12.05.2021: In 2019, a total of 14 354 patients in Norway were registered as receiving treatment in an intensive care unit (ICU), of whom 59.2 % received mechanical ventilation (1). Mechanically ventilated patients in the ICU are vulnerable to wasting of skeletal and respiratory muscles as part of ICU-acquired weakness (2, 3). Muscle wasting may begin only a few hours after the start of intensive care treatment, and the degree of wasting can affect the hospital length of stay, survival, and the duration and outcomes of rehabilitation (2). In recent times there has been a move in intensive care medicine...

01.02.2021: The percentage of pregnant women with an immigrant background is increasing in Norway, and in 2019, 28 % of all new-borns had a mother with an immigrant background (1). The risk of an adverse pregnancy outcome is higher among immigrant women than among the host population (2). A report from the Norwegian Directorate of Health in 2020 describes immigrant women as an especially vulnerable group within prenatal care (3). An immigrant is defined as a person born outside of Norway with two foreign-born parents and four foreign-born grandparents (4). The term 'country background' refers to a woman's...

23.11.2020: The reliability of research findings may be weakened in several ways. Trials that have positive and statistically significant findings and that support the hypotheses of the authors or editors have a greater probability of being published (publication bias) (1, 2). Other common sources of bias are selective reporting (incomplete reporting of predefined clinical outcome measures) and change of outcome measure between the protocol and the published article (3–6). This type of dishonest research practice is astonishingly common and may result in exaggerated or simply incorrect assertions about...

19.05.2020: Colorectal cancer is the most prevalent form of cancer among Norwegian men and woman, with 4 428 new cases in 2018 (1). Since the 1940s there has been a doubling of incidence, but also of five-year relative survival, which is now at about 70 % (1). Higher survival is attributed partly to new treatment methods and enhanced surgical techniques, particularly for rectal cancer, and to adjuvant therapy (2). Adjuvant chemotherapy is administered after surgery to prevent metastases and local recurrence. The Norwegian guidelines recommend three to six months of treatment with different combinations of...

05.12.2018: Infertility affects about 10 % of all couples (1) and its incidence is increasing. The need for and use of fertility treatment is increasing in parallel, and the number of children conceived after fertility treatment has now surpassed eight million worldwide (2). In Norway, assisted reproduction is defined by the Biotechnology Act, and includes techniques for both fertilisation of eggs outside the body and for insemination. Fertilisation of eggs outside the body can occur via in vitro fertilisation (IVF) or microinjection (intracytoplasmic sperm injection, ICSI) (3). Both techniques entail...

26.11.2018: Mycobacteria are aerobic, non-spore-forming rod bacteria, are non-motile and acid-fast, i.e. they cannot be decolourised by acid-alcohol in special staining. Their growth rate is generally low, but varies. This forms the basis for their subdivision into fast- and slow-growing species, defined as growth in a solid medium before or after seven days, when spread from a liquid bacterial culture. Non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) have varying pathogenicity and are normally found in the environment, e.g. in soil and water, but can cause infections in both humans and animals. The bacteria may also...

26.11.2018: Dystonia is a movement disorder characterised by persistent and intermittent muscle contractions that cause involuntary repetitive movements, and that can lead to abnormal posture in affected parts of the body (1). Classic dopa-responsive dystonia typically begins in childhood or adolescence, most often with walking difficulties. Symptoms worsen towards the evening and improve in the morning after sleep, and show a highly positive and sustained response to levodopa (2–4). The aim of this article is to provide general practitioners, neurologists, paediatricians and other interested parties with...

12.11.2018: In the 1950s and 60s, the classic psychedelic drugs lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and psilocybin were tested in numerous clinical trials. The results suggested efficacy against anxiety and depression in cases of life-threatening illness, unipolar depression and addiction (1–3). An open study of LSD in cancer patients demonstrated improvement in symptoms such as pain, anxiety and depression and a greater acceptance of death in approximately 70 % of the sample (1). A review of open studies examining the efficacy of psychedelic drugs in unipolar depression showed an improvement in...

12.10.2018: Myocardial fibrosis arises when the heart's fibroblasts produce collagenous scar tissue. This process may primarily be reparative, but over time often has negative consequences for the patient in the form of function impairment, morbidity and mortality. Cardiovascular disease is still the dominant cause of death in the Western world (1), and myocardial fibrosis arises in the course of many heart diseases. This review article first presents the pathophysiology and classification of myocardial fibrosis and methods for its detection. Some conditions in which myocardial fibrosis can be detected...

13.09.2018: The umbrella term frontotemporal dementia encompasses several neurodegenerative diseases that lead to neuronal loss in the frontal and/or temporal lobes (1). Frontotemporal dementia can be divided into two phenotypic groups on the basis of changes in either behaviour or language. The behavioural variant accounts for about half of all cases and includes changes in behaviour and personality (2). This variant is characterised by focal and prominent frontal atrophy. The language variant is called primary progressive aphasia and consists of three subtypes: a non-fluent variant (known as progressive...