Medicine
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Observational Study
Awake nasotracheal fiberoptic intubation and self-positioning followed by anesthesia induction in prone patients: A pilot observational study.
Anesthesia followed by placement in the prone position takes time and may result in complications. This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility of awake nasotracheal fiberoptic intubation and self-positioning followed by anesthesia induction in prone-positioned patients under general anesthesia. Sixty-two patients (ASA physical status I-II) scheduled for awake nasotracheal fiberoptic intubation and prone self-positioning before surgery under general anesthesia were selected. ⋯ Compared with values before intubation, SBP, DBP, HR, and RPP were slightly increased after intubation, although the difference was not statistically significant (P > 0.05). One patient had moderate coughing and 1 patient had gagging during prone self-positioning, which were tolerable. These findings indicated that awake nasotracheal fiberoptic intubation and self-positioning followed by induction of anesthesia is safe and feasible alternative to routine prone positioning after induction of general anesthesia.
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No risk assessment tool is available for identifying high risk population of breast cancer (BCa) in Hong Kong. A case-control study including 918 BCa cases and 923 controls was used to develop the risk assessment model among Hong Kong Chinese women. Each participant received an in-depth interview to obtain their lifestyle and environmental risk factors. ⋯ The AUCs were 0.640 (95% CI, 0.598-0.681) and 0.655 (95% CI, 0.621-0.653) for pre- and postmenopausal women, respectively. Further subgroup evaluation revealed that the model performance was better for women aged 50 to 70 years or ER-positive. This BCa risk assessment tool in Hong Kong Chinese women based on LASSO selection is promising, which shows a slightly higher discriminative accuracy than those developed in other populations.
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Obesity prevalence remains high in the United States (US), and is rising in most other countries. This is a repeated cross-sectional study using a nationally representative sample of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999 to 2012. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were separately performed for adults (n = 37,639) and children/adolescents (n = 28,282) to assess the associations between the length of time in the US, and the prevalences of obesity and diabetes. ⋯ On the other hand, the gap in obesity prevalence between US-born and foreign-born children/adolescents decreased from 1999 to 2011 due to a rapid increase in obesity prevalence among the foreign-born population, until there was no significant difference in 2011 to 2012. This study revealed that the risks of obesity and diabetes have increased in foreign-born US residents with time living in the US. However, the obesity gap between US-born and foreign-born populations is closing.
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Cervical cancer ranks as the fourth leading cause of cancer death in women worldwide. In Taiwan, although the universal health insurance system has achieved 99.9% coverage and ensured easy access to medical care, some cervical cancer patients continue to delay initiation of definitive treatment after diagnosis. This study focused on cervical cancer patients who delayed treatment for at least 4 months, and examined the characteristics, related factors, and survival in these patients. ⋯ Those who delayed treatment had 2.31 times the mortality risk of those who underwent timely treatment (P < 0.05). Delayed cervical cancer treatment in Taiwan was associated with age, comorbidity, cancer stage, diagnosing hospital level, and hospital ownership. Delaying treatment for ≥4 months substantially raised mortality risk in cervical cancer patients.
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Gene polymorphisms had been found to be associated with increased risk of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The aim of the present study was to assess the association between rs2896019 and rs3810622 in PNPLA3 with the susceptibility to NAFLD in Han Chinese population. A total of 384 NAFLD patients and 384 controls were enrolled in the study. ⋯ Likewise, patients with genotype TT of rs3810622 had higher levels of ALT (P = 0.021) and blood glucose (GLU) (P = 0.034). Haplotype association analysis showed that GT haplotype conferred a statistically significant increased risk for NAFLD (OR = 1.49; 95% CI = 1.20-1.84, P < 0.01). These results suggest that PNPLA3 rs2896019 and rs3810622 polymorphisms significantly contribute to increased NAFLD risk in Han Chinese population.