TASK DEFINITION: Given a passage, construct a question on the basis of the information present in the passage. Construct the question in such a way that (i) it is unambiguous, (ii) it is answerable from the passage, (iii) its answer is unique (iv) it answer uses text phrases from the passage. Avoid creating questions that (i) can't be answered correctly without actually understanding the passage and (ii) uses the same words or phrases given in the passage.
PROBLEM: Bilateral lower extremity venous duplex scanning for acute deep venous thrombosis (DVT) has been advocated because of the high incidence of occult contralateral leg involvement. We investigated the clinical necessity of such a policy.', 'The results from 2996 venous duplex studies performed during the past 2 years were retrospectively reviewed. A total of 1694 of these scans were performed on patients with symptoms, of whom 248 (15%) were found to have an acute DVT. Symptoms were limited to one side in 198 patients, whereas bilateral complaints were noted in 50 patients.', 'Among the patients with symptoms of acute DVT, 72 (29%) had bilateral involvement. Bilaterality was more likely in patients with bilateral symptoms than in those with only unilateral symptoms (56% vs 22%; p < 0.005). Of the patients with unilateral symptoms and bilateral DVT, all of them had either acute (80%) or acute and chronic (20%) thrombosis in the symptomatic leg. The contralateral asymptomatic limb had fewer acute and more chronic DVT (41% and 55%, respectively). No patient from the entire group admitted with symptoms had an acute DVT in the asymptomatic limb without a concomitant acute DVT in the symptomatic leg. Unilateral scanning would decrease the examination time by 21% and potentially increase total reimbursement for symptomatic venous scans by 9% compared with routine bilateral duplex scanning.

SOLUTION: Is contralateral duplex scanning for deep venous thrombosis unnecessary in patients with symptoms?

PROBLEM: Dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) and thymidylate synthase (TS) are crucial enzymes in DNA synthesis. In alveolata both enzymes are expressed as one bifunctional enzyme.', "Loss of this essential enzyme activities after successful allelic assortment of knock out alleles yields an auxotrophic marker in ciliates. Here the cloning, characterisation and functional analysis of Tetrahymena thermophila's DHFR-TS is presented. A first aspect of the presented work relates to destruction of DHFR-TS enzyme function in an alveolate thereby causing an auxotrophy for thymidine. A second aspect is to knock in an expression cassette encoding for a foreign gene with subsequent expression of the target protein.

SOLUTION: Does the bifunctional dihydrofolate reductase thymidylate synthase of Tetrahymena thermophila provide a tool for molecular and biotechnology applications?

PROBLEM: The surgical treatment method in which the peritoneal cavity is opened anteriorly and deliberately left open, hence often called "open abdomen" has become the standard of care in damage-control procedures as well as in the management of intra-abdominal hypertension and in severe intra-abdominal sepsis. Whereas open abdomen has been closed in two stages traditionally, a modern trend is to close the fascial layers within the initial hospitalization to avoid complications like enterocutaneous fistula and hernia formation. The aim of this study was to determine crucial factors influencing the possibility of fascial closure after open abdomen.', 'Between 2003 and 2013, 355 adult patients were treated with open abdomen in our institution. Their data were collected and retrospectively analyzed. They were divided into two groups depending on fascial closure or not (fascial closure, n=137 (39%) vs. non-fascial closure, n=218 (61%)).', 'The patients who reached fascial closure had a significantly higher rate of initially performed open abdomen (97 patients (71%) vs. 118 (54%), p=0.002) and the periods of time until a second and a third look operation were significantly shorter (2.72.5 vs. 4.26.6 days, p=0.021 and 5.63.7 vs. 8.58.6 days, p=0.006). Furthermore, the presence of peritonitis (64 patients (47%) vs. 83 patients (38%), p=0.023) and large bowel resection (74 patients (54%) vs. 90 patients (41%), p=0.022) were significantly higher in this group. Rates of in-hospital mortality (97 patients (44%) vs. 38 patients (28%), p=0.002) and the presence of pancreatitis (19 patients (9%) vs. 3 patients (2%), p=0.013) were significantly higher in the non-fascial closure group.

SOLUTION:
Are fascial closure after open abdomen : initial indication and early revisions decisive factors -- a retrospective cohort study?