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AIM: To examine whether there are differences in the vaginal microbiome of women who miscarry compared to those who have normal pregnancy outcomes. METHODS: Prospective observational study conducted at the Canberra Hospital, Australia, with 24 participant women in the first trimester of pregnancy. The vaginal microbiomes of the 24 women were characterized using sequencing analysis of the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene employing an Illumina MiSeq instrument with QIAGEN reagents. Vaginal microbiome data were correlated with pregnancy clinical metadata. RESULTS: Ordination plots showed differences in the composition of microbiomes of women who miscarried and controls. In nulliparous women, Lactobacillus crispatus was the dominant bacterium in 50% of women. Lactobacillus iners was the dominant bacterium in 50% of women with a history of prior miscarriage and a miscarriage in the study compared to 15% (p = 0.011) in those with no history of miscarriage and no miscarriage in the study. There were significant differences in the number of operational taxonomic units and the richness of the microbiomes of women who miscarried compared to those who delivered at term. Eight taxa were found in different relative abundances in both groups of women. CONCLUSIONS: The study indicated that the composition of the vaginal microbiome varies with pregnancy history. Also, there was a significant difference in the vaginal microbiomes between women who suffered miscarriage and those who continued to term delivery both in the overall microbiome populations and in the abundances of individual taxa.
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Aborto Espontáneo , Microbiota , Aborto Espontáneo/epidemiología , Femenino , Humanos , Embarazo , Primer Trimestre del Embarazo , ARN Ribosómico 16S/genética , VaginaRESUMEN
INTRODUCTION: While prognosis in metastatic melanoma has traditionally been poor, novel systemic therapies such as immunotherapy and targeted agents have improved overall survival (Steininger et al., 2021). These medications are generally well tolerated but can be associated with immune related adverse events (Remash et al., 2021). Hepatic metastatectomy is an important component of management, conferring a survival benefit over systemic therapy alone in appropriately selected patients (Medina et al., 2020). Gadoxetic acid-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (GA-MRI) has been demonstrated to have enhanced diagnostic accuracy compared with other imaging modalities for hepatic metastases (Freitas et al., 2021). The risk of tumour seeding associated fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) of hepatic lesions varies, with most studies reporting a low incidence (Maturen et al., 2006). PRESENTATION OF CASE: In February 2020, a 75-year-old male underwent wide local excision and sentinel lymph node biopsy for stage IIA (T2B, N0, M0) melanoma. Routine surveillance without adjuvant systemic treatment was commenced. In July 2022, he presented with haemoptysis and was subsequently diagnosed with widespread metastatic disease on positive emission tomography (PET). After combination ipilimumab and nivolumab, PET scans in August 2023 revealed new liver lesions with disease response at all other metastatic sites. Following a multi-disciplinary team (MDT) discussion, the patient proceeded to hepatic metastatectomy. Histopathology demonstrated chronic necrotising granulomatous hepatitis. DISCUSSION: This case reflects the challenges involved in investigation and management of hepatic metastases in melanoma. CONCLUSION: Despite the accuracy of modern imaging, this case demonstrates the need for MDT consideration of liver biopsy in patients on anti-CTL4 treatment or with response to systemic treatment at extrahepatic sites.
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BACKGROUND: Medication safety plays an essential role in all healthcare organizations; improving this area is paramount to quality and safety of any wider healthcare program. While several medication safety programs in the hospital setting have been described and the associated impact on patient safety evaluated, no systematic reviews have described the impact of medication safety programs in the primary care setting. A preliminary search of the literature demonstrated that no systematic reviews, meta-analysis or scoping reviews have reported on medication safety programs in primary care; instead they have focused on specific interventions such as medication reconciliation or computerized physician order entry. This scoping review sought to map the current medication safety programs used in primary care. OBJECTIVE: The current scoping review sought to examine the characteristics of medication safety programs in the primary care setting and to map evidence on the outcome measures used to assess the effectiveness of medication safety programs in improving patient safety. INCLUSION CRITERIA TYPES OF PARTICIPANTS: The current review considered participants of any age and any condition using care obtained from any primary care services. CONCEPT: We considered studies that focussed on the characteristics of medication safety programs and the outcome measures used to measure the effectiveness of these programs on patient safety in the primary care setting. CONTEXT: The context of this review was primary care settings, primary healthcare organizations, general practitioner clinics, outpatient clinics and any other clinics that do not classify patients as inpatients. TYPES OF STUDIES: We considered all quantitative studied published in English. SEARCH STRATEGY: A three-step search strategy was utilized in this review. DATA EXTRACTION: Data were extracted from the included studies to address the review question. The data extracted included type of medication safety program, author, country of origin, aims and purpose of the study, study population, method, comparator, context, main findings and outcome measures. RESULTS: The objectives, inclusion criteria and methods for this scoping review were specified in advance and documented in a protocol that was previously published. This scoping review included nine studies published over an eight-year period that investigated or described the effects of medication safety programs in primary care settings. We classified each of the nine included studies into three main sections according to whether they included an organizational, professional or patient component. The organizational component is aimed at changing the structure of the organization to implement the intervention, the professional component is aimed at the healthcare professionals involved in implementing the interventions, and the patient component is aimed at counseling and education of the patient. All of the included studies had different types of medication safety programs. The programs ranged from complex interventions including pharmacists and teams of healthcare professionals to educational packages for patients and computerized system interventions. The outcome measures described in the included studies were medication error incidence, adverse events and number of drug-related problems. CONCLUSION: Multi-faceted medication safety programs are likely to vary in characteristics. They include educational training, quality improvement tools, informatics, patient education and feedback provision. The most likely outcome measure for these programs is the incidence of medication errors and reported adverse events or drug-related problems.