Baseline Evaluation A total of 259 patients were included in the study, 134 patients in the pre-intervention group and 125 patients in the post-intervention group. The sex and age distributions of patients identified in the two groups are shown in Table 2.
The process of developing the CAP guidelines began in 1999 at LRGH. The Infection Control and Epidemiology Committee had established a Respiratory Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) subcommittee to address the rising rates of hospital-acquired (nosocomial) pneumonia. This multidisciplinary group reviewed all cases of nosocomial pneumonia and recommended improvements that resulted in a reduction of these [...]
INTRODUCTION Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is the sixth leading cause of death in the U.S. It affects approximately 5.6 million patients in the U.S. annually, and nearly two million patients require hospitalization for it. The financial impact of CAP is significant, and the cost of treatment is estimated to be nearly $10 billion; the primary cost-driver [...]
The safety and tolerability of medications in special populations (e.g., in elderly patients or patients with renal or hepatic impairment) are always of concern because these conditions are often associated with altered drug metabolism. Although few studies have directly assessed the safety of tegaserod in special populations, several studies have examined potential relationships between age, [...]
The results of the TEgaserod NORdic (TENOR) trial also reinforce the drug’s safety and tolerability profile. In this 12-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, 647 patients (86% women) whose primary bowel symptom was not diarrhea received 6 mg of tegaserod twice daily or placebo. ADEs were more common in the tegaserod group (23.9%) than in the placebo [...]
Tegaserod has demonstrated significant beneficial effects in patients (primarily women) with IBS-C. In large, controlled, randomized, phase 3 studies, tegaserod provided significantly greater overall improvement over placebo in relieving multiple and single symptoms of IBS-C, as described next.
Brain-Gut Axis Dysfunction Symptoms of IBS arise from three main physiological abnormalities: altered GI motility, altered intestinal secretion, and enhanced visceral sensitivity. Although the motor, secretory, and sensory activities of the gut are under the direct control of the enteric nervous system (ENS), the central nervous system (CNS) contributes indirectly by modulating the activities of [...]
