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Objective To investigate the feasibility of Doppler ultrasonography in evaluating the vulnerability of carotid atherosclerotic plaque prospectively. Method A total of 44patients (46plaques) who performed carotid endarterectomy were continuously enrolled in the Department of Neurosurgery of the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University from March 2019 to October 2019. Several examinations such as carotid Doppler ultrasonography (CDU) , CT angiography, CT perfusion imaging, and/or digital subtraction angiography were scheduled conventionally before surgery. Pathologic examination, including the plaque morphology, histopathologic hematoxylin eosin(HE) staining, and immunohistochemical CD31 staining, were evaluated after surgery. The plaque vulnerable score was calculated based on the parameters of CDU consisting of plaque morphology, characteristic of echo, fiber cap integrity, presence of ulcer, degree of vascular stenosis, assigned with 0 to 3 points, respectively. The plaque was defined as the vulnerable plaque if vulnerable score was more than 4, otherwise, the plaque was the stable plaque. Then the plaques were divided into vulnerable group ( n =36) and stable group ( n = 10) according to the pathological results. The patients were divided into the stroke group ( n = 33) and the non-stroke group (n = 11) based on the incidence of ischemic stroke within the last 6 months. The evaluation of neovascularization in the plaque was referring to the immunohistochemical CD31 staining. The independent-sample t test, Wilcoxon rank-sum test, and χ2test were used to compare the differences between the two groups in general data, laboratory tests, clinical symptoms, vulnerable scores, and the rates of vulnerable plaques. Kappa value was used to evaluate the consistency between CDU and histopathological HE staining in the evaluation of plaque vulnerability. Results ( 1) The differences in the National Institute of Health stroke scale score and neurological symptoms between the vulnerable group and stable group were statistically significant (all P < 0. 05). (2) The vulnerable score was significantly different between the vulnerable group and stable group (6.00 [5.00,7.00] scores vs. 4.00 [4.00,4.25] scores, P<0.01), and between the stroke group and non-stroke group (6.00 [5.00,7.00] scores vs. 4.00 [4.00,5.00] scores, P = 0.002). (3) Diagnostic efficacy: compared with histopathologic results, the sensitivity and specificity of CDU were respectively 88.9% and 8/10, positive predictive value was 94. 1% .negative predictive value was 8/12, and the Youden index was 68. 9%. The consistency between CDU and histopathological HE staining was strong ( Kappa = 0. 642, P < 0. 01). (4) Neovascularization; immunohistochemical CD31 staining showed neovascularization in vulnerable plaque; the microvessel density in vulnerable group was higher than that in stable group([2. 84 ± 1. 56] mm3vs. [ 1. 38 ±0. 61 ] mm3). (5) The relationship between plaque vulnerability score and ischemic stroke: the rates of vulnerable plaques in the stroke group was higher than that in the non-stroke group (88. 6% [31/35 ] vs. 3/11 ;χ2= 13. 286, P < 0. 01 ). Conclusion The plaque vulnerable score evaluating by vascular ultrasound can accurately and quantitatively assess the vulnerability of carotid plaques, and angiogenesis can be observed in the vulnerable plaque, which provides a theoretical basis for clinical diagnosis and accurate treatment.
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Objective To understand current reality of institutional elderly care services in 11 districts in Shanghai and discuss solutions to the planning and enhancement of such institutions. Methods Surveys were conducted in 20 elderly care institutions in Shanghai from August to October 2017 and questionnaires were distributed to the staff and residents in these facilities. Data were analyzed using Stata 12. 0. Results All the 20 institutions offer medical and nursing care, 19 of which providing insurance settlement and 10 were in deficit. Public facilities boost larger scale than private ones. A survey of 186 staff indicated that only 59. 67% of them felt satisfied with their academic title and professional career promotion opportunities; of 450 of the residents surveyed, 61. 47% of them expressed high acceptance of institutional elderly care, and the coverage of such insurances as critical illness and long-term care insurance was below 7%. Conclusions Half of the sample institutions experienced financial difficulties, roadblocks for staff professional promotion mechanism, unaffordable economic burden for residents, and insufficient supplementary insurance coverage. Policies should be implemented to ensure infrastructure and talent cultivation at elderly care facilities. Combination of elderly care with medical services should be promoted. Supplementary insurance is recommended for citizens to relieve disease and elderly care burden.
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Objective To analyze the flow tendency of elderly patients,create a better mechanism to help guide elderly patients to form a good order in seeking medical care,and consequently improve the resource operational efficiency in medical service.Methods Analyzing the data by the descriptive,χ2 test and logistic regression of SPSS 20.0.Results Elderly patients prefer community health service centers and tertiary hospitals;of those visiting tertiary hospitals,nearly 30% seek medical advice for common chronic diseases.Main influencing factors for patient flow are medical insurance coverage and education. They tend not to embrace the two-way referral service,due to such factors of inconvenient process and defective mechanisms.Conclusion Transition from medical demand management to medical supply management.Such factors as quality cost,expense cost,time cost,and public opinion cost should be used to replace and weaken their mindset of the medical hierarchy,and embrace the concept of “seeking medical advice by grades”,thus improving the utilization of medical resources,and optimizing medical service accesibility.
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An analysis is made on major issues and difficulties in the application of the performance appraisal system structure,appraisal model and appraisal outcomes.It was discovered that the performance appraisal system,if used in clinical medical technology departments in the hospital,should focus on the system itself,the appraisal process and re-improvement of the system.These three factors are key to determining whether the system is effective and efficient,and key to transforming the system into departmental and hospital performance,even into overall enhancement of hospital performance in general.
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d infrastructure quality.Conclusions Raising responsiveness for special medical services will be conducive for improving the quality of non-medical services for these inpatients when they are in the hospital.