Medicine
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This study is to summarize the status of knowledge, attitudes, implementation, facilitators, and barriers of evidence-based practice (EBP) in community nurses (CNs). EBP has been widely adopted but the knowledge, attitudes, and implementation of EBP among CNs, and the facilitators and barriers they perceived have not been clearly confirmed. ⋯ Findings demonstrate a compelling need for improvement in knowledge and implementation of EBP in CNs, compared with the better attitudes. Except education, knowledge translating into implementation needs more coordination with authorities to magnify the facilitators and overcome the barriers. Further studies need to concentrate on deficient knowledge and implementation of EBP among CNs. Policy makers can use the facilitators and barriers found by this review to modify nursing education, current scientific resources supplement, practice supports for care improving.
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The decision as to whether patients should be admitted to a medical intensive care unit (ICU), in the absence of information concerning survival rates or prognostic factors in survival, is often challenging. We analyzed survival trends in relation to hospital discharge and examined patient and hospital characteristics associated with survival following ICU care, using a sample of nationwide claims data in Korea from 2002 through 2013. The Korean government implements a compulsory social insurance program that covers the country's entire population, and the Korean National Health Insurance Service-National Sample Cohort (NHIS-NSC) data from 2002 based on this program were used for this study. ⋯ The mean number of mechanical equipment items applied consistently increased, while no difference was observed in the trend for overall 1-year survival in patients following ICU treatment across the study period: the 1-year survival rate ranged from 66.7% (year 2003) to 64.2% (year 2010). Advanced age, cancer, renal failure, pneumonia, and influenza were all associated with heightened risk of mortality within 1 year. Our results should prove useful to older patients and their clinicians in their decisions regarding whether to seek ICU care, with the goals of improving the end-of life care and optimizing resource utilization.
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The aim of this study was to evaluate the application of transthoracic echocardiography for the diagnosis of infective endocarditis (IE) to provide a basis for the better treatment of IE. From October 2016 to October 2018, 87 consecutive patients with IE at our hospital were selected for this study. All the patients were subjected to transthoracic echocardiography. ⋯ No significant differences were found between echocardiography and actual surgical observations with respect to their accuracy in detecting the size, number, and location of vegetation in the 69 patients who underwent surgery (P > .05). Echocardiography could detect the occurrence of severe complications, namely, the rupture of chordae tendineae, valve prolapse, valve perforation, and paravalvular abscess, and no significant difference in diagnostic accuracy was found between echocardiography and surgical observations (P > .05). Transthoracic echocardiography can rapidly and accurately detect IE vegetation and its complications and has important clinical value for guiding clinical treatment and determining prognosis.
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Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the interleukin 28B (IL28B) gene has proven to be associated with the clinical outcome of patients with chronic hepatitis virus B or C (HBV or HCV) infections. However, whether IL28B SNPs have an influence on the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) among patients with HBV or HCV infection remains controversial. Therefore, this study aims to determine the association between IL28B polymorphisms and the risk of HCC in individuals with HBV or HCV infection. ⋯ Sensitivity analyses suggested the robustness of the results in this meta-analysis. Both IL28B rs12979860 CC and rs8099917 TT genotypes are protective factors for the development of HCC among patients with HBV or HCV infection. Future prospective studies examining the impact of IL28B polymorphisms on the risk of HCC and investigating the underlying mechanism for the protective role of IL28B polymorphisms in HCC development are warranted.
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To assess whether the ultrasound (US) is a reliable approach in detecting lower-limb deep-vein thrombosis (DVT) in patients without symptoms of DVT. ⋯ US could be a useful tool for diagnosing DVT, but it has a lower positive rate and a higher false negative rate. The rate of missed diagnosis of lower-limb DVT by US amounts to 50% or so in the patients without symptoms of DVT. The negative results do not preclude the possibility of DVT and if appropriate heightened surveillance and continued monitoring or try a more accurate inspection method is warranted. The whole leg evaluation and color/doppler technique should be the preferred approach.