The occurrence of potential patient safety events among trauma patients: are they random?
Patients who are above age 35, male gender, and black are associated with increased likelihood of experiencing a patient safety event in trauma care. When all else is equal, black patients are approximately 20% more likely than any other racial groups to experience a patient safety event, even after controlling for injury severity and disease comorbidity. These findings can help institutions prioritize chart review-based investigations to determine potential targets of systems improvement.
We have shown a novel role for ghrelin in stimulating the proliferation of a somatotroph pituitary tumour cell line, suggesting that ERK activation is involved in mediating the effects of ghrelin on cell proliferation. Desoctanoyl ghrelin showed a similar effect. As ghrelin has been shown to be expressed in both normal and adenomatous pituitary tissue, locally produced ghrelin may play a role in pituitary tumorigenesis via an autocrine/paracrine pathway.