The New England journal of medicine
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Multicenter Study
A surgical safety checklist to reduce morbidity and mortality in a global population.
Surgery has become an integral part of global health care, with an estimated 234 million operations performed yearly. Surgical complications are common and often preventable. We hypothesized that a program to implement a 19-item surgical safety checklist designed to improve team communication and consistency of care would reduce complications and deaths associated with surgery. ⋯ Implementation of the checklist was associated with concomitant reductions in the rates of death and complications among patients at least 16 years of age who were undergoing noncardiac surgery in a diverse group of hospitals.
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Exposure to fine-particulate air pollution has been associated with increased morbidity and mortality, suggesting that sustained reductions in pollution exposure should result in improved life expectancy. This study directly evaluated the changes in life expectancy associated with differential changes in fine particulate air pollution that occurred in the United States during the 1980s and 1990s. ⋯ A reduction in exposure to ambient fine-particulate air pollution contributed to significant and measurable improvements in life expectancy in the United States.
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Clopidogrel requires transformation into an active metabolite by cytochrome P-450 (CYP) enzymes for its antiplatelet effect. The genes encoding CYP enzymes are polymorphic, with common alleles conferring reduced function. ⋯ Among persons treated with clopidogrel, carriers of a reduced-function CYP2C19 allele had significantly lower levels of the active metabolite of clopidogrel, diminished platelet inhibition, and a higher rate of major adverse cardiovascular events, including stent thrombosis, than did noncarriers.
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Pharmacogenetic determinants of the response of patients to clopidogrel contribute to variability in the biologic antiplatelet activity of the drug. The effect of these determinants on clinical outcomes after an acute myocardial infarction is unknown. ⋯ Among patients with an acute myocardial infarction who were receiving clopidogrel, those carrying CYP2C19 loss-of-function alleles had a higher rate of subsequent cardiovascular events than those who were not. This effect was particularly marked among the patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention. (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00673036.)