Physical Health of Members of the Public Who Experienced Terrorist Bombings in London on 07 July 2005

2010 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael A. Catchpole ◽  
Oliver Morgan

AbstractIntroduction:On 07 July 2005, four bombs were detonated in London, killing 52 members of the public. Approximately 700 individuals received treatment either at the scene or at nearby hospitals.Hypothesis/Problem:Significant concerns about the potential long-term psychological and physical health effects of exposure to the explosions were raised immediately after the bombings. To address these concerns, a public health register was established for the purpose of following-up with individuals exposed to the explosions.Methods:Invitations to enroll in the register were sent to individuals exposed to the explosions. A range of health, emergency, and humanitarian service records relating to the response to the explosions were used to identify eligible individuals. Follow-up was undertaken through self-administered questionnaires. The number of patients exposed to fumes, smoke, dust, and who experienced blood splashes, individuals who reported injuries, and the type and duration of health symptoms were calculated. Odds ratios of health symptoms by exposure for greater or less than 30 minutes were calculated.Results:A total of 784 eligible individuals were identified, of whom, 258 (33%) agreed to participate in the register, and 173 (22%) returned completed questionnaires between 8 to 23 months after the explosions. The majority of individuals reported exposure to fumes, smoke, or dust, while more than two-fifths also reported exposure to blood. In addition to cuts and puncture wounds, the most frequent injury was ear damage. Most individuals experienced health symptoms for less than four weeks, with the exception of hearing problems, which lasted longer. Four-fifths of individuals felt that they had suffered emotional distress and half of them were receiving counseling.Conclusions:The results indicated that the main long-term health effects, apart from those associated with traumatic amputations, were hearing loss and psychological disorders. While these findings provide a degree of reassurance of the absence of long-term effects, the low response rate limits the extent to which this can be extrapolated to all those exposed to the bombings. Given the importance of immediate assessment of the range and type of exposure and injury in incidents such as the London bombings, and the difficulties in contacting individuals after the immediate response phase, there is need to develop better systems for identifying and enrolling exposed individuals into post-incident health monitoring.

2012 ◽  
Vol 117 (4) ◽  
pp. 755-760 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joonho Chung ◽  
Byung Moon Kim ◽  
Ho Kyu Paik ◽  
Dong-Keun Hyun ◽  
Hyeonseon Park

Object The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare the long-term effects of carotid endarterectomy (CEA) and carotid artery stenting (CAS) on blood pressure (BP). Methods Between January 2003 and December 2009, 134 patients underwent 145 procedures for treatment of carotid artery stenosis. Patients with at least 1 year of clinical and radiographic follow-up after treatment were included in this study. A total of 102 patients met this criterion and were placed in the CEA group (n = 59) or the CAS group (n = 43) according to their treatment. The percentage change in BP decrement and the number of patients with a normotensive BP were evaluated and compared between the groups. Results There were no significant differences between the groups with regard to baseline characteristics. Compared with the pretreatment BP, the follow-up BPs were significantly decreased in both groups. At the 1-year followup, the percentage change in the BP decrement was greater in the CAS group (percentage change: systolic BP 9.6% and diastolic BP 12.8%) than in the CEA group (percentage change: systolic BP 5.9% [p = 0.035] and diastolic BP = 8.1% [p = 0.049]), and there were more patients with a normotensive BP in the CAS group (46.5%) than in the CEA group (22.0%, p = 0.012). Conclusions Both CEA and CAS have BP-lowering effects. Carotid artery stenting seems to have a better effect than CEA on BP at the 1-year follow-up.


2018 ◽  
Vol 214 (3) ◽  
pp. 168-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maarten Pieter Rozing ◽  
Martin Balslev Jørgensen ◽  
Merete Osler

SummaryThe long-term effects of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) on the risk of stroke are unknown. We examined the association between ECT and risk of incident or recurrent stroke. A cohort of 174 534 patients diagnosed with affective disorder between 2005 and 2016 in the Danish National Patient Registry were followed for stroke until November 2016. The association between ECT and stroke was analysed using Cox regression with multiple adjustment and propensity-score matching on sociodemographic and clinical variables. In 162 595 patients without previous stroke, 5781 (3.6%) were treated with ECT. The total number of patients developing stroke during follow-up was 3665, of whom 165 had been treated with ECT. In patients <50 years, ECT was not associated with stroke (adjusted hazard ratio (HR) = 1.29, 95% CI 0.87–1.93). In patients ≥50, ECT was associated with a lower risk of stroke (adjusted HR = 0.69, 95% CI 0.57–0.89), but this estimate was likely influenced by competing mortality risk. Of 11 939 patients with a history of stroke, 228 (1.9%) were treated with ECT. During follow-up, 2330 (19.5%) patients had a recurrence, of which 26 were patients treated with ECT. ECT was not associated with risk of a new event (HR = 0.69, 95% CI 0.46–1.00; P = 0.05). ECT is not associated with an elevated risk of incident or recurrent stroke.Declaration of interestNone.


2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariam Mourad ◽  
Alytia Levendosky ◽  
G. Bogat ◽  
William Davidson ◽  
Archana Basu

Author(s):  
Mattis Bertlich ◽  
Clemens Stihl ◽  
Enzo Lüsebrink ◽  
Johannes C. Hellmuth ◽  
Clemens Scherer ◽  
...  

Abstract Purpose It has been established that the infection with SARS-CoV-2 may cause an impairment of chemosensory function. However, there is little data on the long-term effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection on chemosensory function. Methods Twenty three SARS-CoV-2-positive patients diagnosed in spring 2020 with subjective hyposmia (out of 57 positive patients, 40.3%) were compared to SARS-CoV-2-positive patients without hyposmia (n = 19) and SARS-CoV-2-negative patients (n = 14). Chemosensory function was assessed by the Brief Smell Identification Test (BSIT), Taste Strips (TS), Visual Analogue Scales (VAS), and the SNOT-22. The initial cohort with hyposmia were also examined at 8 weeks and 6 months after initial examination. Results There were no differences between the SARS-CoV-2-positive cohort without hyposmia and negative controls in terms of BSIT (8.5 ± 2.6 vs. 10.2 ± 1.8), TS (3.4 ± 0.6 vs. 3.9 ± 0.3) or VAS (2.1 ± 1.3 vs. 1.1 ± 0.5); yet the SNOT-22 was significantly elevated (27.7 ± 11.2 vs. 16.4 ± 10.8). The SARS-CoV-2-positive group with hyposmia performed significantly poorer in BSIT (4.0 ± 1.7 vs. 8.5 ± 2.6/10.2 ± 1.8), TS (2.6 ± 1.3 vs. 3.4 ± 0.6/3.9 ± 0.3), and VAS (7.9 ± 2.2 vs. 2.1 ± 1.3/1.1 ± 0.5) compared to both control groups. At week 8 and month 6 control, six and five patients, respectively, still suffered from subjectively and objectively impaired chemosensory function. The other patients had recovered in both respects. Conclusion SARS-CoV-2 patients with subjectively impaired chemosensory function regularly perform poorly in objective measurements. About 70% of patients suffering from olfactory dysfunction in SARS-CoV-2 quickly recover—the rest still suffers from considerable impairment 6 months after infection.


Author(s):  
Stefanie M.P. Kouwenhoven ◽  
Nadja Antl ◽  
Martijn J.J. Finken ◽  
Jos W.R. Twisk ◽  
Eline M. van der Beek ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (10) ◽  
pp. 5349
Author(s):  
Mayes Alswady-Hoff ◽  
Johanna Samulin Erdem ◽  
Santosh Phuyal ◽  
Oskar Knittelfelder ◽  
Animesh Sharma ◽  
...  

There is little in vitro data available on long-term effects of TiO2 exposure. Such data are important for improving the understanding of underlying mechanisms of adverse health effects of TiO2. Here, we exposed pulmonary epithelial cells to two doses (0.96 and 1.92 µg/cm2) of TiO2 for 13 weeks and effects on cell cycle and cell death mechanisms, i.e., apoptosis and autophagy were determined after 4, 8 and 13 weeks of exposure. Changes in telomere length, cellular protein levels and lipid classes were also analyzed at 13 weeks of exposure. We observed that the TiO2 exposure increased the fraction of cells in G1-phase and reduced the fraction of cells in G2-phase, which was accompanied by an increase in the fraction of late apoptotic/necrotic cells. This corresponded with an induced expression of key apoptotic proteins i.e., BAD and BAX, and an accumulation of several lipid classes involved in cellular stress and apoptosis. These findings were further supported by quantitative proteome profiling data showing an increase in proteins involved in cell stress and genomic maintenance pathways following TiO2 exposure. Altogether, we suggest that cell stress response and cell death pathways may be important molecular events in long-term health effects of TiO2.


2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. S28-S35
Author(s):  
Andrew Fishburn ◽  
Nicola Fishburn

Thyroid cancer is a complex disease requiring management by a large multidisciplinary team. The number of patients with a diagnosis of thyroid cancer is significantly increasing year-on-year, and traditional models of consultant-led follow up are no longer sustainable. Although nurse-led cancer follow-up clinics are becomining increasingly common, thyroid cancer nurse-led follow-up clinics are rare. An excellent understanding of the disease, treatment and management of risk of disease recurrence is essential for safe patient care, and is discussed in this article. The clinic discussed uses the skill set of head and neck nurse specialists, including psychological support, coping strategies for long-term side effects of treatment and non-medical prescribing. A patient survey of the service revealed high levels of patient satisfaction and a desire to continue face-to-face consultations rather than telephone clinics.


Author(s):  
Antoni Sisó-Almirall ◽  
Pilar Brito-Zerón ◽  
Laura Conangla Ferrín ◽  
Belchin Kostov ◽  
Anna Moragas Moreno ◽  
...  

Long COVID-19 may be defined as patients who, four weeks after the diagnosis of SARS-Cov-2 infection, continue to have signs and symptoms not explainable by other causes. The estimated frequency is around 10% and signs and symptoms may last for months. The main long-term manifestations observed in other coronaviruses (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)) are very similar to and have clear clinical parallels with SARS-CoV-2: mainly respiratory, musculoskeletal, and neuropsychiatric. The growing number of patients worldwide will have an impact on health systems. Therefore, the main objective of these clinical practice guidelines is to identify patients with signs and symptoms of long COVID-19 in primary care through a protocolized diagnostic process that studies possible etiologies and establishes an accurate differential diagnosis. The guidelines have been developed pragmatically by compiling the few studies published so far on long COVID-19, editorials and expert opinions, press releases, and the authors’ clinical experience. Patients with long COVID-19 should be managed using structured primary care visits based on the time from diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Based on the current limited evidence, disease management of long COVID-19 signs and symptoms will require a holistic, longitudinal follow up in primary care, multidisciplinary rehabilitation services, and the empowerment of affected patient groups.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document