J Formos Med Assoc
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Observational Study
High anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody titers are associated with the requirement of permanent dialysis in patients with myeloperoxidase-ANCA-associated vasculitis.
A reliable noninvasive prognostic factor of ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) is still lacking, but little research has focused on the value of MPO-ANCA titers in patients with active vasculitis. This study explored the prognostic significance of MPO-ANCA titer in active AAV patients. ⋯ This study demonstrated that higher MPO-ANCA titers at diagnosis was associated with poor initial renal function and 2-year renal outcomes.
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Microcytosis is defined as having mean corpuscular volume (MCV) < 80 fL. This study evaluated whether 79 atrophic glossitis (AG) patients with microcytosis and 985 AG patient without microcytosis had higher frequencies of anemia, hematinic deficiencies, hyperhomocysteinemia, and serum gastric parietal cell antibody (GPCA) positivity than 532 healthy control subjects. ⋯ There are significantly higher frequencies of anemia, serum iron, vitamin B12, and folic acid deficiencies, hyperhomocysteinemia, and serum GPCA positivity in AG patients with or without microcytosis than in healthy control subjects. AG patients with microcytosis have significantly higher frequencies of blood hemoglobin and iron deficiencies than AG patients without microcytosis.
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This study was conducted to assess: 1) the impact of the HFS curriculum on residents' knowledge and skills, and 2) the correlation between learning outcomes and the clinical performance. ⋯ HFS is an effective training strategy, and can also be a complementary assessment tool to the written examinations and has better correlation with clinical performance.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Parasympathetic effect of deep pressure input on third molar extraction in adolescents.
Deep pressure input is used to normalize physiological arousal due to stress. Third molar extraction is an invasive dental procedure with high stress for the patient, and an alleviation strategy is rarely applied during tooth extraction. In the present study, we investigated the effects of deep pressure input on autonomic responses during the procedures of third molar extraction in healthy adolescents. ⋯ LF/HF-HRV measurement revealed balanced sympathovagal activation in response to deep pressure application. The present study suggests that the application of deep pressure alters the response of HF-HRV and facilitate maintaining sympathovagal balance during third molar extraction.