Current medical research and opinion
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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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We argue that increased risk for a variety of diseases in ART children has been consistently reaffirmed by different methods and in diverse populations, providing a methodological critique of recent sibling studies, which hold great potential for studying the risks of ART. A recent within-family analysis using a national population register holds a distinct size advantage over previous studies, and suggested that apparent risks to offspring may be attributable to birth order. ⋯ While uncertainty remains, the evidence points to elevated risk for ART offspring. It may therefore be prudent to call for an extension of preventive and precautionary decisions to the entire population, and to change informed consent to incorporate the long-term health consequences of fertility treatments.
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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.
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Observational Study
Adherence and persistence analysis after three years in real-life of inhalation therapies used in the treatment of COPD.
Low adherence and persistence values, which indicate real-life efficiency, have been widely reported in patients suffering from COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). Poor adherence may be related to treatment dosage, thus, simplifying the dosing regimen might improve adherence. The objective of the present study was either to evaluate adherence and persistence in primary drugs used in COPD treatment after 3 years in real life and assess whether the different dosing regimen affects adherence levels to therapy. ⋯ It would be appropriate to promote the use of drugs which require a single daily dose in order to improve adherence in these patients.