Privacy awareness among healthcare professionals in intensive care unit: A multicenter, cross-sectional study.

This multicenter, cross-sectional study aimed to determine and examine the privacy awareness and patient rights education of healthcare professionals working in intensive care units (ICUs). The primary purpose of this study was to determine the privacy awareness of healthcare professionals working in the ICU. In addition, the secondary aim was to examine the relationship between patient rights education and awareness scores, as well as to question the need for privacy awareness education. The study population consisted of ICU physicians, nurses, and allied health personnel working in university hospitals, training and research hospitals, state hospitals, and private hospitals in Turkey. The data were collected through a questionnaire prepared by the researchers, including a question set about sociodemographics, a question about patient rights education, and the privacy awareness scale (PAS) scores using online Google Forms. In the results of the study conducted among 569 participants, the mean total PAS score was 38.31 ± 2.54. The PAS score was significantly different according to the occupation. The PAS scores of the nurses were higher than physicians and allied health personnel. The PAS scores differed according to whether the participants had received patient rights education. This study found that nurses were the group with the highest PAS scores among healthcare professionals. In addition, the PAS scores of nurses working in private and training and research hospitals were higher than those of other hospital employees. On the other hand, the lowest scores belonged to university hospitals and receiving patient rights education increased the PAS score of the nurses. This study showed that all enrolled healthcare professionals required in-service training to gain privacy awareness.

A state of art review on estimation of solar radiation with various models.

Solar radiation is free, and very useful input for most sectors such as heat, health, tourism, agriculture, and energy production, and it plays a critical role in the sustainability of biological, and chemical processes in nature. In this framework, the knowledge of solar radiation data or estimating it as accurately as possible is vital to get the maximum benefit from the sun. From this point of view, many sectors have revised their future investments/plans to enhance their profit margins for sustainable development according to the knowledge/estimation of solar radiation. This case has noteworthy attracted the attention of researchers for the estimation of solar radiation with low errors. Accordingly, it is noticed that various types of models have been continuously developed in the literature. The present review paper has mainly centered on the solar radiation works estimated by the empirical models, time series, artificial intelligence algorithms, and hybrid models. In general, these models have needed the atmospheric, geographic, climatic, and historical solar radiation data of a given region for the estimation of solar radiation. It is seen from the literature review that each model has its advantages and disadvantages in the estimation of solar radiation, and a model that gives the best results for one region may give the worst results for the other region. Furthermore, it is noticed that an input parameter that strongly improves the performance success of the models for a region may worsen the performance success of another region. In this direction, the estimation of solar radiation has been separately detailed in terms of empirical models, time series, artificial intelligence algorithms, and hybrid algorithms. Accordingly, the research gaps, challenges, and future directions for the estimation of solar radiation have been drawn in the present study. In the results, it is well-observed that the hybrid models have exhibited more accurate and reliable results in most studies due to their ability to merge between different models for the benefit of the advantages of each model, but the empirical models have come to the fore in terms of ease of use, and low computational costs.

Do haematological parameters such as HALP and Lymphocyte to C-reactive protein ratio predict tumor response to neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy in locally advanced rectal cancer?

AbstractAim:Inflammatory markers are effective in determining the prognosis of malignant diseases. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship of HALP and LCR with tumor response after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy and their effects on prognosis in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer. METHODS: 88 patients who received nCRT with the diagnosis of LARC were included in the study. First, all patients were divided into 2 groups: patients with pathological and clinical complete response (pCR+cCR) group 1 and patients with non-complete response group 2. The 82 patients who underwent surgery were divided into two groups according to the TRG Dworak: good response and poor response groups. Inflammation markers such as HALP and LCR were obtained using biochemical parameters. RESULTS: HALP and LCR were higher in the complete response group than in the none-complete response group (p<0.05). When TRG 3-4 (good response group) and TRG 0-1-2 (poor response group) were compared, HALP and LCR were higher in the good response group (p<0.05). The cut-off point for the HALP value was 30.17, the sensitivity was 88.2%, and the specificity was 43.7%. The cut-off point for the LCR value was 0.402, the sensitivity was 88.2%, and the specificity was 63.4%. It was found that HALP and LCR calculated prior to neoadjuvant CRT could not predict overall survival. CONCLUSIONS: We believe that inflammatory markers such as HALP and LCR can effectively identify rectal cancer patients who respond best to nCRT.

Does a selective surgical approach to malignant bowel obstruction help in palliative care patients?

BACKGROUND: Malignant bowel obstruction (MBO) is a condition secondary to intra-abdominal metastatic spread of advanced-stage tumors. There is no consensus for the treatment approach of MBO. This study aims to present the results of medical treatment and palliative surgery in patients diagnosed with MBO. METHODS: The patients who were treated for advanced-stage tumors between 2010 and 2017 and for whom consultation was requested from the surgical clinic for MBO symptoms were identified. A selective approach together with palliative care for the indication of surgery was instituted. The patients with surgical treatment and medical treatment were compared concerning survival, oral food intake and symptom relief. RESULTS: Seventy-six patients (30 female, 46 male) aged 60.5±12.8 years (range: 27-88) were included in this study. Forty-eight of the patients (64.9%) underwent surgical treatment, while 28 (35.1%) had medical treatment. Although the patients with surgery had longer duration of stay in the hospital (median 16 days vs. 4 days) (p<0.001) and higher complication rates (27.1% vs. 3.5%) compared to medically treated patients; the restoring oral food intake was better (97.9% vs. 78.6%) (p=0.005) and the survival was longer (105 days vs. 43 days). CONCLUSION: This study revealed that surgical treatment resulted in better outcomes for life quality parameters in highly selected patients with malignant bowel obstruction evaluated by multidisciplinary team, including palliative care.

Can Simple Tests Prior to Endoscopy Predict the OLGA Stage of Gastritis?

Gastritis is a progressive disease that evolves from a non-atrophic to atrophic state and progresses through intestinal metaplasia, with some cases leading eventually to gastric cancer. Since gastritis by definition is an inflammatory process of the mucosal lining of the stomach and is usually associated with pain, we aimed to identify any association between the severity of gastritis and pain and a simple inflammatory marker derived from a complete blood count (CBC). This was a prospective cross-sectional study which enrolled 155 consecutive adult patients who underwent an upper endoscopy. Prior to the endoscopy, all patients were given a questionnaire, numerical rating scale (NRS) and complete blood count evaluation. The biopsy was obtained from the gastric mucosa according to the modified Sydney classification and scored with the Operative Link for Gastritis Assessment (OLGA) scoring system. The results showed a significant correlation between NRS and intestinal metaplasia (p < 0.01); moreover, a correlation was also found between the NRS and OLGA stage (r = 0.469, p < 0.001). A nonlinear curve was constructed for OLGA stage estimation according to NRS scores (r2 was found to be 0.442, with p < 0.001). The results also showed a correlation between the neutrophil to the lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and OLGA stage (p < 0.01). No correlation was found between the other gastric parameters and NLR (p > 0.05). Helicobacter pylori positivity did not correlate with NRS and NLR. As a conclusion, pain measured by NRS and NLR, which are simply calculated from the CBC prior to endoscopy, may be used to predict OLGA stages and estimate the severity of gastritis in endoscopy patients.