Medicine
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Benign adult familial myoclonic epilepsy (BAFME) is a non-progressive monogenic epilepsy syndrome. So far, the structural and functional brain reorganizations in BAFME remain uncharacterized. This study aims to investigate gray matter atrophy and related functional connectivity alterations in patients with BAFME using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). ⋯ The gray matter densities of the right hippocampus, right temporal pole, and left orbitofrontal cortex were significantly positively correlated with the DST scores. In addition, the gray matter density of the right temporal pole was significantly positively correlated with the VFT scores, and the gray matter density of the right hippocampus was significantly negatively correlated with the duration of illness in the patients. The current study demonstrates gray matter loss and related functional connectivity alterations in the BAFME patients, perhaps underlying deficits in attention and executive functions in the BAFME.
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The aim of this study is to determine the effectiveness of using lean management methods on improving emergency department door to doctor times at a tertiary care hospital. We performed a before and after study at an academic urban emergency department with 49,000 annual visits after implementing a series of lean driven interventions over a 20 month period. The primary outcome was mean door to doctor time and the secondary outcome was length of stay of both admitted and discharged patients. ⋯ Length of stay of both admitted and discharged patients dropped from 2.6 to 2.0 hours and 9.0 to 5.5 hours, respectively. All other variables including emergency department visit daily volumes, hospital occupancy, and left without being seen rates were comparable. Using lean change management techniques can be effective in reducing door to doctor time in the Emergency Department and improving process reliability.
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Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is one of the most aggressive malignancies in gastrointestinal tract cancers and even patients with early ESCC have a high metastatic potential. Difficulties are associated with clinically predicting tumor progression and prognosis based on conventional tumor markers determined from preoperative blood examinations. The aim of the present study was to measure plasma fibrinogen levels and the neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in blood and compare the clinical impacts of their combined values (fibrinogen and neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio score-F-NLR score) and the modified Glasgow Prognostic Score (mGPS) in patients with ESCC. ⋯ Prognoses among the groups based on the F-NLR score and mGPS significantly differed (all P < 0.001). A multivariate analysis identified the depth of tumor invasion, lymph node metastasis, and F-NLR score as independent prognostic factors (P = 0.002, P = 0.007, and P = 0.037, respectively). The results of the present study showed that the F-NLR score is a promising blood predictor for tumor progression and outcomes in patients with ESCC.
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In the present study, we aimed to verify associations between ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) and pediatric obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in a hospital-based population. This was a cross-sectional observational study on children aged 4 to 16 years with OSA-related symptoms from a tertiary referral medical center. All children received overnight polysomnography and 24-hour recording of ABP. ⋯ Multiple linear regression analyses revealed an independent association between AHI and nighttime systolic BP and MAP after adjusting for adiposity variables. This large hospital-based study showed that children with moderate-to-severe OSA had a higher ABP compared with children who were primary snorers. As elevated BP in childhood predicts future cardiovascular risks, children with severe OSA should be treated properly to prevent further adverse cardiovascular outcomes.
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Observational Study
Does Once-Daily Raltegravir Have Any Role in the Antiretroviral Treatment?
Administering raltegravir once daily would make adherence to antiretroviral treatment easier, especially if the concomitant drugs are also administered once daily. We report our experience on the use of raltegravir, both once- and twice-daily. Retrospective review of HIV-infected patients on treatment with raltegravir 800 mg once or 400 mg twice a day plus 2 analogs. ⋯ In fact, 14 out of 56 Ctrough concentrations (25%) from patients taking raltegravir once daily were below the IC95 of wild-type HIV-1 clinical isolates while only 2 samples from patients receiving 400 mg twice a day were below this value, although no relationship between Ctrough and efficacy was found. The main limitations of the study are that the raltegravir dosing regimen was not randomized and more than 50% of the patients were virologically suppressed at baseline. Regimens comprising raltegravir 800 mg once daily plus 2 nucleos(t)ide reverse transcriptase inhibitors can be an efficacious and safe option, particularly in virologically suppressed patients and those with a viral load <100,000 copies/mL.