Cruz Lin (bandbadge0)
Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are one of the most common infections in primary care. Previous research showed that GPs find it challenging to diagnose UTIs and frequently divert from guidelines leading to unwarranted antibiotic prescriptions and inefficient use of diagnostics such as urinary cultures. We hypothesise that management of UTIs during out-of-hours care may be extra challenging due to a higher workload and logistical issues regarding diagnostic work-up and obtaining results. We therefore aimed to study the workload, diagnostic work-up and treatment of UTIs during out-of-hours primary care. We performed a retrospective observational cohort study in which we analysed a full year (2018) of electronic patient records of two large Dutch GP out-of-hours centres. All adult patients with UTI symptoms were included in this study. Descriptive statistics and multivariate regression were used to analyse diagnostics and subsequent management. A total of 5657 patients were included (78.9% female, mean ag 74% of the patients received antibiotics. 8 out of 10 patients still received an antibiotic prescription in case of a negative nitrite test, and 9 out of 10 patients with an indication did not receive a urine culture. In conclusion, we found that correctly diagnosing UTIs and prescribing antibiotics for UTIs is a challenge that needs major improvement, especially during out-of-hours GP care. The role of common bile duct (CBD) stenting in the establishment of bile stream in the elderly patients and the ones who are not good candidates for surgery due to not responding to treatments was well documented in previous studies. The current study aimed at investigating the effect of adding Ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) to CBD stenting alone in order to reduce the size of large and multiple CBD stones. Clinical outcomes including success rates in CBD stones clearance, incidence of pancreatitis, perforation, bleeding, as well as, decrease in size of stones and liver enzymes after a two-month period were assessed in the UDCA + CBD stenting group. A total of 64 patients referring to Shahid Beheshti Hospital in Qom, Iran with multiple or large CBD stones (above three or larger than 15mm) received standard endoscopic therapies and UDCA + CBD stenting (group B) and controls only received standard endoscopic therapies with only CBD stenting (group A). The mean reduction in the size of stones in group B was sor patients with large and multiple CBD stones. Also, in the cases with large or multi stones may be effective in reducing size and subsequently stone retrieval. Trial registry The study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of Qom University of Medical Sciences (ethical code IR.MUQ.REC.1397.075); the study was also registered in the Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials (No. IRCT20161205031252N8). This study adheres to CONSORT guidelines. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play crucial roles in gene regulation at the transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels. LncRNAs are belonging to a large class of transcripts with ≥200 nt in length which do not code for proteins, have been widely investigated in various physiological and pathological contexts by high-throughput sequencing techniques and bioinformatics analysis. However, little is known about the regulatory mechanisms by which lncRNAs regulate genes that are associated with Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli F4 fimbriae (ETEC-F4ac) adhesion phenotype in small intestine epithelial cells of Large White piglets. To address this, we used RNA sequencing to profile lncRNAs and mRNAs of small intestine epithelial cells in Large White piglets differing in their ETEC-F4 adhesion phenotypes and ITGB5 genotypes. Eight male piglets were used in this study and were divided into two groups on the basis of their adhesion phenotype and ITGB5 genotypes, a candidate gene for F4ac receptor. Non-adhesive grou-target DEGs which directly involv