Postgraduate medicine
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Postgraduate medicine · Jan 2025
Skin ecchymosis in migraine patients: a retrospective and exploratory study.
Migraine is a recurrent headache disorder characterized by moderate to severe, throbbing pain, typically unilateral. It can be classified as migraine with or without aura, depending on the presence or absence of visual or sensory disturbances known as auras, respectively. ⋯ Intermittent skin ecchymosis may be a differentiating factor between migraine and tension-type headache and a specific marker of migraine to be considered as a criterion for its diagnosis.
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Postgraduate medicine · Jan 2025
Medication refills do not guarantee medication intake: translation and validation of the adherence to refills and medications scale in traditional Chinese among individuals with type 2 diabetes in Taiwan.
This study aimed to translate and validate the Adherence to Refills and Medications Scale into Traditional Chinese (ChARMS-T) and to investigate common barriers to medication adherence among patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) in Taiwan. ⋯ The ChARMS-T identified a broader range of non-adherence reasons and demonstrated good psychometric properties. It can be integrated into practice settings for screening and follow-up to enhance medication adherence through effective communication between healthcare professionals and patients, ultimately improving long-term patient health outcomes.
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Postgraduate medicine · Jan 2025
The impact of metabolic health on fibromyalgia: insights from insulin resistance and related indexes.
To assess the association between fibromyalgia (FM) and insulin resistance (IR) using multiple IR indices in FM patients and to investigate how these indices vary with the severity of FM. ⋯ This study observed a significant association between FM and IR, as evidenced by metabolic indices in FM patients compared to controls. IR levels tended to increase with FM severity and duration. These findings suggest that IR could play a role in FM pathogenesis. Non-invasive and practical methods, such as METS-IR, may provide advantages for metabolic screening in FM patients; however, further studies are needed to establish their clinical utility.
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Postgraduate medicine · Jan 2025
The effect of gene dosage and age at the disease onset on the severity of familial Mediterranean fever.
To compare the demographic and clinical characteristics of familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) patients according to age at disease onset and evaluate the dose effect of the number of pathogenic or likely pathogenic exon 10 mutations of the MEFV gene on disease severity. ⋯ The presence of pathogenic or likely pathogenic homozygous or compound heterozygous mutations in exon 10 of the MEFV gene in patients with early-onset disease is associated with a more severe disease course compared to patients with heterozygous mutations. The gene dose effect of the number of mutations on disease severity is more common in children aged 6-11 years.
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Postgraduate medicine · Jan 2025
High prevalence of low bone mineral density in young adults with phenylketonuria.
It has been reported that phenylalanine (Phe)-restricted diets may have negative effects on bone health in patients with classical phenylketonuria (cPKU). We aimed to evaluate bone mineral density (BMD) in adults with cPKU and determine the risk factors associated with low BMD. ⋯ Although osteopenia, osteoporosis and low BMD have been reported in PKU, conflicting data also exist. Our study of a large adult cPKU cohort strongly supports previously published limited data that suggest male sex and low BMI confer a higher risk for low BMD in cPKU; and age, Phe levels and dietary adherence do not. In our study, although the patients were young, low BMD was quite common (25%). Bone health should be evaluated even in young adults with cPKU, especially in males and those with low BMI, regardless of treatment compliance and vitamin-mineral status. Prospective studies reporting on clinical outcomes such as bone pain or fractures will be valuable in the coming years.