METHOD: A cross-sectional study among pharmacy students. Data were analyzed with Chi-square to find difference at p value < 0.05.
RESULTS: The majority of students (83.07%) responded showing a difference in gender and race. Students showed low willingness (9.2%) to assist patients and low confidence (36.1%) in their education about HIV/AIDS patients. Students recommended HIV testing for health care professionals (69.4%) and patients (75.9%) before surgical procedures. Students knew little about Post Exposure Prophylaxis (18.5%) or about the time for HIV to develop into AIDS (57.4%). About 40% of students were unaware of the inability of antivirals to treat HIV/AIDS. Students had low awareness for opportunistic infections (18.5%), and low agreement on competency to treat and counsel HIV patients (12.9%).
CONCLUSION: The study highlighted students' misconceptions, negative attitudes, and risk perceptions towards HIV/AIDS.
METHODS: We carried a review of medical records of breast and lung cancer patients hospitalized in years 2003 and 2009 at Penang General Hospital, a public tertiary care center in Penang Island, north of Malaysia. Patients with hypercalcemia (defined as a calcium level above 10.5 mg/dl) at the time of cancer diagnosis or during cancer treatment had their medical history abstracted, including presence of metastasis, chemotherapy types and doses, calcium levels throughout cancer treatment, and other co-morbidity. The mean calcium levels at first hospitalization before chemotherapy were compared with calcium levels at the end of or at the latest chemotherapy treatment. Statistical analysis was conducted using the Chi-square test for categorical data, logistic regression test for categorical variables, and Spearman correlation test, linear regression and the paired sample t tests for continuous data.
RESULTS: Of a total 1,023 of breast cancer and 814 lung cancer patients identified, 292 had hypercalcemia at first hospitalization or during cancer treatment (174 breast and 118 lung cancer patients). About a quarter of these patients had advanced stage cancers: 26.4% had mild hypercalcemia (10.5-11.9 mg/dl), 55.5% had moderate (12-12.9 mg/dl), and 18.2% severe hypercalcemia (13-13.9; 14-16 mg/dl). Chemotherapy lowered calcium levels significantly both in breast and lung cancer patients with hypercalcemia; in particular with chemotherapy type 5-flurouracil+epirubicin+cyclophosphamide (FEC) for breast cancer, and gemcitabine+cisplatin in lung cancer.
CONCLUSION: Chemotherapy decreases calcium levels in breast and lung cancer cases with hypercalcemia at cancer diagnosis, probably by reducing PTHrP levels.
METHODS: Clinicopathological data were retrieved from the archived formal pathology reports for surgical specimens diagnosed as invasive ductal carcinoma, NOS. Microvessels were immunohistochemically stained with anti-CD34 antibody and quantified as microvessel density.
RESULTS: At least 50% of 94 cases of invasive breast ductal carcinoma in the study were advanced stage. The majority had poor prognosis factors such as tumor size larger than 50mm (48.9%), positive lymph node metastasis (60.6%), and tumor grade III (52.1%). Higher percentages of estrogen and progesterone receptor negative cases were recorded (46.8% and 46.8% respectively). Her-2 overexpression cases and triple negative breast cancers constituted 24.5% and 22.3% respectively. Significantly higher microvessel density was observed in the younger patient age group (p=0.012). There were no significant associations between microvessel density and other clinicopathological factors (p>0.05).
CONCLUSIONS: Majority of the breast cancer patients of this institution had advanced stage disease with poorer prognostic factors as compared to other local and western studies. Breast cancer in younger patients might be more proangiogenic.
METHOD: This was a retrospective study done in National Cheng Kung University Hospital, Taiwan from 2015 to 2017. 125 patients underwent hemithyroidectomy, but 24 patients were excluded due to autoimmune thyroiditis, which was determined as the exclusion criteria. Standard panel of blood investigations were taken in each clinic visit before and after operation. A neck ultrasound was done 2 months post-operatively to assess the thyroid remnant. Chi-square test was used for categorical data analysis. Independent student t-test was used for continuous data with parametric distribution and Mann-Whitney U test for non parametric data. p 2.0 uIU/mL was a risk factor as Chi square test showed p
AIMS: This study was undertaken to establish the prevalence of VVR among whole blood donors in Hospital Pulau Pinang and to investigate factors that lead to its occurrence.
SETTINGS AND DESIGN: A cross-sectional study was conducted involving 27,890 whole blood donations in 2016.
SUBJECTS AND METHODS: For each donation, donor's demographic and blood donation-related information was extracted from the blood bank database.
STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Qualitative data including age group, sex, race, frequency, and location of donation were analyzed using Chi-square tests, while blood pressure was analyzed using t-test.
RESULTS: Overall, 425 cases of VVRs were reported, resulting in a VVR rate of 1.5% (one event in every 65 donations). We found a statistically significant association (P < 0.05) between the occurrence of VVRs with the young age group, female gender, Indian race, first-time donor, lower predonation blood pressure, and donation performed in a mobile donation campaign. The most common vasovagal symptoms are lightheadedness (88%), followed by nausea (5.4%), muscle twitching (3.5%), vomiting (1.4%), loss of consciousness <30 s (1.4%), and paresthesia (0.2%).
CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of VVRs among whole blood donors in Hospital Pulau Pinang appeared to be low. Our study reaffirms that blood donation is a relatively safe process, and the incidence of VVR can be further reduced by ensuring strict screening procedure before blood donation.