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Impact of Point-of-Care Ultrasound on Secondary Triage: A Pilot Study
- Riccardo Stucchi, Eric S. Weinstein, Alba Ripoll-Gallardo, Jeffrey M. Franc, Massimo Azzaretto, Giovanni Sesana, Francesco Della Corte, Luca Neri
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- Journal:
- Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness / Volume 17 / 2023
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 01 April 2022, e194
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Objectives:
In mass casualty scenarios, patients with apparent hemodynamic and respiratory stability might have occult life-threatening injuries. These patients could benefit from more accurate triage methods. This study assessed the impact of point-of-care ultrasound on the accuracy of secondary triage conducted at an advanced medical post to enhance the detection of patients who, despite their apparent clinically stable condition, could benefit from earlier evacuation to definitive care or immediate life-saving treatment.
Methods:A mass casualty simulated event consisting of a bomb blast in a remote area was conducted with 10 simulated casualties classified as YELLOW at the primary triage scene; patients were evaluated by 4 physicians at an advanced medical post. Three patients had, respectively, hemoperitoneum, pneumothorax, and hemothorax. Only 2 physicians had sonographic information.
Results:All 4 physicians were able to suspect hemoperitoneum as a possible critical condition to be managed first, but only physicians with additional sonographic information accurately detected pneumothorax and hemothorax, thus deciding to immediately evacuate or treat.
Physical exercise for late life depression: effects on cognition and disability
- Francesca Neviani, Martino Belvederi Murri, Chiara Mussi, Federico Triolo, Giulio Toni, Elisabetta Simoncini, Ferdinando Tripi, Marco Menchetti, Silvia Ferrari, Graziano Ceresini, Alessandro Cremonini, Marco Bertolotti, Giovanni Neri, Salvatore Squatrito, Mario Amore, Stamatula Zanetidou, Mirco Neri
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- Journal:
- International Psychogeriatrics / Volume 29 / Issue 7 / July 2017
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 17 April 2017, pp. 1105-1112
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Background:
Late-life depression is often associated with cognitive impairments and disability, which may persist even after adequate antidepressant drug treatment. Physical exercise is increasingly recognized as an effective antidepressant agent, and may exert positive effects on these features too. However, few studies examined this issue, especially by comparing different types of exercises.
Methods:We performed secondary analyses on data from the Safety and Efficacy of Exercise for Depression in Seniors study, a trial comparing the antidepressant effectiveness of sertraline (S), sertraline plus thrice-weekly non-progressive exercise (S+NPE), and sertraline plus thrice-weekly progressive aerobic exercise (S+PAE). Exercise was conducted in small groups and monitored by heart rate meters. Patients with late-life depression without severe cognitive impairment were recruited from primary care and assessed at baseline and 24 weeks, using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MOCA, total and subdomain scores) and Brief Disability Questionnaire. Analyses were based on Generalized Linear Models.
Results:In total, 121 patients (mean age 75, 71% females) were randomized to the study interventions. Compared with the S group, patients in the S+PAE group displayed greater improvements of MOCA total scores (p=0.006, effect size=0.37), visuospatial/executive functions (p=0.001, effect size=0.13), and disability (p=0.02, effect size=−0.31). Participants in the S+NPE group did not display significant differences with the control group.
Conclusions:Adding aerobic, progressive exercise to antidepressant drug treatment may offer significant advantages over standard treatment for cognitive abilities and disability. These findings suggest that even among older patients exercise may constitute a valid therapeutic measure to improve patients’ outcomes.
A three years follow-up of a group of «everyday patients» in a mental health centre
- Marco Chiappelli, Francesca Pileggi, Giorgio Rosini, Giovanni Neri
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- Journal:
- Epidemiologia e Psichiatria Sociale / Volume 6 / Issue 2 / August 1997
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 11 October 2011, pp. 107-117
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Objective — This research concerns those patients who most attend the community Mental Health Centre (CSM), hereby called «everyday patients». According to a previous research (Pileggi et al., 1992) a sample of patients mostly attending the Centre had been pointed out. Basing on the number of attendances, it emerged that some of those patients (57) had been on the average attending the Centre more than twice a week and, despite being only 10% of the total number of users, they had taken on a large share of the services offered by the Centre (30%). Therefore, those patients were the ones the Centre had been working for more intensely and continuously. Three years later, the object of this research is to check the assistance and clinical destiny of such patients and compare their patterns of attendances to those ones regarding the remainder of the CSM users. The hypothesis is that «everyday patients» are assisted by different and continuous treatments and that such a procedure prevents patients from dropping out and determines a strong reduction in relapses and less frequent attendances. Design — Longitudinal study on a 42 patient sample (19 males, 23 females) on therapy at CSM. Setting — Mental Health Centre, «Saragozza» District, Sanitary Unit of Bologna. Main outcome measures — The following elements have been examined: 1) social and demographic features; 2) duration of psychiatric history; 3) clinical diagnosis according to DSM-HI-R, set by patients personal psychiatrist; 4) global functioning level as examined by two psychiatrists or psychologists from the Centre, using DSM-III-R Global Functioning Scale (GFS); 5) actions carried out and patterns of using the CSM services over the past 12 months. Concordance measures among independent examiners (Cohen K) and non-parametric variability measures for comparison between groups (Chi-square and Kruskal-Wallis tests) have been used. Results and conclusion — Results partially confirm the original hypotheses. In particular, complicated services (psychological and pharmacological therapies and rehabilitation) are carried out for the most of «everyday patients» and much more intensely to them than to the remainder of the users. No drop-out has been found out, the global functioning level of the patients is good in most of cases and the number of necessary admissions to psychiatric wards has been reduced. However, the «attendance share» relevant to the sample of «everyday patients» is still high compared to the total number of the CSM users. Besides, discharge rate is nought.
Quality of life assessment: validation of the Italian version of the WHOQOL-Brief
- Giovanni De Girolamo, Paola Rucci, Paolo Scocco, Angela Becchi, Francesco Coppa, Angela D'Addario, Elisabetta Daru, Diego De Leo, Lorella Galassi, Lara Mangelli, Chiara Marson, Giovanni Neri, Linda Soldani
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- Journal:
- Epidemiologia e Psichiatria Sociale / Volume 9 / Issue 1 / March 2000
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 11 October 2011, pp. 45-55
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Objective – To test the psychometric properties of the Italian version of the WHOQOL-BRIEF (e.g., construct and internal validity, concorrent validity with the MOS SF-36 and test-retest reliability). The WHOQOL-BRIEF is a 26-items self-report instrument which assesses four domains assumed to represent the Quality Of Life (QOL) construct: physical domain, psychological domain, social relationships domain and environment domain, plus two facets for assessing overall QOL and general health. Methods – Data have been collected in three sites (Bologna, Modena and Padua), located in the North of Italy, in the framework of the international WHOQOL project. According to the study design, the sample had to include about 50% males and 50% females, 50% of subjects below and 50% above the age of 45, all in contact with various health services. A subsample has been re-interviewed after 2-3 weeks in order to study test-retest reliability. After the WHOQOL-BRIEF, most subjects have also been administered the MOS-SF36 in order to test the concurrent validity between these two instruments. Results – The instrument was administered to 379 subjects (1/6 healthy and 1/6 sick), chosen to be representative of a variety of different medical conditions. Seventy patients, wTio displayed stable health conditions, have been reassessed after 2-3 weeks to study test-retest reliability. The WHOQOL-BRIEF domains has shown good internal consistency, ranging from 0.65 for the social relationships domain to 0.80 for the physical domain; it has been able to discriminate between in- and out-patients and between the two age groups considered in the present study (<45, ≥45 years). Only physical and psychological domains were found to discriminate between healthy and ill subjects. No gender differences in the mean scores for the four domains were found. Concurrent validity between the WHOQOL-Brief and the MOS-SF-36 was satisfactory, and specific for the physical and psychological health domains. Test-retest reliability values were also good, ranging from 0.76 for the environment domain to 0.93 for the psychological domain. Conclusions – This study shows that the WHOQOL-BRIEF is psychometrically valid and reliable, and that it is also potentially useful in discriminating between subjects with different health conditions in clinical settings.
Promoting recovery of schizophrenic patients: discrepancy between routine practice and evidence. The SIEP-DIRECT's Project
- Domenico Semisa, Massimo Casacchia, Walter Di Munzio, Giovanni Neri, Giacinto Buscaglia, Lorenzo Burti, Cristina Pucci, Giuseppe Corlito, Maurizio Bacigalupi, Roberto Parravani, Rita Roncone, Doriana Cristofalo, Antonio Lora, Mirella Ruggeri
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- Journal:
- Epidemiologia e Psichiatria Sociale / Volume 17 / Issue 4 / December 2008
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 11 April 2011, pp. 331-348
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Aims – The aim of this work is to present the main discrepancies, as evidenced by the SIEP-DIRECT's Project, between the evidence-based NICE guidelines for schizophrenia and the usual practices of the Italian mental health services in order to promote the recovery of patients with schizophrenia. Methods – Starting from the main NICE recommendations on recovery promotion, 41 indicators were developed. These were experimented in 19 participating Italian Mental Health Departments (MHD) or Psychiatric Services through self-evaluation of the activities carried out to promote patient recovery with the aim of assessing the level of adherence to the recommendations. The data required by most of the indicators were obtained from the psychiatric informative system or from the Direction of the MHD. Moreover, specific research was carried out on the clinical records and on representative patient samples. Furthermore, for 14 indicators, there was requested an assessment by the part of “multidisciplinary” or “specialistic” focus groups who then attributed a score according to a defined “ad hoc” scale. Results – According to the data obtained, although the mental health services seem to care about the physical condition of their patients, they do not routinely examine principle parameters such as blood pressure, glycaemia etc., and collaboration with general practitioners is often complex or not uniformly practiced. Most psychiatrists and psychologists possess the basic communication skills but not enough competences in cognitive-behavioural treatments; such treatments, and every other form of structured individual psychotherapy, are seldom carried out and seem to have become marginal activities within the Services. Also family psycho-educational interventions are under-used. The Services are very active in the care of multi-problem schizophrenia patients, who make up a large percentage (almost a quarter, on average) of the patients in their care. These patients are offered specific and integrated treatment plans with the involvement of other health services and social agencies operating in the territory. The strategies adopted by the services for the pharmacological treatment in the prevention of relapses and for patients with frequent crises or with treatment-resistant schizophrenia are all in line with the NICE recommendations. Finally, the Services promote activities of vocational training and supported employment, but the outcomes of these are often unsatisfactory. Conclusions – The results of the study show a picture of the Italian mental health services with bright yet also dark areas as regards recovery promotion activities. The Services seem to guarantee adequate pharmacological evidence-based treatments, an integrated assistance and good management of multi-problem patients. They have difficulty, however, with respect to the monitoring of the physical health of the patients, psychotherapeutic activities, including those for families, and the promotion of supported employment. Moreover, they still show problems regarding the structuring and formalizing of care processes. To improve this situation, they should make greater use of professional guidelines, protocols and written procedures.
Declaration of Interest: None.
Scala vestibuli cochlear implantation in patients with partially ossified cochleas
- Stefano Berrettini, Francesca Forli, Emanuele Neri, Giovanni Segnini, Stefano Sellari Franceschini
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- Journal:
- The Journal of Laryngology & Otology / Volume 116 / Issue 11 / November 2002
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 08 March 2006, pp. 946-950
- Print publication:
- November 2002
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Partial cochlear obstruction is a relatively common finding in candidates for cochlear implants and frequently involves the inferior segment of the scala tympani in the basal turn of the cochlea. In such patients, the scala vestibuli is often patent and offers an alternative site for implantation. The current report describes two patients with such partial obstruction of the inferior segment of the basal cochlear turn, caused in one case by systemic vasculitis (Takayasu’s disease) and in the other by obliterative otosclerosis. A scala vestibuli implantation allowed for complete insertion of the electrode array. No problems were encountered during the surgical procedures and the good post-operative hearing and communicative outcomes achieved were similar to those reported in patients without cochlear ossification.
The importance of accurate pre-operative radiological study of the inner ear is underscored, to disclose the presence and define the features of the cochlear ossification and ultimately to properly plan the surgical approach.