Lancet
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Eukaryotic chromosomes end with telomeres, which shorten with cellular ageing. We investigated whether atherosclerosis is associated with systemic evidence of accelerated cellular ageing. ⋯ Adjusting for age and sex, cases had mean TRF lengths of 303 (SD 90) base pairs shorter than those of controls (p=0.002)-ie, equivalent in size to individuals with no CAD who are 8.6 years older. Although this is a pilot study, the findings could be relevant to the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis.
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Qualitative research methods could help us to improve our understanding of medicine. Rather than thinking of qualitative and quantitative strategies as incompatible, they should be seen as complementary. ⋯ In this article I propose relevance, validity, and reflexivity as overall standards for qualitative inquiry. I will discuss the specific challenges in relation to reflexivity, transferability, and shared assumptions of interpretation, which are met by medical researchers who do this type of research, and I will propose guidelines for qualitative inquiry.
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Letter
The incidence of out-of-hospital ventricular fibrillation in Helsinki, Finland, from 1994 to 1999.
Early defibrillation by emergency medical services has been a success story in the treatment of ventricular fibrillation. This success has been followed by recommendations to allow public access to defibrillation equipment. ⋯ We found that the incidence of out-of-hospital ventricular fibrillation of cardiac origin fell by 48% from 1994 to 1999 (p=0.0036). The primary and secondary prevention of coronary artery disease may not be the only reasons for this change and so new public-access defibrillation programmes should be delayed until our findings are confirmed.