The American journal of the medical sciences
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Effect of Story-Based Audiovisual Mnemonics in Comparison with Text-Reading Method on Memory Consolidation among Medical Students: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
Traditional teaching methods via faculty lectures and text-based materials lack interactivity. Hence, this research aimed to compare the effectiveness of story-based audiovisual mnemonics and the conventional text-reading method on medical students' memory consolidation. ⋯ The story-based audiovisual mnemonics method is more effective than the conventional text-reading method in promoting memory retention among medical students.
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Asymptomatic cardiac involvement in systemic sclerosis (SSc) has been reported. Long-term follow-up might elucidate the clinical implications of these abnormalities. The aim was to identify the clinical outcomes of asymptomatic cardiac involvement in SSc patients after 2 years of follow-up. ⋯ Cardiac involvement in SSc can progress slowly or even be reversed. Based on a previous test, the incidence of symptomatic cardiac involvement after 2 years was low despite its being a persistent involvement. If symptomatic cardiac involvement develops, PAH is the most prevalent symptom.
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The therapeutic benefits and rationale for treating fevers with external cooling methods remain unclear. We aimed to describe the clinical settings in which cooling blankets (CBs) are used. ⋯ Documentation of CB use including temperature set points, time of discontinuation and duration in EMRs was poor. We could not establish benefits of CB use in this study but observed that almost a third of patients developed adverse effects in the form of shivering. Thus, adverse effects of CB use may outweigh potential benefits. Their use should be reevaluated and institutional protocols developed for their use.
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Infective endocarditis (IE) is associated with considerable morbidity and mortality. Given the opioid crisis and emergence of drug-resistant organisms, we sought to examine annual trends in hospitalization rates for IE and potential epidemiologic shift in the causative microorganisms among patients with and without injection drug use (IDU). ⋯ The rising incidence of IE in younger and older persons is driven in part by the opioid public health crisis and higher prevalence of indwelling central venous catheters, respectively. Timely treatment of opioid use disorders and stewardship surrounding use of central venous catheters is urgently needed.
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As the Modified Anticoagulation and Risk Factors in Atrial Fibrillation Risk Score (M-ATRIA-RS) encompasses prognostic risk factors of novel coronavirus-2019 (COVID-19), it may be used to predict in-hospital mortality. We aimed to investigate whether M-ATRIA-RS was an independent predictor of mortality in patients hospitalized for COVID-19 and compare its discrimination capability with CHADS, CHA2DS2-VASc, and modified CHA2DS2-VASc (mCHA2DS2-VASc)-RS. ⋯ M-ATRIA-RS is useful to predict in-hospital mortality among patients hospitalized with COVID-19. In addition, it is superior to the mCHA2DS2-VASc-RS in predicting mortality in patients with COVID-19 and is more easily calculable than the CCI score.