Irish journal of medical science
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The clinical use of port catheters has become widespread because they provide a safe and easy vascular route. Such widespread use of vascular port catheters has revealed early and late complications. ⋯ Despite these benefits, port catheters are associated with various complications. However, most of these complications can be effectively prevented by proper techniques and easily applied precautions.
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Tissue conditioners are suitable places for colonization of microorganisms. A combination of tissue conditioners with antibacterial and antifungal materials inhibits the growth of microorganisms. ⋯ The combination of Ag, ZnO, and chitosan nanoparticles inhibited the growth of fungi and bacteria in tissue conditioners. These nanoparticles inhibited the growth of fungi more effectively than bacteria.
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Significant T wave inversion in young asymptomatic athletes is rare but poses a significant clinical challenge. Pre-participation sports screening programs identify such subjects. Clinical concern that such ECG changes represent an occult cardiomyopathy or forme fruste hypertrophic cardiomyopathy leads to diagnostic and therapeutic dilemma. We sought to genotype a cohort of such subjects with a normal cardiac phenotype identified in our unit over a 3-year period. ⋯ The absence of mutations in target genes and heterogeneous sequence variations identified in this study suggest that inferolateral T wave inversion in athletes without a phenotype may potentially represent a benign repolarization syndrome related to athletic adaptation. This was the first study to assess a phenotype-genotype correlation in this population. Further genetic studies need to be undertaken in this area.
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Previous studies demonstrated an increased cancer risk in autoimmune diseases. Behçet's disease (BD) was also reported to be associated with an increased risk of cancer, although the data is limited. ⋯ This study revealed BD patients had approximately three times increased cancer risk compared with corresponding age and sex groups. Besides the routine care, increased attention for cancer surveillance is required in the follow-up of BD patients.
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Historical Article
Survival of childhood and adolescent/young adult (AYA) cancer patients in Ireland during 1994-2013: comparisons by age.
Some studies indicate that survival of adolescents and young adults (AYA) with cancer may be inferior to that of younger children with similar cancers, possibly related (in part) to differences in access to centralized or standardized treatment. ⋯ Reasons for age-related survival differences, and differences in time-trend by age group, are not clear. The significant narrowing of survival differences by age in more recent years for lymphoid leukaemias reflects a more marked recent increase in survival among AYA. More work is required to explain and improve other age-related survival differences.