DESIGN: Cross-sectional.
SETTING: Seven core clinical disciplines from seven tertiary public hospitals in Malaysia.
PARTICIPANTS: Study was conducted among 330 randomly-sampled doctors. Response rate was 80.61% (n=266).
RESULTS: The mean score of acute fatigue, chronic fatigue and intershift recovery were 68.51 (SD=16.549), 54.60 (SD=21.259) and 37.29 (SD=19.540), respectively. All these scores were out of 100 points each. Acute and chronic fatigue were correlated (r=0.663), and both were negatively correlated with intershift recovery (r=-0.704 and r=-0.670, respectively). Among the work-related activities done during non-work time, work-related ruminations dominated both the more frequent activities and the association with poorer fatigue and recovery outcomes. Rumination on being scolded/violated was found to be positively associated with both acute fatigue (adjusted regression coefficient (Adj.b)=2.190, 95% CI=1.139 to 3.240) and chronic fatigue (Adj.b=5.089, 95% CI=3.876 to 6.303), and negatively associated with recovery (Adj.b=-3.316, 95% CI=-4.516 to -2.117). Doing work task at workplace or attending extra work-related activities such as locum and attending training were found to have negative associations with fatigue and positive associations with recovery. Nevertheless, doing work-related activities at home was positively associated with acute fatigue. In terms of communication, it was found that face-to-face conversation with partner did associate with higher recovery but virtual conversation with partner associated with higher acute fatigue and lower recovery.
CONCLUSIONS: Work-related ruminations during non-work time were common and associated with poor fatigue and recovery outcomes while overt work activities done at workplace during non-work time were associated with better fatigue and recovery levels. There is a need for future studies with design that allow causal inference to address these relationships.
Method: This randomised controlled trial enrolled 200 patients who underwent emergency open appendicectomy. Permuted block randomisation was used to assign subjects to either mechanical retraction or double ring WEP. The primary endpoints were SSI rates and cost analysis between the methods.
Results: The incidence of SSI was similar, n = 7 (7.4%) in the control group and n = 8 (8.4%) in the WEP group, and demonstrates no statistically significant difference (p > 0.05). Cost analysis showed a statistically significant (p
Methods: A prognostic study was done to identify predictors of early mortality due to exsanguination. Data were extracted from our Trauma Surgery Registry database of Sultanah Aminah Hospital, Johor Bahru, Malaysia. All patients who were treated from May 1, 2011 to April 31, 2014 by the trauma team were included. Adult trauma patients included from the Trauma Surgery Registry were divided into two groups for analysis: early death from exsanguination and death from non-exsanguination/survivors. Univariate and multivariate analysis was performed to look for significant predictors of death from exsanguination. Variables analyzed were demography, mechanism of injury, organ injury scale, physiological parameters (systolic blood pressure (SBP), respiratory rate, heart rate, temperature), Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), Revised Trauma Score (RTS), New Injury Severity Score (NISS), Trauma and Injury Severity Score (TRISS) and cause of death.
Results: A total of 2208 patients with an average age of 36 (±16) years were included. Blunt trauma was the majority with 90.5%, followed by penetrating injuries (9.2%). The overall mortality is 239 out of 2208 (10.8%). Seventy-eight patients (32.6%) died due to central nervous system injury, 69 due to sepsis (28.9%) and 58 due to exsanguination (24.3%). After multivariate analysis, age (OR 1.026 (1.009 to 1.044), p=0.002), SBP (OR 0.985 (0.975 to 0.995), p=0.003) and temperature (OR 0.203 (0.076 to 0.543), p=0.001) were found to be the significant physiological parameters. Intra-abdominal injury and NISS were significant anatomic mortality predictors from exsanguination (p<0.001). Patients with intra-abdominal injury had four times higher risk of mortality from exsanguination (OR 3.948 (2.331 to 6.686), p<0.001).
Discussion: In a Malaysian trauma center, age, SBP, core body temperature, intra-abdominal injury and NISS were significant predictors of early death from exsanguination.
Level of evidence: II.
Purpose: To evaluate the cytotoxic effect of DDMM as GBR membrane on MC3T3-E1 osteoblast cell line.
Methods: Cytotoxic effect was evaluated using the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. Osteoblast MC3T3-E1 cell culture was used as a parameter of cell viability after reacting with GBR materials. The absorbance values were examined at each treatment to determine the percentage of cell viability. There were four groups created in the present study: two treatment groups and two control groups. The treatment groups consisted of a DDMM group and a bovine pericardium collagen membrane (BPCM) group. The control groups comprised a group containing cell culture medium as a negative control group and another positive control group that contained cell cultures.
Results: The results revealed no significant difference in MC3T3-E1 cell viability between the treatment and control groups (p < 0.05). Moreover, as observed in the DDMM group, there was an increase in the number of osteoblast cells.
Conclusion: DDMM is a suitable alternative biomaterial for GBR as it is non-cytotoxic and could potentially increase the rate of repair of craniofacial defects.
AIM: The main aim of the present study was to design a new tool called neck pain functional limitation scale (NPFLS) for measuring disability related to neck pain and observe its reliability, concurrent validity and criterion validity.
SETTING AND DESIGN: This study was performed at the institutional hospital.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 157 subjects (neck pain group) and 25 control subjects (control group) without neck pain were recruited for this study. NPFLS was framed as a new tool for this study, which consisted of 5 domains - pain intensity, activities of daily living, social activities, functional activities and psychological factors. Neck Bournemouth questionnaire (NBQ) was used as a gold standard to measure the concurrent validity and criterion validity of the NPFLS.
STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Criterion validity and concurrent validity between the neck Bournemouth questionnaire (NBQ) and NPFLS scores were tested statistically using Mann-Whitney U test and Spearman correlation test. The reliability was tested by examining the internal consistency to calculate the Cronbach's alpha value for each item in NPFLS.
RESULTS: No significant difference between NPFLS and NBQ was observed using Mann-Whitney U Test, with P value greater than 0.05 (P= 0.557). Besides that, NPFLS had a high concurrent validity (r= 0.916) and good internal consistency with high Cronbach's alpha value of (r= 0.948), which demonstrated strong correlation between the items of NPFLS and NBQ.
CONCLUSION: NPFLS demonstrated good reliability, high concurrent validity and criterion validity in this study. NPFLS can be used to assess neck pain and disability among patients with neck pain.
METHODS: Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) was adopted for the review which utilized three main journal databases, namely PubMed, EBSCOhost, and Web of Science. Tobacco addiction and alcohol abuse were excluded in this review. Retrieved citations were screened, and the data were extracted based on strict inclusion and exclusion criteria. Inclusion criteria include the article being full text, published from the year 2016 until 2020 and provided via open access resource or subscribed to by the institution. Quality assessment was done using Mixed Methods Appraisal Tools (MMAT) version 2018 to assess the methodological quality of the included studies. Given the heterogeneity of the included studies, a descriptive synthesis of the included studies was undertaken.
RESULTS: Out of 425 articles identified, 22 quantitative articles and one qualitative article were included in the final review. Both the risk and protective factors obtained were categorized into three main domains: individual, family, and community factors. The individual risk factors identified were traits of high impulsivity; rebelliousness; emotional regulation impairment, low religious, pain catastrophic, homework completeness, total screen time and alexithymia; the experience of maltreatment or a negative upbringing; having psychiatric disorders such as conduct problems and major depressive disorder; previous e-cigarette exposure; behavioral addiction; low-perceived risk; high-perceived drug accessibility; and high-attitude to use synthetic drugs. The familial risk factors were prenatal maternal smoking; poor maternal psychological control; low parental education; negligence; poor supervision; uncontrolled pocket money; and the presence of substance-using family members. One community risk factor reported was having peers who abuse drugs. The protective factors determined were individual traits of optimism; a high level of mindfulness; having social phobia; having strong beliefs against substance abuse; the desire to maintain one's health; high paternal awareness of drug abuse; school connectedness; structured activity and having strong religious beliefs.
CONCLUSION: The outcomes of this review suggest a complex interaction between a multitude of factors influencing adolescent drug abuse. Therefore, successful adolescent drug abuse prevention programs will require extensive work at all levels of domains.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Eighty patients who fulfilled the UK Working Party's Diagnostic Criteria for Atopic Dermatitis were included in the cross-sectional study. A standardized case report form was formulated to collect the demographic data and disease profile of the participants. AD severity was evaluated using the EASI and SCORAD score. All patients underwent a complete ophthalmological evaluation.
RESULTS: The prevalence of ocular manifestations among the patients with AD was 48.8%. Fifty-four (67.5%) patients had facial dermatitis and 37 (46.2%) showed periorbital signs. The mean AD disease duration was 10.99 ± 11.20 years. Majority of the patients had mild to moderate AD. The most frequent ocular manifestation was allergic conjunctivitis (18.75%) followed by cataract (8.75%) and ocular hypertension (8.75%). Among the patients with ocular manifestations, 27 (69.2%) patients regularly applied topical corticosteroids on the face. The use of systemic corticosteroids was seen in 19 (42.2%) patients. Prolonged AD duration was significantly associated with the development of ocular manifestations.
CONCLUSIONS: Nearly half of the patients with AD were complicated with ocular disease regardless of the AD severity, facial dermatitis and presence of periorbital signs. Long disease duration is associated with ocular manifestations, especially steroid related complications.
EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: PubMed searches were conducted using the keywords 'statin, effect, and lipid profile' from database inception through March 2016. In this review, 718 articles were retrieved from the primary search. After reviewing the titles, abstracts, and full texts, we found that 59 studies met our inclusion criteria. These also included subsequent reference searches of retrieved articles.
RESULTS: CURVES study compared the effect on lipid profile between atorvastatin and other statins. This study demonstrated that low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), total cholesterol (TC), and triglycerides (TG) were reduced more with atorvastatin compared to simvastatin, pravastatin, lovastatin, and fluvastatin. However, simvastatin provided a greater elevation of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) compared to atorvastatin. The STELLAR trial was based on dose-to-dose comparisons between atorvastatin and rosuvastatin efficacy in reducing LDL-C. Te present study also revealed that as the doses of rosuvastatin, simvastatin, and pravastatin increased, HDL-C also increased, with rosuvastatin having the greatest effect. However, HDL-C levels decreased as the dose of atorvastatin increased. The DISCOVERY study involving the Asian population revealed that the percentage of patients achieving the European goals for LDL-C and TC at 12 weeks was higher in rosuvastatin group compared to atorvastatin group.
CONCLUSIONS: The effects of statins on lipid profile are dose dependent. Most studies showed that rosuvastatin has the best effect on lipid profile. Prescribing lower doses of statins in Asians seems necessary.