Incidence and risk factors of urinary tract infections in hospitalised patients with spinal cord injury.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To investigate the incidence of urinary tract infection and analyse its risk factors among hospitalised patients with spinal cord injury. BACKGROUND: While the incidence of urinary tract infection varies widely according to the healthcare setting and patients' clinical characteristics, formal reports are limited in quantity. There has been no consensus regarding the risk factors for urinary tract infection. DESIGN: A retrospective descriptive study. METHODS: Electronic medical records of 964 subjects between 2010-2017 were reviewed. Urinary tract infection status was examined to identify newly occurred cases. Data included demographic and clinical characteristics, hydration status and length of hospitalisation. The reporting of the study followed the EQUATOR Network's STROBE checklist. RESULTS: Of the sample, 31.7% had urinary tract infection (95% confidence interval: 1.288 to 1.347, p < .001). Sex, completeness of injury, type of bladder emptying, detrusor function and urethral pressure were significant factors affecting urinary tract infection. Patients who were male and those with injury classifications A, B and C had higher risk of urinary tract infection. Patients with urinary or suprapubic indwelling catheters, as well as those with areflexic detrusor combined with normotonic urethral pressure or overactive detrusor combined with normotonic urethral pressure, showed higher risk. Length of hospitalisation in patients with urinary tract infection was greater than that in uninfected patients, which implies the importance of prevention of urinary tract infection. CONCLUSIONS: Nurses should carefully assess risk factors to prevent urinary tract infection in patients with spinal cord injury in the acute and sub-acute stages of the disease trajectory and provide individualised nursing care. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: This study contributes evidence for up-to-date clinical nursing practice for the comprehensive management of urinary tract infection. This can lead to improvements in nursing care quality and patient outcomes, including length of hospitalisation.

High efficiency Si quantum dot heterojunction solar cells using a single SiOX:B layer.

Si quantum dots (QDs) have been fabricated from SiO2/SiOx multilayer structures to create a homogeneous size. However, this structure achieved much lower efficiencies than would be expected in the Si QD photovoltaic field. This is because Si QD generation and photoexcited carrier transport is restricted by the adjacent SiO2 layer. In this study, we applied a single SiOx:B layer fabrication method to the Si QD heterojunction solar cells. The number of generated Si QDs and the photo-excited carrier lifetime was maximized when the oxygen partial pressure and boron doping concentration parameters were 2.7 × 10-5 Torr and 2.27 × 1021 atoms cm-3, respectively. As a result, in excess of 17% power conversion efficiency for the Si QD heterojunction solar cell was achieved using the single layer method.

Vitamin E supplementation alters HDL-cholesterol concentration and paraoxonase activity in rabbits fed high-cholesterol diet: comparison with probucol.

Vitamin E and probucol are well-known antioxidants that prevent cells from the oxidative stress, which is a risk factor of atherosclerosis. Male rabbits were fed either 0.03% vitamin E or 0.05% probucol in a 0.5% high-cholesterol (HC) diet for 8 weeks. Vitamin E and probucol significantly suppressed an increase in plasma total-cholesterol (total-C) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol compared to HC-control group. However, plasma high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) and HDL-C/total-C ratio levels and plasma paraoxonase activity were only significantly higher in vitamin E group after 8 weeks. Hepatic ACAT activity was significantly lower in both vitamin E and probucol groups than in HC-control group, while HMG-CoA reductase activity was the highest only in the probucol group. Total fecal sterol content was significantly higher in probucol and vitamin E groups than in the two control groups. Some atherogenic signs were discovered in the aortic fatty streak of HC-control group, yet not in other groups. Hepatic mRNA expressions of apo B-100 and apo C-III were significantly lower in probucol group than in other groups. Vitamin E supplementation was found to alter the plasma HDL-C-related factors; meanwhile, probucol supplementation was very effective in enhancing cholesterol metabolism, except for a negative effect that reduced plasma HDL-C concentration.