Rostrum of Asclepius Vol 16, No. 2 (2017): April - June 2017

The Kangaroo mother care is a method used in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) with beneficial effects for the health of neonates. This paper describes the method, its effects on newborns, parents, community, hospitals, the implementation of the protocols and the monitoring at home after being discharged. Extensive literature review using databases like PubMed, Cochrane, WHO and the website of the Kangaroo Care Foundation was performed. The method contributes to neonatal weight gain, rise of body temperature, increase of the percentages of initial and establishment exclusive breastfeeding as well as reducing the time spent in the hospital for neonates. Equally, important are the benefits for parents with main being the creation of a strong bond between mother and child and their paternal direct involvement in infant care.Τhe Kangaroo mother care contributes to improving the health of newborns as well as enhancing positive feelings for the parents.

Keywords: Skin to skin contact, exclusive breastfeeding, kangaroo mother care

In the implementation of nursing practice some situations in which theoretical and apparent level considered unexplainable. Intuition is one of these situations that cannot be given this interpretation and therefore the meaning is often disputed in scientific fields. According to the chronological review of the phenomenon of intuition, described as a reasoning power. The concept of intuition stems from the status of elusive and based on the skills of the nurse. The role of intuition is associated with the detection of the patient's needs and problems and facilitating the correct application of the nursing process and adapting to a multidimensional reality. Guides nurse to solve difficult situations, favoring the development and leadership of the same and promotes the innovation nursing science. The importance and usefulness of intuition sometimes even outweighing the importance and usefulness of nursing evidence based and therefore very often not accepted and collides with rationalism. 

Keywords: Intuition, nursing care, innovation, creativity, nursing knowledge

Various antipsychotic medications, both older, 1st generation and newer, atypical ones, block potassium channels in myocardium causing prolongation of cardiac repolarization. This leads to QT interval prolongation in the electrocardiogram which, in turn, may lead to a type of malignant ventricular tachycardia known as torsade de pointes (TdP): clinically, it may manifest with symptoms such as severe palpitations or tachycardia and may as well lead to sudden cardiac death. The possibility for sudden death seems to increase with dose and age increase. Among 1st generation antipsychotics, drugs that have been implicated most include thioridazine, pimozide, mesoridazine (which is metabolized to thioridazine), chlorpromazine and haloperidol. In this brief report, we focus mainly on haloperidol for two reasons: it is the most frequently used classical antipsychotic and it has the most data available concerning its relationship with QT interval prolongation and TdP. Furthermore, we describe the meaning and the clinical relevance of QT interval prolongation and TdP tachycardia, the underlying pathophysiologic mechanism and their relationship with selected older antipsychotic medications. 

Keywords: first generation antipsychotics, Cardiac side effects, QT interval prolongation, Torsade de Pointes

Introduction: In 2012 more than 17.5 million deaths worldwide were due to cardiovascular diseases (CVD). In Cyprus, CVD mortality is estimated to 2000 deaths annually. The use of cardiovascular risk assessment tools can be the basis for the creation of modern strategies for the prevention of CVDs. Aim: The main purpose of this study was to assess cardiovascular risk in healthy adults in Cyprus, aged 20 to 60 years old. Material and Methods: Τhe standard 30-year cardiovascular risk assessment tool (FRS30-BMI) and self-reported questionnaire with risk factors and demographic data were used. Data collection lasted for 9 months (August 2014 - April 2015). The final sample of the study was 775 participants from all over Cyprus. The statistical analysis was performed with the IBM SPSS Statistics 22.0, at a significance level of p<0.05. Results: In this study 43.5% (n=337) of the participants were men and 56.5% (n=438) women. From the total sample, 40.4% were smokers. The 50.2% of subjects (n=388) had a BMI above normal levels. Men had an average 30-year risk for total CVDs 30.0% (± 22.42%) and an average 30-year risk for major CVDs 20.64% (± 19.29%). Women had an average 30-year risk for total CVDs 13.78.0% (± 13.92%) and an average 30-year risk for major CVDs 7.32% (± 8.84%). Conclusions: This study is the first in the general Cypriot population. In this sample, men presented a higher cardiovascular risk.