1,721,063 research outputs found
Emergency Department Pain Management and Its Impact On Patients’ Short Term Outcome
No full textAbstract: Background: Although pain is the most common complaint in the Emergency Department (ED), there is still a
lack of adequate pain treatment by Emergency Physicians. Aim of this study was to describe pain management in ED
from triage to discharge and to verify the effect of pain treatment in ED on a short term follow-up after discharge in order
to evaluate patient’s outcome.
Methods: A prospective multicentric study was conducted over two consecutive one week period in 4 ED teaching hospitals
in Italy. All patients presenting with an acute, painful condition were eligible to participate in the study. The complete
ED pain treatment was recorded, we enrolled 582 consecutive patients. One week after ED discharge a follow up evaluation
through a phone call on patient’s pain clinical condition was also obtained.
Results: There was a statistical significant difference between nurse and Emergency Physicians pain judgement (p<0.001).
During ED visit: 54.2% received non steroid anti inflammatory drug (NSAID), 12.2% received paracetamol and 9.9%
tramadol while morphine was used only in 5.6%of patients. Overall patient’s satisfaction at one-week follow-up was as
follows: in 63% of patients pain was completely absent, but on the other hand, 37% of patients had no pain relief, despite
analgesic therapy prescription.
Conclusion: In our study we found differences between nurses and physicians judgments, they disagreed on the severity
of pain. It was observed a low use of pain intensity scale with a formal measurement scales to assess pain. Our study
demonstrates the importance of adequate ED and analgesic drug prescription for patients referring for pain in ED, and follow
up assessment, many patients in follow up reported continued pain because of poor prescription of analgesic drug at
discharge from ED. Improving analgesia in ED seems to be crucial for patients’ quality of life and for preventing ED readmission
for relapse of pain
Twenty-four hour and early morning blood pressure control of olmesartan vs. ramipril in elderly hypertensive patients: pooled individual data analysis of two randomized, double-blind, parallel-group studies
No full textObjective: To assess the antihypertensive efficacy of olmesartan medoxomil and ramipril on 24-h ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) in elderly hypertensive patients by pooled data analysis of two studies with identical designs (one Italian, one European). Methods: After a 2-week placebo wash-out 1453 elderly hypertensive patients (65-89 years; sitting office DBP 90-109 mmHg and/or sitting office SBP 140-179 mmHg) were randomized to a 12-week double-blind treatment with olmesartan medoxomil 10 mg or ramipril 2.5 mg once-daily, up-titrated (20 and 40 mg olmesartan medoxomil; 5 and 10 mg ramipril) after 2 and 6 weeks in patients without normalized office BP. 24-h ABP was recorded at randomization and after 12 weeks. Results: In 715 patients with valid baseline and end-of-treatment recordings baseline-adjusted 24-h SBP and DBP reductions were greater with olmesartan medoxomil (n = 356) than with ramipril (n = 359) [between-treatment differences and 95% confidence interval (Cl), SBP: 2.2 (3.8, 0.6), P=0.006; DBP: 1.3 (2.2, 0.3), P=0.009]. Olmesartan medoxomil showed larger BP reductions in the last 6 h from the dosing interval and higher smoothness indices than ramipril. Olmesartan medoxomil reduced the SBP morning rise [-2.8 (-4.9, -0.8) mmHg], whereas ramipril did not [+1.5 (-0.6, +3.6) mmHg; P=0.004 between-treatments]. Five hundred and eighty-two patients with sustained hypertension (office and 24-h ambulatory hypertension) showed the largest antihypertensive effect, with between-treatment differences still in favor of olmesartan medoxomil [SBP: 2.1 (3.9, 0.4), P=0.019; DBP: 1.2 (2.3, 0.1), P=0.032]. Conclusions: Olmesartan medoxomil provides a more effective and sustained 24-h BP control than ramipril in elderly hypertensive patients, particularly in the hours farthest from last intake
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
A pilot clinical trial on a new point-of-care test for the diagnosis and fast management of urinary tract infections in the Emergency Department.
No full textBackground: Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are among the most common bacterial infections occurring
in both community and health care setting. Laboratory diagnosis of UTIs is attained by conventional urine
culture which identifis and quantifis infecting bacteria, followed by antibiotic susceptibility testing.
Ths approach is time consuming and requires a considerable workload. A user-friendly, automated test
for rapid bacterial quantifiation has been developed by MBS (a spin-of of Roma Tre University, Rome,
Italy) as a point-of-care test (POCT) for UTIs. Th aim of this study was to perform a preliminary clinical
trial of the new MBS POCT for diagnosis and management of UTIs.
Methods: A prospective diagnostic accuracy evaluation study was performed in collaboration with the
Emergency Department of the Azienda Ospedaliera Sant’Andrea of Rome (Italy), on 122 patients with
clinically suspected UTIs. Results of the MBS POCT were compared with those of the routine tests for
urine culture and antibiotic susceptibility.
Results: Th MBS POCT, used in the Emergency Department, provided a UTI diagnosis in < 5 hours
with very high accuracy, sensitivity and specifiity. However, antibiotic susceptibility evaluation provided
some false resistant results, when exceedingly high concentrations of bacteria were present in urines.
Conclusion: Th MBS POCT represents a valuable diagnostic tool for the detection of UTI, substantially
saving time and assuring comparable quality of results, ultimately facilitating the successful management
of infections. As for conventional antibiotic susceptibility tests, the bacterial inoculum is critical for
signifiance of results
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
- …
