Irish journal of medical science
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Review Meta Analysis
Evaluating the safety profile of anti-platelet therapy in patients undergoing elective inguinal hernia repair: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
There remains no consensus surrounding the safety of prescribing anti-platelet therapies (APT) prior to elective inguinal hernia repair (IHR). ⋯ This study illustrates the safety of continuing APT pre-operatively in patients undergoing elective IHR, with similar rates of haemorrhage, reoperation, and readmission observed. Clinical trials with larger patient recruitment will be required to fully establish the safety profile of prescribing APT in the pre-operative setting prior to elective IHR.
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Recently, telemedicine has become a widely used method worldwide for the treatment of patients with acute ischemic stroke in hospitals where neurologists are unavailable. The purpose of this study was to determine the accuracy and reliability of treatment decisions made by remote neurologists via teleconference assisted by emergency physicians in acute stroke cases and to determine whether the use of teleconsultation would lead to any delays in assessment and treatment decisions. ⋯ Teleconsultation was a successful and reliable strategy in assessing patients with ischemic stroke and making decisions for IV-tPA. Moreover, patient assessment via teleconsultation was less time consuming. The results of the study are promising for the use of teleconsultation in the future.
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Ireland, like many countries, pursued a containment strategy during the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Multidisciplinary Outbreak Control Team (OCT) meetings were among the urgent measures used by public health teams in managing COVID-19 outbreaks, especially in high-risk settings. ⋯ While substantial DePH resources were required to manage COVID-19 outbreaks in older person RCFs, it is highly likely that these efforts prevented new infections within RCFs and thus reduced hospitalisations, ICU admissions and deaths. This sustained input placed a significant burden on the wider multidisciplinary public health team, and it affected the department's capacity to deal with competing health threats and priorities. Future pandemic preparedness requires commensurate resource planning for public health teams.
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Review
Artificial Intelligence in pathology: current applications, limitations, and future directions.
Given AI's recent success in computer vision applications, majority of pathologists anticipate that it will be able to assist them with a variety of digital pathology activities. Massive improvements in deep learning have enabled a synergy between Artificial Intelligence (AI) and deep learning, enabling image-based diagnosis against the backdrop of digital pathology. AI-based solutions are being developed to eliminate errors and save pathologists time. ⋯ Based on these factors, we elaborate upon the use of AI in medical pathology and provide future recommendations for its successful implementation in this field.
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Neoadjuvant therapy is an essential component of multimodality therapy for locally advanced breast adenocarcinoma (BC). Complete pathologic response (pCR) is a useful surrogate for long-term oncologic outcome. ⋯ pCR was more likely in patients with less advanced disease in BC. The presence of HER2 + or TNBC in BC also increases the likelihood of pCR. Neoadjuvant therapy stimulates the systemic inflammatory response; however, a reduced baseline NLR may be associated with increased pCR. Confirmation with larger datasets is required.