BMC research notes
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Spirometry is commonly accepted as the gold standard for the diagnosis of COPD, but the reality remains that quality assured spirometry is not or cannot be provided universally around the globe. Adding PEF measurement to a screening questionnaire may rule out airflow limitation compatible with COPD rationalizing spirometry testing. ⋯ PEFR could be an easy, cheap, and non-biased tool to assist with the case-finding of COPD before confirmation with spirometry.
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Comparative Study
Assessing time to treatment and patient inflow in a Danish emergency department: a cohort study using data from electronic emergency screen boards.
The purpose of this study was to assess and describe the patient inflow during a 1-month period in a Danish emergency department and to evaluate if the intended times to treatment (TTT) related to category of triage were met. ⋯ The results demonstrated varying patterns of patient inflow between weekdays and weekends. There was a significantly increased risk of being attended late when arriving on evenings and nights. Likewise higher acuity was associated with exceeded TTT.
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Wernicke's encephalopathy is an acute neurological disorder resulting from thiamine deficiency mainly related to alcohol abuse. Severe thiamine deficiency is an emerging problem in non-alcoholic patients and it may develop in postoperative surgical patients with risk factors. ⋯ Early detection of subclinical thiamine deficiency is a difficult task, as symptoms may be nonspecific. Wernicke's disease remains a clinical diagnosis because there are no specific diagnostic abnormalities revealed in cerebrospinal fluid, electroencephalogram or evoked potentials. About this, the best aid for a correct diagnosis is the clinical suspicion and clinicians should consider the disorder in any patients with unbalanced nutrition, increased metabolism or impaired food absorption. A hallmark of our case was the brain hemorrhage in the typical areas of the Wernicke's disease, maybe triggered by the thrombocytopenia secondary to sepsis. It might be a good clinical practice administer thiamine to all patients presenting with coma or stupor and risk factors related with thiamine deficiency. Any therapeutic delay may result in permanent neurological damage or death.
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Case Reports
Post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis leading to posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome: a case report.
Posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome is a clinical radiographic syndrome of heterogeneous etiologies. Developing hypertensive encephalopathy following post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis is a known but uncommon manifestation and developing posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome in such a situation is very rare. We report a case with contrast-enhanced computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging findings of posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome in the background of acute post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis. ⋯ Post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis is an important cause of acute nephritic syndrome especially in children. This case report illustrates a rare association of posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome in a patient with post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis.
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The nucleus accumbens (NAc) has a well established role in reward processing. Yet, there is growing evidence showing that NAc function, and its connections to other parts of the brain, is also critically involved in the emergence of chronic back pain (CBP). Pain patients are known to perform abnormally in reward-related tasks, which suggests an intriguing link between pain, NAc connectivity, and reward behavior. In the present study, we compared performance on a gambling task (indicating willingness to risk losing money) between healthy pain-free controls (CON) and individuals with CBP. We then measured modular connectivity of each participants' NAc with resting state functional MRI to investigate how connectivity accounts for reward behavior in the presence and absence of pain. ⋯ Our results support previous findings that chronic back pain is accompanied by altered connectivity of the NAc. This lends itself to riskier behavior in these patients, a finding which establishes a potential cognitive consequence or co-morbidity of long-term pain and provides a behavioral link to growing research showing that chronic pain is related to abnormal changes in the dopaminergic system.