Tag: nevin manimala

Nurse Educ Today. 2022 Mar 3;111:105322. doi: 10.1016/j.nedt.2022.105322. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Social media are a suite of popular online technologies that enable people to share and co-create digital content. Evidence suggests some nursing students utilise social media inappropriately but there is limited literature on nursing students’ opinions of professionalism in online environments. This study aimed to examine the opinions of nursing students in relation to digital professionalism on social media.

METHOD: A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted with undergraduate nursing students in the United Kingdom (n = 112). An existing self-reported questionnaire was adapted for data collection. This was distributed to adult nursing students enrolled across all four years of a Bachelor of Nursing programme. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics.

FINDINGS: Many nursing students were heavy social media users (n = 49, 44%), with Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat being the most popular applications. Nursing students were also aware of the professional nursing regulator, the Nursing and Midwifery Council, guidelines on responsible social media use (n = 48, 43%). Nursing students’ responses to various digitally professional scenarios revealed agreement that posts about alcohol or sexually explicit content, along with comments about colleagues or patients were inappropriate. However, there were mixed views around taking photographs at work, with some nursing students across all four years of the degree programme perceiving this to be satisfactory behaviour.

DISCUSSION: The opinions of nursing students towards digital professionalism on social media are somewhat aligned with professional standards, although students can hold varying views on the subject. More research on how nursing students employ social media is warranted to ensure their opinions match their actual practice in online environments. It is also recommended to educate nursing students about the professional values and behaviours required on social media and how best to communicate, interact, and share information on the various online platforms, to minimise personal and organisational risk.

PMID:35263709 | DOI:10.1016/j.nedt.2022.105322

Clin Nutr. 2022 Feb 11;41(4):829-837. doi: 10.1016/j.clnu.2022.01.034. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Skeletal muscle area (SMA) in the computed tomography (CT) at the third lumbar vertebra (L3) level is a proxy for whole-body muscle mass but is only performed for clinical reasons. Ultrasound is a promising tool to determine muscle mass at the bedside. It is still unclear how well ultrasound and which ultrasound measuring points can predict CT L3 SMA.

METHODS: This prospective observational trial included 200 non-critically ill patients, who underwent an abdominal CT scan for any clinical reason within 48 h before the ultrasound examination. Ultrasound muscle thickness was evaluated at 3 measuring points on the thigh and 2 measuring points on the upper arm with minimal compression. On the CT scan, the entire L3 SMA was measured based on Hounsfield units. Using a model selection algorithm based on the Bayesian information criterion (BIC) and clinical considerations, a linear prediction model for CT L3 SMA based on the ultrasound muscle thickness and other independent variables was fitted and assessed with cross-validation.

RESULTS: 67,5% and 32,5% of the patients were from surgical and medical wards, respectively. Mean ultrasound muscle thickness values were between 2,2 and 3,6 cm on the thigh and between 1,4 and 2,8 cm on the upper arm. All ultrasound muscle thickness values were higher in men than in women (P < 0,05). CT L3 SMA was 40 cm² higher in men than in women (P < 0,001). The final prediction model for CT L3 SMA included the following 4 independent variables: ultrasound muscle thickness at the ventral measuring point of the thigh in the short-axis plane, sex, weight, and height. It had a similar BIC (BIC of 1515) compared to larger models with 6-8 independent variables including multiple ultrasound measuring points (BIC of 1506-1519). Additional clinical considerations to choose the final model were less time consumption when measuring a single ultrasound measuring point and better anatomical overview at the short-axis plane. The final model predicted CT L3 SMA with a R² of 0,74 (P < 0,001) and a cross-validated R² of 0,65.

CONCLUSIONS: One single ultrasound measuring point at the thigh together with sex, height and weight very well predicts CT L3 SMA across different clinical populations. Ultrasound is a safe and bedside method to measure muscle thickness longitudinally to monitor the effects of nutrition and physical therapy.

PMID:35263692 | DOI:10.1016/j.clnu.2022.01.034

J Stomatol Oral Maxillofac Surg. 2022 Mar 6:S2468-7855(22)00055-6. doi: 10.1016/j.jormas.2022.03.009. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: The aims of this study were to evaluate periodontal bone defects around the lower and upper incisors and to identify changes in the buccolingual inclination of the incisors during orthodontic decompensation in skeletal Class III orthognathic surgery patients.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: The sample consisted of 26 adults with skeletal Class III deformity who had undergone presurgical orthodontic treatment and orthognathic surgery. Lateral cephalograms obtained before orthodontic treatment and before surgery were used to determine the inclination and position changes of the incisors. Cephalometric measurements were taken using Dolphin Imaging 11.95. Three-dimensional images were generated from cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) scans prior to surgery and used to detect periodontal bone defects, including fenestration (F) and dehiscence (D).

RESULTS: Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) were determined and the measurements showed high reproducibility. The cephalometric data showed normal distribution and there were no differences between genders in terms of cephalometric changes, dehiscence, fenestration, or coexistent (D-F/DF) formation. The patients presented maxillary incisor retroclination and mandibular incisor proclination, which was consistent with the tooth decompensation. CBCT assessment was performed for a total of 208 teeth; while 81 upper and 94 lower incisors had D-F/DF formation, 23 upper and 10 lower incisors were healthy. Statistically significant correlations were not found between the inclination degree of the incisors and D-F/DF formation.

CONCLUSIONS: Decompensation of incisors during presurgical orthodontic treatment increases the risk of periodontal defects. There is no linear relationship between the increase in the inclination degrees of incisors and D-F/DF formation.

PMID:35263684 | DOI:10.1016/j.jormas.2022.03.009

Accid Anal Prev. 2022 Mar 6;169:106610. doi: 10.1016/j.aap.2022.106610. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates the determinants of injury severities in pedestrian-motor vehicle accidents at signalised and unsignalised junctions, and at physically-controlled and human-controlled crossings in Scotland. The accident data were drawn from the official police crash report database of the UK spanning a period between 2010 and 2018. Correlated random parameter ordered probit models with heterogeneity in the means were developed in order to account for the multi-layered impact of unobserved heterogeneity on statistical estimation. The model estimation results showed that the severities of accident injuries are affected by roadway, location, weather, vehicle, and driver characteristics as well as temporal attributes (including time and day of the accident). Factors such as the urban context, lighting and weather conditions and road surface conditions were found to result in correlated random parameters, thus capturing the intricate, yet interactive effects of unobserved heterogeneity, and particularly the unobserved behavioural response of road users to different traffic control types at junctions and crossings. Vehicle type, driver’s gender and day-of-the-week were observed to influence the random parameters’ distributions. Empirically, the results showcase variations in the determinants of injury severities at signalised and unsignalised junctions, and at physically-controlled and human-controlled crossings. Even though most of these variations were related to the magnitude of impact of the determinants, differences in the directional effects on injury severities were also identified, mainly for factors related to weather conditions, hazard presence on the road, and temporal characteristics of the accidents.

PMID:35263674 | DOI:10.1016/j.aap.2022.106610

Clin Immunol. 2022 Mar 6:108965. doi: 10.1016/j.clim.2022.108965. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) etiopathogenesis still remains complex, but involvement of several immune cells is evident. Present study focusses on evaluation of polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNs) in RA patients and healthy controls. From generation of oxidative species, release of inflammatory cytokines and matrix-degrading proteases, PMNs possess the ability to mediate immunological responses. Intracellular and mitochondrial ROS in PMNs and other oxidative parameters including catalase, superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, reduced glutathione and lipid peroxidation were measured in PMNs and serum samples. Gene regulation studies involved in oxidative (Keap1 and Nrf2) and degradative pathways (MMP2 and MMP9) were done using DNA methylation analysis. Intracellular expression levels of Keap1, Nrf2, Dnmt1, MMP2, and MMP9 were analyzed using flowcytometry in patients and controls. Moreover, serum levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α were also measured. Comparative measurements amongst patients and controls were statistically analyzed, and correlations were made with disease severity scores (DAS28 ESR).

PMID:35263664 | DOI:10.1016/j.clim.2022.108965

Photodiagnosis Photodyn Ther. 2022 Mar 6:102795. doi: 10.1016/j.pdpdt.2022.102795. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has shown satisfactory antibacterial effects. However, few information regarding the cytotoxicity potential of PDT using curcumin as a photosensitizer (PS) on fibroblasts are found. The aim of this in vitro study was to evaluate the cytotoxicity of root canal irrigating solutions and photodynamic therapy with curcumin PS on the L-929 cell line.

METHODS: Healthy mouse skin fibroblast cells were distributed into the following 7 experimental groups: G1 – culture medium DMEM (control group); G2 – 0.9% sodium chloride; G3 – 2.5% sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl); G4 – 5% NaOCl; G5 – PDT with curcumin PS at 500 mg/L + blue LED; G6 – PDT with curcumin PS at 750 mg/L + blue LED; and G7 – PDT with curcumin PS at 1000 mg/L + blue LED. All experimental groups which underwent PDT action were submitted to blue LED for 4 minutes, with a wavelength of 480 nm and energy fluency of 75 J/cm². The cultures were maintained under standard cell culture conditions (37°C, 100% humidity, 5% CO₂). Cell viability analysis was performed using the colorimetric method to evaluate the periods of 6, 24, and 48 hours. Data were subjected to the Kruskal-Wallis test, followed by the Dunn test to compare groups and Friedman test to compare periods (α = 0.05).

RESULTS: When comparing the periods, no significant differences were observed for any of the experimental groups analyzed (p > 0.05), except for the NaOCl_2.5 group that exhibited higher cell viability at 6 hours compared to the period of 48 hours (p = 0.0489). In the comparisons of the experimental groups, there were no statistically significant differences between the control group compared to all disinfection protocols, regardless of the period evaluated (p > 0.05), except for the PDT + C₁₀₀₀ group that showed lower cell viability (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: PDT with curcumin at 1000 mg/L was cytotoxic on L-929 fibroblast cell culture. However, laser-activated curcumin at a concentration of 500 mg/L presented no influence on L-929 fibroblast cell viability in in vitro conditions.

PMID:35263668 | DOI:10.1016/j.pdpdt.2022.102795

Exp Eye Res. 2022 Mar 6:109019. doi: 10.1016/j.exer.2022.109019. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) patients commonly experience negative psychological states due to their progressive and unpredictable loss of vision and visual variations related to stress. The aim of this study was to examine hair cortisol concentrations (HCCs), which is usually associated with chronic stress, pretending to unveil possible associations between underlying psychological factors and disease severity in RP patients.

METHODS: Seventy-eight RP patients and 148 healthy controls were included in this A complete ophthalmological exam was performed in all patients to grade into severity disease groups. Perceived stress and trait-anxiety were measured by the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) questionnaire.

RESULTS: Fifty-two (67%) patients had severe RP and 26 (33%) mild-moderate RP. Fifty-eight (58,9%) patients reported severely levels of stress and 18 (23.,1%) highly levels assessed by STAI questionnaire. RP patients exhibited higher HCCs (500.04 ± 120.99 pg/mg) than in controls (136.17 ± 60.51 pg/mg; p < 0.001). Severe RP patients had significant higher HCCs than mild-moderate patients differing in 274.27pg/mg (p < 0.001). RP severity grade and perceived anxiety levels in the questionaries were not associated. Group differences were not affected by relevant covariates (age, grade of severity, stress status, and gender).

CONCLUSIONS: HCC seems an effective biomarker associated with chronic stress in RP patients. This study shows that HCC in patients with RP are elevated compared to population-based controls, and association between HCC and RP severity was found. Future research is needed to characterize the effect of untreated negative psychological states on progression of the disease if any.

PMID:35263654 | DOI:10.1016/j.exer.2022.109019

Comput Methods Programs Biomed. 2022 Feb 25;218:106714. doi: 10.1016/j.cmpb.2022.106714. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Abnormalities of the heart motion reveal the presence of a disease. However, a quantitative interpretation of the motion is still a challenge due to the complex dynamics of the heart. This work proposes a quantitative characterization of regional cardiac motion patterns in cine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) by a novel spatio-temporal saliency descriptor.

METHOD: The strategy starts by dividing the cardiac sequence into a progression of scales which are in due turn mapped to a feature space of regional orientation changes, mimicking the multi-resolution decomposition of oriented primitive changes of visual systems. These changes are estimated as the difference between a particular time and the rest of the sequence. This decomposition is then temporarily and regionally integrated for a particular orientation and then for the set of different orientations. A final spatio-temporal 4D saliency map is obtained as the summation of the previously integrated information for the available scales. The saliency dispersion of this map was computed in standard cardiac locations as a measure of the regional motion pattern and was applied to discriminate control and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) subjects during the diastolic phase.

RESULTS: Salient motion patterns were estimated from an experimental set, which consisted of 3D sequences acquired by MRI from 108 subjects (33 control, 35 HCM, 20 dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), and 20 myocardial infarction (MINF) from heterogeneous datasets). HCM and control subjects were classified by an SVM that learned the salient motion patterns estimated from the presented strategy, by achieving a 94% AUC. In addition, statistical differences (test t-student, p<0.05) were found among groups of disease in the septal and anterior ventricular segments at both the ED and ES, with salient motion characteristics aligned with existing knowledge on the diseases.

CONCLUSIONS: Regional wall motion abnormality in the apical, anterior, basal, and inferior segments was associated with the saliency dispersion in HCM, DCM, and MINF compared to healthy controls during the systolic and diastolic phases. This saliency analysis may be used to detect subtle changes in heart function.

PMID:35263659 | DOI:10.1016/j.cmpb.2022.106714

Contraception. 2022 Mar 6:S0010-7824(22)00059-2. doi: 10.1016/j.contraception.2022.02.011. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: The primary aim of this project was to facilitate access to contraception at the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus by offering telehealth as an alternative option to an in-person contraception visit. The secondary aim was to assess patient feedback regarding telehealth contraception encounters and generate descriptive statistics of the 366 unique telehealth patients.

STUDY DESIGN: We implemented this quality improvement project from August 20, 2018 through December 31, 2018 at the University Health Services (UHS) Women’s Health Clinic at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Patients completed a health history form online and scheduled a 15 minute phone call appointment with a provider. Providers addressed concerns, contraindications, screening recommendations and prescribe a patient selected contraceptive method over the phone or schedule a LARC appointment. After the telehealth encounter, we invited patients to complete a confidential electronic patient satisfaction survey.

RESULTS: In the fall of 2018, there were 3,413 contraception visits, 371 (11%) of which were telehealth encounters, an overall 7.8% increase in total Women’s Health visits compared to the same time period in the previous year. The response rate of the satisfaction survey was 41%, with 97% of respondents reporting being very satisfied or satisfied with the telehealth option.

CONCLUSIONS: Offering telehealth as an option for contraceptive visits improved capacity by increasing the total number of available appointments, including both in-person and telehealth visits. Additionally, telehealth may reduce barriers to reproductive health care with high patient satisfaction assessed prior to pandemic restrictions.

IMPLICATION STATEMENT: This study supports telehealth as an option for health systems to improve capacity by increasing the total number of available appointments, as well as reduce barriers to reproductive health care. Our patients found value in telehealth for contraceptive appointments prior to the major shift to telehealth with the onset of the pandemic, suggesting that this value may likely remain in the post-pandemic future.

PMID:35263651 | DOI:10.1016/j.contraception.2022.02.011

Toxicol In Vitro. 2022 Mar 6:105344. doi: 10.1016/j.tiv.2022.105344. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Bile acids (BA) are known to influence the susceptibility of hepatocytes to chemicals. We investigated the cytotoxicity of 18 compounds with known hepatotoxicity status and pharmacokinetics in cultivated primary human hepatocytes with and without the addition of a BA mix to the cell culture medium. This BA mix consisted of physiological ratios of the most abundant human BA at a cholestatic sum concentration of 0.5 mM, which corresponds to 50% of the EC₁₀ (cytotoxicity) of the mix. The BA mix decreased the EC₁₀ of 7 compounds by a factor greater than 1.5, but also increased the EC₁₀ of 5 compounds. The compounds with increased susceptibility include the known hepatotoxicants and BSEP/MRP2 inhibitors rifampicin, ketoconazole, atorvastatin, and cyclosporin A. However, the cytotoxicity of some non-hepatotoxic compounds was also enhanced, among them glucose, which is not known to be an inhibitor of canalicular bile acid export. A recently established technique to quantify how well hepatotoxic and non-hepatotoxic compounds are separated by an in vitro test indicated that the addition of the BA mix did not improve separation. In conclusion, the addition of BA to cultivated hepatocytes leads to a complex situation with increased and decreased susceptibilities depending on the specific compound.

PMID:35263627 | DOI:10.1016/j.tiv.2022.105344