Adel Youssef

Development of an assessment tool to measure students' perceptions of respiratory care education programs: Item generation, item reduction, and preliminary validation

Objectives: Students who perceived their learning environment positively are more likely to develop effective learning strategies, and adopt a deep learning approach. Currently, there is no validated instrument for measuring the educational environment of educational programs on respiratory care (RC). The aim of this study was to develop an instrument to measure students’ perception of the RC educational environment. Materials and Methods: Based on the literature review and an assessment of content validity by multiple focus groups of RC educationalists, potential items of the instrument relevant to RC educational environment construct were generated by the research group. The initial 71 item questionnaire was then field-tested on all students from the 3 RC programs in Saudi Arabia and was subjected to multi-trait scaling analysis. Cronbachs alpha was used to assess internal consistency reliabilities. Results: Two hundred and twelve students (100%) completed the survey. The initial instrument of 71 items was reduced to 65 across 5 scales. Convergent and discriminant validity assessment demonstrated that the majority of items correlated more highly with their intended scale than a competing one. Cronbachs alpha exceeded the standard criterion of >0.70 in all scales except one. There was no floor or ceiling effect for scale or overall score. Conclusions: This instrument is the first assessment tool developed to measure the RC educational environment. There was evidence of its good feasibility, validity, and reliability. This first validation of the instrument supports its use by RC students to evaluate educational environment.

Correlation between ST segment shift and cardiac diastolic function in patients with acute myocardial infarction

BACKGROUND Diastolic dysfunction is the early sign of myocardial ischemia that usually occurs earlier than ECG changes. AIM OF THE STUDY To determine the existence of a correlation between ST segment shift and diastolic dysfunction among patients with AMI. METHODS Fourty six patients with significant ST segment elevation or depression and having symptoms of acute myocardial infarction for <12 h were enrolled in this study. Patients were examined for serial ECG, cardiac enzymes, and echocardiography. RESULTS There was no significant correlation between ST segment elevation or depression and majority of the diastolic indices. Few diastolic parameters; such as, E/A ratio of the mitral valve and deceleration time of the tricuspid valve showed a direct correlation with the ECG changes. Whereas, the Tei Index of the LV function showed a borderline correlation to the ST segment elevation at discharge. CONCLUSION Overall, there was no correlation between either ST segment elevation or depression and the LV or RV diastolic function in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Improvement of the ST segment total score was associated with improvement of the diastolic function grades at discharge. Moreover, this association has shown an evidence of dose response relationship, the more improvement in total score at discharge the more improvement in diastolic function grade level.

Functional and structural changes in soccer players' heart and the risk for sudden cardiac death

Background: Regular exercise in athletes is associated with cardiac acclimation in the form of functional and structural changes. Its effect on the cardiac functions still debated. Objective: The objective was to detect the impact of long-term regular physical exercise on the cardiac systolic and diastolic function of soccer players. Materials and Methods: Thirty professional soccer players were examined twice, the first examination was made during the passive resting period before the beginning of the season (measurement I) and the second during the peak of the season (measurement II). At both examinations, players underwent electrocardiogram (ECG), conventional Echo-Doppler, pulsed tissue Doppler imaging on both septal and lateral sides of the mitral annulus and lateral tricuspid annulus. The (propagation velocity [Vp]) values were measured. Paired t-test was used for comparison. Results: The following changes between measurement I and measurement II were found: ECG Changes; 80% of the entire group showed early repolarization, 93% had left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) by voltage criteria, 20% showed right atrial abnormalities, 20% left atrial abnormalities, 40% showed inverted T-wave in leads V1-V4, 5% showed mobitz type I second degree heart block, and 5% showed incomplete right bundle branch block. Echo changes; The mitral E/E` ratio increased from 6.18 ± 1.27 to 6.91 ± 1.18; the Vp decreased from 56.3 ± 9.23 to 50.67 ± 8.6; the tricuspid valve Ratio between the early and late peak pulsed Doppler velocities on tricuspid valve decreased from 1.67 ± 0.23 to 1.54 ± 0.23 while the E`/A` ratio decreased from 1.67 ± 0.53 to 1.28 ± 0.49; the (isovolumetric relaxation time) of the right ventricle increased from 52.4 ± 11.33 to 58.17 ± 10.73; the (isovolumetric contraction time) decreased from 70.47 ± 9.9 to 65.2 ± 7.9. All changes were statistically significant at P < 0.001. Conclusions: Long-term regular exercise in soccer players is associated with cardiac alterations in the form of bradycardia, early repolarization, inverted T-wave, concentric LVH, and a tendency toward diastolic impairment of both ventricles.

Physicians' override of computerized alerts for contraindicated medications in patients hospitalized with chronic kidney disease

Objectives: To determine the effectiveness of a clinical decision support system (CDSS) as indicated by a lower proportion of receiving contraindicated medications by patients with severe chronic kidney disease (CKD) compared with patients with less severe CKD. Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective analysis of inpatients with CKD (ICD9-CM 585.xx) admitted to a major tertiary hospital in Saudi Arabia and receiving one of the medications that were documented in the knowledge base of the hospital CDSS to be renally cleared and/or nephrotoxic. Using the Chi square test, the proportion of receiving contraindicated medication was compared between patients with severe CKD and patients with mild/moderate CKD. Multivariate logistic regression was then used to examine the adjusted risk of receiving contraindicated medications among patients with severe CKD despite the presence of guided medication by CDSS. Results: The final analysis was conducted on 346 patients who received prescriptions that were renally cleared and/or nephrotoxic. Of these patients, 17% (n = 58) had severe CKD and 83% (n = 288) had mild/moderate CKD. Among patients with severe CKD, 51.7% (n = 30) received contraindicated medications compared with patients with mild/moderate CKD, 4.9% (n = 14), P < 0.01. Multivariate logistic regression showed that the likelihood of receiving contraindicated medications was several folds higher among patients with severe CKD compared with patients with mild/moderate CKD (P < 0.001). Conclusion: Patients with severe CKD continued to receive contraindicated medications despite the availability of medication guidance by the CDSS to prescribing physicians. Improved compliance by physicians to CDSS alerts and better understanding of reasons for non-compliance is still needed, particularly for patients with severe CKD.