Bmc Med
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Multicenter Study
Circulating mRNAs are differentially expressed in pregnancies with severe placental insufficiency and at high risk of stillbirth.
Fetuses affected by placental insufficiency do not receive adequate nutrients and oxygenation, become growth restricted and acidemic, and can demise. Preterm fetal growth restriction is a severe form of placental insufficiency with a high risk of stillbirth. We set out to identify maternal circulating mRNA transcripts that are differentially expressed in preterm pregnancies complicated by very severe placental insufficiency, in utero fetal acidemia, and are at very high risk of stillbirth. ⋯ Measuring circulating mRNA offers potential as a test to identify pregnancies with severe placental insufficiency and at very high risk of stillbirth. Circulating mRNA EMP1 may be promising as a biomarker of severe placental insufficiency.
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Antimicrobial resistance is driven by the overuse of antibiotics. This study aimed to develop and validate clinical prediction models for the risk of infection-related hospital admission with upper respiratory infection (URTI), lower respiratory infection (LRTI) and urinary tract infection (UTI). These models were used to investigate whether there is an association between the risk of an infection-related complication and the probability of receiving an antibiotic prescription. ⋯ The risk for infection-related hospital admissions varied substantially between patients, but prescribing of antibiotics in primary care was not associated with risk of hospitalisation due to infection-related complications. Our findings highlight the potential role of clinical prediction models to help inform decisions of prescribing of antibiotics in primary care.
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Reconfiguration of urgent and emergency care services often increases travel time/distance for patients to reach an appropriate facility. Evidence of the effects of reconfiguration is important for local communities and commissioners and providers of health services. ⋯ We found insufficient evidence to determine whether increased distance to UEC increases mortality risk for the general population of people requiring UEC, although this conclusion may not extend to people with specific conditions.
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Cardiovascular Risk Factors, Aging, and Incidence of Dementia (CAIDE) risk score is the only currently available midlife risk score for dementia. We compared CAIDE to Framingham cardiovascular Risk Score (FRS) and FINDRISC diabetes score as predictors of dementia and assessed the role of age in their associations with dementia. We then examined whether these risk scores were associated with dementia in those free of cardiometabolic disease over the follow-up. ⋯ Our analyses of CAIDE, FRS, and FINDRISC show the FRS in midlife to predict dementia as well as the CAIDE risk score, its predictive value being also evident among individuals who did not develop cardiometabolic events. The importance of age in the predictive performance of all three risk scores highlights the need for the development of multivariable risk scores in midlife for primary prevention of dementia.