Medicine
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Globally, the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in 2019 has accelerated the adoption of telehealth technologies. The implementation of the Saudi Telemedicine Network (STN) and other digital health initiatives, such as the telehealth clinic (THC) at King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz University Hospital (KAAUH), exemplifies this trend in Saudi Arabia. The aim of this study was to explore the patients' experience of THC in KAAUH during the COVID-19 pandemic and their' beliefs about their readiness to replace the traditional onsite clinical visits with THC from March to September 2020. ⋯ During the COVID-19 pandemic, most patients were satisfied at KAAUH-THC in Saudi Arabia and believed that it could replace the onsite visit to a physician's clinic. The 2 main causes of the patient's belief that THC could not replace an onsite clinical visit were: First, nonadherence to appointments led to missed calls and a complete medical service. Second, the patient's perception is that a physical examination and lab investigation cannot be completed through THC.
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Telomere length (TL) has been implicated in the risk assessment of numerous cancers in observational studies. Nevertheless, the relationship between TL and malignant lymphoma remains unclear, displaying inconsistent patterns across different studies. A summary dataset for genome-wide association study of TL and malignant lymphoma was acquired from the OpenGWAS website. ⋯ However, there was no association between TL and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, follicular lymphoma, or mature T/natural Killer-cell lymphoma, and sensitivity analysis revealed no heterogeneity or horizontal pleiotropy, indicating that the causal effect was robust. Our study shows that TL plays different roles in different types of lymphomas. A longer TL significantly increases the risk of HL and other types of non-HL.
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Observational Study
Integrating network pharmacology and bioinformatics to explore the mechanism of Xiaojian Zhongtang in treating major depressive disorder: An observational study.
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a common mental illness. The traditional Chinese medicine compound Xiaojian Zhongtang (XJZT) has a good therapeutic effect on MDD, but the specific mechanism is not clear. The aim of this study is to explore the molecular mechanism of XJZT in the treatment of MDD through network pharmacology and bioinformatics. ⋯ In addition, 1166 differentially expressed genes were identified in the MDD serum transcriptome dataset, and weighted gene co-expression network analysis identified the most relevant gene modules (1269 genes), among which RAC-alpha serine/threonine-protein kinase (AKT1), D(4) dopamine receptor (DRD4), and kynurenine 3-monooxygenase (KMO) were target genes for the treatment of MDD with XJZT, these 3 genes are mainly related to the ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis, arachidonic acid (AA) metabolism, and Huntington disease pathways, and the expression of AKT1, DRD4, and KMO was also found in the MDD brain transcriptome dataset, which is significantly correlated with the occurrence of MDD. We have identified 3 key targets for XJZT treatment of MDD, including AKT1, KMO, and DRD4, and they can be regulated by the key components of XJZT, including quercetin, maltose, and kaempferol. This provides valuable insights for the early clinical diagnosis and development of therapeutic drugs for MDD.
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Epidemiological and other studies have shown that the occurrence and progression of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are closely related to diet. To further explore the causal association between dietary habits and RA, we performed a bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis. The dataset related to dietary habits is from genome-wide association studies, including 143 dietary habits. ⋯ Among current drinkers (drinks usually with meals yes + it varies vs no) was positively correlated with RA. Spread type (low fat spread vs any other) was negatively correlated with RA. RA was positively correlated with milk type (skimmed vs any other) and spread type (tub margarine vs never).
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YouTube (YT) is one of the world's most well recognized video-sharing platforms that appeals to large audiences and is used by individuals to educate themselves on disease diagnosis and treatment alternatives and to distribute health-related information. Videos were searched by typing the terms "migraine botox" and "botox treatment for migraine" on the YT search bar in English. A total of 50 videos were evaluated for each term. ⋯ The reliability and quality scores of the evaluated videos uploaded by healthcare professionals for migraine Botox treatment were high, but the frequency of viewership was low. In our analysis of migraine Botox treatment videos on YT, we observed that the information on migraine Botox treatment had a wide spectrum, high-quality content, and that there were videos that may mislead viewers. In conclusion, we believe that the platform is not sufficient in its entirety, and that it should be supported with renewed, fact-checked, easy-to-understand language, and video-duration optimized videos.