METHOD: A prospective, randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study was performed in RTI-hospitalized children. Patients were randomized to either the probiotic (n = 60, mean age 13.81 ± 0.90 months) or placebo (n = 60, mean age 12.11 ± 0.73 months) which were administered upon admission, continued during hospitalization and 4-week post-discharged. RTI and gut health parameters were assessed at these time points using validated questionnaires while concentrations of inflammatory cytokines were assessed via oral swabs.
RESULTS: Probio-M8 reduced the duration of nasal, pharyngeal and general flu-like symptoms compared to the placebo during the hospitalization period and 4-week post-discharged (P
METHODS: We used the Pan-Asian Trauma Outcome Study registry to analyze a retrospective cohort of 963 trauma patients who received surgical intervention or transarterial embolization within 2 h of injury in Asian countries between January 2016 and December 2020. Exposure measurement was recorded every 30 min from injury to definitive care. The 30 day mortality rate and functional outcome were studied using the Modified Rankin Scale ratings of 0-3 vs 4-6 for favorable vs poor functional outcomes, respectively. Subgroup analyses of different injury severities and patterns were performed.
RESULTS: The mean time from injury to definitive care was 1.28 ± 0.69 h, with cases categorized into the following subgroups:
MATERIALS AND METHODS: The patients were recruited from the urban community of Lahore, Pakistan. The patients were divided into the rehabilitation group (RG) and control group (CG). The patients in the RG performed the REs of lower limbs and followed the instructions of daily care (IDC), while the patients in the CG only followed the IDC for a 12 weeks period. Outcome measures were assessed at pre-test before grouping and post-test after 12-weeks of interventions. The measures included: weight, functional strength, and exercise adherence. The Paired Samples t-test (for normally distributed data) and the Wilcoxon Signed Ranked Test (for data that was not normally distributed) were used to analyze the differences within groups from pre to post-test measurements. The variance 2 × 2 factors and the Mann Whitney U-test were used to analyze the difference in weight and functional strength between the groups.
RESULTS: The patients in the RG reported a statistically significant weight reduction (p < 0.001) and improvement in the functional strength (p < 0.001) within a group. Similarly, the patients in the CG also reported a significant improvement in the scores of functional strength (p = 0.004) within a group. The improvement in the scores of functional strength was higher in the patients of RG than the CG (p < 0.001). Similarly, the patients in the RG reported a statistically significant reduction in weight than the CG (p < 0.001).
CONCLUSION: The REs could improve weight, functional strength and exercise adherence.
METHODS: This qualitative interview study was conducted among final year pharmacy students. Participants were recruited using convenience sampling until data saturation (i.e., when additional interviews didn't lead to any new themes). All interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and evaluated by thematic analysis.
KEY FINDINGS: Twenty-two final year pharmacy students were interviewed. Fifteen of them preferred the government sector as their choice training, three chose the community sector, two preferred private hospitals and another two preferred the pharmaceutical industry. The majority of the students gave positive feedback towards the liberalization of PRP training sites. Most of them chose clinical pharmacy as their preferred training site despite knowing of the saturation issue in government hospitals. This was mainly due to the opportunity to gain clinical experience and knowledge from the government sector. A small number of students preferred the pharmaceutical industry based on their personal interests and opportunities for career advancement.
CONCLUSION: Pharmacy students generally chose their PRP training site based on personal interest, future career advancement and working environment. A better understanding of career pathways and opportunities in the pharmaceutical industry by the students is required.
DESIGN AND METHODS: A survey method was used in this research with a descriptive analysis, Antimicrobial activity testing was done with bacteria Escherichia coli O157, Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes, and Listeria innocua. Molecular identification was done using the 16S rRNA gene.
RESULTS: Probiotic candidate test with the best results in testing for resistance to stomach acid at pH3 with the viability of 65.98%, bile salt resistance 0.3%, viability of 54.90% from 2DA isolates. Antimicrobial activity with the best clear zone area results was obtained in 2DA isolates with Escherichia coli O157 test bacteria of 21.16 mm, Staphylococcus aureus with a clear zone area of 23.17 mm, Listeria innocua of 19.24 mm and Listeria monocytogenes with a clear zone area 18.23 mm in 4DA isolate, LAB identification using 16S sRNA gene, results of running PCR base length 1419bp.
CONCLUSIONS: Phylogenetic analysis shows that Dadiah of Limapuluh Kota Regency is a kin to Lactobacillus plantarum. The superiority of identification technology by using 16S rRNA gene only can be conducted if the nucleotide sequence information of the targeted bacteria is known beforehand.
CASE PRESENTATION: The first calf died within 24 h of the onset of clinical signs; the second calf died within 12 h of the onset of clinical signs. The third calf succumbed within 72 h. Necropsies revealed that all 3 calves had similar presentations of EEHV HD but in the third calf with less severity. We conducted conventional polymerase chain reaction (cPCR) assays and found EEHV DNA at all 7 loci in the 3 calves; it was identified as EEHV1A, the virus type that has been found in most other reported cases.
CONCLUSION: Typical EEHV HD clinical signs and the molecular confirmation of EEHV by cPCR and sequencing point to EEHV as the cause of death. Further genetic investigation of the strain is in progress.
AIMS: The aim of this study is to determine whether a potent antioxidative and anti-inflammatory agent, Tocovid, a tocotrienol-rich capsule, could reduce the incidence of POAF and affect the mortality and morbidity as well as the duration of ICU, HDU and hospital stay.
METHODS: This study was planned as a prospective, randomised, controlled trial with parallel groups. The control group received placebo containing palm superolein while the treatment group received Tocovid capsules. We investigated the incidence of POAF, the length of hospital stay after surgery and the health-related quality of life.
RESULTS: Recruitment commenced in January 2019 but the preliminary results were unblinded as the study is still ongoing. Two-hundred and two patients have been recruited out of a target sample size of 250 as of January 2021. About 75% have completed the study and 6.4% were either lost during follow-up or withdrew; 4% of participants died. The mean age group was 61.44 ± 7.30 years with no statistical difference between the groups, with males having a preponderance for AF. The incidence of POAF was 24.36% and the mean time for developing POAF was 55.38 ± 29.9 h post-CABG. Obesity was not a predictive factor. No statistically significant difference was observed when comparing left atrial size, NYHA class, ejection fraction and the premorbid history. The mean cross-clamp time was 71 ± 34 min and the mean bypass time was 95 ± 46 min, with no difference between groups. There was a threefold increase in death among patients with POAF (p = 0.008) and an increase in the duration of ICU stay (p = 0.01), the total duration of hospital stay (p = 0.04) and reintubation (p = 0.045).
CONCLUSION: A relatively low incidence rate of POAF was noted although the study is still ongoing. It remains to be seen if our prophylactic intervention using Tocovid would effectively reduce the incidence of POAF. Clinical Registration Number: US National Library of Medicine. Clinical Trials - NCT03807037. Registered on 16th January 2019. Link: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03807037.
METHODS AND RESULTS: This innovation involves two lateral skin flaps being sutured into an incision on either side of the lateral wall of the trachea. This results in an elongated, broadened and elliptical tracheostoma, mimicking that of a fish mouth.
CONCLUSION: Benefits of the fish mouth technique include adequate stoma size for respiration, easier clearing of secretions, self-sufficiency without a stent, easier cleaning of a tracheoesophageal voice prosthesis, and stoma occlusion for voice production. The fish mouth technique is easily reproducible and suitable for those with a voice prosthesis.
Methods: A systematic literature search was performed in 5 databases for articles published between 2002 and 2021. Studies that compared adherence enhancing interventions implemented by healthcare professionals with a comparison group were included. Relevant data on study characteristics were extracted. Medication adherence and clinical outcomes between intervention and control arms were compared.
Results: Nine studies were included in two randomised controlled trials, four cohort studies, and three before-and-after comparison studies. All the included studies incorporated complex interventions, including intensive education or consultation with pharmacists, nurses or multidisciplinary team, in combination with one or more other strategies such as structured follow-up, written materials or video, psychotherapy, medication reminder or treatment diary, with the overall goal of monitoring and improving TKI adherence. Most (7 out of 9) studies demonstrated significantly better adherence to TKIs in the intervention group than the comparison group. The relative proportion of participants who adhered to TKIs ranged from 1.22 to 2.42. The improvement in the rate of TKI doses taken/received ranged from 1.5% to 7.1%. Only one study showed a significant association between intervention and clinical outcomes, with a 22.6% higher major molecular response rate and improvement in 6 out of 20 subscales of health-related quality-of-life.
Conclusion: Complex interventions delivered by healthcare professionals showed improvement in adherence to TKIs in CML patients. Further studies are required to clarify the cost-effectiveness of adherence-enhancing interventions.
Aim: To produce an accurate model of BCVA changes of postpterygium surgery according to its morphological characteristics by using the machine learning technique. Methodology. A retrospective of the secondary dataset of 93 samples of pterygium patients with different pterygium attributes was used and imported into four different machine learning algorithms in RapidMiner software to predict the improvement of BCVA after pterygium surgery.
Results: The performance of four machine learning techniques were evaluated, and it showed the support vector machine (SVM) model had the highest average accuracy (94.44% ± 5.86%), specificity (100%), and sensitivity (92.14% ± 8.33%).
Conclusion: Machine learning algorithms can produce a highly accurate postsurgery classification model of BCVA changes using pterygium characteristics.
Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed on 946 patients with CRC diagnosed from 1997 to 2017 at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre. The time trend was assessed by dividing the two decades into four 5-year periods. The mean age-standardized and age-specific incidence rates were calculated by using the 5-year cumulative population of Kuala Lumpur and World Health Organization standard population. The mean incidence was expressed per 100,000 person-years.
Results: After a stable (all age groups) CRC incidence rate during the first decade (3.00 per 100,000 and 3.85 per 100,000), it sharply increased to 6.12 per 100,000 in the 2008-2012 period before decreasing to 4.54 per 100,000 in the 2013-2017 period. The CRC incidence trend in later-onset CRC showed a decrease in the 2013-2017 period. Contrariwise, for age groups of 40-44 and 45-49 years, the trends showed an increase in the latter 15 years of the study period (40-44 years: 1.44 to 1.92 to 2.3 per 100,000; 45-49 years: 2.87 to 2.94 to 4.01 per 100,000). Malays' EOCRC incidence rate increased from 2008-2012 to 2013-2017 for both the age groups 40-44 years (1.46 to 2.89 per 100,000) and 45-49 years (2.73 to 6.51 per 100,000). Nearly one-fifth of EOCRC cases were diagnosed at an advanced stage (Dukes D: 19.9%), and the majority of them had rectal cancer (72.8%).
Conclusion: The incidence of EOCRC increased over the period 1997-2017; the patients were predominantly Malays, diagnosed at a later stage, and with cancer commonly localized in the rectal region. All the relevant stakeholders need to work on the management and prevention of CRC in Malaysia.