Search Our Scientific Publications & Authors

Klin Monbl Augenheilkd 2021 Apr 14. Epub 2021 Apr 14.

Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany.

Purpose: To compare nutritional and lifestyle factors between glaucoma patients and an age-matched control group.

Methods: One hundred and ninety (190) glaucoma patients were enrolled in this study. The control group comprised 97 age-matched participants. Read More

Neuroimage 2021 Apr 11:118039. Epub 2021 Apr 11.

Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical University of Vienna, Austria. Electronic address:

Animal studies using selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and learning paradigms demonstrated that serotonin is important for flexibility in executive functions and learning. SSRIs might facilitate relearning through neuroplastic processes and thus exert their clinical effects in psychiatric diseases where cognitive functioning is affected. However, translation of these mechanisms to humans is missing. Read More

J Craniovertebr Junction Spine 2021 Jan-Mar;12(1):65-71. Epub 2021 Mar 4.

Department of Neurological Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.

Background: Age-adjusted alignment targets in the context of distal junctional kyphosis (DJK) development have yet to be investigated. Our aim was to assess age-adjusted alignment targets, reciprocal changes, and role of lowest instrumented level orientation in DJK development in cervical deformity (CD) patients.

Methods: CD patients were evaluated based on lowest fused level: cervical (C7 or above), upper thoracic (UT: T1-T6), and lower thoracic (LT: T7-T12). Read More

Respir Investig 2021 Apr 10. Epub 2021 Apr 10.

Department of Respiratory Medicine, Yodogawa Christian Hospital, Osaka, Japan.

Background: Spontaneous pneumomediastinum is characterized by the presence of interstitial air in the mediastinum without any underlying disease. Some cases of spontaneous pneumomediastinum have been reported in the past, although only few reports are available, and its management remains uncertain. This study reviewed our experience in the diagnosis and treatment of spontaneous pneumomediastinum. Read More

Discov Oncol 2021 11;12(1). Epub 2021 Feb 11.

Chelsea and Westminster Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK.

Anal Squamous Cell Carcinoma (ASCC) is a rare cancer that has a rapidly increasing incidence in areas with highly developed economies. ASCC is strongly associated with HIV and there appears to be increasing numbers of younger male persons living with HIV (PLWH) diagnosed with ASCC. This is a retrospective cohort study of HIV positive and HIV negative patients diagnosed with primary ASCC between January 2000 and January 2020 in a demographic group with high prevalence rates of HIV. Read More

Psychother Res 2021 Apr 12:1-11. Epub 2021 Apr 12.

Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, USA.

: A novel brief intervention was used to investigate how empathic support and expectation can induce changes in mood, anxiety, and perceived stress. : Seventy-six undergraduates with high negative affect were assigned to three conditions of a program involving tasks with no known therapeutic benefit. In Group 1: Expectation Only, participants were given a deceptive description of the benefits of the program to quantify the magnitude of symptom change due to expectation alone. Read More

Clin Rehabil 2021 Apr 11:2692155211005387. Epub 2021 Apr 11.

Section of Clinical Social Medicine and Rehabilitation, Department of Public Health, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.

Objective: To compare return to work (RTW) rates among patients with low back pain (LBP) and different job relations randomized to brief or multidisciplinary intervention.

Design: A randomized controlled trial with 1-year follow-up.

Setting: Silkeborg Regional Hospital, Denmark. Read More

J Prosthodont 2021 Apr 12. Epub 2021 Apr 12.

Department of Restorative and Prosthetic Dental Sciences, College of Dentistry, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Purpose: To evaluate the correlation between students' achieved grades in a preclinical fixed prosthodontics course and their performance in the same discipline's clinical courses MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was conducted in 2019 on seventy-six students who passed all preclinical and clinical fixed prosthodontics courses. Their final examination grades in preclinical and clinical prosthodontics courses were compiled and made anonymous. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS Version 23) was used to analyze the data. Read More

Cureus 2021 Mar 9;13(3):e13791. Epub 2021 Mar 9.

Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, King George's Medical University, Lucknow, IND.

Introduction: Vitamin D deficiency has been implicated as an etiologic factor responsible for osteoporosis and various skeletal and extra-skeletal issues in spinal cord injury patients. There is a dearth of publications regarding the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in acute spinal cord injury (ASCI) patients, thus it becomes imperative to study the status of vitamin D in ASCI cases to make an early diagnosis and start treatment for osteoporosis. Apart from this, we also planned to evaluate other factors associated with vitamin D deficiency in our subset of patients. Read More

J Arthroplasty 2021 Mar 18. Epub 2021 Mar 18.

Adult Reconstruction and Joint Replacement Service, Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, NY.

Background: Recent data suggest that a modified, more lenient set of precautions after total hip arthroplasty (THA) performed through the posterolateral approach may safely allow more patient movement and exercise in the immediate postoperative period. We hypothesize that 1) patients undergoing THA given modified precautions will demonstrate a fast-track return to functional activity and 2) wrist-based activity trackers will provide valuable information on postoperative activity levels.

Methods: We prospectively enrolled patients undergoing THA. Read More

HERD 2021 Apr 12:19375867211004241. Epub 2021 Apr 12.

Rusk Rehabilitation, 12297NYU Langone Health, New York, NY, USA.

Objective: Exposure to nature has been shown to influence various dimensions of human experience in the healthcare environment. This mixed method study explores the effects of the presence of biophilic, nature-based imagery on patient perceptions of their hospital room and aspects of their experience in rehabilitation.

Background: In settings where patients have high degrees of medical acuity and infection control is a major concern, exposure to the benefits of real nature may be precluded. Read More

ESMO Open 2021 Apr 7;6(2):100104. Epub 2021 Apr 7.

Oncology Department, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV) and Lausanne University, Lausanne, Switzerland.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted all aspects of modern-day oncology, including how stakeholders communicate through social media. We surveyed oncology stakeholders in order to assess their attitudes pertaining to social media and how it has been affected during the pandemic.

Materials And Methods: A 40-item survey was distributed to stakeholders from 8 July to 22 July 2020 and was promoted through the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) and the OncoAlert Network. Read More

Eur J Cardiovasc Nurs 2021 Apr 9. Epub 2021 Apr 9.

Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, Forvie Site, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge CB22 5DT, UK.

Aims: This study aimed to measure physical activity (PA) in participants with suspected heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) and assess associations between PA and participant characteristics.

Methods And Results: Adults with presumed HFpEF were recruited and received diagnostic evaluation and clinical assessment. Physical activity was objectively measured using accelerometers over 7 days. Read More

Sichuan Da Xue Xue Bao Yi Xue Ban 2021 Mar;52(2):300-305

Department of Radiology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China.

Objective: A predictive model of Alzheimer's disease (AD) was established based on brain surface meshes and geometric deep learning, and its performance was evaluated.

Methods: Seventy-six clinically diagnosed AD patients and 83 healthy older adults were enrolled and randomly assigned to the training set and the test set according to a 4-to-1 ratio. Brain surface mesh was constructed from 3-D T1-weighted high-resolution structural MR volumes of each participant. Read More

Omega (Westport) 2021 Apr 6:30222821997602. Epub 2021 Apr 6.

115980University of Maryland School of Social Work, Baltimore, MD, United States.

Although the Medicare Hospice Benefit mandates that hospices offer bereavement support services to families for at least 1 year following the death of a patient, it does not stipulate which services they should offer. As a result, little is known about what bereavement support services hospices provide, especially on a national scale. The current study recruited a national sample of hospice representatives who responded to an open-ended question that asked, "What types of bereavement support services does your hospice provide to families?" Seventy-six viable responses were recorded and content analyzed. Read More

Aust N Z J Public Health 2021 Apr 5. Epub 2021 Apr 5.

Global Obesity Centre, Institute for Health Transformation, Deakin University, Victoria.

Objective: To test the hypothesis that a culturally tailored sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) campaign designed specifically for the Victorian Aboriginal community will not only be valuable for Aboriginal Victorians but will also have cross-over benefits for non-Aboriginal Victorians.

Methods: An online survey was completed by 155 Victorians (78 Aboriginal, 77 non-Aboriginal) four months after the Aboriginal Rethink Sugary Drink (RSD) advertisement was launched. Differences between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal respondents were assessed using χ2 and Wilcoxon rank-sum tests. Read More

Acute Med Surg 2021 Jan-Dec;8(1):e640. Epub 2021 Mar 30.

Department of Emergency Medicine Fukui Prefectural Hospital Fukui City Japan.

Aim: Tracheostomy is a common procedure for intubated patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the intensive care unit (ICU) but optimal timing and the predictors of tracheostomy are still unclear. The aim of our study was to explore whether the traumatic variables of head injury predict the need for tracheostomy in intubated TBI patients.

Methods: A single-center, retrospective observational study including a series of TBI patients admitted to Fukui Prefectural Hospital from April 1, 2004 to March 31, 2020 was carried out. Read More

Synapse 2021 Apr 2:e22201. Epub 2021 Apr 2.

Department of Emergency, Wuxi Huishan District People's Hospital, Wuxi, China.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a world-wide leading health problem with high morbidity and mortality rates. Emerging studies have demonstrated that TBI is the consequence of a series of inflammatory responses in the body. The alteration of Cystatin C (Cys C) was reported in a variety of chronic inflammatory diseases and was also recommended as a biomarker for predicting renal diseases. Read More

Obes Facts 2021 Apr 1:1-9. Epub 2021 Apr 1.

Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli", Naples, Italy.

Introduction: Several studies in the adult population have shown that obesity is an independent risk factor for elevated intraocular pressure (IOP), whereas data in the paediatric population are sparse and controversial. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the relationship between body mass index (BMI), blood pressure (BP), and IOP in healthy school children.

Methods: The survey was conducted among a random sample of 8-year-old Italian students. Read More

Int J Gen Med 2021 25;14:1069-1078. Epub 2021 Mar 25.

Department of General Medicine, National Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Hospital, Nims University Rajasthan, Jaipur, India.

Purpose: To assess the prevalence of post-COVID symptoms in patients with recovered COVID-19 (nasopharyngeal RT PCR negative) who were discharged from an acute COVID care facility at a tertiary care teaching hospital in North India.

Methods: This study was an observational study with retrospective data collection, conducted in the COVID follow-up clinic, a combined clinic of medicine and endocrinology. Patients discharged from the acute COVID care facility were recruited after 14 days of discharge if they fulfilled inclusion and exclusion criteria. Read More

BMC Pregnancy Childbirth 2021 Mar 31;21(1):267. Epub 2021 Mar 31.

Department of Anesthesiology, ESI-Post Graduate Institute of Medical Science & Research, Kolkata, India.

Background: The effect of maternal amino acid (AA) infusion before and during cesarean delivery on neonatal temperature remains unknown. We hypothesized that thermogenic effects of AA metabolism would help maintain body temperature of newborn babies and their mothers.

Methods: Seventy-six parturients scheduled for elective singleton term cesarean delivery were equally randomized to receive intravenous 200 ml of AA or placebo approximately 1 h before subarachnoid block (infusion rate:100 ml/h). Read More

Sex Med 2021 Feb 18;9(3):100340. Epub 2021 Feb 18.

Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.

Introduction: International studies have suggested that social disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have led to sexual dysfunction, but the impact on males in the United States is less defined.

Aim: To examine changes in male sexual function during the COVID-19 pandemic and to evaluate associated demographic variables.

Methods: Prepandemic survey data was collected between October 20, 2019 and March 1, 2020 on adult males in the United States. Read More

J Altern Complement Med 2021 Mar;27(S1):S99-S105

Chancellor's Office Davenport, IA, USA.

Numerous recently published clinical care guidelines, including the 2017 American College of Physicians (ACP) Guideline for Low Back Pain (LBP), call for nonpharmacological approaches to pain management. However, little data exist regarding the extent to which these guidelines have been adopted by patients and medical doctors. The study objective was to determine patient-reported treatment recommendations by medical doctors for LBP and patient compliance with those recommendations. Read More

Minerva Urol Nephrol 2021 Mar 29. Epub 2021 Mar 29.

Department of Urology, Bakirkoy Dr.Sadi Konuk Training and Research Hospital, Health Sciences University, Istanbul, Turkey.

Background: One of the underlying reasons for shock wave lithotripsy (SWL)-resistance is the ureteral stone's impaction. This study aimed to investigate the accuracy of the hypothesis, suggesting that SWL per se can be the reason for ureteral stone impaction.

Methods: One hundred and seventy-six patients were enrolled in the study. Read More

Radiol Cardiothorac Imaging 2020 Oct 3;2(5):e200280. Epub 2020 Sep 3.

Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, 1542 Tulane Ave, Room 343, New Orleans, LA 70112 (D.L.S., J.P.G., B.S.); and Department of Physics & Astronomy, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, La (C.B.).

Purpose: To determine the utility of chest radiography in aiding clinical diagnosis of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) utilizing reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) as the standard of comparison.

Materials And Methods: A retrospective study was performed of persons under investigation for COVID-19 presenting to this institution during the exponential growth phase of the COVID-19 outbreak in New Orleans (March 13-25, 2020). Three hundred seventy-six in-hospital chest radiographic examinations for 366 individual patients were reviewed along with concurrent RT-PCR tests. Read More

Am Surg 2021 Mar 27:3134820982854. Epub 2021 Mar 27.

Department of Surgery, Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, VA, USA.

Introduction: There is currently no standard definition of sarcopenia, which has often been associated with frailty. A commonly cited surrogate measure of sarcopenia is psoas muscle size. The purpose of this prospective study is to assess medical providers' capabilities to identify frail elderly trauma patients and consequent impact on outcomes after intensive care unit admission. Read More

ESC Heart Fail 2021 Mar 27. Epub 2021 Mar 27.

Department of Cardiology, Rabin Medical Center, 39 Jabotinsky St, Petah Tikva, 49100, Israel.

Aims: This study aimed to evaluate the different health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) aspects in patients with both short-term and long-term duration LVAD support at pre-specified time intervals.

Methods And Results: We performed a single-centre HR-QoL analysis of short-term and long-term LVAD-supported patients using the short version of the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ-12) and the Changes in Sexual Functioning Questionnaire along with a survey to evaluate patients' social and driving routines. Data were collected at baseline and at 6 or 12 month follow-up. Read More

Bone Marrow Transplant 2021 Mar 25. Epub 2021 Mar 25.

Hôpital Saint-Louis, APHP, Centre d'investigation clinique, Paris, France.

This multicenter prospective phase 2 trial analyzed disease-free survival (DFS) in myelofibrosis patients receiving ruxolitinib for 6 months before transplantation. Seventy-six patients were recruited. Age-adjusted dynamic international prognostic scoring system was intermediate-1, intermediate-2, and high in 27 (36%), 31 (41%), and 18 (24%) patients. Read More

Hum Immunol 2021 Mar 22. Epub 2021 Mar 22.

DBT - BIF Centre (Under DBT BTISNet Scheme), Lady Doak College, Madurai 625002, Tamil Nadu, India.

Dengue virus (DENV) infection is mostly prevalent in tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world. Though most DENV infections are self-limiting febrile like-illness, a small proportion of secondary infection is fatal, if untreated symptomatically. Among various factors involved in severe dengue, immune enhancement by cytokine is the major one. Read More

Br Dent J 2021 Mar 24. Epub 2021 Mar 24.

University of Liverpool, Paediatric Dentistry, Pembroke Place, Liverpool, L3 5PS, UK.

Introduction Molar-incisor hypomineralisation (MIH) affects one in six children in the UK. For the majority of patients who have mild MIH, this should be managed in primary care.Aims To assess UK-based general dental practitioners' (GDPs) ability to diagnose MIH when presented with multiple clinical vignettes. Read More