New treatment strategy and assessment questionnaire for external auditory canal pruritis: topical pimecrolimus therapy and Modified Itch Severity Scale

2009 ◽  
Vol 124 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
B Acar ◽  
H Karabulut ◽  
Y Sahin ◽  
M A Babademez ◽  
A S Karadag ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
External Auditory Canal ◽  
Scoring System ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Initial Assessment ◽  
Severity Scale ◽  
The Third ◽  
Systemic Treatments ◽  
New Treatment ◽  
Assess Treatment Response ◽  
Self Reporting Questionnaire

AbstractObjective:We aimed to compare the efficacy of topical pimecrolimus versus hydrocortisone in treating external auditory canal pruritis, using the Modified Itch Severity Scale as an assessment tool.Methods:We included in the study 40 patients with isolated itching of the external auditory canal who had not received any benefit from previous topical and systemic treatments. Topical 1 per cent pimecrolimus or topical hydrocortisone was applied to each patient's external auditory canal for three months. A Modified Itch Severity Scale was developed and used to assess treatment response.Results:Compared with itching scores on initial assessment, the scores of patients receiving topical pimecrolimus had decreased by 52.3 per cent by the third week of treatment and by 77.6 per cent by the third month, whereas the scores of patients receiving topical hydrocortisone had decreased by 34.4 per cent by the third week and by 64.2 per cent by the third month.Conclusions:Topical pimecrolimus appears to be as effective as topical hydrocortisone in relieving external auditory canal pruritis. We used a novel scoring system, the Modified Itch Severity Scale, to evaluate external auditory canal pruritus; this is the first self-reporting questionnaire for the quantification of external auditory canal pruritus severity. Further studies are needed to validate this scoring system.

Components of a risk assessment tool for prevention and control of bovine respiratory disease in preweaned dairy calves

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Sharif S. Aly ◽  
Betsy M. Karle ◽  
Deniece R. Williams ◽  
Gabriele U. Maier ◽  
Sasha Dubrovsky
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Risk Factor ◽  
Respiratory Disease ◽  
Scoring System ◽  
Prevention And Control ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Bovine Respiratory Disease ◽  
And Control ◽  
Management Changes

Abstract Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) is the leading natural cause of death in US beef and dairy cattle, causing the annual loss of more than 1 million animals and financial losses in excess of $700 million. The multiple etiologies of BRD and its complex web of risk factors necessitate a herd-specific intervention plan for its prevention and control on dairies. Hence, a risk assessment is an important tool that producers and veterinarians can utilize for a comprehensive assessment of the management and host factors that predispose calves to BRD. The current study identifies the steps taken to develop the first BRD risk assessment tool and its components, namely the BRD risk factor questionnaire, the BRD scoring system, and a herd-specific BRD control and prevention plan. The risk factor questionnaire was designed to inquire on aspects of calf-rearing including management practices that affect calf health generally, and BRD specifically. The risk scores associated with each risk factor investigated in the questionnaire were estimated based on data from two observational studies. Producers can also estimate the prevalence of BRD in their calf herds using a smart phone or tablet application that facilitates selection of a true random sample of calves for scoring using the California BRD scoring system. Based on the risk factors identified, producers and herd veterinarians can then decide the management changes needed to mitigate the calf herd's risk for BRD. A follow-up risk assessment after a duration of time sufficient for exposure of a new cohort of calves to the management changes introduced in response to the risk assessment is recommended to monitor the prevalence of BRD.

The Lower Limb Amputee Measurement Scale: Reliability and predictive validity

2007 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 300-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oren Cheifetz ◽  
Mark Bayley ◽  
Sharon Grad ◽  
Debbie Lambert ◽  
Cass Watson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Predictive Validity ◽  
Lower Limb ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Pearson Correlation ◽  
Rehabilitation Program ◽  
Measurement Scale ◽  
Initial Assessment ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Scale Reliability ◽  
Lower Limb Amputee

This study assesses the reliability and predictive validity of the Lower Limb Extremity Amputee Measurement Scale (LLAMS), which is an assessment tool designed to predict the length of stay (LOS) of patients with lower limb amputations in a rehabilitation program. In order to evaluate inter-rater reliability a prospective evaluation was completed by five independent evaluators ( n = 10). Predictive validity was evaluated retrospectively by comparing the LLAMS predicted LOS to actual LOS ( n = 147). The ability of the amputee team members to administer the LLAMS to patients was very high (ICC [2,1] = 0.98, CI 95% = 0.96 – 0.99, F[9, 36] = 78.71, p < 0.05). In addition, a moderate positive correlation was found between the LLAMS predicted LOS and the actual LOS (Pearson Correlation Coefficient, r = 0.465, p < 0.01), and the LLAMS was able to identify those patients who required short versus long rehabilitation stays. The incorporation of the LLAMS into the physiatrist's initial assessment of patients in the amputee clinic has enhanced the ability to manage better the LOS and the time patients wait to enter the rehabilitation program.

Rapid Needs Assessment Tool for Condom Programming

2003 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Condom Use ◽  
Needs Assessment ◽  
Hiv Transmission ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Data Gathering ◽  
Initial Assessment ◽  
Population Council ◽  
Target Groups

The Population Council has collaborated with UNFPA to develop and test a rapid needs assessment and data-gathering tool to serve as a basis within a country for improving condom programming (including distribution and promotion of condoms) to prevent HIV transmission. The project has three objectives: development of a rapid needs assessment tool for condom programming, which includes development of guidelines for utilizing the tool; pretesting of the initial assessment tool in four countries; and dissemination of the revised tool with accompanying guidelines. The rapid needs assessment tool has been pretested in four countries—Bangladesh, Brazil, Ghana, and Kenya. This report presents the results of these assessments along with issues for consideration in the possible improvement of the needs assessment tool and the recommended process for using the tool. Findings indicate that while condoms are widely available, and condom use is generally increasing, there is much that could be done to improve their distribution, promotion, and utilization, especially among key target groups that are at a high risk for HIV.

scholarly journals A risk scoring system for seafood supply chain breaches and examination of freshwater fish imported to Australia

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Williams ◽  
Marta Hernandez-Jover ◽  
Thomas Williams ◽  
Shokoofeh Shamsi
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
High Risk ◽  
Freshwater Fish ◽  
Scoring System ◽  
Outcome Variable ◽  
Scoring Method ◽  
Safety Standards ◽  
The Third ◽  
Risk Scoring ◽  
Legislative Changes

Abstract Legislative changes have altered the way imported edible seafood is inspected in Australia. Greater onus of responsibility has been placed on exporting countries to provide documentary evidence of adherence to internally recognized food safety standards. According to global trade agreements, any additional safety tests applied to freshwater fish imported into Australia must be justified. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop a risk scoring method to provide justification for identifying countries as ‘Freshwater fish high risk’ and to examine the seafood they export to Australia for seafood supply chain breaches. Scoring was conducted using six predictor variables, identified in the literature as important contributors to seafood supply chain breaches, to achieve the outcome variable, Country considered ‘Freshwater fish high risk’. Sixty-seven fish fillets (9.55 kg) of the same species were examined from the third highest scoring country (Country 20) and 562 (5.6 kg) whole fish from the sixth highest scoring country (Country 22). Country 20 had supply chain breaches of 28 macroscopic yellow cysts in one fillet. Two hundred and thirteen parasites and other supply chain breaches were identified in fish from Country 22, including retained liver (91 per cent), visible mud (11 per cent), a variety of debris (16 per cent) and, depending on the commodity code, these fish were imported to Australia under full intestine (90 per cent), retained gills (89 per cent), and partial intestine (9 per cent). Three serious physical hazards were recovered from the edible portion of three ‘consumer-ready’ fish and snails of Genus Lymnaea and Indoplanorbis were recovered from gill mud also from ‘consumer-ready’ fish. The study showed variable results from the scoring system and vast differences in seafood supply chain breaches between the third and sixth highest scoring countries.

Complications of keratosis obturans

2006 ◽  
Vol 120 (9) ◽  
pp. 740-744 ◽  
Author(s):  
N C Saunders ◽  
R Malhotra ◽  
N Biggs ◽  
P A Fagan
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Facial Nerve ◽  
External Auditory Canal ◽  
Bone Erosion ◽  
Disease Process ◽  
Jugular Bulb ◽  
Horizontal Semicircular Canal ◽  
The Third ◽  
Tegmen Tympani ◽  
External Auditory Canal Cholesteatoma

Three patients with extensive keratosis obturans were treated during a 12-month period. One presented with an idiopathic sensorineural hearing loss and was found to have keratosis obturans in the contralateral, asymptomatic ear. The disease process had resulted in a horizontal semicircular canal fistula in what was now, effectively, the only hearing ear. The second patient had an extensive dehiscence of the tegmen tympani. The third presented with a facial palsy. An automastoidectomy cavity was present, with circumferential skeletonization of the descending facial nerve over a length of 1.5 cm and dehiscence of the temporomandibular joint and jugular bulb. All three patients were successfully treated by surgical formalization of their automastoidectomy cavities. They appeared to represent cases of keratosis obturans rather than external auditory canal cholesteatoma, on the basis of previously published reports.These complications and patterns of bone erosion have not previously been described in keratosis obturans. The third patient is believed to have the most extensive case of keratosis obturans yet described.

scholarly journals FreeHear: A New Sound-Field Speech-in-Babble Hearing Assessment Tool

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 233121651987237 ◽  
Author(s):  
David R. Moore ◽  
Helen Whiston ◽  
Melanie Lough ◽  
Antonia Marsden ◽  
Harvey Dillon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Sound Field ◽  
Standard Test ◽  
Initial Assessment ◽  
Clinical Test ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Spatial Release ◽  
Hearing Devices ◽  
Release From Masking ◽  
Test Retest Reliability

Pure-tone threshold audiometry is currently the standard test of hearing. However, in everyday life, we are more concerned with listening to speech of moderate loudness and, specifically, listening to a particular talker against a background of other talkers. FreeHear delivers strings of three spoken digits (0–9, not 7) against a background babble via three loudspeakers placed in front and to either side of a listener. FreeHear is designed as a rapid, quantitative initial assessment of hearing using an adaptive algorithm. It is designed especially for children and for testing listeners who are using hearing devices. In this first report on FreeHear, we present developmental considerations and protocols and results of testing 100 children (4–13 years old) and 23 adults (18–30 years old). Two of the six 4 year olds and 91% of all older children completed full testing. Speech reception threshold (SRT) for digits and noise colocated at 0° or separated by 90° both improved linearly across 4 to 12 years old by 6 to 7 dB, with a further 2 dB improvement for the adults. These data suggested full maturation at approximately 15 years old SRTs at 90° digits/noise separation were better by approximately 6 dB than SRTs colocated at 0°. This spatial release from masking did not change significantly across age. Test–retest reliability was similar for children and adults (standard deviation of 2.05–2.91 dB SRT), with a mean practice improvement of 0.04–0.98 dB. FreeHear shows promise as a clinical test for both children and adults. Further trials in people with hearing impairment are ongoing.

scholarly journals Objectifying the Assessment of Pain

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 2473011418S0046
Author(s):  
Michael Strauss ◽  
Wendy Strauss
Keyword(s):  
Pain Management ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Scoring System ◽  
Rating Scale ◽  
Numerical Rating Scale ◽  
Initial Assessment ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Thought Processes ◽  
Pain Scales ◽  
Activity Scale

Category: Other Introduction/Purpose: Pain is a pervasive problem that accounts for a high percentage of referrals to health care providers including foot and ankle surgeons and is an important factor in narcotic addictions and their related deaths. Unfortunately, the analogue pain scores are determined by subjective (SUB) responses of the patient and fail to utilize objective criteria for making the assessments. In an attempt to resolve the subjectivity/objectivity concerns, we developed a scoring system that uses objective (OBJ) criteria based on three 0-to-10 scales. The measurements include the patients’ requirements for analgesics, how the pain affects their levels of activity and how it affects their thought processes. Methods: Over an 18 month period and as part of a physician pain management group’s initial assessment of their patients, the study group was asked to rate their pain using the three SUB scales (Numerical Rating Scale, Visual Analogue Scale and Verbal Rating Scale) as well as our three OBJ scales. Each of our three OBJ (analgesics, activities and thought processes) scales used precise terms to quantify the numerical value for the scale. For example, the analgesics requirement ranged from no drug (0-points) to requirement for hospitalization for pain management (10-points). The activity scale ranged from no limitations (0-points) to pain noticed only with activity (4-points) to total limitation of activities (10-points). Analogous objective criteria were used for the third scale, how pain affects thought processes. Data analysis included patients’ responses to the objective pain measurements as well as correlations between OBJ and SUB evaluation scoring systems. Results: Data was collected prospectively on 109 patients. The mean scores (summation of the3 SUB pain scales divided by 3 and doing likewise for the OBJ pain scales was significantly higher for the SUB scores (6.4 vs. 4.2, p < 0.001). The lowest correlations between the SUB scores and each OBJ scale was with analgesic use (r = .36 vs. r’s = .53 for the other 2 OBJ scales). In general patients who scored highest on the SUB scores, preferred them to the OBJ measurements. Differences between the scores on the OBJ activity scale versus the OBJ thought processes scale helped distinguish pain of central versus peripheral origins. Ninety percent of patients completed the SUB plus OBJ scoring in less than 3 minutes. Conclusion: Our OBJ Pain Score helped differentiate those patients who magnified their pain symptom from those who did not. Patients with higher scores on the thought processes scale would appear to be best managed by central nervous system acting drugs. Conversely those with higher OBJ activity scores would likely respond to peripheral acting agents such as non-steroidal analgesics, local injections or analgesic patches. In summary, our scoring system moves the evaluation of pain from subjective to objective. This has important ramifications for pain management, analgesic selection and avoidance of narcotic dependency.

scholarly journals THE ATTRIBUTE ASSESSMENT PROCESS IN THE FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA: YEAR THREE

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jillian Seniuk Cicek ◽  
Sandra Ingram ◽  
Nariman Sepehri
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Engineering ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Assessment Process ◽  
Assessment Protocol ◽  
Graduate Attributes ◽  
The Third ◽  
University Of Manitoba ◽  
The University ◽  
Academic Year

This paper describes the third year of a studyat the University of Manitoba aimed at exploring how theCanadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB)graduate attributes are manifested and measured in theFaculty of Engineering’s curriculum. Instructors from theDepartments of Biosystems, Civil, Electrical andComputer, and Mechanical Engineering were asked toconsider the presence of four attributes and theirsubsequent indicators in one engineering course taught inthe 2013-14 academic year. The attributes were: AKnowledge Base for Engineering, Individual and TeamWork, Impact of Engineering on Society and theEnvironment, and Economics and Project Management.Data were gathered using a self-administered checklist,which was introduced to instructors in a workshopsetting. The checklist has evolved over the three years inan effort to define student attribute competency levels andto create an assessment tool that meets the needs of boththe researchers and the instructors, as we work togetherto examine the graduate attributes in our courses andimplement an outcomes-based assessment protocol. Thedata from this third year give us the ability to report onhow the remaining four CEAB graduate attributes arepresently manifest and measured in our engineeringfaculty, to look for evidence of outcomes-basedassessment, to evaluate the checklist as an assessmenttool, and to reflect on the overall process.

Evaluation of a Simplified Index of Initial Prognosis in Polytrauma

1987 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-9
Author(s):  
Philippe Scherpereel ◽  
Jean-Pierre Vandenameele ◽  
Daniel Hochart ◽  
Jean-Claude Marson ◽  
Patrick Goldstein
Keyword(s):  
Emergency Care ◽  
Injury Severity ◽  
Severity Index ◽  
Spinal Trauma ◽  
Initial Assessment ◽  
Emergency Unit ◽  
Severity Scale ◽  
Injury Score ◽  
Reliable Tool ◽  
Life Threatening

Three hundred cases of polytrauma were investigated to evaluate the reliability of the Lindsey severity index. This simplified injury score can be used by paramedics or low-skilled emergency practioners to obtain a correct screening of patients and an initial prognosis on the basis of a simple injury severity scale. An evaluation by the Lindsey index was done in the field and at the emergency care unit. Results compare the final status of the patient which was obtained using the Patel score, derived from the patient's chart after his discharge. The Lindsey index demonstrated a correct assessment of the patient's status in 60% of the cases at the scene of the accident and 77% in the emergency unit. Most of the errors were due to underevaluations of the skull and spinal trauma. Patel's scale emphasizes locomotor sequellae, while skeletal injuries seldom provide life-threatening events, widely considered in the Lindsey index. Lindsey's index is a simple and reliable tool for initial assessment and a useful method of teaching.

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