MATERIALS AND METHODS: This pilot cross-sectional survey was conducted among breast cancer survivors (n=40) who were members of Breast Cancer Support Group Centre Johor Bahru. A validated self-administered questionnaire was used to identify the relationships between socio-demography, medical characteristics and HR-QOL of the participants.
RESULTS: Living with family and completion of treatment were significant predictive factors of self-rated QOL, while living with family and ever giving birth significantly predicted satisfaction with health and physical health. Psychological health had moderate correlations with number of children and early cancer stage. Survivors' higher personal income (>MYR4,500) was the only significant predictor of social relationship, while age, income more than MYR4,500 and giving birth significantly predicted environment domain score.
CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggested the survivors coped better in all four HR-QOL domains if they were married, lived with family, had children and were employed.
Case presentation: We report a 10-year-old Dusun girl presenting with left hypochondrial pain and noted a left hypochondrial mass on examination. This report highlights the role of clinical imaging during the pre-operative and post-operative phases.
Clinical discussion: Ultrasound and CT imaging was useful in determining that the tumor originated from the tail of the pancreas. The presence of a definite capsule with internal solid-cystic components helped narrowed the differential diagnosis to solid pseudopapillary neoplasm (SPN) of the pancreas. MR liver was useful to rule out liver metastasis in this child.
Intervention and outcome: The patient was scheduled for laparotomy and tumour excision at a regional paediatric centre. Successful excision of the tumor en-mass was performed and the child's subsequent recovery was uneventful.
Conclusion: Clinical imaging plays a critical role in the diagnosis and management of paediatric solid organ tumours. Other than renal origin, suspicion of pancreatic tail origin should be considered by clinicians when encountering a ballotable left abdominal mass.
METHODS: LDA was applied to 6,328 Taiwanese clinical patients for classification purposes. Clustering method was used to identify the associated influential symptoms for each severity level.
RESULT: LDA shows only 36 HAICDDS questions are significant to distinguish the 5 severity levels with 80% overall accuracy and it increased to 85.83% when combining normal and MCI groups. Severe dementia patients have the most serious declination in most cognitive and functionality domains, follows by moderate dementia, mild dementia, MCI and normal patients.
CONCLUSION: HAICDDS is a reliable and time-saved diagnosis tool in classifying the severity of dementia before undergoing a more in-depth clinical examination. The modified CDR may be indicated for epidemiological study and provide a solid foundation to develop a machine-learning derived screening instrument to detect dementia symptoms.