Medicine
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This empirical study identifies the negative aspects of private health insurance (PHI) by analyzing the association between subjective health conditions, 2 weeks of outpatient care, chronic diseases, and hospitalizations for 1 year. We used frequency analysis, χ2 testing, an analysis of variance, and logistic and multiple logistic regression models to analyze the association between PHI and subjective health conditions, outpatient care, chronic disease status, and hospitalization. The PHI group had good subjective health but had more outpatient care for 2 weeks. ⋯ This study confirmed that as the PHI lowers the burden of personal medical expenses, the PHI can lead to an increase in the medical resource expenditures on the outpatient medical service and higher public health costs. The government should work to redefine the role of private and national health insurance. Also, the effectiveness of PHI should be reevaluated so that it does not lead to indiscriminate use of medical services by minimizing the burden of private insurance.
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Cerebral fat embolism (CFE) is a rare but critical disease in a clinical setting. Considering that manifestations and CT findings of CFE tend to be atypical, this condition is very difficult to diagnose. The purpose of this article was to assess the value of susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) in the diagnosis of CFE. ⋯ This case report shows the characteristics of CFE on SWI, which can help clinicians in diagnosing which can help clinicians in diagnosing CFE.
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Systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease (SSc-ILD) is usually detected in a patient known to have SSc but may be diagnosed prior to SSc. We probed an insurance database to investigate documentation of ILD prior to SSc. Using Optum's Clinformatics® Data Mart Database, we identified patients with an SSc index date between January 1, 2010, and September 30, 2015, based on International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-9-Clinical Modification (CM) codes, ≥2 medical claims associated with SSc on different dates within 1 year, and ≥3 years of continuous enrollment prior to SSc index date (ICD-9-CM cohort). ⋯ In these cohorts, respectively, 7.6% and 9.3% of patients had their second medical claim associated with ILD prior to their SSc index date, and 4.3% and 5.6% of patients had their second medical claim associated with ILD >1 year prior to the SSc index date. In this analysis, 4% to 6% of patients with SSc had claims for ILD >1 year prior to a claim for SSc. These data show that SSc can affect the lung early and demonstrate the importance of screening patients with SSc for ILD and patients with ILD for SSc.
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The incidence of suicide in patients with depressive order is much higher than other population. We aimed to evaluate the current status and risk of suicidal attempt in patients with the melancholic subtype of depressive disorder, to provide evidence for the clinical management and nursing care of depressive disorder. Patients diagnosed as the melancholic subtype of depressive disorder and treated in our hospital from June 1, 2018 to August 31, 2021 were included. ⋯ Pearson correlation analysis indicated that gender (R = 0.611), alcohol drinking (R = 0.719), living situation (R = 0.812), number of previous admission to hospital (R = 0.547), sleep disorder (R = 0.612) and frequent depressive episodes (R = 0.559) were all correlated with the suicidal attempt in patients with melancholic subtype of depressive disorder (all P < 0.05). Logistic regression analysis showed that female (OR 3.115, 95%CI 2.493-3.906), alcohol drinking(OR 1.946, 95%CI 1.684-2.763), living alone (OR 2.401, 95%CI 1.915-3.008), number of previous admission to hospital ≥ 3 (OR 2.342, 95%CI 1.601-2.742), sleep disorder (OR 1.821, 95%CI 1.328-2.215) and frequent depressive episodes (OR 3.128, 95%CI 2.421-3.779) were the independent risk factors of suicidal attempt (all P < 0.05). Suicidal attempt is common in the patients with melancholic subtype of depressive disorder, and there are many related risk factors for suicidal attempt in patients with the melancholic subtype of depressive disorder.
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In epithelial ovarian cancer, first-line adjuvant chemotherapy is necessary, and patients sometimes require protraction; however, there are only a few recent studies to show its influence. In this study, we investigated whether the protraction of the total period of first-line chemotherapy has a negative influence on the survival outcomes. Of the 101 patients we recruited from February 2011 to February 2021, 70 (69.3%) and 31 (30.7%) were classified into the not protracted and protracted groups, respectively. ⋯ For the PFS, the hazard ratio of protraction was 1.646 in the univariate analysis (95% confidence interval, 1.020-2.658; P = .041). Excessive protraction of chemotherapy over 20 days or more can result in significantly shorter PFS within 5 years. A better therapeutic strategy is required for patients requiring protracted first-line chemotherapy in advanced epithelial ovarian cancer.