The use of silver to control infections was common in ancient civilizations. In recent years, this material has resurfaced as a therapeutic option due to the increasing prevalence of bacterial ...resistance to antimicrobials. This renewed interest has prompted researchers to investigate how the antimicrobial properties of silver might be enhanced, thus broadening the possibilities for antimicrobial applications. This review presents a compilation of patented products utilizing any forms of silver for its bactericidal actions in the decade 2007⁻2017. It analyses the trends in patent applications related to different forms of silver and their use for antimicrobial purposes. Based on the retrospective view of registered patents, statements of prognosis are also presented with a view to heightening awareness of potential industrial and health care applications.
To understand racial bias in clinical settings from the perspectives of minority patients and healthcare providers to inspire changes in the way healthcare providers interact with their patients.
...Articles on racial bias were searched on Medline, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Web of Science. Full text review and quality appraisal was conducted, before data was synthesized and analytically themed using the Thomas and Harden methodology.
23 articles were included, involving 1,006 participants. From minority patients' perspectives, two themes were generated: 1) alienation of minorities due to racial supremacism and lack of empathy, resulting in inadequate medical treatment; 2) labelling of minority patients who were stereotyped as belonging to a lower socio-economic class and having negative behaviors. From providers' perspectives, one theme recurred: the perpetuation of racial fault lines by providers. However, some patients and providers denied racism in the healthcare setting.
Implicit racial bias is pervasive and manifests in patient-provider interactions, exacerbating health disparities in minorities. Beyond targeted anti-racism measures in healthcare settings, wider national measures to reduce housing, education and income inequality may mitigate racism in healthcare and improve minority patient care.
Besides the reasons shared by patients for declining proposed teleconsults, additional contextual factors may be involved. ...the inclusion of teledermatology during peacetime provides an additional ...service option that increases patient satisfaction especially if it is seamless, secure, and easy to use 5. Funkhouser CH, Funkhouser ME, Wolverton JE, Maurer T. Teledermatology consults in a county hospital setting: retrospective analysis. JMIR Dermatol 2021 Sep 8;4(2):e30530 Funkhouser CH, Funkhouser ME, Wolverton JE, Maurer T. Teledermatology consults in a county hospital setting: retrospective analysis.
Conventional colectomy, and the Japanese Society for Cancer of the Colon and Rectum (JSCCR) D2 Lymphadenectomy (LND2), are currently considered standard of care for surgical management of colon ...cancer. Colectomy with complete mesocolic excision (CME) and JSCCR D3 Lymphadenectomy (LND3) are more radical alternative approaches and provide a greater degree of lymph nodal clearance. However, controversy exists over the long-term benefits of CME/LND3 over non-CME colectomies (NCME)/LND2. In this study, we performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to compare the surgical, pathological, and oncological outcomes of CME/LND3 with NCME/LND2. Embase, Medline and CENTRAL databases were searched from inception until May 15, 2020, in accordance with PRISMA guidelines. Studies were included if they compared curative intent CME/LND3 with NCME/LND2. Weighted mean differences (WMD) and odds ratios (OR) were estimated for continuous and dichotomous outcomes respectively. Out of 1310 unique citations, 106 underwent full-text review, and 30 were included for analysis. In total, 21,695 patients underwent resection for colon cancer. 11,625 received CME/LND3, and 10,070 underwent NCME/LND2. No significant differences were found in post-operative morbidity and mortality. Both overall and disease-free survival favored CME/LND3 (5-year OS: OR = 1.29; 95% CI 1.02 to 1.64, p = 0.03; 5-year DFS: OR = 1.61; 95% CI 1.14 to 2.28; p = 0.007). This is the first systematic review and meta-analysis to demonstrate that CME/LND3 has superior long-term survival outcomes compared to NCME/LND2.
Racial injustices in health care lead to poor health outcomes in minority groups. Such health inequality has been exacerbated in times of COVID-19 which has seen disproportionately high mortality in ...minority communities. The objective of the study was to better understand the nature of racial bias in clinical settings to inspire changes in the way healthcare providers interact with their patients to improve health outcomes.
We did systematic searches of four electronic databases:, Medline, CINAHL, PsycINFO and Web of Science using the search terms “Exp Racism/ and (Exp Health Personnel/ or Exp Attitude of Health Personnel/) and Exp Qualitative Research/” in the title and abstract to identify articles published in English between Dec 1, 1978, and June 25, 2020. Titles and abstracts were sieved, followed by a full text review. Data synthesis and inductive thematic analysis were conducted using the Thomas and Harden methodology.
We included 23 articles that reported data for 1006 participants aged 24 to 89 years. Included studies were from six countries, mostly the USA (n=15, 65%) and UK (3, 13%). Perspectives from both minority patients and health-care providers were included. Three themes were generated: alienation of minority patients, labelling of minority patients and denial of racism. Alienation of patients resulted from supremacism of healthcare providers who were condescending in their attitudes (11, 48%). Health-care providers were less empathetic, as evident from their cold dispositions and body language (14, 61%). Minority patients reported being subjected to labelling and generalisations about their lower socioeconomic class, lifestyle practices and needs, which led to inadequate treatment such as denial of drug therapy (12, 52%). Providers were also fearful of minorities because of negative assumptions and stereotypes (3, 13%). By contrast, some patients and providers denied the presence of racism in health care. Providers felt that they treated all patients equally (6, 26%). They suggested that minority patients were oversensitive and shifted blame onto lack of patient compliance, rather than racism, for poor health outcomes (6, 26%).
Implicit racial bias in patient-provider interactions is pervasive, thus exacerbating health disparities in minorities. Our findings serve as a call to action for health-care institutions to implement targeted anti-racism interventions such as diversity training, anti-racism forums and increased implicit bias education. We may have underestimated the extent of racism in health care since we included only articles published in English, thus missing relevant studies of minorities published in a language other than English. The strength of this article is that it includes perspectives about racism from not only patients from minority groups but also health-care providers.
None.
Silver was widely used in medicine to treat bacterial infections in the 19th and early 20th century, up until the discovery and development of the first modern antibiotics in the 1940s, which were ...markedly more effective. Since then, every new antibiotic introduced to the clinic has led to an associated development of drug resistance. Today, the threat of extensive bacterial resistance to antibiotics has reignited interest in alternative strategies to treat infectious diseases, with silver regaining well-deserved renewed attention. Silver ions are highly disruptive to bacterial integrity and biochemical function, with comparatively minimal toxicity to mammalian cells. This review focuses on the antimicrobial properties of silver and their use in synergistic combination therapy with traditional antibiotic drugs.
Introduction: Alcohol flushing syndrome (AFS) is experienced by up to 46% of East Asians. This study aimed to review the risk of cancers in AFS patients, elucidate an exposure-response relationship, ...and understand risk associated with alcohol intake and cancer. Method: An electronic database search of PubMed, Embase, Scopus and Cochrane Library was performed according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis guidelines. Observational studies on AFS’ effects and all cancers risk were included. Studies including patients with existing malignancy were excluded. Dichotomous variables were pooled using the Mantel-Haenszel method with a random effects model. Sensitivity and subgroup analyses were performed. PROSPERO (CRD42023392916) protocol was followed. Results: A total of 18 articles were included in the final analysis with a total of 387,521 participants. AFS was associated with an increased risk of all cancers (odds ratio OR 1.19, 95% confidence interval CI 1.06–1.34), esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (OR 1.47, 95% CI 1.05–2.05) and gastric adenocarcinoma (OR 1.40, 95% CI 1.14–1.72). Men with AFS exhibited an increased risk of all cancers (OR 1.34, 95% CI 1.13–1.59). However, this was not observed in women. All cancers risk was associated with AFS in those who consumed drink (i.e. consumed alcohol) more than 200 g of pure ethanol/week (OR 1.68, 95% CI 1.20–2.37) but not those who consumed less than 200 g of pure ethanol/week (OR 1.27, 95% CI 0.90–1.79) or non-drinkers (OR 0.99, 95% CI 0.67–1.47). Conclusion: AFS is associated with an increased risk of all cancers, particularly esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and gastric adenocarcinoma.
Different imaging modalities are used to extract the diverse information carried in an optical field. Two prominent modalities include bright field and phase contrast microscopy that can visualize ...the amplitude and phase features of a sample, respectively. However, capturing both of these images on the same camera typically requires interchanging optical components. Metasurfaces are ultra-thin nanostructures that can merge both of these operations into a single miniaturized device. Here, a silicon-based metasurface that supports a Mie resonance is demonstrated to perform near-infrared phase contrast and bright field multi-modal microscopy that can be tuned by changing the polarization of the illumination. We performed experiments using optical fields with phase variations synthesized by a spatial light modulator and introduced by propagation through semi-transparent samples, including C. elegans, unstained human prostate cancer cells and breast tissue. The results demonstrate the potential of metasurfaces for label-free point-of-care testing.
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