Plos One
-
In countries with low tuberculosis (TB) incidence, immigrants from higher incidence countries represent the major pool of individuals with latent TB infection (LTBI). The antenatal period represents an opportunity for immigrant women to access the medical system, and hence for potential screening and treatment of LTBI. However, such screening and treatment during pregnancy remains controversial. ⋯ Pregnancy is an opportunity to screen for LTBI. Interferon-gamma release assays are likely comparable to tuberculin skin tests and may be used during pregnancy. Efforts should be made to improve adherence with follow-up and treatment post-partum. Further data are needed with respect to safety and feasibility of antepartum INH therapy, and with respect to alternative treatment regimens.
-
Low success (<60%) in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) classification using brain morphometry from the large multi-site ABIDE dataset and inconsistent findings on brain morphometric abnormalities in ASD can be attributed to the ASD heterogeneity. In this study, we show that ASD brain morphometry is highly heterogeneous, and demonstrate that the heterogeneity can be mitigated and classification improved if autism severity (AS), verbal IQ (VIQ) and age are used with morphometric features. Morphometric features from structural MRIs (sMRIs) of 734 males (ASD: 361, controls: 373) of ABIDE were derived using FreeSurfer. ⋯ When the experiments were repeated using the Gradient Boosting classifier similar results were obtained. Our findings suggest that identifying brain biomarkers in sub-groups of ASD can yield more robust and insightful results than searching across the whole spectrum. Further, it may allow identification of sub-group specific brain biomarkers that are optimized for early detection and monitoring, increasing the utility of sMRI as an important tool for early detection of ASD.
-
Comparative Study
Heavy Smoking Is More Strongly Associated with General Unhealthy Lifestyle than Obesity and Underweight.
Smoking and obesity are major causes of non-communicable diseases. We investigated the associations of heavy smoking, obesity, and underweight with general lifestyle to infer which of these risk groups has the most unfavourable lifestyle. ⋯ Unhealthy general lifestyle was associated with both heavy smoking and BMI extremes, but we observed a stronger association for heavy smoking. Future smoking prevention measures should pay attention to improvement of general lifestyle and co-occurrence with obesity and underweight.
-
A simple, reliable anthropometric tool for rapid estimation of weight in children would be useful in limited-resource settings where current weight estimation tools are not uniformly reliable, nearly all global under-five mortality occurs, severe acute malnutrition is a significant contributor in approximately one-third of under-five mortality, and a weight scale may not be immediately available in emergencies to first-response providers. ⋯ Models estimating weight from height alone and height with MUAC class in children aged 6-59 months in a database from low-to-middle income countries were more accurate and precise than previous weight estimation tools. A height-based weight estimation tape stratified according to MUAC classes is proposed for children aged 6-59 months in limited-resource settings.
-
Hypothesised associations between in utero exposure to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and congenital anomalies, particularly congenital heart defects (CHD), remain controversial. We investigated the putative teratogenicity of SSRI prescription in the 91 days either side of first day of last menstrual period (LMP). ⋯ The additional absolute risk of teratogenesis associated with SSRIs, if causal, is small. However, the high prevalence of SSRI use augments its public health importance, justifying modifications to preconception care.