[Hand hygiene and pandemic. Controversies]. / Higiene de manos y pandemia. Controversias.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the world's healthcare systems were extremely strained. Intensive care units were stretched to capacity and healthcare facilities were forced to set up spaces to care for critically ill patients. Professionals were required to work in strenuous conditions, completely disrupting their work routines.In this scenario, hand hygiene and the use of gloves by healthcare professionals became a critical point of transmission risk.The results of the ENVIN study in 2020 and 2021, corresponding to the pandemic period, showed worrying data on the increase in infection rates, with rates rising by 250% at the worst moments of the pandemic. This suggested that excessive risk situations were occurring for the patient. Any preventive strategy must place correct hand hygiene and proper use of gloves among its priority objectives. For this reason, the Project Zero Advisory Board made a series of adaptations and recommendations based on available evidence and expert opinion related to hand hygiene and glove use during the pandemic situation to promote best practice in extreme situations. This article reviews the key aspects of hand hygiene as part of the WHO safety strategy, the main barriers to compliance and the main adaptations proposed by the Advisory Board of the Zero projects.

Hollow organosilica beads as reference particles for optical detection of extracellular vesicles.

Essentials Standardization of extracellular vesicle (EV) measurements by flow cytometry needs improvement. Hollow organosilica beads were prepared, characterized, and tested as reference particles. Light scattering properties of hollow beads resemble that of platelet-derived EVs. Hollow beads are ideal reference particles to standardize scatter flow cytometry research on EVs. SUMMARY: Background The concentration of extracellular vesicles (EVs) in body fluids is a promising biomarker for disease, and flow cytometry remains the clinically most applicable method to identify the cellular origin of single EVs in suspension. To compare concentration measurements of EVs between flow cytometers, solid polystyrene reference beads and EVs were distributed in the first ISTH-organized interlaboratory comparison studies. The beads were used to set size gates based on light scatter, and the concentration of EVs was measured within the size gates. However, polystyrene beads lead to false size determination of EVs, owing to the mismatch in refractive index between beads and EVs. Moreover, polystyrene beads gate different EV sizes on different flow cytometers. Objective To prepare, characterize and test hollow organosilica beads (HOBs) as reference beads to set EV size gates in flow cytometry investigations. Methods HOBs were prepared with a hard template sol-gel method, and extensively characterized for morphology, size, and colloidal stability. The applicability of HOBs as reference particles was investigated by flow cytometry with HOBs and platelet-derived EVs. Results HOBs proved to be monodisperse with a homogeneous shell thickness. Two-angle light-scattering measurements by flow cytometry confirmed that HOBs have light-scattering properties similar to those of platelet-derived EVs. Conclusions Because the structure and light-scattering properties HOBs resemble those of EVs, HOBs with a given size will gate EVs of the same size. Therefore, HOBs are ideal reference beads with which to standardize optical measurements of the EV concentration within a predefined size range.

[Study of the nutritional status of elders in Cantabria]. / Estudio del estado nutricional de los ancianos de Cantabria.

INTRODUCTION: Population ageing is a main concern under the biosanitary point of view. AIM: To assess the nutritional status of people 65 year-old and older in Cantabria (Spain) METHOD: A total of 1605 persons were studied by means of the MNA (Mini Nutritional Assessment); a) by primary care (59.9% in the unit, and 4.7% at home) and, b) in nursing homes (35.4%). RESULTS: Nutritional score (NS) was 23.4 ± 4.1 for women and 24.4 ± 4 in males (p < 0.001). We emphasize the fact that 22.3% of people studied in the nursing homes were malnourished or at risk of malnutrition, compared with 14.2% of those studied at the unit, and only 3.3% of the home visited elders. The correlation between the value of the NS and the subjective estimation of nutrition status showed a high value (0.65). We emphasize the negative correlation (-0.53) between BNI value and the incidence of skin lesions. CONCLUSION: Our results highlight the importance of identifying malnutrition or its risk in elders in order to prevent the negative consequences of this deficiency.

[Evaluation of the grade of knowledge of the recommendations for the prevention and care of pressure sores in Critical Units]. / Evaluación del grado de conocimiento de las recomendaciones para la prevención y el cuidado de úlceras por presión en Unidades Críticas.

INTRODUCTION: The appearance of pressure sores (PS) is an event linked to the clinical safety of the patient and the available epidemiological information indicates that these injuries are a significant problem in the Critical Units. This present study aims to determine the grade of knowledge of the nurses in these Units on the evidence based recommendations of prevention and treatment of PS. METHODOLOGY: Descriptive, cross-sectional study conducted in 8 Critical Units of 3 hospitals. SAMPLE: 171 nurses. INSTRUMENT: ad hoc self-administered questionnaire on evidence based recommendations regarding 11 preventive interventions and 11 of treatment of PS. The questions had 5 response options, 1 of them valid. Sociodemographic data and opinion data were also gathered. STATISTICS: descriptive, Spearman test. RESULTS: A total of 120 valid questionnaires were obtained. The mean known recommendations in prevention material was 6.53. Regarding treatment, it was 5.60. There is a negative correlation between the years of professional experience and knowledge on prevention recommendations. CONCLUSIONS: The grade of knowledge of the study nurses on the recommendations of PSs decreases with years of profession. These are better known that those of the treatment, but the general knowledge of the recommendations is far from best ideal.