scholarly journals A study to investigate the prevalence of device specific errors in inhaler technique in adults with airway disease (The SCORES Study): Protocol for a prevalence study (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth De Vos ◽  
Thomas Brown ◽  
Jayne Longstaff ◽  
Hitasha Rupani ◽  
Alexander Hicks ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND It is a recurring theme in clinical practice that patients using inhaled medications via an inhaler do not use their device to a standard that allows for optimum therapeutic effect; with some studies showing that up to 90% of people do not use their inhalers properly. Observation and correction of inhaler technique by healthcare professionals is advised in both national and international guidelines and should be performed at every opportunity to ensure that the optimum inhaler technique is being achieved by the user. This study will deliver greater understanding of which technique errors are made most frequently by people using 13 different inhaler types. OBJECTIVE This study aims to identify and compare inhaler technique errors and their prevalence in adults, using device-specific checklists using manufacturers’ guidelines, for 13 specific inhaler types across all lung conditions and to correlate these errors with possible determinants of poor technique. It also aims to assess the error frequency at each step in the device-specific questionnaires and compare error rates between device types. METHODS In a single visit, participants using an inhaler included in the inclusion criteria will have their inhaler technique observed, recorded using device-specific checklists and then optimised. RESULTS The study is already underway, and it is anticipated that the results will be available by 2021. CONCLUSIONS The SCORES Study will ascertain the prevalence of device-specific inhaler technique errors at each step in the device-specific checklists, compare error rates between 13 device types and correlate these errors with possible determinants of poor technique. Future work will involve the clarification and classification of these errors into ‘critical’ and ‘non-critical’ categories. CLINICALTRIAL ClinicalTrials.gov; NCT04262271 https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04262271?term=NCT04262271&draw=2&rank=1

Author(s):  
Shilpa Dogra ◽  
Ilana Patlan ◽  
Carley O’Neill ◽  
Hayley Lewthwaite

Background: Many countries have clinical practice guidelines (CPG) for asthma that serve as an important resource for healthcare professionals and inform the development of policies and practices relevant to asthma care. The purpose of this scoping review was to search for CPGs related to asthma to determine what recommendations related to the 24-h movement behaviours are provided. Methods: We searched for the most recent CPGs published by a national authoritative body from 195 countries. Guidelines were reviewed for all movement behaviours; that is, physical activity, sedentary behaviour, and sleep. Results: In total, 82 documents were searched for eligibility and 19 were included in our review. Of these, only 10 CPGs provided information on physical activity; none provided recommendations consistent with the FITT principle, while seven recommended activity levels similar to the general population. None of the guidelines included information on sedentary behaviour. Nine guidelines included information on sleep: recommendations mostly focused on changes to medication to reduce disruptions in sleep. Conclusions: It is recommended that future work be conducted to create comprehensive movement behaviour guidelines accompanied with relevant precautions and strategies to ensure that adults with asthma are able to safely and effectively engage in movement behaviours throughout the day.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ser Hon Puah ◽  
Chee Yen Goh ◽  
Chung Leung Chan ◽  
Amy Kui Jie Teoh ◽  
Hao Zhang ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND Proper inhaler device usage is paramount for control of underlying obstructive airway disease. Hence, education to healthcare professionals who will eventually educate patients need to be done effectively. OBJECTIVE We developed an application for mobile devices for education on medical inhaler devices and studied if there were any difference between the application and the manufacturer’s instructions on inhaler technique. METHODS Participants, who were nursing students, were randomized to learn the inhaler devices via the manufacturer’s instruction guide or a mobile device app designed specifically for education on inhaler devices. RESULTS There were 45 participants in each group. 78% of them were females with a median age of 21 (IQR 3). 67% used an Apple mobile device and the remainder used an Android device. Both interventions showed improvement in total scores for demonstrating the correct usage of all inhaler devices. The mobile device showed better total improvement points for the Turbuhaler device (262 vs 287 points; P=0.02). Participants learning from the manufacturer’s guide had a significantly higher total improvement points in the Breezhaler (370 vs 327 points; P<0.01) and Ellipta (214 vs 174 points; P<0.01) device. The app was well received and scored of 4.42 of 5 with regards to its quality. CONCLUSIONS Using a mobile inhaler app is just as effective to teach inhaler device techniques to healthcare professionals and is likely a more convenient, versatile and important adjunct to learning.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdulkadir Tasdelen ◽  
Baha Sen

AbstractmiRNAs (or microRNAs) are small, endogenous, and noncoding RNAs construct of about 22 nucleotides. Cumulative evidence from biological experiments shows that miRNAs play a fundamental and important role in various biological processes. Therefore, the classification of miRNA is a critical problem in computational biology. Due to the short length of mature miRNAs, many researchers are working on precursor miRNAs (pre-miRNAs) with longer sequences and more structural features. Pre-miRNAs can be divided into two groups as mirtrons and canonical miRNAs in terms of biogenesis differences. Compared to mirtrons, canonical miRNAs are more conserved and easier to be identified. Many existing pre-miRNA classification methods rely on manual feature extraction. Moreover, these methods focus on either sequential structure or spatial structure of pre-miRNAs. To overcome the limitations of previous models, we propose a nucleotide-level hybrid deep learning method based on a CNN and LSTM network together. The prediction resulted in 0.943 (%95 CI ± 0.014) accuracy, 0.935 (%95 CI ± 0.016) sensitivity, 0.948 (%95 CI ± 0.029) specificity, 0.925 (%95 CI ± 0.016) F1 Score and 0.880 (%95 CI ± 0.028) Matthews Correlation Coefficient. When compared to the closest results, our proposed method revealed the best results for Acc., F1 Score, MCC. These were 2.51%, 1.00%, and 2.43% higher than the closest ones, respectively. The mean of sensitivity ranked first like Linear Discriminant Analysis. The results indicate that the hybrid CNN and LSTM networks can be employed to achieve better performance for pre-miRNA classification. In future work, we study on investigation of new classification models that deliver better performance in terms of all the evaluation criteria.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Naye ◽  
Chloé Cachinho ◽  
Annie-Pier Tremblay ◽  
Maude Saint-Germain Lavoie ◽  
Gabriel Lepage ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Cognitive-affective factors influence the perception of pain and disability. These factors can lead to pain behaviors (PB) that can persist and become maladaptive. These maladaptive PB will further increase the risk of chronicity or persistence of symptoms and disability. Thus, clinicians must be prepared to recognize maladaptive PB in a clinical context. To date, in the context of assessment in a rehabilitation setting, PB in clinical settings are poorly documented. The main objective of this study was to identify direct observation methods and critically appraise them in order to propose recommendations for practice. As a secondary objective, we explored and extracted the different observable PB that patients could exhibit and that clinicians could observe. Methods We conducted a comprehensive review on four databases with a generic search strategy in order to obtain the largest range of PB. For the first objective, a two-step critical appraisal used clinical criteria (from qualitative studies on barriers to implement routine measures) and psychometric criteria (from Brink and Louw critical appraisal tool) to determine which observation methods could be recommended for clinical practice. For the second objective, we extracted PB found in the literature to list potential PB that patients could exhibit, and clinicians could observe. Results From the 3362 retrieved studies, 47 met the inclusion criteria for the first objective. The clinical criteria allowed us to select three observation methods. After the psychometric step, two observation methods were retained and recommended for clinical practice: the Behavioral Avoidance Test-Back Pain (BAT-Back) and the Pain Behaviour Scale (PaBS). For the second objective, 107 studies met the inclusion criteria. The extraction of the PB allowed us to list a large range of PB and classify the data in 7 categories of PB. Conclusion Our results allowed us to recommend two observation methods for clinical practice. However, these methods have limitations and are validated only in chronic low back pain populations. With the extraction of PB presented in the literature, we contribute to better prepare clinicians to recognize PB in all patients who are experiencing pain.


Author(s):  
A. M. Snedden ◽  
J. B. Lilleker ◽  
H. Chinoy

Abstract Purpose of review No clinical trial in sporadic inclusion body myositis (IBM) thus far has shown a clear and sustained therapeutic effect. We review previous trial methodology, explore why results have not translated into clinical practice, and suggest improvements for future IBM trials. Recent findings Early trials primarily assessed immunosuppressive medications, with no significant clinical responses observed. Many of these studies had methodological issues, including small participant numbers, nonspecific diagnostic criteria, short treatment and/or assessment periods and insensitive outcome measures. Most recent IBM trials have instead focused on nonimmunosuppressive therapies, but there is mounting evidence supporting a primary autoimmune aetiology, including the discovery of immunosuppression-resistant clones of cytotoxic T cells and anti-CN-1A autoantibodies which could potentially be used to stratify patients into different cohorts. The latest trials have had mixed results. For example, bimagrumab, a myostatin blocker, did not affect the 6-min timed walk distance, whereas sirolimus, a promotor of autophagy, did. Larger studies are planned to evaluate the efficacy of sirolimus and arimoclomol. Summary Thus far, no treatment for IBM has demonstrated a definite therapeutic effect, and effective treatment options in clinical practice are lacking. Trial design and ineffective therapies are likely to have contributed to these failures. Identification of potential therapeutic targets should be followed by future studies using a stratified approach and sensitive and relevant outcome measures.


2020 ◽  
Vol 79 (Suppl 1) ◽  
pp. 1224.1-1224
Author(s):  
I. Mizushima ◽  
T. Yamano ◽  
H. Kawahara ◽  
S. Hibino ◽  
R. Nishioka ◽  
...  

Background:Recently, the 2019 ACR/EULAR classification criteria for IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD) were published mainly to identify more homogeneous subjects for inclusion in clinical trials and observational studies [1]. However, although their high specificity is presumed to be useful to differentiate IgG4-RD from various mimickers, their value in daily clinical practice needs to be evaluated.Objectives:This study aimed to clarify the usefulness of the 2019 ACR/EULAR classification criteria for IgG4-RD and characteristics of false-negative patients in daily clinical practice.Methods:We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 162 patients with IgG4-RD and 130 consecutive non-IgG4-RD patients (mimickers) diagnosed by experts whose serum IgG4 levels were measured at a single center in Japan. Using the collected data, we calculated sensitivity, specificity, and fulfillment rates for the entry criteria, exclusion criteria, and threshold of inclusion criteria points. In addition, to clarify the characteristics of false-negative cases in IgG4-RD, we performed an intergroup comparison of their clinical features including disease-specific autoantibodies.Results:Both the patients with IgG4-RD and mimickers were relatively old (66 and 65 years) with male predominance (67% and 60%). The final diagnoses of mimickers mainly consisted of cancer, lymphoma, vasculitis, sarcoidosis, multicentric Castleman’s disease, and atherosclerotic or infectious aortic aneurysm. The classification criteria had a sensitivity of 72.8% and a specificity of 100%. Of the 44 false-negative cases, one did not fulfill the entry criteria, 20 fulfilled one exclusion criterion, and 27 did not achieve sufficient inclusion criteria points. Compared with the true-positive cases, the false-negative cases had significantly fewer affected organs, lower serum IgG4 levels, higher serum CH50 levels, and lower prevalence of salivary/lacrimal gland and renal parenchymal lesions. They were also less likely to have had biopsies (61% vs 97%). Of note, positivity of disease-specific autoantibodies including SSA/Ro antibody, ANCA, ds-DNA antibody, and ACPA was the most common exclusion criterion fulfilled in 18 patients, only 2 of whom were diagnosed with a specific autoimmune disease (rheumatoid arthritis) complicated by IgG4-RD. The remaining 16 patients had no specific clinical symptoms related to such autoantibodies. In addition, compared with IgG4-RD patients without disease-specific autoantibodies, the 18 patients with them had almost equal serum IgG4 and complement levels, number of affected organs, and histopathology and immunostaining scores despite higher serum IgG and CRP levels.Conclusion:The present study suggests that the 2019 ACR/EULAR classification criteria for IgG4-RD has excellent diagnostic specificity and moderate sensitivity in daily clinical practice. Positive disease-specific autoantibodies alone, which lowered the sensitivity in this study, may have little clinical significance concerning the diagnosis of IgG4-RD.References:[1]Wallace ZS et al. The 2019 American College of Rheumatology/European League Against Rheumatism classification criteria for IgG4-related disease. Ann Rheum Dis. 2020 Jan;79(1):77-87.Disclosure of Interests:None declared


2021 ◽  
pp. 026921632110254
Author(s):  
Bria Browne ◽  
Nuriye Kupeli ◽  
Kirsten J Moore ◽  
Elizabeth L Sampson ◽  
Nathan Davies

Background: Dementia is a life-limiting condition that affects 50 million people globally. Existing definitions of end of life do not account for the uncertain trajectory of dementia. People living with dementia may live in the advanced stage for several years, or even die before they reach the advanced stage of dementia. Aim: To identify how end of life in people with dementia is measured and conceptualised, and to identify the factors that contribute towards identifying end of life in people with dementia. Design: Systematic review and narrative synthesis. Data Sources: Electronic databases MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsychInfo and CINAHL, were searched in April 2020. Eligible studies included adults with any dementia diagnosis, family carers and healthcare professionals caring for people with dementia and a definition for end of life in dementia. Results: Thirty-three studies met the inclusion criteria. Various cut-off scores from validated tools, estimated prognoses and descriptive definitions were used to define end of life. Most studies used single measure tools which focused on cognition or function. There was no pattern across care settings in how end of life was defined. Healthcare professionals and family carers had difficulty recognising when people with dementia were approaching the end of life. Conclusion: End-of-life care and research that focuses only on cognitive and functional decline may fail to recognise the complexities and unmet needs relevant to dementia and end of life. Research and clinical practice should adopt a needs-based approach for people with dementia and not define end of life by stage of disease.


2015 ◽  
Vol 61 (6) ◽  
pp. 859-863 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elie F. Berbari ◽  
Souha S. Kanj ◽  
Todd J. Kowalski ◽  
Rabih O. Darouiche ◽  
Andreas F. Widmer ◽  
...  

Abstract These guidelines are intended for use by infectious disease specialists, orthopedic surgeons, neurosurgeons, radiologists, and other healthcare professionals who care for patients with native vertebral osteomyelitis (NVO). They include evidence and opinion-based recommendations for the diagnosis and management of patients with NVO treated with antimicrobial therapy, with or without surgical intervention.


2008 ◽  
Vol 27 (22) ◽  
pp. 4515-4531 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Brenning ◽  
Berthold Lausen
Keyword(s):  

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