The health profile of football/soccer players in Northern Ireland - a review of the uefa pre-participation medical screening procedure.

BACKGROUND:
It is compulsory that domestic football/soccer teams in UEFA competitions organise players' pre-participation medicals. Although screening guidelines have been established, these remain controversial. The findings of medical examinations can have lasting consequences for athletes and doctors. No previous studies have reported UEFA pre-participation screening results in semi-professional footballers. This study aims to further knowledge regarding 'normal' data in this population.

METHOD:
Retrospective audit and analysis of records of pre-season medicals for all male first-team players at one semi-professional Northern Ireland Premiership team between 2009-2012. Medicals were conducted by the club doctor following the UEFA proforma. Height, weight, blood pressure (BP), full blood count (FBC), dipstick urinalysis and resting electrocardiogram (ECG) were conducted by an independent nurse. Only one ECG must be documented during a player's career; other tests are repeated yearly.

RESULTS:
89 medicals from 47 players (6 goalkeepers, 11 defenders, 22 midfielders and 8 attackers; mean age 25.0 years (SD 4.86)) were reviewed. Mean height of the players was 179.3 cm (SD 5.90) with a mean weight of 77.6 kg (SD 10.5). Of 89 urine dipsticks, 7 were positive for protein; all 7 were normal on repeat testing following 48 hours of rest. Of 40 ECGs (mean ventricular rate 61.2 bpm (SD 11.6)), one was referred to cardiology (right bundle branch block; prolonged Q-T interval). No players were excluded from participation.

CONCLUSIONS:
This study provides important information about 'normal' values in a population of semi-professional footballers. Urinalysis showing protein is not uncommon but is likely to be normal on repeat testing.

Bookstart Treasure Implementation Study: A Book-gifting Programme for Pre-school Children

Booktrust Treasure is a bookgifting programme delivered in pre-school and early years settings. The primary intended outcomes of the programme are increased family enjoyment of reading and sharing books. The following study explored the implementation quality of Bookstart Treasure and how this was associated with family reading outcomes.
The findings reveal strong perceptions among practitioners that the intervention is having a positive effect on a wide range of family reading outcomes. Whilst this is a positive finding in relation to programme implementation, it is important to note that this does not, in itself, constitute evidence that Bookstart Treasure is having a positive effect. Unfortunately, measuring programme effectiveness was not possible within this implementation study.
With regard to delivery, the programme was found to be equally well delivered in both voluntary and statutory settings. There is also some evidence that higher quality programme implementation is associated with increased enjoyment and usage of the packs amongst families. Whilst encouraging, it is important to note that it cannot be concluded from this that higher levels of implementation have a direct effect on these family outcomes. Furthermore, the findings also provide some evidence that parents with lower levels of education enjoy and use the packs more than their counterparts with higher levels of education.

Ultrasound entropy may be a new non-invasive measure of pre-clinical vascular damage in young hypertensive patients

Background: The identification of pre-clinical microvascular damage in hypertension by non-invasive techniques has proved frustrating for clinicians. This proof of concept study investigated whether entropy, a novel summary measure for characterizing blood velocity waveforms, is altered in participants with hypertension and may therefore be useful in risk stratification.

Methods: Doppler ultrasound waveforms were obtained from the carotid and retrobulbar circulation in 42 participants with uncomplicated grade 1 hypertension (mean systolic/diastolic blood pressure (BP) 142/92 mmHg), and 26 healthy controls (mean systolic/diastolic BP 116/69 mmHg). Mean wavelet entropy was derived from flow-velocity data and compared with traditional haemodynamic measures of microvascular function, namely the resistive and pulsatility indices.

Results: Entropy, was significantly higher in control participants in the central retinal artery (CRA) (differential mean 0.11 (standard error 0.05 cms(-1)), CI 0.009 to 0.219, p 0.017) and ophthalmic artery (0.12 (0.05), CI 0.004 to 0.215, p 0.04). In comparison, the resistive index (0.12 (0.05), CI 0.005 to 0.226, p 0.029) and pulsatility index (0.96 (0.38), CI 0.19 to 1.72, p 0.015) showed significant differences between groups in the CRA alone. Regression analysis indicated that entropy was significantly influenced by age and systolic blood pressure (r values 0.4-0.6). None of the measures were significantly altered in the larger conduit vessel.

Conclusion: This is the first application of entropy to human blood velocity waveform analysis and shows that this new technique has the ability to discriminate health from early hypertensive disease, thereby promoting the early identification of cardiovascular disease in a young hypertensive population.

Preparing medical students for normal birth: an interactive workshop by pre-registration midwifery students.

There is an increasing recognition of the need to improve inter professional relationships within clinical practice (DoH, 2001). Evidence supports the assertion that health care professionals who are able to communicate and work effectively together and who have a mutual respect and understanding for one another’s roles will provide a higher standard of care (McPherson et al, 2001; Begley, 2008). Providing inter professional education within a University setting offers an opportunity for a non-threatening learning environment where students can develop confidence and build collaborative working relationships with one another (Saxell et al, 2009).
An inter-professional education initiative was developed in Queen’s University Belfast within the Schools of Nursing and Midwifery and Medicine and piloted in 2014. The aim of the collaboration was to introduce concepts of normal labour and birth to fourth year medical students prior to their obstetric and gynaecological placement in hospital. The teaching staff felt this would be an excellent opportunity for final year pre-registration midwifery students to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding on normality in labour and birth by preparing interactive workshops with the medical students. The midwifery students were provided with an outline agenda in relation to content for the workshop, but then were allowed creative licence with regard to delivery of the workshop. The workshops consisted of approximately 4 midwifery students to 12 medical students. Resources such as birthing balls, birth mannequins, dolls and pelvises were available to the students to increase interactivity. Significant emphasis was placed upon the importance of relationship building with women in labour and the concept of being ‘with woman’ was core to all elements of teaching. Midwifery students undertook acting roles such as the labouring woman, partner or a midwife role and acted out mini scenarios such as contacting for advice about early labour; positions for labour or positions for birth. Medical students were prompted to vocalise about their feelings towards labour and birth and encouraged to think about their role within the birth setting.
Preliminary evaluations of the workshops have been extremely positive from both the midwifery students and the medical students. The midwifery students have commented on the enjoyable aspects of team working for preparing for the workshop and also the confidence gained from teaching the medical students. The medical students have evaluated the teaching by the midwifery students positively and felt that it lowered their anxiety going into the labour setting. A number of midwifery and medical students have subsequently worked with one another within the practice setting which has been recognised as beneficial. Both Schools have recognised the benefits of this form of inter professional education and have subsequently made a commitment to embed it within each curriculum.

A comparison of carbon flow from pre-labelled and pulse-labelled plants

Perennial rye-grass was subjected to two different¹⁴C labelling regimes to enable a partitioning of the carbon sources contributing to rhizosphere carbon-flow. Plant/soil microcosms were designed which enabled rye-grass plants to either receive a single pulse of¹⁴C-CO₂ or to be pre-labelled using a series of¹⁴C-CO₂ pulses, allowing the fate of newly photoassimilated carbon and carbon lost by root decomposition to be followed into the soil. For young rye-grass plants grown over a short period, rhizosphere carbon flow was found to be dominated by newly photoassimilated carbon. Evidence for this came from the observed percentage of the total¹⁴C budget (i.e. total¹⁴C-CO₂ fixed by the plants) lost from the root/soil system, which was 30 times greater for the pulse labelled compared to pre-labelled plants. Root decomposition was found to be less at 10°C compared to 20-25°C, though input of¹⁴C into the soil was the same at both temperatures. © 1988 Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Using Flory-Huggins phase diagrams as a pre-formulation tool for the production of amorphous solid dispersions; a comparison between hot-melt extrusion and spray drying

Objectives: Amorphous drug forms provide a useful method of enhancing the dissolution performance of poorly water-soluble drugs; however, they are inherently unstable. In this article, we have used Flory–Huggins theory to predict drug solubility and miscibility in polymer candidates, and used this information to compare spray drying and melt extrusion as processes to manufacture solid dispersions.
Method:  Solid dispersions were characterised using a combination of thermal (thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry) and spectroscopic (Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction methods. 
Key Findings: Spray drying permitted generation of amorphous solid dispersions to be produced across a wider drug concentration than melt extrusion. Melt extrusion provided sufficient energy for more intimate mixing to be achieved between drug and polymer, which may improve physical stability. It was also confirmed that stronger drug–polymer interactions might be generated through melt extrusion. Remixing and dissolution of recrystallised felodipine into the polymeric matrices did occur during the modulated differential scanning calorimetry analysis, but the complementary information provided from FTIR confirms that all freshly prepared spray-dried samples were amorphous with the existence of amorphous drug domains within high drug-loaded samples. 
Conclusion: Using temperature–composition phase diagrams to probe the relevance of temperature and drug composition in specific polymer candidates facilitates polymer screening for the purpose of formulating solid dispersions.