Medicine
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Observational Study
Assessment of nutritional status by dual X-Ray absorptiometry in women with rheumatoid arthritis: A case-control study.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has been related to an impairment of the nutritional status. Body mass index (BMI) has been used but questions arise about how to properly evaluate nutritional status in RA patients. Few studies have evaluated it by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. ⋯ RA patients fulfilled criteria of sarcopenia in 44% of cases versus 19% of controls (P <.001). In RA patients, regarding SMI, BMI showed a high specificity to detect sarcopenia (94% of the patients with low BMI had sarcopenia) but low sensitivity (47% of the patients with normal BMI or overweight had sarcopenia). RA patients have an impairment of nutritional status associated to disease duration that looks like sarcopenia and that is not predicted by BMI.
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Observational Study
A novel inflammation-based prognostic index for patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: Neutrophil lymphocyte ratio/prealbumin ratio.
NLR/Alb (neutrophil lymphocyte ratio/albumin ratio), is a prognostic index for esophageal cancer has been confirmed. Prealbumin (PA) is more sensitive to malnutrition than albumin. A new prognostic index, named neutrophil lymphocyte ratio/prealbumin ratio (NLR/PA), for predicting the survival time in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) was proposed. ⋯ The index of NLR/ PA had a higher AUC area than that of the index of NLR or NLR/Alb for patients in stage I-II. But in stage III-IVA, the index of NLR had a higher AUC area than that of the index of NLR/PA or NLR/Alb. The index of NLR/PA is superior to the index of NLR as a prognostic indicator for patients with early stage (stage I-II) ESCC.
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Observational Study
Impact of a home health care program for disabled patients in Taiwan: A nationwide population-based cohort study.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of home health care (HHC) for disabled patients. We conducted a nationwide population-based retrospective cohort study. A total of 5838 disabled patients with HHC were identified to match by propensity score with 15,829 disabled patients without HHC receiving tube or catheter care (tracheostomy tube, nasogastric tube, urinary catheter, cystostomy tube, nephrostomy tube) or stage 3 or 4 pressure sore care from the Taiwanese National Health Insurance Research Database between 2005 and 2009. ⋯ The HHC for disabled patients has a potential role to reduce hospitalization and emergency services use. Besides, the improvement of healthcare quality through HHC was not accompanied by increased healthcare expenditure. The clinical impact of HHC emphasizes the importance for public health officials to promote HHC model to meet the needs of disabled patients.
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Observational Study
Cytokines concentrations in aqueous humor of eyes with uveal melanoma.
Uveal melanoma (UM) is the major intraocular malignancy in adults, of which the molecular biology is still unknown. Therefore, this study was designed to determine the aqueous concentrations of angiogenic, inflammatory, and chemotactic cytokines in eyes with UM. ⋯ In the study group, significantly higher concentrations of IL-6 (P = .006), IL-8 (P = .018), IP-10 (P = .004), RANTES (P = .008), MCP-1 (P = .02), NGF-β (P = .013), EGF (P < .001), PIGF1 (P = .01), bFGF (P = .016), and VEGF (P = .017) were measured, when compared with the control group. Several angiogenic, inflammatory, and chemotactic cytokines are highly expressed in the aqueous humor of the UM eyes, which provides new insights into the pathophysiology of UM and could be potential targets for treatment.
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Review Meta Analysis
The effectiveness and safety of cervus and cucumis polypeptide injection in promoting fracture healing after bone fracture surgeries: Protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Bone fractures are a common occurrence, and, according to clinical investigations, approximately 5% to 10% of patients with fractures will suffer from delayed healing or even non-healing. The high efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine in promoting fracture healing has been fully verified over a long history of diagnosis and treatment. Traditional Chinese medicine has a long history of applying Chinese herbs to treat fractures. Cervus and cucumis polypeptide injection has been widely used to promote fracture healing after fracture surgery in clinic, but its efficacy and safety are controversial. For the above reasons, the purpose of this study is to systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of cervus and cucumis polypeptide injection in promoting fracture healing after bone fracture surgeries and to provide a theoretical basis for the selection of appropriate treatment measures for delayed healing of patients with fractures. ⋯ A protocol had been registered for this systematic review and meta-analysis in PROSPERO. (registration number: CRD42019120965).