need to keep this in mind when making staffing decisions
As part of Maquet Critical Care
‘Today, we
Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) have created a synthetic form of low-molecular-weight heparin that can be reversed in cases of overdose and would be safer for patients with poor kidney function.
‘We took this drug and not only made it cost effectively, but we
Probiotics are effective in preventing hepatic encephalopathy in patients with cirrhosis of the liver, according to a new study. Hepatic encephalopathy is a deterioration of brain function that is a serious complication of liver disease.
‘This rigorous new research finds that probiotics modify the gut microbiota to prevent hepatic encephalopathy in patients with cirrhosis of the liver,’ said David W. Victor III, MD. ‘These results offer a safe, well-tolerated and perhaps cheaper alternative to current treatments.’
Investigators from Govind Ballabh Pant Hospital, New Delhi, India, conducted a single-centre, prospective, open-label, randomised trial with cirrhosis patients who showed risk factors for hepatic encephalopathy, but had yet to experience an obvious episode. When comparing treatment with probiotics versus placebo, the researchers found that the incidence of hepatic encephalopathy was lower in patients treated with probiotics.
Probiotic supplementation was not associated with any side effects and none of the patients required discontinuation of therapy. These results suggest that probiotics are similar in effectiveness to the current standard of care, lactulose, in the prevention of hepatic encephalopathy, yet they appear to be much better tolerated. The effectiveness of lactulose, a non-absorbable disaccharide, is limited by side effects (diarrhoea, bloating and gas) and a narrow therapeutic window.
‘By virtue of its size, study duration and design, as well as the thorough nature of the baseline and follow-up assessments, this study represents an important contribution to the hepatic encephalopathy literature,’ added Dr. Victor, a practicing hepatologist in the Methodist J.C. Walter Jr. Transplant Center at Houston Methodist Hospital, TX. AGA Institute
The development of graphene
Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have developed two inexpensive adapters that enable a smartphone to capture high-quality images of the front and back of the eye. The adapters make it easy for anyone with minimal training to take a picture of the eye and share it securely with other health practitioners or store it in the patient
April 2024
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