J Formos Med Assoc
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This study analyzed the effects of the General Medicine Faculty Training Program (GMFTP), which was implemented in 2009. The training program includes a 7-hour basic training (BT) to introduce ways of teaching and assessing the 6 core competencies identified by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, and a 40-hour clinical training program. ⋯ Knowledge of teaching core competencies improved immediately after BT, but KIs did not correlate with TCs in long-term follow-up. After the training program, physicians' teaching confidence increased over time.
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Variable effects of beta-blockers (BB) and/or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARB) were reported to retard aortic root growth in Marfan syndrome (MFS). This study aimed to compare the effects of BB therapy and ARB-related therapies on cardiovascular protection in MFS. ⋯ For cardiovascular protection in MFS, only-ARB therapy is not inferior to only-BB therapy. Moreover, the outcomes of ARB-plus-BB therapy seemed to be favourable to those of only-BB therapy.
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Review Case Reports
Clinical and electrophysiological characteristics of a type 1 sialidosis patient with a novel deletion mutation in NEU1 gene.
Type 1 sialidosis is a rare autosomal recessive lysosomal storage disease caused by Neuraminidase 1 (NEU1) gene mutations. We report a type 1 sialidosis patient with a novel deletion mutation in NEU1 and compared the phenotypes within different ethnicities. ⋯ Our findings suggest a distinct phenotype of infrequent cherry-red spots and abnormal evoked potentials in Asian patients with type 1 sialidosis.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
Perceived pain for orthodontic patients with conventional brackets or self-ligating brackets over 1 month period: A single-center, randomized controlled clinical trial.
The objective of this 2-arm parallel trial was to test the superiority of self-ligating brackets (SLB) over conventional brackets (CB) in terms of perceived pain for orthodontic patients. ⋯ The results of this study indicated no evidence that the pain intensity differs between CB and SLB at 4 h, 24 h, 3 days, 1 week and 1 month.
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Although interferon (IFN)-based therapy has been shown to reduce hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) development once patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection achieve sustained virologic response (SVR), IFN-based therapy is limited by its multiple adverse effects, non-oral administration, and unsatisfactory SVR rate. In recent years, IFN-free all-oral direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) have replaced IFN-based therapy as the standard of care for HCV infection worldwide because of the higher SVR rate and lower incidence of adverse effects. ⋯ Since 2016, the risk of de novo occurrence or recurrence of HCC in hepatitis C patients receiving DAAs has been debatable because of a report addressing an unexpected high early tumor recurrence rate. To solve this important, interesting, yet controversial issue, we thus reviewed the latest and most relevant articles on this subject and proposed recommendations to manage such patients for healthcare providers.