Treatment of Critical Bleeds in Patients With Immune Thrombocytopenia: A Systematic Review.

Objectives: Evidence-based protocols for managing bleeding emergencies in patients with immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) are lacking. We conducted a systematic review of treatments for critical bleeding in patients with ITP.

Methods: We included all study designs and extracted data in aggregate or individually for patients who received one or more interventions and for whom any of the following outcomes were reported: platelet count response, bleeding, disability, or death.

"I see salt everywhere": A qualitative examination of the utility of arts-based participatory workshops to study noncommunicable diseases in Tanzania and Malawi.

The burden of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) including hypertension, diabetes, and cancer, is rising in Sub-Saharan African countries like Tanzania and Malawi. This increase reflects complex interactions between diverse social, environmental, biological, and political factors. To intervene successfully, new approaches are therefore needed to understand how local knowledges and attitudes towards common NCDs influence health behaviours.

Patient Preparation and Radiation Protection Guidance for Adult Patients Undergoing Radioiodine Treatment for Thyroid Cancer in the UK.

Radioactive iodine is a highly effective treatment for thyroid cancer and has now been used in clinical practice for more than 80 years. In general, the treatment is well tolerated. However, it can be logistically quite complex for patients due to the need to reduce iodine intake and achieve high levels of thyroid-stimulating hormone prior to treatment.

Arts-based approaches to promoting health in sub-Saharan Africa: a scoping review.

Introduction: Arts-based approaches to health promotion have been used widely across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), particularly in public health responses to HIV/AIDS. Such approaches draw on deep-rooted historical traditions of indigenous groups in combination with imported traditions which emerged from colonial engagement. To date, no review has sought to map the locations, health issues, art forms and methods documented by researchers using arts-based approaches in SSA.

New genetic loci link adipose and insulin biology to body fat distribution.

Body fat distribution is a heritable trait and a well-established predictor of adverse metabolic outcomes, independent of overall adiposity. To increase our understanding of the genetic basis of body fat distribution and its molecular links to cardiometabolic traits, here we conduct genome-wide association meta-analyses of traits related to waist and hip circumferences in up to 224,459 individuals. We identify 49 loci (33 new) associated with waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index (BMI), and an additional 19 loci newly associated with related waist and hip circumference measures (P < 5 × 10(-8)).

Parent-of-origin-specific allelic associations among 106 genomic loci for age at menarche.

Age at menarche is a marker of timing of puberty in females. It varies widely between individuals, is a heritable trait and is associated with risks for obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, breast cancer and all-cause mortality. Studies of rare human disorders of puberty and animal models point to a complex hypothalamic-pituitary-hormonal regulation, but the mechanisms that determine pubertal timing and underlie its links to disease risk remain unclear.

A comparative study on the effects of barite, ilmenite and bentonite on four suspension feeding bivalves.

The impact of drilling mud components on the filtration activity and survival of bivalve molluscs was investigated by exposing them to suspensions of 'standard' barite, finely milled barite, ilmenite and bentonite in sea water. Introduction of the components stimulated filtration activity in all four bivalves. In addition, the introduction of standard barite and ilmenite both had lethal effects, with none of the bivalves surviving the full duration of the experiments.

Rheumatoid arthritis association at 6q23.

The Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium (WTCCC) identified nine single SNPs putatively associated with rheumatoid arthritis at P = 1 x 10(-5) - 5 x 10(-7) in a genome-wide association screen. One, rs6920220, was unequivocally replicated (trend P = 1.1 x 10(-8)) in a validation study, as described here.

The detection of Cryptosporidium parvum and Escherichia coli O157 in UK bivalve shellfish.

Optimised immunomagnetic separation methods to detect Cryptosporidium parvum and Escherichia coli O157 in UK shellfish are described. Whole tissue homogenates gave the best recoveries for C. parvum oocysts compared with gill or haemolymph extracts.