ABSTRACT
Point-of-care ultrasonography (POCUS) is a growing eld in medicine that allows clinicians to use ultrasonography at a patient's bedside, and it has transformed how clinicians deliver care. POCUS is used across various medical specialties, and non-radiologists and non-cardiologists can also become competent in the performance of POCUS, leading to increased adoption of this technology in clinical practice. POCUS and consultative ultrasonography are complementary, and both can be used together to provide a more comprehensive assessment of a patient's condition. In addition, POCUS is an invaluable tool that clinicians can use to monitor clinical conditions that can progress rapidly, such as acute respiratory failure, intracranial hypertension, and hemodynamic failure. Advances in POCUS technology have led to its use as a screening tool for the identication of certain disorders such as abdominal aortic aneurysm and for diagnosis of various medical conditions. POCUS has been associated with changes in clinical decision making in medical practice and has shown promising results in facilitating diagnosis and procedural guidance.
ABSTRACT
Early diagnosis, effective treatment and monitoring of recurrence and metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma have always been difficult problems for clinicians. MicroRNA (miRNA) plays an important role in hepatocellular carcinoma cells' proliferation, apoptosis, metabolism and other processes, and can be released into body fluids such as blood, urine and saliva. The peripheral blood miRNA in hepatocellular carcinoma can be used as biomarkers for the diagnosis, efficacy assessment, recurrence and metastasis monitoring and prognosis judgment, and may even become therapeutic targets for hepatocellular carcinoma. This article summarizes the research progress of circulating miRNA in peripheral blood as markers for diagnosis and treatment monitoring of hepatocellular carcinoma.
ABSTRACT
Clinical research is essential for the development of new drugs, diagnostic tests and new devices. Clinical monitoring is implemented to improve the quality of research and attain high ethical and scientific standards. This review discusses the role of clinical monitors, taking into account the variety of scenarios in which medical research is developed, and highlights the challenges faced by research teams to ensure that patients rights are respected and that the social role of scientific research is preserved. Specific emphasis is given to the ethical dilemmas related to the multiple roles which clinical monitors play in the research framework, mainly those involving the delicate equilibrium between the loyalty to the sponsor and to the research subjects. The essential role of clinical monitoring for research developed in poor healthcare scenarios is highlighted as an approach to get the local infrastructure strengthening needed to achieve an adequate level of good clinical practices.