PURPOSE: To identify the questionnaires used to assess refractive surgery outcomes, assess the available questionnaires in regard to their psychometric properties, validity, and reliability, and evaluate the performance of the available questionnaires in measuring refractive surgery outcomes. METHODS: An extensive literature search was done on PubMed, MEDLINE, Scopus, CINAHL, Cochrane, and Web of

Aims: Our aim was to investigate the impact of intravenous (IV) beta-blocker therapy on short-term mortality and other in-hospital events in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) treated with dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) and primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Methods and results: Using the nationwide Swedish Web-system for Enhancement and Development o

A sorption balance is an instrument used to measure vapor uptake in a sample at controlled temperature and relative humidity. It is most commonly used to determine equilibrium values (sorption isotherms), but is also used for kinetic measurements of transport coefficients. Such measurements can be affected by the external mass transfer resistance in the gas phase around the sample. This paper pres

BACKGROUND: Lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) have a significant impact on quality of life (QoL) in post-stroke patients. AIM: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) on QoL parameters in men with post-stroke LUTS. DESIGN: Randomized, controlled and single-blinded trial. SETTING: Outpatients, University Hospital. POPULATION: Thirty-one men, median

The European League Against Rheumatism recommendations for the management of antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis have been recently published. Unique to recommendation development, they were also voted on by members of a learned society. This paper explores the wider validity of the recommendations among people who self-identify as clinicians caring for patients with vasculit

Background - The pathogenic role of ischemic heart disease (IHD) in heart failure (HF) with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF; EF

Objective. To compare outcomes over the first 8 years in patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) recruited in the 1990s and the 2000s, with a special focus on functional disability and its possible predictors. Methods. Data were acquired from 1938 patients with early RA (American College of Rheumatology 1987 criteria) included in the BARFOT study, who had completed the 8-year followup. The p

Introduction Proximity and access to water have long been central to human culture and accordingly deliver countless societal benefits. Over 200 million people live on Europe's coastline, and aquatic environments are the top recreational destination in the region. In terms of public health, interactions with 'blue space' (eg, coasts, rivers, lakes) are often considered solely in terms of risk (eg,

PURPOSE: The rising number of hip arthroscopies (HA) is leading to increasing numbers of patients requiring post-surgical rehabilitation; however, evidence regarding post-operative rehabilitation is currently limited. The purpose of the study was to describe and compare current rehabilitation strategies and views among surgeons and physiotherapists in Scandinavia.METHODS: Scandinavian surgeons and

The present thesis investigated how listeners use prosody to rapidly predict upcoming lexical and syntactic structures. In the first three studies, it was shown that listeners take advantage of Swedish word-level tones to pre- activate upcoming word endings. Every Swedish word has a tone on the word stem – known as a ‘word accent’ – which is either low or high, and the tone is assigned to the stem

Aims: The aim of this study was to investigate the prognosis in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) and intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH) having a left atrial appendage occlusion (LAAO) versus patients receiving standard medical therapy. Methods and results: A total of 151 patients from the Nordic countries with AF and previous ICH who underwent LAAO using the AMPLATZER Cardiac Plug or the AMPLAT

Background: Circulating concentrations of biomarkers that are related to Vitamin status vary by factors such as diet, fortification, and supplement use. Published biomarker concentrations have also been influenced by the variation across laboratories, which complicates a comparison of results from different studies. Objective: We robustly and comprehensively assessed differences in biomarkers that

Objectives To study fully automated digital joint space width (JSW) and bone mineral density (BMD) in relation to a conventional radiographic scoring method in early rheumatoid arthritis (eRA). Methods Radiographs scored by the modified Sharp van der Heijde score (SHS) in patients with eRA were acquired from the SWEdish FarmacOTherapy study. Fully automated JSW measurements of bilateral metacarpal

Understanding how specific atom sites on metal surfaces lower the energy barrier for chemical reactions is vital in catalysis. Studies on simplified model systems have shown that atoms arranged as steps on the surface play an important role in catalytic reactions, but a direct comparison of how the light-off temperature is affected by the atom orientation on the step has not yet been possible due

Background Peer review is important to the scientific process. However, the present system has been criticised and accused of bias, lack of transparency, failure to detect significant breakthrough and error. At the British Journal of Surgery (BJS), after surveying authors' and reviewers' opinions on peer review, we piloted an open online forum with the aim of improving the peer review process. Met

Objectives Ultrasonography (US) is sensitive for detecting echostructural abnormalities of the major salivary glands (SGs) in primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS). Our objectives were to define selected US-SG echostructural abnormalities in pSS, set up a preliminary atlas of these definitions and evaluate the consensual definitions reliability in both static and acquisition US-SG images. Methods Inter

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic inflammatory condition affecting the gastrointestinal tract, with a remitting and relapsing course. There are two main forms of IBD: Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). The etiology of IBD is not fully understood, however both CD and UC thought to be closely associated with dysregulated innate and adaptive immune responses. The aim of thi