Search

The MARIA ® breast imaging system is a clinical diagnostic tool that uses a hemispherical array of radiowave antennas to generate three-dimensional images of the internal breast. The system utilises the variance of dielectric contrast within the breast volume in order to identify areas of interest for further diagnostic investigation. This multicentre study of 225 patients was conducted at three trial sites and recruited women with both malignant and benign lesions. The MARIA ® images from the study were read by both clinicians who had access to the patient's clinical information, as well as by 'blind' reviewers who did not. Results from the study show an overall sensitivity of 76% for the system, which was similar across benign and malignant findings, and in denser breasts. The results from this study are outlined here and discussions on ongoing and future work with MARIA ® are deliberated., (Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Background: Case management is widely promoted as a means of ensuring continuity of care, improving patient outcomes, and achieving efficient management of resources. Community matrons have been introduced recently as specialists in the case management of patients with multiple complex problems., Aim: To understand how nurse case managers are seen by GPs and NHS managers., Setting: (1) Telephone interviews with 41 community nurse managers recruited from 10 English strategic health authorities and two Welsh health boards; (2) face-to-face interviews with 12 nurse case managers, 12 GPs and five NHS community service managers in three study sites with different population and practitioner characteristics., Method: Semi-structured individual interviews, by telephone or face to face., Results: Attitudes among GPs to nurse case managers were shaped by perceptions of the quality of community nursing on the one hand and the perceived benefit of case management as a method of reducing hospital use on the other. The dominant mood was scepticism about the ability of nurse case managers to reduce hospital admissions. Community matrons were seen as staff who were imposed on local health services, sometimes to detrimental effect., Conclusion: The introduction of case management and community matrons may disrupt existing communities of practice and be perceived negatively, at least in areas where good working relationships between nurses and GPs have developed. Commissioners should be aware of the potential resistance to changes in skill mix and role in nursing services, and promote innovation in ways that minimise disruption to functional communities of practice.

Osteoclasts utilize alphavbeta3 integrin adhesion to bone matrix during bone resorption. We have generated osteoclasts from the peripheral blood of Iraqi-Jewish patients with Glanzmann thrombasthenia (GT) who are completely deficient in beta3 integrin and exhibit a haemorrhagic diathesis resulting from the absence of platelet alphaIIbbeta3. We show that, in contrast to osteoclasts generated from normal subjects or patients with alphaIIb integrin deficiency, GT osteoclasts lack alphavbeta3. These osteoclasts exhibited a two- to fourfold increase in alpha2 and beta1 integrin expression, whereas other alphav integrins, including alphavbeta5, were not significantly affected. An accompanying decrease in bone resorption was observed, with 44% and 59% declines in pit number and depth, respectively, and resorption lacunae showed abnormal morphology on scanning electron microscopy. However, osteoclasts from GT developed in similar numbers to controls and exhibited an otherwise 'normal' phenotype. We conclude that the observed rise in alpha2beta1 expression compensates for the chronic genetic deficiency of alphavbeta3 in osteoclasts from patients with GT and is sufficient to enable bone resorption to proceed, albeit to a submaximal extent. This explains why Iraqi-Jewish patients with GT do not have osteopetrosis.