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Particulate respirators a controversial step beyond common surgical masks are now mandated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to protect health care workers from acquiring H1N1 pandemic influenza A from patients.
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A hand hygiene project launched at The Joint Commission's Center for Transforming Healthcare cites the following problems and solutions on hand hygiene:
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The fact that The Joint Commission had to recently issue a Sentinel Event Alert underscoring leadership's critical role in patient safety and quality care is "somewhat sad," notes Ronald B. Goodspeed, MD, MPH, FACP, FACPE, an instructor on health care management in the department of health policy and management, Harvard School of Public Health and former president of the Massachusetts Coalition for the Prevention of Medical Errors.
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Looking at the historically low compliance numbers surrounding hand hygiene, Stephen Weber, MD, Joint Commission consultant and chief health care epidemiologist at the University of Chicago Medical Center, can only shake his head.
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Many clinical trials have confirmed the benefit of early invasive therapy for high-risk patients presenting with acute coronary syndromes (ACS). However, the optimal timing of cardiac catheterization in this group remains unknown.
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This retrospective cohort study reaffirms the link between hyperglycemia and mortality in the ICU, but demonstrates that the risk does not apply equally to all patient groups and, instead, varies based on admission diagnosis.
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Recombinant Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) toxins showed lytic activity against human (but not murine) neutrophils. The lytic activity of culture supernatants of USA400 and USA300 strains of MRSA were completely neutralized by anti-PVL monoclonal antibodies. In contrast, phenol-soluble modulin alpha3 (PSM) failed to lyse human neutrophils but did enhance PVL-mediated neutrophil lysis.
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Dabigatran etexilate is an oral compound that is converted after absorption by a serum esterase to dabigatran, a direct competitive inhibitor of thrombin.
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Current indications for cardiac-resynchronization therapy (CRT) require that patients have New York Heart Association (NYHA) Class III or Class IV heart-failure symptoms.
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In addition to their cholesterol-lowering properties, hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase inhibitors, commonly referred to as statins, have been shown to modify inflammatory and immunologic pathways.
