Topic Review
Evolution of Antimicrobial Resistance
Neisseria gonorrhoeae has become a significant global public health problem due to growing infection rates and antibiotic resistance development. In 2012, N. gonorrhoeae positive samples isolated from Southeast Asia were reported to be the first strains showing resistance to all first-line antibiotics. To date, N. gonorrhoeae’s antimicrobial resistance has since been identified against a wide range of antimicrobial drugs globally. Hence, the World Health Organization (WHO) listed N. gonorrhoeae’s drug resistance as high-priority, necessitating novel therapy development. The persistence of N. gonorrhoeae infections globally underlines the need to better understand the molecular basis of N. gonorrhoeae infection, growing antibiotic resistance, and treatment difficulties in underdeveloped countries.
  • 325
  • 11 May 2022
Topic Review
Nursing Interventions Classification and Nurses’ Workloads
The Nursing Interventions Classification allows the systematic organisation of care treatments performed by nurses, and an estimation of the time taken to carry out the intervention is included in its characteristics. The evidence found through the use of Nursing Interventions Classification (NIC) terminology to determine nurses’ workloads is not conclusive. The NIC time averages are an adequate tool for understanding the impact of nurses’ workload on people’s health care. Yet the number of studies needs to be increased to provide more scientific evidence, along with improvements in methodological quality and rigour. Nurses must implement the quantity and quality of the recording in standardised NIC terminology throughout health records and in all clinical settings to advance the study of its relationship to the measurement of nurses’ workload. This could substantially contribute to improvements in staffing and quality of patient care.
  • 324
  • 04 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Health Status of Afghan Refugees in Europe
Four decades of civil war, violence, and destabilisation have forced millions of Afghans to flee their homes and to move to other countries worldwide. This increasing phenomenon may challenge physicians unfamiliar with the health status of this population, which may be markedly different from that of the host country. Moreover, several factors during their migration, such as transport in closed containers, accidental injuries, malnutrition, and accommodation in detention centres and refugee camps have a major influence on the health of refugees.
  • 324
  • 08 Mar 2023
Topic Review
Ankyloglossia as a Barrier to Breastfeeding
Ankyloglossia, commonly referred to as tongue-tie, brings about functional difficulties and, in some cases, may lead to early weaning. It is crucial to use breastfeeding as the exclusive food source for the first six months of an infant’s life, and the interference of the tongue contributes substantially to success in this regard. Even though there are many publications about ankyloglossia, there are still many controversies about its definition, diagnosis, classification, and treatment decision determined via frenotomy.
  • 324
  • 01 Mar 2024
Topic Review
Bempedoic Acid and Statins in Lipid-Lowering Strategy
Pharmacological research has led to the development of a new drug, the bempedoic acid, which further enrich the available therapies. This drug also acts on the biosynthesis of cholesterol but at upstream level than statins. From the biochemical point of view, it has the potential to be considered before the statin with consequent titration of statins to achieve the desirable LDL-C target. 
  • 324
  • 06 May 2023
Topic Review
Autoimmune Diseases and Breastfeeding
The incidence of chronic maternal disease ranges from 10 to 30% of pregnancies worldwide. Several epidemiological studies in mothers with chronic diseases have mainly focused on the risk for adverse obstetric outcomes. Evidence from these studies supports a correlation between maternal chronic conditions and adverse perinatal outcomes, including increased risk for preeclampsia, cesarean section, preterm birth, and admission in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). However, there is a knowledge gap pertaining to the management of these women during lactation.
  • 324
  • 06 Jul 2023
Topic Review
Impact of COVID-19 Confinement on Vulnerable Populations
The confinement caused by the pandemic has been especially hard for young people belonging to certain vulnerable populations and it has had a greater impact on previously existing pathologies and on those that have appeared because of this period. There was an increase in the diagnosis of mood disorders and the use of medication associated with these disorders, mainly during the period of reclusion that was declared worldwide in March 2020. In addition, risk factors such as loneliness, a lack of resilience, and a lack of adequate coping strategies negatively impacted these groups. 
  • 323
  • 15 Mar 2023
Topic Review
Human-Centric Approach in Healthcare 4.0
The cyberspace depicts an increasing number of difficulties related to security, especially in healthcare. This is evident from how vulnerable critical infrastructures are to cyberattacks and are unprotected against cybercrime. Users, ideally, should maintain a good level of cyber hygiene, via regular software updates and the development of unique passwords, as an effective way to become resilient to cyberattacks. Cyber security breaches are a top priority, and most users are aware that their behaviours may put them at risk; however, they are not educated to follow best practices, such as protecting their passwords. Mass cyber education may serve as a means to offset poor cyber security behaviours; however, mandatory education becomes a questionable point if the content is not focused on human factors, using human-centric approaches and taking into account end users’ behaviours, which is currently the case. Papers report the best practices that should be used by healthcare organisations and healthcare professionals to maintain good cyber hygiene and how these can be applied via a healthcare use case scenario to increase awareness related to data privacy and cybersecurity. This is an issue of great importance and urgency considering the rapid increase of cyberattacks in healthcare organisations, mainly due to human errors. Further to that, based on human-centric approaches, the long-term vision and future work involves facilitating the development of efficient practices and education associated with cybersecurity hygiene via a flexible, adaptable and practical framework.
  • 323
  • 17 Mar 2023
Topic Review
Personalization of Therapy in High-Grade Serous Tubo-Ovarian Cancer
High-grade serous tubo-ovarian cancer (HGSTOC) is the most lethal tumor of the female genital tract. The foregoing therapy consists of cytoreduction followed by standard platinum/taxane chemotherapy; alternatively, for primary unresectable tumors, neo-adjuvant platinum/taxane chemotherapy followed by delayed interval cytoreduction. In patients with suboptimal surgery or advanced disease, different forms of targeted therapy have been accepted or tested in clinical trials. Studies on HGSTOC discovered its genetic and proteomic heterogeneity, epigenetic regulation, and the role of the tumor microenvironment. These findings turned attention to the fact that there are several distinct primary tumor subtypes of HGSTOC and the unique biology of primary, metastatic, and recurrent tumors may result in a differential drug response. This results in both chemo-refractoriness of some primary tumors and, what is significantly more frequent and destructive, secondary chemo-resistance of metastatic and recurrent HGSTOC tumors. Treatment possibilities for platinum-resistant disease include several chemotherapeutics with moderate activity and different targeted drugs with difficult tolerable effects. Therefore, the question appears as to why different subtypes of ovarian cancer are predominantly treated based on the same therapeutic schemes and not in an individualized way, adjusted to the biology of a specific tumor subtype and temporal moment of the disease.
  • 323
  • 05 Jan 2024
Topic Review
The Prognostic Importance of ctDNA in Rectal Cancer
An individualized treatment approach is necessary to improve survival and quality of life in rectal cancer. Tools to stratify patients are currently missing. Circulating tumor DNA seems to be a good candidate, but results are sparse, conflicting and characterized by lack of a uniform approach. The ctDNA status may be of importance to the long-term prognosis, but the area of research is new and is short of dedicated studies. There is an obvious need for standardization in ctDNA research, and the issue should be addressed in future research. 
  • 322
  • 25 May 2022
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