Current medical research and opinion
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To explore whether newly diagnosed Candida infection increases the risk of developing ankylosing spondylitis (AS). ⋯ A risk of AS was found after Candida infection, and a year of follow-up acts as an effect modifier between the Candida infection and risk of AS. Key messages What is already known on this subject? Links between spondyloarthritis and fungal infections have been found in animal studies before. What does this study add? Our study demonstrated that Candida infection is an independent risk factor for developing ankylosing spondylitis in terms of gender, age and relevant variables and comorbidities. A risk of ankylosing spondylitis was found after Candida infection, and year of follow-up acts as an effect modifier between the Candida infection and risk of AS. Clinicians should be aware of possible Candida infection in managing patients with ankylosing spondylitis. Implications: Clinicians must pay greater attention to patients with newly diagnosed Candida infection. Specifically, they should conduct tests for ankylosing spondylitis. Further research is needed to examine if and how treatment of Candida infection alleviates symptoms of AS.
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To examine opioid prescribing following cataract surgery among patients who did or did not receive Omidria (phenylephrine and ketorolac intraocular solution 1.0%/0.3%) referred to as "P/K". ⋯ Patients without recent opioid use who received P/K during cataract surgery, despite greater incidence of preoperative comorbidities and higher risk for surgical complexity, were prescribed fewer opioid pills following surgery than patients who did not receive P/K.
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To assess the use of Multivariate Index Assay (MIA OVA1) by gynecologists and determine referral practices and surgical decision making for women with adnexal masses and low-risk MIA OVA1 scores. ⋯ A high proportion of low-risk OVA1 patients were not referred to a gynecologic oncologist prior to surgery, indicating gynecologists may use MIA OVA1 along with clinical and radiographic findings to appropriately retain patients for their care. This practice is safe and may be cost-saving, with patient satisfaction implications.
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The Gout Impact Scale (GIS) is a disease-specific health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) measurement for patients with gout. This study aimed to investigate the quality of life in Chinese patients with gout and potential risk factors for poorer HR-QoL by GIS. ⋯ Gout-specific HR-QoL is impaired by social demographic and clinical characteristics, highlighting the importance of psychological factors (fatigue and depression) and patient-reported outcomes (patients' satisfaction and confidence in gout treatment). These findings suggest that more studies should focus on disease-specific HR-QoL.
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This study aimed to develop a new intelligent diagnostic approach using an artificial neural network (ANN). Moreover, we investigated whether the learning-method-guided quantitative analysis approach adequately described mediastinal lymphadenopathies on endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS) images. ⋯ The proposed intelligent approach could be useful in making diagnoses. Further development is required to improve the diagnostic accuracy of the visual interpretation.