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Intermediate care describes services, including transitional care, that support the needs of middle-aged and older adults during care transitions and between different settings. This scoping review aimed to examine the effectiveness of intermediate care including transitional care interventions for middle-aged and older adults on function, healthcare utilisation, and costs.

A scoping review of the literature was conducted including studies published between 2002 and 2019 with a transitional care and/or intermediate care intervention for adults aged ≥ 50. Searches were performed in CINAHL, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, Open Grey and PubMed databases. Qualitative and quantitative approaches were employed for data synthesis.

In all, 133 studies were included. Interventions were grouped under four models of care (a) Hospital-based transitional care (n = 8), (b)Transitional care delivered at discharge and up to 30days after discharge (n = 70), (c) Intermediate care at home (n = 41), and (d)Intermediate care delice for the effectiveness of these services on function, institutionalisation, emergency department attendances, or on cost-effectiveness.

Pancreas divisum (PD) as a cause of pancreatitis has been debated. In this study, we report the association of multiple gene polymorphisms on the risk of RAP in the presence of PD.

We enrolled 687 individuals (167 IRAP, 276 ICP, and 244 unrelated healthy controls) from May 2015 to September 2016. Patients were divided into those with/without PD. Associations between the significantly prevalent SNPs and IRAP/ICP in the presence of PD were evaluated. Clinical data were analyzed using Mann-Whitney U/Chi-square test. Effect size of association of SNPs with IRAP/ICP was expressed as odds ratio (OR) (95% CI). Gene-gene interaction was assessed by transheterozygosity analyses. Abivertinib Bonferroni-corrected two-tailed “p” value of ≤ 0.01 was considered statistically significant.

Thirty-three (19.8%) and 82 (29.7%) patients with IRAP and ICP, respectively, had PD. Among the patients with IRAP, duration of disease was significantly shorter in those with PD compared to those without (mean [95% CI] duration 1.6 (1.3-1.9) vs 2.7 (2.3-3.1) years; p = 0.005). There were no differences in gender, race, and diabetes among patients with/without PD in IRAP/ICP groups. Mean (95% CI) pancreatic duct diameter (mm) was significantly higher in the presence of PD in patients with both IRAP [1.6 (1.4-1.9) v/s 1.29 (1.2-1.4); p = 0.03)] and ICP [5.2 (4.5-5.9) v/s 4.5 (3.9-5.1); p = 0.02]. CTSB (rs12338) polymorphisms were significantly associated with IRAP [OR (95% CI) 2.44 (1.41-4.22); p = 0.001] among patients with PD. No association was observed with ICP. Transheterozygosity analysis did not show any significant associations of combination of SNPs with IRAP in the presence of PD.

Risk of RAP due to PD increases in patients with rs12338 polymorphism in the cathepsin B gene.

Risk of RAP due to PD increases in patients with rs12338 polymorphism in the cathepsin B gene.

To evaluate the safety and efficacy of ureteral occlusion stents for urinary diversion in patients with inoperable urinary leakage or fistula or intractable bladder bleeding.

A total of 13 ureters in 12 patients (MF = 48) who underwent ureteral occlusion stenting were included in this study. The internally silicone membrane-coated occlusion stent was a self-expanding stent with constriction at the middle (M-type) or distal end (D-type) of the stent.

The reasons for ureteral occlusion were surgery infeasibility for urinary leakage (n = 6), temporary ureteral occlusion for urinary leakage before surgical reconstruction (n = 2), urinary fistula (n = 3), or control of bleeding from bladder cancer (n = 1). Technical success defined as successful deployment of the occlusion stent with no contrast agent passing beyond the occlusion stent was achieved in 92.3% (12/13 ureters); in one ureter with contrast passage beyond the occlusion stent, additional n-butyl cyanoacrylate (NBCA) embolization was performed immediately so that there was no further leakage. There were no procedure-related complications. During the mean follow-up of 11.6months, recurrence of urinary leakage was observed in two ureters (15.4%, 2/13) where a D-type occlusion stent was used on the 3-day follow-up antegrade ureterogram; the contrast agent passed through the widened constricted portion of the occlusion stent and repeat occlusion with microcoils, and NBCA was subsequently performed inside the occlusion stent and with no further urinary leakage until the last follow-up.

The ureteral occlusion stent is safe and effective for ureteral occlusion. Recurrence of leakage can be managed with additional microcoil and NBCA embolization.

The ureteral occlusion stent is safe and effective for ureteral occlusion. Recurrence of leakage can be managed with additional microcoil and NBCA embolization.CD39 and CD73 are ecto-nucleotidases present on human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and are emerging biomarkers on these cells in various disorders including cancer. Many factors influence PBMC quality, so it is essential to validate sample processing methods prior to incorporation in clinical studies. This study examined the impact of both PBMC cryopreservation and PBMC isolation using SepMate density gradient centrifugation on CD39 and CD73 expressing subsets. First, PBMCs were isolated from the peripheral blood of 11 healthy donors by routine Ficoll-Paque density gradient centrifugation, cryopreserved and compared with freshly isolated PBMCs by flow cytometry. The proportions of T and B cells expressing combinations of CD39 and CD73 were relatively stable over 6-month cryopreservation, although some T cell combinations revealed small but significant changes. Second, peripheral blood was collected from six healthy donors to compare PBMCs isolated by SepMate or Ficoll-Paque density gradient centrifugation. Compared with Ficoll-Paque, the more rapid SepMate method yielded 9.1% less PBMCs but did not alter cell viability or proportions of T and B cells expressing combinations of CD39 and CD73. The present study reveals that cryopreservation is suitable for studying T and B cells expressing combinations of CD39 and CD73. However, caution should be exercised when observing small differences in these cryopreserved subsets between different cohorts. Further, SepMate and Ficoll-Paque methods of PBMC isolation show similar results for T and B cell subset analysis; however, SepMate is a faster and easier approach.