Plos One
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Arguments that abortion causes women emotional harm are used to regulate abortion, particularly later procedures, in the United States. However, existing research is inconclusive. We examined women's emotions and reports of whether the abortion decision was the right one for them over the three years after having an induced abortion. ⋯ Women experienced decreasing emotional intensity over time, and the overwhelming majority of women felt that termination was the right decision for them over three years. Emotional support may be beneficial for women having abortions who report intended pregnancies or difficulty deciding.
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Multicenter Study
Barriers in referring neonatal patients to perinatal palliative care: a French multicenter survey.
When an incurable fetal condition is detected, some women (or couples) would rather choose to continue with the pregnancy than opt for termination of pregnancy for medical reasons, which, in France, can be performed until full term. Such situations are frequently occurring and sometimes leading to the implementation of neonatal palliative care. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the practices of perinatal care french professionals in this context; to identify the potential obstacles that might interfere with the provision of an appropriate neonatal palliative care; and, from an opposite perspective, to determine the criteria that led, in some cases, to offer this type of care for prenatally diagnosed lethal abnormality. ⋯ Our study reveals the clear need for training perinatal professionals in perinatal palliative care and for the standardization of practices in this field.
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Human keratinocytes are difficult to isolate and have a limited lifespan. Traditionally, immortalised keratinocyte cell lines are used in vitro due to their ability to bypass senescence and survive indefinitely. However these cells do not fully retain their ability to differentiate in vitro and they are unable to form a normal stratum corneum in organotypic culture. ⋯ The removal of Y-27632 and the addition of high calcium to induce differentiation allowed the cells to behave as primary keratinocytes even after extended serial passaging. Prolonged lifespan HEK-CaYs were capable of forming an organised stratified epidermis in 3D HSE cultures, demonstrating their ability to fully stratify and retain their original, primary characteristics. In conclusion, the use of 0.07 mM Calcium and 10 μM Y-27632 in HEKn monocultures provides the opportunity to culture primary human keratinocytes without a cell feeder layer for extended periods of culture whilst retaining their ability to differentiate and form a stratified epithelium.
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Multicenter Study
Complaints and Diagnoses of Emergency Department Patients in the Netherlands: A Comparative Study of Integrated Primary and Emergency Care.
In the Netherlands, an increasing number of emergency departments (EDs) and general practitioner cooperatives collaborate by creating one Emergency-Care-Access-Point (ECAP). This has resulted in fewer patients at ECAP EDs. The objective of this study was to explore differences in patient characteristics, presented complaints and ED discharge diagnoses between EDs with an ECAP and EDs without an ECAP. ⋯ Compared to non-ECAP EDs, patients at ECAP EDs were older, medical professionals referred more patients and more patients received a hospital admission. We found some small differences in discharge diagnoses between ECAP EDs compared to non-ECAP EDs, but no difference in presented complaints.
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Sepsis is a lethal and complex clinical syndrome caused by infection or suspected infection. Cold-inducible RNA-binding protein (CIRP) is a widely distributed cold-shock protein that plays a proinflammatory role in sepsis and that may induce organ damage. However, clinical studies regarding the use of CIRP for the prognostic evaluation of sepsis are lacking. The purpose of this research was to investigate the prognostic significance of peripheral blood concentrations of CIRP in sepsis. Sepsis was assessed using several common measures, including the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) score; the Sepsis-related Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score; the lactate, serum creatinine, and procalcitonin (PCT) levels; the white blood cell (WBC) count; and the neutrophil ratio (N%). ⋯ An elevated plasma concentration of CIRP was significantly associated with poor prognosis among patients with sepsis. Therefore, CIRP is a potential predictor of sepsis prognosis.