MATERIAL AND METHOD: 25 healthy electronic cigarette smokers and 25 age- and gender-matched healthy non-smokers were included in the study. RNFL, GCL, IPL and choroidal thickness were measured by SD-OCT using an automated programme. After normality tests, an independent sample t-test was used to analyse the differences in RNFL, GCL, IPL, and choroidal thickness values between the groups.

RESULTS: The mean age of electronic cigarette smokers and non-smokers was 33.68 and 33.64 years, respectively. The mean smoking history was 6.6 years (range 5-8 years). Most of the participants smoked 2-5 ml of e-liquid per day (52%), while 36% smoked more than 5 ml and 12% smoked less than 2 ml per day. The mean intraocular pressure in the electronic cigarette smoker group was 15.0 mmHg, while the non-smoker group was 15.32 mmHg. The mean axial length in the electronic cigarette smoker group and non-smoker group was 23.36 and 23.63 mm, respectively. No significant difference was observed regarding RNFL, GCL, IPL or choroidal thickness between both groups.

METHODS: The development and validation process in this study consisted of four stages: Stage One involved item pool generation, Stage Two focused on content and face validation, Stage Three encompassed data collection, and Stage Four included the assessment of the psychometric properties of the RESQ. This final stage was conducted through Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA; n = 275) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA; n = 313) to evaluate convergent validity, discriminant validity, and composite reliability.

RESULTS: The initial item pool generated 60 items, whereby 42 items were retained after the content validity evaluation process by the panel of experts. Next, EFA analysis suggested 31 items distributed across seven factors. Lastly, psychometric properties of RESQ with 26 items were established through CFA (GFI = 0.91, CFI = 0.97, RMSEA = 0.04, TLI = 0.96, X²/df = 1.52) and other psychometrics evidence.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cross-sectional study on the VNS done in Malaysia. We included DRE patients from all age groups who underwent VNS from 1st January 2000 to 31st December 2022. We analysed the efficacy of VNS for patients with at least one year of implantation.

RESULTS: A total of 62 implantations were performed from 2000 to 2022. Most patients (52.5%) had implantation at <18 years old, 54.0% had focal seizures, 34.4% had Lennox Gastaut Syndrome and 23.0% had developmental epileptic encephalopathy. A total of 22.6%, 42.8%, and 63.3% of patients achieve ≥ 50% seizure reduction at three months, six months, and one-year post-implantation, respectively. At their last follow-up, 73.5% of patients had ≥ 50% seizure reduction. The majority of responders were at a current intensity of ≥ 2mA (98.0%) and 81.6% were at a duty cycle of ≥35%. No significant difference was found between responders and non-responders by age at implantation, duration of epilepsy, and seizure type.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this case-control study, we examined 294 patients over the age of 18 who were using synthetic cathinones and opioids. All patients underwent electrocardiography and transthoracic echocardiography.

RESULTS: Our study involved 183 patients using synthetic cathinones and 111 patients reporting opioid use. The average age of the patients was 32.4 ± 8.5 years. In patients using synthetic cathinones, electrocardiography showed a lengthening in the average duration of the ventricular QRS complex (70.5 ± 13.3 ms vs. 69.6 ± 11.7 ms), T wave (154.1 ± 27.5 ms vs. 140.4 ± 24.1 ms), and QT interval (338.2 ± 28.5 ms vs. 334.8 ± 33.5 ms), as well as a shortening of the P wave (79.1 ± 12.2 ms vs. 82.6 ± 14.4 ms) and PQ interval (146.4 ± 19.6 ms vs. 148.3 ± 20.1 ms). Echocardiography confirmed left ventricular hypertrophy in 10.9% of the synthetic cathinones group and 17.1% of the opioid group. Transmitral left ventricular diastolic dysfunction was diagnosed in 23.5% of patients in both groups. Additionally, 31.1% of patients using synthetic cathinones and 44.1% of those using opioids had a reduced ejection fraction on echocardiography.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective record review was carried out, utilising secondary data obtained from the TB registry of Selangor and Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur. All registered DR-TB cases between 2016 and 2020 that met the study criteria were analysed descriptively using SPSS software version 27.

RESULTS: Of 443 cases of registered DR-TB over 5 years, 430 cases fulfilled the study criteria. The prevalence of DR-TB increased from 0.27 to 1.79 per 100,000 population between 2016 and 2020. The average age was 40.96 years, majority were males (70.7%), Malaysian (79.3%), with Malays comprising 50.2%. Most patients had up to secondary school education (51.9%), married (57.0%), employed (53.3%) and 34.9% were smokers. For clinical characteristics, 23.5% had diabetes, and 10.9% were HIVpositive. Retreatment cases accounted for half the total, and 83.9% had positive smear results. Minimal chest X-ray lesions were observed in 54.4% of cases. The majority (66.7%) received supervised treatment from healthcare providers after being diagnosed with DR-TB, and 37.4% had more than one anti-TB resistance. Favourable treatment outcomes were observed in 56.7% of cases, while 42.1% had unfavourable outcomes, mainly due to loss to follow-up (49.7%), death (42.6%) and treatment failure (7.7%).

METHODOLOGY: This was a cross-sectional study involving SLE patients who visited our institute between January 2020 and June 2021. A review of the medical records and face-to-face interviews were conducted to obtain sociodemographics, SLE disease characteristics and the intervals from the first symptoms to the diagnosis. Health-seeking behaviours were assessed by asking about the patients' first action during the initial symptoms and were divided into: (i) seeking professional health personnel; (ii) self-treatment; and (iii) the use of the internet as a primary source of information. Diagnostic delays were defined as the interval between initial symptoms and SLE diagnosis of more than 6 months. Low-level disease activity state (LLDAS) at 12 months was assessed from the medical records. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis was subsequently conducted to determine factors associated with diagnostic delays.

RESULTS: Among the 154 patients included in the study, 24% (n = 37) had delayed diagnosis. The delay was significantly higher among the Indian versus Malay versus Chinese (42.9% vs 28% vs 10.8%, p = 0.037). Patients with rash tend to have delayed diagnosis (37.8% vs 22.2%, p = 0.08) while fewer patients with frothy urine had delayed diagnosis (8.1% vs 21.4%, p = 0.09). No significant association was found between health-seeking behaviours and diagnostic delays. The rate of LLDAS at 12 months was significantly lower among patients with delayed diagnosis (43.2% vs 70.0%, p = 0.006). Chinese ethnicity remained the only significant factor associated with lesser diagnostic delays in the multivariate analysis, with OR 0.30 (CI 0.09-0.93), p = 0.037.