Military fi eld and naval therapy from the origins to the present day

The article contains brief information about the origin and development of therapeutic care in the Russian Army and Navy. The transition from the “army clinic” of prof. M.Ya. Mudrov to the medical discipline “Military fi eld therapy” (“Naval therapy”) is described.

Persistent Cardiometabolic Health Gaps: Can Therapeutic Care Gaps Be Precisely Identified from Electronic Health Records

The objective of this study was to determine the strengths and limitations of using structured electronic health records (EHR) to identify and manage cardiometabolic (CM) health gaps. We used medication adherence measures derived from dispense data to attribute related therapeutic care gaps (i.e., no action to close health gaps) to patient- (i.e., failure to retrieve medication or low adherence) or clinician-related (i.e., failure to initiate/titrate medication) behavior. We illustrated how such data can be used to manage health and care gaps for blood pressure (BP), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and HbA1c for 240,582 Sutter Health primary care patients. Prevalence of health gaps was 44% for patients with hypertension, 33% with hyperlipidemia, and 57% with diabetes. Failure to retrieve medication was common; this patient-related care gap was highly associated with health gaps (odds ratios (OR): 1.23–1.76). Clinician-related therapeutic care gaps were common (16% for hypertension, and 40% and 27% for hyperlipidemia and diabetes, respectively), and strongly related to health gaps for hyperlipidemia (OR = 5.8; 95% CI: 5.6–6.0) and diabetes (OR = 5.7; 95% CI: 5.4–6.0). Additionally, a substantial minority of care gaps (9% to 21%) were uncertain, meaning we lacked evidence to attribute the gap to either patients or clinicians, hindering efforts to close the gaps.

When I use a word . . . . Taking therapeutic care

In healthcare there are different forms of taking care or taking precautions. When using a therapeutic intervention, one takes care by implementing it appropriately. When the appropriate intervention is pharmacological that means giving an appropriate formulation of a medication in an appropriate dosage regimen. If the intervention might cause harm, but the benefit:harm balance is favourable, one might do nothing apart from monitoring or one might introduce a preventive strategy, such as the use of mesna when giving an oxazaphosphorine such as cyclophosphamide. Vaccination and contraception are both examples of precautionary measures that have an excellent benefit:harm balance. But when the benefit:harm balance of an intervention is unfavourable the precaution to be taken is avoidance of the intervention. That, and only that, form of precaution, avoidance to avoid harm, is a defining feature of the precautionary principle.

Contribution of the IdyllaTM System to Improving the Therapeutic Care of Patients with NSCLC through Early Screening of EGFR Mutations

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) genotyping, a critical examen for the treatment decisions of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), is commonly assayed by next-generation sequencing (NGS), but this global approach takes time. To determine whether rapid EGFR genotyping tests by the IdyllaTM system guides earlier therapy decisions, EGFR mutations were assayed by both the IdyllaTM system and NGS in 223 patients with NSCLC in a bicentric prospective study. IdyllaTM demonstrated agreement with the NGS method in 187/194 cases (96.4%) and recovered 20 of the 26 (77%) EGFR mutations detected using NGS. Regarding the seven missed EGFR mutations, five were not detected by the IdyllaTM system, one was assayed in a sample with insufficient tumoral cells, and the last was in a sample not validated by the IdyllaTM system (a bone metastasis). IdyllaTM did not detect any false positives. The average time between EGFR genotyping results from IdyllaTM and the NGS method was 9.2 ± 2.2 working days (wd) (12.6 ± 4.0 calendar days (cd)). Subsequently, based on the IdyllaTM method, the timeframe from tumor sampling to the initiation of EGFR-TKI was 7.7 ± 1.2 wd (11.4 ± 3.1 cd), while it was 20.4 ± 6.7 wd (27.5 ± 7.7 cd) with the NGS method (p < 0.001). We thus demonstrated here that the IdyllaTM system contributes to improving the therapeutic care of patients with NSCLC by the early screening of EGFR mutations.

Weight-For-Height Z-Score Gain During Inpatient And Subsequent Linear Growth During Outpatient Treatment Of Young Children With Severe Acute Malnutrition, A Prospective Study From Uganda

Background Linear catch-up growth after treatment of severe acute malnutrition (SAM) is low, and little is known about the association between ponderal and subsequent linear growth. Objective The study assessed the association of weight-for-height z-score (WHZ) gain with subsequent linear growth during SAM treatment and examined its modifiers. Methods This was a prospective study, nested in a trial (ISRCTN16454889), among 6–59-mo-old children treated for SAM in Uganda. Weight, total length (TL) and knee-heel length (KHL) were measured at admission, weekly during inpatient-therapeutic-care (ITC), at discharge and fortnightly during outpatient-therapeutic-care (OTC) for 8 weeks. Linear regression was used to assess the association between WHZ gain during ITC and linear growth during OTC. Results Of 400 children, 327 were discharged to OTC and 290 followed-up for 8 weeks. Mean WHZ gains were 0.45 in ITC and 1.24 in OTC, whereas mean height-for-age z-score (HAZ) declined 0.41 during ITC and increased 0.14 during OTC. WHZ gain during ITC was positively associated with HAZ, TL and KHL gains during OTC (regression coefficients (b) [95% CI]: (0.12 [0.09; 0.15] z-score; 3.1 [2.4; 3.8] mm; 0.5 [0.1; 0.7] mm). The regression coefficients were highest for the middle tertile of WHZ gain with respect to HAZ and TL. Admission diarrhea and low plasma citrulline reduced the association between WHZ gain during ITC and HAZ and TL gain during OTC (P &lt; 0.001). In contrast, pneumonia (P = 0.051) and elevated plasma CRP (P &lt; 0.001) increased the association with TL gain, but reduced the association with KHL gain (P &lt; 0.001). Conclusion Among children admitted with SAM, considerable WHZ gain during ITC was followed by very modest linear catch-up growth during OTC, with no indication of a WHZ gain threshold, above which linear growth was higher. To optimize linear growth in these children, early treatment of infections and conditions affecting the gut may be necessary.