What can lead to late diagnosis of HIV in an illegal gold mining environment? A qualitative study at the French Guianas border with Brazil

Objective
The present study aimed to understand what factors can lead to late HIV diagnosis of illegal gold miners at French Guiana’s border with Brazil.

Design
An exploratory qualitative study with in-depth interviews and observations was conducted between November 2019 and February 2020.

Setting
The study was conducted in the main medical healthcare service and two non-governmental organisation premises in the Oyapock border region, which is a supply area for illegal gold mining sites.

Participants
Fifteen people living with HIV diagnosed with CD4 count

Leggi
Settembre 2022

Developing an Australian Melanoma Clinical Outcomes Registry (MelCOR): a protocol paper

Introduction
Australia has the highest incidence of melanoma in the world with variable care provided by a diverse range of clinicians. Clinical quality registries aim to identify these variations in care and provide anonymised, benchmarked feedback to clinicians and institutions to improve patient outcomes. The Australian Melanoma Clinical Outcomes Registry (MelCOR) aims to collect population-wide, clinical-level data for the early management of cutaneous melanoma and provide anonymised feedback to healthcare providers.

Methods and analysis
A modified Delphi process will be undertaken to identify key clinical quality indicators for inclusion in the MelCOR pilot. MelCOR will prospectively collect data relevant to these quality indicators, initially for all people over the age of 18 years living in Victoria and Queensland with a melanoma diagnosis confirmed by histopathology, via a two-stage recruitment and consent process. In stage 1, existing State-based cancer registries contact the treating clinician and provide an opportunity for them to opt themselves or their patients out of direct contact with MelCOR. After stage 1, re-identifiable clinical data are provided to the MelCOR under a waiver of consent. In stage 2, the State-based cancer registry will approach the patient directly and invite them to opt in to MelCOR and share identifiable data. If a patient elects to opt in, MelCOR will be able to contact patients directly to collect patient-reported outcome measures. Aggregated data will be used to provide benchmarked, comparative feedback to participating institutions/clinicians.

Ethics and dissemination
Following the successful collection of pilot data, the feasibility of an Australia-wide roll out will be evaluated. Key quality indicator data will be the core of the MelCOR dataset, with additional data points added later. Annual reports will be issued, first to the relevant stakeholders followed by the public. MelCOR is approved by the Alfred Ethics Committee (58280/127/20).

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Settembre 2022

Development of an Australia and New Zealand Lung Cancer Clinical Quality Registry: a protocol paper

Introduction
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality, comprising the largest national cancer disease burden in Australia and New Zealand. Regional reports identify substantial evidence-practice gaps, unwarranted variation from best practice, and variation in processes and outcomes of care between treating centres. The Australia and New Zealand Lung Cancer Registry (ANZLCR) will be developed as a Clinical Quality Registry to monitor the safety, quality and effectiveness of lung cancer care in Australia and New Zealand.

Methods and analysis
Patient participants will include all adults >18 years of age with a new diagnosis of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), SCLC, thymoma or mesothelioma. The ANZLCR will register confirmed diagnoses using opt-out consent. Data will address key patient, disease, management processes and outcomes reported as clinical quality indicators. Electronic data collection facilitated by local data collectors and local, state and federal data linkage will enhance completeness and accuracy. Data will be stored and maintained in a secure web-based data platform overseen by registry management. Central governance with binational representation from consumers, patients and carers, governance, administration, health department, health policy bodies, university research and healthcare workers will provide project oversight.

Ethics and dissemination
The ANZLCR has received national ethics approval under the National Mutual Acceptance scheme. Data will be routinely reported to participating sites describing performance against measures of agreed best practice and nationally to stakeholders including federal, state and territory departments of health. Local, regional and (bi)national benchmarks, augmented with online dashboard indicator reporting will enable local targeting of quality improvement efforts.

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Agosto 2022

Preventing unscheduled hospitalisations from asthma: a retrospective cohort study using routine primary and secondary care data in the UK (The PUSH-Asthma Study)–protocol paper

Introduction
Asthma is the most common chronic respiratory disease in children and adults. Asthma results in significant disease-related morbidity, healthcare costs and, in some cases, death. Despite efforts through implementation of national guidelines to improve asthma care, the UK has one of the highest asthma-related morbidity and mortality rates in the western world. New approaches are necessary to prevent asthma attacks in children and adults. The objectives of this study are to assess the association between demographic and clinical factors and asthma-related hospital admissions in children and adults, describe the epidemiology of asthma phenotypes among hospital attenders, and externally validate existing asthma risk prediction models.

Methods and analysis
This is a retrospective cohort study of children and adults with asthma. Data will be extracted from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) Aurum database, which holds anonymised primary care data for over 13 million actively registered patients and covers approximately 19% of the UK population. The primary outcome will be asthma-related hospital admissions. The secondary outcomes will be prescriptions of short courses of oral corticosteroids (as a surrogate measure for asthma exacerbations), a composite outcome measure including hospital admissions and prescriptions of short courses of oral corticosteroids and delivery of asthma care management following hospital discharge. The primary analysis will use a Poisson regression model to assess the association between demographic and clinical risk factors and the primary and secondary outcomes. Latent class analysis will be used to identify distinct subgroups, which will further our knowledge on potential phenotypes of asthma among patients at high risk of asthma-related hospital admissions. A Concordance statistic (C-statistic) and logistic regression model will also be used to externally validate existing risk prediction models for asthma-related hospitalisations to allow for the optimal model to be identified and evaluated provide evidence for potential use of the optimal performing risk prediction model in primary care.

Ethics and dissemination
This study was approved by the CPRD Independent Scientific Advisory Committee (reference number: 21_000512). Findings from this study will be published in a peer-reviewed journal and disseminated at national and international conferences.

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Agosto 2022

British Society of Gastroenterology guidelines on the management of functional dyspepsia

Functional dyspepsia (FD) is a common disorder of gut–brain interaction, affecting approximately 7% of individuals in the community, with most patients managed in primary care. The last British Society of Gastroenterology (BSG) guideline for the management of dyspepsia was published in 1996. In the interim, substantial advances have been made in understanding the complex pathophysiology of FD, and there has been a considerable amount of new evidence published concerning its diagnosis and classification, with the advent of the Rome IV criteria, and management. The primary aim of this guideline, commissioned by the BSG, is to review and summarise the current evidence to inform and guide clinical practice, by providing a practical framework for evidence-based diagnosis and treatment of patients. The approach to investigating the patient presenting with dyspepsia is discussed, and efficacy of drugs in FD summarised based on evidence derived from a comprehensive search of the medical literature, which was used to inform an update of a series of pairwise and network meta-analyses. Specific recommendations have been made according to the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation system. These provide both the strength of the recommendations and the overall quality of evidence. Finally, in this guideline, we consider novel treatments that are in development, as well as highlighting areas of unmet need and priorities for future research.

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Agosto 2022

The International Vitreoretinal B-Cell Lymphoma Registry: a protocol paper

Introduction
Vitreoretinal lymphoma is a rare ocular cancer with high morbidity and mortality despite treatment. Diagnosis by cytopathology is often delayed, and various molecular and image-based investigations have been developed. Diverse treatments are used, but there is a limited medical evidence to differentiate their effectiveness. We designed an international registry that would collect diagnostic, treatment and outcomes data, to establish new evidence for the management of this cancer.

Methods and analysis
The International Vitreoretinal B-Cell Lymphoma Registry will accrue data retrospectively for individuals aged 18 years or older, diagnosed with new or recurrent vitreoretinal B-cell lymphoma on or after 1 January 2020. A steering committee of subspecialised ophthalmologists identified 20 key clinical data items that describe patient demographics, tissue involvements, diagnostic testing, ocular and systemic treatments and treatment complications, and visual acuity and survival outcomes. Customised software was designed to permit collection of these data across a single baseline and multiple follow-up forms. The platform collects data without identifiers and at 3 month reporting intervals. Outcomes of the project will include: (1) descriptions of clinical presentations, and diagnostic and therapeutic preferences; (2) associations between clinical presentations, and diagnostics and treatments, and between diagnostics and treatments (assessed by ORs with 95% CIs); and (3) estimations of rates of vision loss, and progression-free and overall survival (assessed by Kaplan-Meier estimates).

Ethics and dissemination
The registry has received Australia-wide approval by a national human research ethics committee. Sites located outside Australia are required to seek local human research ethics review. Results generated through the registry will be disseminated primarily by peer-reviewed publications that are expected to inform clinical practice, as well as educational materials.

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Luglio 2022

Impact of a phone call with a medical student/general practitioner team on morbidity of chronic patients during the first French COVID-19 lockdown (COVIQuest): a cluster randomised trial

Objectives
The first COVID-19 lockdown led to a significantly reduced access to healthcare, which may have increased decompensations in frail patients with chronic diseases, especially older patients living with a chronic cardiovascular disease (CVD) or a mental health disorder (MHD). The objective of COVIQuest was to evaluate whether a general practitioner (GP)-initiated phone call to patients with CVD and MHD during the COVID-19 lockdown could reduce the number of hospitalisation(s) over a 1-month period.

Design
This is a cluster randomised controlled trial. Clusters were GPs from eight French regions.

Participants
Patients ≥70 years old with chronic CVD (COVIQuest_CV subtrial) or ≥18 years old with MHD (COVIQuest_MH subtrial).

Interventions
A standardised GP-initiated phone call aiming to evaluate patients’ need for urgent healthcare, with a control group benefiting from usual care (ie, the contact with the GP was by the patient’s initiative).

Main outcome measures
Hospital admission within 1 month after the phone call.

Results
In the COVIQuest_CV subtrial, 131 GPs and 1834 patients were included in the intervention group and 136 GPs and 1510 patients were allocated to the control group. Overall, 65 (3.54%) patients were hospitalised in the intervention group vs 69 (4.57%) in the control group (OR 0.82, 95% CI 0.56 to 1.20; risk difference –0.77, 95% CI –2.28 to 0.74). In the COVIQuest_MH subtrial, 136 GPs and 832 patients were included in the intervention group and 131 GPs and 548 patients were allocated to the control group. Overall, 27 (3.25%) patients were hospitalised in the intervention group vs 12 (2.19%) in the control group (OR 1.52, 95% CI 0.82 to 2.81; risk difference 1.38, 95% CI 0.06 to 2.70).

Conclusion
A GP-initiated phone call may have been associated with more hospitalisations within 1 month for patients with MHD, but results lack robustness and significance depending on the statistical approach used.

Trial registration number
NCT04359875.

Leggi
Luglio 2022