1,721,056 research outputs found
2796. The impact of syndromic molecular point-of-care testing for respiratory viruses on antibiotic use in adults presenting to hospital with exacerbation of airways disease: further analysis from a randomized controlled trial
No full textBackground: the ResPOC study demonstrated that syndromic molecular point-of-care testing (POCT) for respiratory viruses was associated with earlier discontinuation of unnecessary antibiotics. Subgroup analysis suggests this occurs predominantly in patients with exacerbation of airways disease. Molecular POCT use is becoming widespread but there is a lack of evidence to inform the choice between multiplex syndromic panels vs. uniplex tests for influenza.Methods: we evaluated patients with exacerbation of asthma or COPD who were treated with antibiotics. The duration of antibiotics and proportion with early discontinuation were compared between patients testing positive for viruses by POCT (FilmArray Respiratory Panel) those testing negative by POCT and controls. Patients testing positive for viruses by POCT were compared according to virus types detected. Survival curves were generated for duration of antibiotics and compared using the log-rank test.Results: there were 118 patient with exacerbation of airways disease in the POCT group who received antibiotics and 111 in the controls. In the POCT group 49/118 (42%) patients tested positive for viruses. Of those testing positive for viruses by POCT 17/49 (35%) had early discontinuation of antibiotics vs. 9/81 (13%) in those testing negative and 7/111 (6%) in controls, P < 0.0001. Survival curve analysis showed a reduced time to antibiotic discontinuation in those testing positive for viruses, P = 0.034. Of those positive for viruses by POCT 20% were positive for influenza, 43% for rhinovirus and 37% for other viruses combined. The proportion with early discontinuation of antibiotics was not different between the virus types, P = 0.53.Conclusion: syndromic molecular POCT for viruses in adults with exacerbation of airways disease leads to early discontinuation in those positive for viruses. As most viruses detected were non-influenza viruses and there was no difference in antibiotic use between virus types, syndromic molecular POCT for respiratory viruses should be favored over uniplex POCT for influenza
Impact of point-of-care testing for respiratory viruses on antibiotic use in adults with exacerbation of airways disease
No full textBackground: the ResPOC study demonstrated that syndromic molecular point-of-care testing (POCT) for respiratory viruses was associated with early discontinuation of unnecessary antibiotics compared to routine clinical care. Subgroup analysis suggests these changes occur predominantly in patients with exacerbation of airways disease. Use of molecular POCT for respiratory viruses is becoming widespread but there is a lack of evidence to inform the choice between multiplex syndromic panels versus POCT for influenza only. Materials/methods: we evaluated patients from the ResPOC study with exacerbation of asthma or COPD who were treated with antibiotics. The duration of antibiotics and proportion with early discontinuation were compared between patients testing positive and negative for viruses by POCT, and controls. Patients testing positive for viruses by POCT were compared according to virus types. Results: 118 patient with exacerbation of airways disease received antibiotics in the POCT group and 111 in the control group. In the POCT group 49/118(42%) patients tested positive for viruses. Of those testing positive for viruses 17/49(35%) had early discontinuation of antibiotics versus 9/69(13%) testing negative and 7/111(6%) of controls, p<0.0001. Of those positive for viruses by POCT 10/49(20%) were positive for influenza, 21/49 43%) for rhinovirus and 18/49(37%) for other viruses. The proportion with early discontinuation of antibiotics was not different between the virus types (p=0.34). Conclusions: this data suggested that syndromic molecular POCT for respiratory viruses should be favoured over POCT for influenza alone in adults with exacerbation of airways disease.International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number (ISRCTN): 9021164
The relationship between anxiety and quality of life in patients with asthma: findings from the Breathing Retraining for Asthma Trial of Home Exercise (BREATHE) trial.
No full textBarriers to formal emergency obstetric care services’ utilization
Full text linkAccess to appropriate health care including skilled birth attendance at delivery and timely referrals to emergency obstetric care services can greatly reduce maternal deaths and disabilities, yet women in sub-Saharan Africa continue to face limited access to skilled delivery services. This study relies on qualitative data collected from residents of two slums in Nairobi, Kenya in 2006 to investigate views surrounding barriers to the uptake of formal obstetric services. Data indicate that slum dwellers prefer formal to informal obstetric services. However, their efforts to utilize formal emergency obstetric care services are constrained by various factors including ineffective health decision making at the family level, inadequate transport facilities to formal care facilities and insecurity at night, high cost of health services, and inhospitable formal service providers and poorly equipped health facilities in the slums. As a result, a majority of slum dwellers opt for delivery services offered by traditional birth attendants (TBAs) who lack essential skills and equipment, thereby increasing the risk of death and disability. Based on these findings, we maintain that urban poor women face barriers to access of formal obstetric services at family, community, and health facility levels, and efforts to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality among the urban poor must tackle the barriers, which operate at these different levels to hinder women's access to formal obstetric care services. We recommend continuous community education on symptoms of complications related to pregnancy and timely referral. A focus on training of health personnel on “public relations” could also restore confidence in the health-care system with this populace. Further, we recommend improving the health facilities in the slums, improving the services provided by TBAs through capacity building as well as involving TBAs in referral processes to make access to services timely. Measures can also be put in place to enhance security in the slums at night
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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