Quality nursing care has a great impact on patient satisfaction. Quality nursing care is perceived by the post cardiac surgery patient, as the degree of physical, emotional and spiritual needs that have to be fulfilled while hospitalisation. The objective of this study was to identify factors in quality nursing care that determine post cardiac patient satisfaction. This single cross-sectional descriptive study using ‘NURSQUAL’ instrument consisted of four elements; technical competence, information giving, assurance and empathy to measure patient satisfaction with quality nursing care. It consisted of four research questions with 33 items to measure the four elements. Between January to March 2005, 52 post cardiac surgery patients from Institute Jantung Negara (IJN), who fulfilled the inclusion criteria were recruited for this study. There was a significant difference between technical competence, information giving, assurance and empathy with patient satisfaction with p value < 0.05. The element of assurance made the strongest statistically significant unique contribution to the prediction of patient satisfaction with a p value < 0.05.
Background & Objectives: The National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) provides a valid and quick assessment of stroke severity in hyperacute stroke management. Stroke patients who are eligible for reperfusion therapy require prompt assessment. There is no validated Bahasa Malaysia (BM) version of the NIHSS that allows easier assessment by BM-speaking health professionals. This study aimed to translate and validate a BM version of the NIHSS.
Methods: The English NIHSS was translated to BM, then back translated to ensure linguistic accuracy. We also adapted the language assessment of the NIHSS to be more culturally appropriate. Training and certification videos were downloaded from the NIH website and dubbed into BM. We determined intra-class correlation and unweighted kappa as the best measure of reliability. Median scores were used in the analysis for language items.
Results: One hundred and one raters participated in the test-retest reliability study. Agreement between the original NIHSS and our translated version of the BM-NIHSS was good (ICC = 0.738, 95% CI: 0.611 to 0.823). Fair to moderate agreement was found on item-by-item analysis (unweighted κ=0.20-0.50) despite high observed agreement. Fifty patients participated in the language assessment arm. Scores were better in BM for reading, naming objects and repetition (Mdn = 100, p < 0.001). There was no difference in the median scores for the description component.
Conclusions: The BM-NIHSS is a valid translation of the NIHSS, and may be used in clinical practice by BM-speaking healthcare professionals.
Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM) is associated with pregnancy complications, however its mechanism has not been fully understood. The aim of this study was to investigate the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) for identifying candidate genes involve in risk factors and complications of GDM. A total of 174 pregnant women with GDM and 114 healthy pregnant women were genotyped with 384 SNPs from 236 genes. The SNPs identified were rs10946398 (CDKAL1) in GDM risk factors; rs328 (LPL) and rs1042778 (OXTR) in complications of caesarean section; rs5404 (SLC2A2), rs5400 (SLC2A2) and rs13306465 (IRS1) for neonatal intensive care admission. Whereby SNPs rs12255372, rs7901695 and rs7903146 from TCF7L2 gene had six times higher risk (OR, 6.40-6.53) for T2DM at postpartum. In conclusion, although the above SNPs were identified with GDM risk factors and complications among pregnant Malaysian women with GDM, a larger study is needed to ascertain this candidate genes actual association.
Nor Azian Abdul Murad, Sue-Mian, Then, Mohd Ridhwan Abdul Razak, Conjeevaram, Rajendrarao Thambidorai, Sri Noraima Othman, Rosniza Mohamad Hussain, et al.
Hirschsprung’s disease (HSCR) is a disorder associated with congenital absence of ganglion cells in the
gastrointestinal tract. Molecular analyses have identified variants in various genes including RET, GDNF,
EDN3 and EDNRB that are involved in the development, migration and survival of neural cells. Variants
in the receptor tyrosine kinase (RET) are most common and have been identified in 10-20% of sporadic
HSCR patients. The objective of this study was to screen for RET gene variants in Malaysian patients with
HSCR. Thirty-two patients with HSCR and 30 normal controls were recruited for this study. Mutations
were screened using the Polymerase Chain Reaction – Denaturing High Performance Liquid
Chromatography (PCR-dHPLC) approach. Mutations identified were then confirmed using Sanger
sequencing. We identified one novel rare variant in exon 4 (A268A c807 G>C) in one patient. We also
identified the common coding sequence variantsA45A (c135G>A), A432A (c1296A>G), L769L (c2307 T>G)
and the G691S in our cohort of patients. In conclusion, our Malaysian patients with HSCR diseases showed
the presence of similar RET gene common variants which have been described in other populations. We
have also identified a novel variant in exon 4 (A268A).