OBJECTIVES To first, validate in English hospitals the internal structure of the 'Patient Evaluation of Emotional Care during Hospitalisation' (PEECH) survey tool which was developed in Australia and, second, to examine how it may deepen the understanding of patient experience through comparison with results from the Picker Patient Experience Questionnaire (PPE-15). DESIGN A 48-item survey qu...

BACKGROUND Treatment of pediatric parapneumonic empyema (PPE) requires several weeks of antibiotic therapy that is typically completed in the outpatient setting. The route of outpatient therapy can be oral or intravenous (outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy [OPAT]). No studies have compared outcomes between oral therapy and OPAT for PPE. METHODS We identified children <18 years hospitali...

Accumulating evidence shows that an imbalance in regulatory T cells (Tregs)/T helper IL-17-producing cells (Th17) exists in malignant pleural effusion (MPE). However, the cause of this phenomenon in MPE and the underlying mechanism remain uncertain. The percentages of Tregs and Th17 cells in MPE and parapneumonic effusion (PPE) were determined by flow cytometry. Their specific transcription fac...

Objective(s): This study was aimed to evaluate the effect of chitosan-zinc oxide (CH-ZnO) film containing pomegranate peel extract (PPE; 0.5, 1 and 1.5%) on survival of Listeria monocytogenes and Staphylococcus aureus in raw rainbow trout fillets during refrigerated storage for 12 days.Methods: Total polyphenolic contents of CH-ZnO films containing different concentrations of methanolic P...

Mycobacterium tuberculosis requires the phosphate-sensing signal transduction system Pst/SenX3-RegX3 to resist host immune responses. A ΔpstA1 mutant lacking a Pst phosphate uptake system component is hypersensitive to diverse stress conditions in vitro and is attenuated in vivo due to constitutive expression of the phosphate starvation-responsive RegX3 regulon. Transcriptional profiling of the...

Coccidiosis is the most prevalent disease causing widespread economic loss, especially in poultry farms. Here, we investigated the effects of pomegranate peel extract (PPE) on the outcome of coccidiosis caused by Eimeria papillata in mice. The data showed that mice infected with E. papillata and treated with PPE revealed a significant decrease in the output of oocysts in their faeces by day 5 p...

To cite: Lorenc A, Robinson N. J Fam Plann Reprod Health Care 2015;41:8–12. BACKGROUND Patient and public engagement (PPE) consists of involving, consulting and listening to patients and the public, to make services responsive to patients’ needs and improve clinical outcomes and patient experience. PPE has a central role in the UK National Health Service (NHS), at every level, from planning to ...

The diagnostic accuracy of myeloperoxidase (MPO) in pleural fluid, for differentiating between complicated and noncomplicated parapneumonic pleural effusions (PPE) evaluated prospectively. Seventy patients aged >18 yrs with PPE (36 complicated and 34 noncomplicated) were studied after admission to a tertiary referral teaching hospital. MPO concentration was measured in plasma and pleural fluid ...

Alpha 1-antitrypsin (A1AT) is a serine protease inhibitor that mainly inhibits neutrophil elastase in the lungs. A variant of A1AT at the P1 position with methionine 358 to arginine (A1AT-Pittsburgh) is a rapid inhibitor of thrombin with greatly diminished anti-elastase activity. The P2 residue (position 357) of A1AT-Pittsburgh has been shown to play an important role in interactions with throm...

BACKGROUND Restrictive cardiomyopathy frequently complicates primary systemic amyloidosis (AL), yet only a small number of these patients develop large pleural effusions refractory to diuretic therapy and thoracentesis. We hypothesized that disruption of pleural function by amyloid deposits underlies persistent pleural effusions (PPEs) in patients with AL disease. METHODS We performed a retro...