Articles: function.
-
Empathy is characterized as the ability to share one's experience and is associated with altruism. Previous work using blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) functional MRI (fMRI) has found that empathy is associated with greater activation in brain mechanisms supporting mentalizing (temporoparietal junction), salience (anterior cingulate cortex; insula), and self-reference (medial prefrontal cortex; precuneus). However, BOLD fMRI has some limitations that may not reliably capture the tonic experience of empathy. ⋯ There was significantly (P = 0.01) higher empathy while viewing a romantic partner in pain and greater cerebral blood flow in the right temporoparietal junction, amygdala, anterior insula, orbitofrontal cortex, and precuneus when compared with the stranger. Higher empathy was associated with greater precuneus and primary visual cortical activation. The present findings indicate that brain mechanisms supporting the embodiment of another's experience is associated with higher empathy.
-
Critical care medicine · Oct 2024
Characteristics of Patients Hospitalized in Rural and Urban ICUs From 2010 to 2019.
Rural hospitals are threatened by workforce shortages and financial strain. To optimize regional critical care delivery, it is essential to understand what types of patients receive intensive care in rural and urban hospitals. ⋯ Rural hospitals care for an increasingly complex critically ill patient population with similar organ dysfunction as urban hospitals. There is a pressing need to develop policies at federal and regional healthcare system levels to support the continued provision of high-quality ICU care within rural hospitals.
-
Recently, a consensus process specified a core outcome set (COS) of domains to be assessed in each comparative effectiveness research and clinical practice related to acute postoperative pain. Physical function (PF) was one of these domains. The aim of this review was to investigate which patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are used to assess PF after total knee arthroplasty (TKA) in clinical trials and if they fulfil basic requirements for a COS of PROMs based on their psychometric properties. ⋯ A systematic search for patient-reported outcome measures assessing postoperative, pain-related physical function after total knee arthroplasty in clinical trials and assessment of their content validity revealed none that fulfilled requirements based on COSMIN recommendations.
-
Meta Analysis
Genicular Nerve Block for Knee Osteoarthritis: A Systematic Review and meta-analysis of Randomized Clinical Trials.
Genicular nerve block (GNB) has emerged as a novel nonsurgical therapy for symptomatic knee osteoarthritis (KOA). The objective was to evaluate GNB versus placebo and other intra-articular (IA) therapies. ⋯ Although, GNB achieved the MCID for KOA pain and statistically significant results for knee functions. We cannot recommend its routine use besides being a safe procedure so far, evidence is fair on GNB for primary KOA due to study heterogeneity and limited follow-up.
-
Semin Respir Crit Care Med · Oct 2024
ReviewThe Role of Viral Infections in the Development and Progression of COPD.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common chronic disease seen in smokers associated with poor functional status, quality of life, and morbidity and mortality from acute worsening of chronic symptoms, also called exacerbations. As a disease, the risk factors for COPD are well defined; however, there is room for innovation in identifying underlying biological processes, or "endotypes," that lead to the emergence and/or progression of COPD. Identifying endotypes allows for more thorough understanding of the disease, may reveal the means of disease prevention, and may be leveraged in novel therapeutic approaches. In this review, we discuss the interface of viral infections with both cellular and epithelial immunity as a potential endotype of interest in COPD.