Medicina
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Background and objectives: The present study is the first known in Latin America to enroll a substantial number of Kawasaki disease (KD) patients with an extended follow-up. This study aimed to: (1) to expose the difficulties and delays in the diagnosis of KD in a developing country, (2) to describe and correlate the clinical features of this disorder with the children's age at the time of disease onset, (3) to correlate the frequent lack of early diagnosis with a delayed application of appropriate treatment, and (4) to describe the outcome and eventual recurrences of KD in our region. Materials and Methods: Three hundred and one participants (183 males and 118 females) included in the study were diagnosed and, subsequently, clinically followed for ten years (January 2007 to December 2016) at the Pediatric Rheumatology Walk-in Clinic of the Children's Hospital of Brasilia. ⋯ Conclusions: This rate of recurrence was well-above that disclosed by previous reports. In Latin America, aside from a handful of physicians and researchers, KD is being ignored. There is a pressing need to educate primary health care physicians and bring awareness to the fact that KD is not an exotic condition that affects only the Asian populations but a disorder that already exists among us and that frequently results in severe consequences.
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Background and Objectives: The goal of this study was to evaluate the clinical sonographic evaluation of postmenopausal bleeding (PMB) followed by diagnostic and/or therapeutic hysteroscopy and guided biopsy in Jordanian hospitals. Materials and Methods: A retrospective multi-centric study was performed in hospitals in Al-Karak and Amman from 2014-2016. The study recruited 189 cases to evaluate the aetiology of postmenopausal bleeding. ⋯ The cases were also distributed according to parity in which nulliparous patients were observed. Results: Hysteroscopy was observed to be effective for the diagnosis of postmenopausal bleeding. Conclusion: There is a need to assess more approaches for the diagnosis of postmenopausal bleeding among women.
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Background and Objectives: Ficus benghalensis (FB) is a commonly found tree in Pakistan and its various parts have folkloric importance in managing neurological ailments. In the present study, methanolic extract of its bark has been tested on an experimental animal model to evaluate memory-enhancing, anxiolytic and antidepressant activities to validate the claimed therapeutic potential. Materials and Methods: Methanolic extract of freshly isolated bark was prepared and subjected to preliminary phytochemical studies and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis for the presence of phytocomponents. ⋯ Mobility time was increased and immobility time was reduced (p < 0.05-0.01) in rats treated with FB, unveiling the anti-depressant importance of F. benghalensis. Conclusion: methanolic extract of F. benghalensis bark furnished scientific proof behind folkloric claims of the memory improving, anxiety-reducing and depression-resolving characteristics of the plant. These activities might be possible due to interaction of its phytoconstituents with serotonergic, glutamatergic, cholinergic and GABAergic systems in the brain.
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Background and Objectives: The aim of this study was to explore the association between the cerebral autoregulation (CA) index, the pressure reactivity index (PRx), the patient's clinical outcome, and the quality of arterial blood pressure (ABP(t)) and intracranial blood pressure (ICP(t)) signals by comparing two filtering methods to derive the PRx. Materials and Methods: Data from 60 traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients were collected. Moving averaging and FIR (Finite Impulse Response) filtering were performed on the ABP(t) and ICP(t) signals, and the PRx was estimated from both filtered datasets. ⋯ Results: The FIR filtering approach, compared with clinical outcome, had a sensitivity of 70%, a specificity of 81%, and a level of significance p = 0.001 with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.78. The moving average filtering method compared with the clinical outcome had a sensitivity of 58%, a specificity of 72%, and a level of significance p = 0.054, with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.66. Conclusions: The FIR (optimal) filtering approach was found to be more sensitive for discriminating between two clinical outcomes, namely intact (survival) and impaired (death) cerebral autoregulation for TBI treatment decision making.
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The objective of this article is to discuss the inherent bias involved with artificial intelligence-based decision support systems for healthcare. In this article, the authors describe some relevant work published in this area. ⋯ The authors believe that the information presented in this article will enhance the readers' understanding of this inherent bias and add to the discussion on this topic. Finally, the authors discuss an overview of the need to implement transdisciplinary solutions that can be used to mitigate this bias.