J Formos Med Assoc
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We investigated the diagnostic performance of the anal sphincter relaxation integral (ASRI) for infants with Hirschsprung's disease (HD). ⋯ ASRI may assist the diagnosis of HD infants using either water-perfused or solid-state HRAM. These systems require different catheter-specific ASRI cutoffs for the prediction of HD.
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Frailty is common in older patients with cancer; however, its clinical impact on the survival outcomes has seldom been examined in these patients. This study aimed to investigate the association of frailty with the survival outcomes and surgical complications in older patients with cancer after elective abdominal surgery in Taiwan. ⋯ Pretreatment frailty was significantly associated with worse survival outcomes and more surgical complications, with prolonged hospital stay, in the older patients with cancer after elective abdominal surgery. Preoperative frailty assessment can assist physicians in identifying patients at a high risk for surgical complications and predicting the survival outcomes of older patients with cancer.
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The role of environmental contamination in COVID-19 transmission within hospitals is still of interest due to the significant impact of outbreaks globally. However, there is a scarcity of data regarding the utilization of environmental sampling for informing infection control measures during SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks. ⋯ This study highlights environmental contamination as an indicator of the severity of incident events and provides a framework for incident event management, including a protocol for environmental sampling. Implementing these measures can help prevent the spread of COVID-19 within healthcare facilities.