The transition from residency to paediatric cardiology fellowship is challenging due to the new knowledge and technical skills required. Online learning can be an effective didactic modality that can be widely accessed by trainees. We sought to evaluate the effectiveness of a paediatric cardiology Fellowship Online Preparatory Course prior to the start of fellowship.

The Online Preparatory Course contained 18 online learning modules covering basic concepts in anatomy, auscultation, echocardiography, catheterisation, cardiovascular intensive care, electrophysiology, pulmonary hypertension, heart failure, and cardiac surgery. Each online learning module included an instructional video with pre-and post-video tests. Participants completed pre- and post-Online Preparatory Course knowledge-based exams and surveys. Pre- and post-Online Preparatory Course survey and knowledge-based examination results were compared via Wilcoxon sign and paired t-tests.

151 incoming paediatric cardiology fellows from programmes across the USA participated in the 3 months prior to starting fellowship training between 2017 and 2019. There was significant improvement between pre- and post-video test scores for all 18 online learning modules. There was also significant improvement between pre- and post-Online Preparatory Course exam scores (PRE 43.6 ± 11% versus POST 60.3 ± 10%, p < 0.001). Comparing pre- and post-Online Preparatory Course surveys, there was a statistically significant improvement in the participants’ comfort level in 35 of 36 (97%) assessment areas. Nearly all participants (98%) agreed or strongly agreed that the Online Preparatory Course was a valuable learning experience and helped alleviate some anxieties (77% agreed or strongly agreed) related to starting fellowship.

An Online Preparatory Course prior to starting fellowship can provide a foundation of knowledge, decrease anxiety, and serve as an effective educational springboard for paediatric cardiology fellows.

To determine the association between delay in transfer to a central stroke unit from peripheral institutions and outcomes.

We conducted a retrospective cohort study of all patients with acute stroke, admitted to a comprehensive stroke center (CSC) from three emergency departments (EDs), between 2016 and 2018. The primary outcomes were length of stay, functional status at 3 months, discharge destination, and time to stroke investigations.

One thousand four hundred thirty-five patients were included, with a mean age of 72.9 years, and 92.4% ischemic stroke; 663 (46.2%) patients were female. Each additional day of delay was associated with 2.0 days of increase in length of stay (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.8–3.2, p = 0.001), 11.5 h of delay to vascular imaging (95% CI 9.6–13.4, p < 0.0001), 24.2 h of delay to Holter monitoring (95% CI 7.9–40.6, p = 0.004), and reduced odds of nondisabled functional status at 3 months (odds ratio 0.98, 95% CI 0.96–1.00, p = 0.01). Factors affecting delay included stroke onset within 6 h of ED arrival (605.9 min decrease in delay, 95% CI 407.9–803.9, p < 0.0001), delay to brain imaging (59.4 min increase in delay for each additional hour, 95% CI 48.0–71.4, p < 0.0001), admission from an alternative service (3918.7 min increase in delay, 95% CI 3621.2–4079.9, p < 0.0001), and transfer from a primary stroke center (PSC; 740.2 min increase in delay, 95% CI 456.2–1019.9, p < 0.0001).

Delay to stroke unit admission in a system involving transfer from PSCs to a CSC was associated with longer hospital stay and poorer functional outcomes.

Little is known about the effects of physical exercise on sleep-dependent consolidation of procedural memory in individuals with schizophrenia. We conducted a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to assess the effectiveness of physical exercise in improving this cognitive function in schizophrenia.

A three-arm parallel open-labeled RCT took place in a university hospital. Participants were randomized and allocated into either the high-intensity-interval-training group (HIIT), aerobic-endurance exercise group (AE), or psychoeducation group for 12 weeks, with three sessions per week. Seventy-nine individuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorder were contacted and screened for their eligibility. A total of 51 were successfully recruited in the study. The primary outcome was sleep-dependent procedural memory consolidation performance as measured by the finger-tapping motor sequence task (MST). Assessments were conducted during baseline and follow-up on week 12.

The MST performance scored significantly higher in the HIIT (n = 17) compared to the psychoeducation group (n = 18) after the week 12 intervention (p < 0.001). The performance differences between the AE (n = 16) and the psychoeducation (p = 0.057), and between the AE and the HIIT (p = 0.999) were not significant. Yet, both HIIT (p < 0.0001) and AE (p < 0.05) showed significant within-group post-intervention improvement.

Our results show that HIIT and AE were effective at reverting the defective sleep-dependent procedural memory consolidation in individuals with schizophrenia. Moreover, HIIT had a more distinctive effect compared to the control group. These findings suggest that HIIT may be a more effective treatment to improve sleep-dependent memory functions in individuals with schizophrenia than AE alone.

The foetal programming hypothesis posits that optimising early life factors e.g. maternal diets can help avert the burden of adverse childhood outcomes e.g. childhood obesity. To improve applicability to public health messaging, we investigated whether maternal whole diet quality and inflammatory potential influence childhood adiposity in a large consortium.

We harmonized and pooled individual participant data from up to 8,769 mother-child pairs in 7 European mother-offspring cohorts. Maternal early-, late-, and whole-pregnancy dietary quality and inflammatory potential were assessed with Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) and energy-adjusted Dietary Inflammatory Index (E-DII), respectively. Primary outcome was childhood overweight and obesity (OWOB), defined as age- and sex-specific body-mass-index-z score (BMIz) > 85th percentile based on WHO growth standard. Secondary outcomes were sum-of-skinfold-thickness (SST), fat-mass-index (FMI) and fat-free-mass-index (FFMI) in available cohorts. Outcomes were assessed in early- [mean (SD) age: 2.8 (0.3) y], mid- [6.2 (0.6) y], and late-childhood [10.6 (1.2) y]. We used multivariable regression analyses to assess the associations of maternal E-DII and DASH with offspring adiposity outcomes in cohort-specific analyses, with subsequent random-effects meta-analyses. Analyses were adjusted for maternal age, pre-pregnancy BMI, parity, lifestyle factors, energy intake, educational attainment, offspring age and sex.

A more pro-inflammatory maternal diet, indicated by higher E-DII, was associated with a higher risk of offspring late-childhood OWOB [pooled-OR (95% CI) comparing highest vs. lowest E-DII quartiles: 1.22 (1.01,1.47) for whole-pregnancy and 1.38 (1.05,1.83) for early-pregnancy; both P < 0.05]. Moreover, higher late-pregnancy E-DII was associated with higher mid-childhood FMI [pooled-β (95% CI): 0.11 (0.003,0.22) kg/m2; P < 0.05]; trending association was observed for whole-pregnancy E-DII [0.12 (-0.01,0.25) kg/m2; P = 0.07]. A higher maternal dietary quality, indicated by higher DASH score, showed a trending inverse association with late-childhood OWOB (pooled-OR (95% CI) comparing highest vs. lowest DASH quartiles: 0.58 (0.32,1.02; P = 0.06). Higher early-pregnancy DASH was associated with lower late-childhood SST [pooled-β (95% CI): -1.9 (-3.6,-0.1) cm; P < 0.05] and tended to be associated with lower late-childhood FMI [-0.34 (-0.71,0.04) kg/m2; P = 0.08]. Higher whole-pregnancy DASH tended to associate with lower early-childhood SST [-0.33 (-0.72,0.06) cm; P = 0.10]. Results were similar when modelling DASH and E-DII continuously.

Analysis of pooled data suggests that pro-inflammatory, low-quality maternal antenatal diets may influence offspring body composition and obesity risk, especially during mid- or late-childhood. Due to variation of data availability at each timepoint, our results should be interpreted with caution. Because most associations were observed at mid-childhood or later, future studies will benefit from a longer follow-up.

Studies suggest that d-cycloserine (DCS) may have antidepressant potential through its interaction with the glycine site of the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor; however, clinical evidence of DCS's efficacy as a treatment for depression is limited. Other evidence suggests that DCS affects emotional learning which may also be relevant for the treatment of depression and anxiety. The aim of the present investigation was to assess the effect of DCS on emotional processing in healthy volunteers and to further characterise its effects on emotional and autobiographical memory.

Forty healthy volunteers were randomly allocated to a single dose of 250 mg DCS or placebo in a double-blind design. Three hours later, participants performed an Emotional Test Battery [including Facial Expression Recognition Task (FERT), Emotional Categorisation Task (ECAT), Emotional Recall Task (EREC), Facial Dot-Probe Task (FDOT) and Emotional Recognition Memory Task (EMEM)] and an Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT). Also, participants performed the FERT, EREC and AMT tasks again after 24 h in order to assess longer lasting effects of a single dose of DCS.

DCS did not significantly affect the FERT, EMEM and FDOT performance but significantly increased emotional memory and classification for positive words v. negative words. Also, DCS enhanced the retrieval of more specific autobiographical memories, and this effect persisted at 24 h.

These findings support the suggestion that low-dose DCS increases specific autobiographical memory retrieval and positive emotional memory. Such effects make it an intriguing agent for further investigation in clinical depression, which is characterised by decreased autobiographical memory specificity and increased negative bias in memory recall. It also underscores the potential role of DCS as an adjunct to cognitive behavioural therapy in depression.

To describe and compare the mortality associated with nosocomial pneumonia due to Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Pa-NP) according to pneumonia classification (community-onset pneumonia [COP], hospital-acquired pneumonia [(HAP], and ventilator-associated pneumonia [VAP]).

We conducted a retrospective cohort study of adults with Pa-NP. We compared mortality for Pa-NP among patients with COP, HAP, and VAP and used logistic regression to identify risk factors for hospital mortality and inappropriate initial antibiotic therapy (IIAT).

Twelve acute care hospitals in 5 countries (United States, 3; France, 2; Germany, 2; Italy, 2; and Spain, 3).

A total of 742 patients with Pa-NP.

Hospital mortality was greater for those with VAP (41.9%) and HAP (40.1%) compared with COP (24.5%) (P<.001). In multivariate analyses, independent predictors of hospital mortality differed by pneumonia classification (COP: need for mechanical ventilation and intensive care; HAP: multidrug-resistant isolate; VAP: IIAT, increasing age, increasing Charlson comorbidity score, bacteremia, and use of vasopressors). Presence of multidrug resistance was identified as an independent predictor of IIAT for patients with COP and HAP, whereas recent antibiotic administration was protective in patients with VAP.

Among patients with Pa-NP, pneumonia classification identified patients with different risks for hospital mortality. Specific risk factors for hospital mortality also differed by pneumonia classification and multidrug resistance appeared to be an important risk factor for IIAT. These findings suggest that pneumonia classification for P. aeruginosa identifies patients with different mortality risks and specific risk factors for outcome and IIAT.

Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2015;36(10):1190–1197