Medicine
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Observational Study
Salt intake belief, knowledge, and behavior: a cross-sectional study of older rural Chinese adults.
Excess sodium consumption is a major cause of high blood pressure and subsequent vascular disease. However, the factors driving people's salt intake behavior remains largely unknown. This study aims to assess the relationship of salt intake behaviors with knowledge and belief on salt and health among older adults in rural China. ⋯ Our study demonstrated that belief in the harm of high salt intake rather than knowledge about salt and health was associated with healthy salt intake behavior, independent of age, sex, years in school, and health status. Future population salt reduction programs should place more emphasis on establishing health beliefs rather than only delivering salt-related knowledge. Clinical trial registration number of the study is NCT01259700.
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Atherosclerosis has a complex etiology that leads to arterial obstruction and often results in inadequate perfusion of the distal limbs. Patients with atherosclerosis can have severe complications of this condition, with widespread systemic manifestations, and the operations undertaken are often challenging for anesthesiologists. ⋯ Quadratus lumborum block may be a useful anesthetic technique to perform femoral-femoral bypass.
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Given that retroperitoneal liposarcoma (LPS) is extremely difficult to completely resect, and has a relatively high rate of recurrence, radiotherapy (RT) is the treatment of choice after surgical resection. However, it is difficult to obtain a sufficient radiation field because of the close proximity of surrounding organs. We introduce the use of tissue expanders (TEs) after LPS resection in an attempt to secure a sufficient radiation field and to improve recurrence-free survival. ⋯ Multivariate analysis was performed to identify the risk factors associated with recurrence-free survival within 3 years. Younger age, history of LPS treatment, and RT after TE insertion (group 1 vs group 2 or 3) were significantly favorable factors influencing 3-year recurrence-free survival. TE insertion after LPS resection is associated with increased 3-year recurrence-free survival, most likely because it allows effective delivery of postoperative RT.
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Cardiac sarcoidosis (CS) is a life-threatening and underdiagnosed manifestation of the disease, which requires a complicated and expensive diagnostic pathway. There is a need for simple tool for practitioners to determine the risk of CS without access to specialized equipment. The aim of study was to determine the prevalence of CS in a group of patients diagnosed with or followed up because of sarcoidosis. ⋯ A CS Risk Index was developed using a multivariate model to predict CS, achieving an accuracy of 82%, sensitivity of 50%, specificity of 94%, and likelihood ratio 8.1. CS was detected in one fourth of patients. A CS Risk Index based on the results of easily accessible tests is cost-effective and may help to identify patients who should be urgently referred for further diagnostic procedures.
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Observational Study
The positive duration of varicella zoster immunoglobulin M antibody test in herpes zoster.
Laboratory tests for herpes zoster (HZ) are required to confirm varicella zoster virus (VZV) infection, especially when a skin lesion is not typical or apparent. The serological test for VZV IgM antibody is simple and cost-effective; however, the change in the VZV IgM-positive rate over the time course of the disease has not been investigated. Therefore, we conducted an observational study to evaluate the positive rate of VZV IgM results during the time course of HZ and estimate the VZV IgM-positive period. ⋯ A total of 62 patients were included in this study, and VZV IgM antibody was positive only in 23 patients (37%). The estimated antibody-positive period after HZ onset was 3.5 weeks (95% confidence interval 2.8-4.6 weeks). These findings suggest that the serological diagnosis of VZV IgM to confirm HZ is only useful within 3.5 weeks after the onset of symptoms.