Irish journal of medical science
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Competency-based medical education has been emerging as a new educational model for learning. The development of medical education in Middle Eastern countries lacks basic literature in the area of medical education, particularly competency-based medical education (CBME). ⋯ The Englander's common taxonomy scale is valid and reliable among Lebanese medical students and could be used for concise assessment of current and past medical education in faculties among Lebanese medical students. Using such scales can be used in assessing the improvement of medical education towards CBME.
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Repeated intravitreal injections (IVI) have become the therapeutic standard of care for multiple retinal conditions. Reducing discomfort and anxiety around IVIs is important to ensure ongoing patient compliance with therapy. ⋯ Patient stress levels are considerably reduced when their hand is held during IVI. Handholding is a useful intervention throughout the patient journey and not solely at the time of initiation of treatment.
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Review Case Reports
Nitrous oxide-induced myeloneuropathy: an emerging public health issue.
Increasing use of nitrous oxide as a recreational drug has been reported among young adults in western countries over the past decade. We present two cases of young males presenting to the Emergency Department (ED) of a large urban university hospital in Dublin with progressive neurological dysfunction related to nitrous oxide use. We review the pathophysiology, clinical features and treatment of nitrous oxide neurotoxicity. It is important that clinicians are aware of this evolving public health issue and are able to recognize the clinical features of this rare presentation, which may become more common in Irish EDs and GP surgeries as nitrous oxide abuse becomes more prevalent.
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HbA1c is the established test for monitoring glycaemic control in diabetes, and intervention trials studying the impact of treatment on glycaemic control and risk of complications focus predominantly on this parameter in terms of evaluating the glycaemic outcomes. It is also the main parameter used when targets for control are being individualised, and more recently, it has been used for the diagnosis of type 2 diabetes. ⋯ The changing demographic in the Irish population over the last two decades has brought this issue sharply into focus. It is therefore timely to review the utility, performance and interpretation of the HbA1c test to highlight factors impacting on the results, specifically the impact of haemoglobin variants, and the impact of these factors on its utilisation in clinical practice.
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Immunomodulation by colchicine is a well-established therapy for targeting inflammatory pathways in gout, pericarditis and Behchet's disease. In more recent times, evidence has emerged demonstrating a potential role for colchicine in several cardiac conditions. This article aims to summarise the evidence behind the established guidelines for use of low-dose colchicine in pericarditis and examine the evolving evidence for its use in cardiovascular disease and most recently COVID-19.