Category: Nevin Manimala

Am J Clin Pathol. 2024 Jul 19:aqae084. doi: 10.1093/ajcp/aqae084. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: This quality improvement study conducted at the Kansas City VA Medical Center in Kansas City, Missouri, investigated the Sysmex DI-60 Integrated Slide Processing System’s ability to improve hematology turnaround times when integrated into daily practices. It further addressed potential patient care factors associated with changes in turnaround times.

METHODS: Three months of manual and Sysmex DI-60 patient data were examined between May 2022 and February 2023. White blood cell (WBC) ranges, turnaround times, working hours, and study months were analyzed using 2-tailed unpaired t testing and percentage change. The number of specimens in these categories was further analyzed using 2-tailed, 2-sample proportion testing.

RESULTS: This quality improvement study indicated that the Sysmex DI-60 system produced a statisitcally significant reduction in turnaround times overall and for various ranges of WBCs plus work shifts. The most statistically significant improvement in turnaround times occurred for WBC concentrations less than 2.0 × 103/µL and concentrations within the reference range. In addition, the off shifts experienced a notable improvement in turnaround times.

CONCLUSIONS: The Sysmex DI-60 system substantially decreases turnaround times for differentials, thus potentially benefiting patient care by providing prompt results. It is possible that reducing turnaround times could expedite emergency department admissions and discharges as well as enhance care for the oncology department’s patients. It could also lead to more timely results for patients with false-positive flags by the Sysmex analyzer, which may also help with clinician decision-making.

PMID:39030697 | DOI:10.1093/ajcp/aqae084

Am Surg. 2024 Jul 19:31348241265133. doi: 10.1177/00031348241265133. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: This study aims to explore the application value of vacuum sealing drainage (VSD) technology in the treatment of incision infection dehiscence after surgery in patients with stage II-III colorectal cancer and analyze its impact on prognosis.

METHODS: This retrospective study included patients who experienced incision infection dehiscence after surgery for colorectal cancer between February 2014 and August 2019. Clinical and pathological data, short-term outcomes, and long-term outcomes were compared between the traditional group and the VSD group.

RESULTS: A total of 97 patients were included in this study. There was no significant difference in clinical and pathological data between the traditional group and the VSD group (P > 0.05). The VSD group had fewer dressing changes, lower pain scores during dressing changes, and better granulation tissue growth grading than the traditional group, with statistical significance (P < 0.05). The VSD group started adjuvant chemotherapy earlier and had a higher proportion of ≥4 cycles of chemotherapy. The three-year overall survival rate in the VSD group was better than the traditional group, but the difference was not statistically significant (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSION: The application of VSD technology can promote granulation tissue growth, accelerate incision healing, and facilitate patients to complete subsequent adjuvant chemotherapy. However, further verification of its long-term impact on prognosis requires longer-term follow-up results.

PMID:39030681 | DOI:10.1177/00031348241265133

JMIR Public Health Surveill. 2024 Jul 18;10:e52762. doi: 10.2196/52762.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Rural underserved areas facing health disparities have unequal access to health resources. By the third and fourth waves of SARS-CoV-2 infections in the United States, COVID-19 testing had reduced, with more reliance on home testing, and those seeking testing were mostly symptomatic.

OBJECTIVE: This study identifies factors associated with COVID-19 testing among individuals who were symptomatic versus asymptomatic seen at a Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics for Underserved Populations phase 2 (RADx-UP2) testing site in West Virginia.

METHODS: Demographic, clinical, and behavioral factors were collected via survey from tested individuals. Logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with the presence of individuals who were symptomatic seen at testing sites. Global tests for spatial autocorrelation were conducted to examine clustering in the proportion of symptomatic to total individuals tested by zip code. Bivariate maps were created to display geographic distributions between higher proportions of tested individuals who were symptomatic and social determinants of health.

RESULTS: Among predictors, the presence of a physical (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 1.85, 95% CI 1.3-2.65) or mental (aOR 1.53, 95% CI 0.96-2.48) comorbid condition, challenges related to a place to stay/live (aOR 307.13, 95% CI 1.46-10,6372), no community socioeconomic distress (aOR 0.99, 95% CI 0.98-1.00), no challenges in getting needed medicine (aOR 0.01, 95% CI 0.00-0.82) or transportation (aOR 0.23, 95% CI 0.05-0.64), an interaction between community socioeconomic distress and not getting needed medicine (aOR 1.06, 95% CI 1.00-1.13), and having no community socioeconomic distress while not facing challenges related to a place to stay/live (aOR 0.93, 95% CI 0.87-0.99) were statistically associated with an individual being symptomatic at the first test visit.

CONCLUSIONS: This study addresses critical limitations to the current COVID-19 testing literature, which almost exclusively uses population-level disease screening data to inform public health responses.

PMID:39030676 | DOI:10.2196/52762

J Bioinform Comput Biol. 2024 Jul 20:2450009. doi: 10.1142/S0219720024500094. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

A turning point in cancer research is the introduction of massively parallel sequencing technology which greatly reduced the cost and time for genome sequencing. This enhanced the scope for detecting and analyzing the role of structural alterations in cancer. However, certain bias exists in NGS-based approaches, which badly affects the CNV identification process. Moreover, DNA repeats existing in CNV regions need special attention as they will degrade the performance of majority of the existing CNV detection tools, even after applying generalized bias correction method. This motivated this work, where a novel method has been designed to address the issue of DNA repeats and thereby mappability bias existing in regions of CNV. The method consists of three phases, where the first phase computes the alignment information of uniquely mapped DNA reads, considering the base quality and base mismatch parameters at nucleotide level precision. The second and the third phase use a novel approach to allocate the non-uniquely mapped reads to an optimal region of the DNA repeats based on a probabilistic membership model. The proposed method is capable of identifying CNVs present in coding, as well as non-coding region of the DNA, and is also capable of detecting CNVs existing in DNA repeat regions. The methodology achieves a sensitivity greater than [Formula: see text] during the performed simulations, and on real data, the detected variants are validated with the database of genomic variants, where the percentage overlap is also greater than 95%, and has achieved much better breakpoint prediction, as compared with other popular bias correction CNV detection methods.

PMID:39030667 | DOI:10.1142/S0219720024500094

Cancer Control. 2024 Jan-Dec;31:10732748241266508. doi: 10.1177/10732748241266508.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Acute lymphocytic leukemia is a cancer affecting the blood and bone marrow and is the most frequently diagnosed cancer among children. In Ethiopia, it represents the predominant form of childhood leukemia, comprising approximately 80% of cases and serving as a leading cause of childhood cancer-related deaths. Therefore, the objective of this study is to examine the survival status and factors that may predict mortality in children admitted with acute lymphocytic leukemia at cancer treatment hospitals in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

METHODS: A retrospective follow-up study was conducted at cancer treatment hospitals in Addis Ababa, focusing on children diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia. The investigation covered records from January 1, 2017, to December 30, 2023, encompassing a sample of 230 study records. Variables with a P-value below 0.25 in the bivariate analysis were selected for entry into the multivariable analysis. Subsequently, variables demonstrating a P-value less than 0.05 in the multivariable Cox proportional hazards model were deemed statistically significant.

RESULTS: The cumulative proportion of survival was 98.3% (95%CI: 94.8, 99.5), 89.2% (95%CI: 82.0, 93.6), and 24.1% (95%CI: 8.43, 44.1) at the end of the 20^th, 40^th, and 60^th month, respectively. The incidence rate of mortality among cohort of children admitted with acute lymphocytic leukemia was 0.45 per 100 child months. History of relapse (AHR: 2.48; 95%CI: 1.01, 6.08) and infection (AHR: 2.34; 95%CI: 1.03, 5.31) were independent predictors of mortality among children admitted with acute lymphocytic leukemia.

CONCLUSION: The likelihood of mortality increased in the later stages of follow-up for children admitted with acute lymphocytic leukemia, and the incidence density rate of mortality in this group was lower compared to previous reports from other regions. Furthermore, independent predictors of mortality among children with acute lymphocytic leukemia included a history of relapse and infection.

PMID:39030657 | DOI:10.1177/10732748241266508

BMC Psychol. 2024 Jul 19;12(1):402. doi: 10.1186/s40359-024-01903-6.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: African Americans and those of lower socioeconomic status (SES) are at disproportionate risk for hypertension- and cardiovascular-disease-related mortality relative to their counterparts. Progress in reducing these disparities is slowed by the facts that these disparities are difficult to mitigate in older adults and early origins of these disparities are poorly understood. The Social Status Adversity and Health in Daily Life Moments Study aims to precisely understand the proximal cognitive-emotional mechanisms by which unique social exposures disproportionately impacting these populations influence blood pressure (BP) parameters early in the lifespan and determine which individuals are more at risk.

METHODS: The study uses ecological momentary assessment (EMA) and ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) monitoring to assess race- and SES-based factors as they manifest in daily life moments alongside simultaneously manifesting cognitive-emotional states and ABP. A sample of 270 healthy African Americans between the ages of 18 and 30 is being recruited to complete two periods of 2-day, 2-night hourly ABP monitoring alongside hourly EMA assessments of socioeconomic strain, unfair treatment, and neighborhood strain during the waking hours. ABP data will be used to calculate ecologically valid measures of BP reactivity, variability, and nocturnal dipping. Other measures include actigraphy equipment worn during the monitoring period and comprehensive assessment of behavioral and psychosocial risk and resilience factors. Multilevel and multiple linear regression analyses will examine which momentary social adversity exposures and cognitive-emotional reactions to these exposures are associated with worse BP parameters and for whom.

DISCUSSION: This is the first time that this research question is approached in this manner. The Social Status Adversity and Health in Daily Life Moments Study will identify the cognitive-emotional mechanisms by which the most impactful race- and SES-based exposures influence multiple BP parameters in African American emerging adults. Further, it will identify those most at risk for the health impacts of these exposures. Achievement of these aims will shape the field’s ability to develop novel interventions targeting reduction of these exposures and modification of reactions to these exposures as well as attend to those subpopulations most needing intervention within the African American emerging adult population.

PMID:39030651 | DOI:10.1186/s40359-024-01903-6

BMC Psychol. 2024 Jul 19;12(1):401. doi: 10.1186/s40359-024-01898-0.

ABSTRACT

Malicious online trolling is prevalent among Chinese college students and has recently garnered extensive attention from researchers due to the substantial harm it causes to the victims and the damage it inflicts on the online environment. Most previous studies have focused on examining how personal traits related to malicious online trolling. Further comprehensive research is needed to explore the mechanisms linking external environmental factors (antisocial media exposure) and malicious online trolling. A total of 1259 Chinese college students completed questionnaires regarding malicious online trolling, antisocial media exposure, hostile attribution bias, and empathy. The results indicated a positive association between antisocial media exposure and malicious online trolling among Chinese college students, with hostile attribution bias serving as a mediating factor. Furthermore, the direct and mediated paths between antisocial media exposure and malicious online trolling were moderated by empathy. Specifically, as the level of empathy increased among college students, the relations between the variables all weakened. Excessive exposure to antisocial media content among college students may trigger hostile attribution bias and lead to more malicious online trolling behavior. However, the relation between antisocial media exposure and malicious online trolling, hostile attribution bias and malicious online trolling, was attenuated when college students’ empathy levels were high.

PMID:39030650 | DOI:10.1186/s40359-024-01898-0

Eur J Med Res. 2024 Jul 19;29(1):376. doi: 10.1186/s40001-024-01943-z.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Although broadband music with inaudible high-frequency components may benefit human well-being, this research area is largely unexplored and lacks sufficient studies on the topic. This study aimed to investigate and compare the effects of broadband and audible band music on relaxation states and cognitive function in young adults.

METHODS: A single-blind randomized controlled trial was conducted in a professional soundproof laboratory from December 22, 2022, to January 18, 2023 with 32 participants randomly assigned to two groups, “Day 1 broadband + Day 2 audible band” (n = 16) and “Day 1 audible band + Day 2 broadband” (n = 16), listening to either broadband or audible band music (the same music piece played on the piano and harp) for two sessions of 15 min each on two consecutive days. Cognitive function was measured using CNS Vital Signs at pre-listening, after the 1st session, and after the 2nd session, while heart rate was monitored throughout the experiment. Visual Analog Scale was also administered for self-reported arousal, stress, thinking ability, and attention following each listening session.

RESULTS: No significant differences were found in heart rate, cognitive flexibility, and executive function between the broadband listening group and the audible band-listening group (p > 0.05). However, the broadband group exhibited significant differences in mean heart rate at several time points, as well as a significant improvement in VAS stress level during the 2nd listening session compared to the 1st (p < 0.05). On the other hand, significant improvements in cognitive flexibility and executive function were observed in the audible band group across different time points (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSION: Comparative analysis showed that broadband and audible band music influenced cognitive function differently. Short-term audible band music listening significantly improved cognitive flexibility and executive function, while short-term broadband music listening significantly reduced reaction time in cognitive tests. Additionally, broadband music consistently resulted in lower mean heart rates compared to audible band music at all time points, suggesting that it may be more effective in promoting relaxation and reducing stress, although these differences were not statistically significant. Since the cognitive enhancing effects of broadband music may be counteracted by the drowsy effect of the selected relaxing music, using different types of music may be necessary to confirm its effects in future studies.

PMID:39030642 | DOI:10.1186/s40001-024-01943-z

Ir Vet J. 2024 Jul 20;77(1):15. doi: 10.1186/s13620-024-00275-y.

ABSTRACT

Herd-level bovine tuberculosis (bTB) incidence was examined in the Burren, an area in the west of Ireland where herd owners practice distinctive transhumance practices, with upland winter grazing. Prior to the initiation of our study in 2020, bTB incidence had for many years been unusually high in the Burren in comparison with the rest of the country, although the most recent figures have come down to being closer to the national average. Using data from the period prior to 2020, we mapped bTB infection in Burren herds alongside a range of indicators thought to have an association with it – herd size, herd density, herd type, cattle movement, and badger (Meles meles) population and control data, as well as rainfall and altitude. We also looked at how summary statistics for these variables differed when Burren herds with a history of bTB were compared to other Burren herds, as well as bTB positive and negative herds from outside the Burren. We found that for many indicators Burren herds would be expected to be low risk when compared to other herds in Ireland. An exception to this was for rainfall: hot spot areas for bTB in the Burren were found in areas of higher rainfall, on average herds in the Burren experienced more rainfall than those outside it, and bTB herds in the Burren experienced higher rainfall than non-bTB herds. Separately, for Burren herds only, a logistic regression model was developed to explain bTB breakdown occurrence using a matched case-control approach. Cases were herds which had experienced a new bTB breakdown between 2015 and 2019 (n = 260) and these were matched on herd type and herd size with the same number of herds not experiencing a breakdown during this period. This showed that, of a range of exogenous variables, rainfall was the most strongly associated with herd-level bTB incidence. These results suggest that high levels of exposure to inclement weather, and/or better environmental survival of Mycobacterium bovis in the environment, may contribute to high bTB rates in the Burren. However, as rainfall showed a highly aggregated distribution, this relationship may be due to an unmeasured factor correlated with it. Mapping and graphical output suggested that, although herd sizes in the Burren were on average lower than nationally, within the Burren they were higher in areas of higher prevalence, suggesting that mechanisms associated with herd size, such as increased contacts between and within herd, and with wildlife, may also play a role.

PMID:39030615 | DOI:10.1186/s13620-024-00275-y

J Orthop Surg Res. 2024 Jul 19;19(1):415. doi: 10.1186/s13018-024-04908-4.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to demonstrate the occurrence of lower extremity deformities and their risk factors in patients with solitary osteochondromas.

METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed consecutive patients with solitary osteochondromas around the knee. The laterality (left or right), involved bone (femur or tibia), tumor type (pedunculated or sessile), and direction (medial or lateral) were examined. The whole limb length (WLL), mechanical lateral distal femoral angle (mLDFA), and medial proximal tibial angle (MPTA) were measured using teleroentgenogram. Lower limb deformity was defined as a difference of more than 5° in mLDFA or MPTA in both lower extremities or a difference in WLL of more than 1 cm. Patients were divided into two groups, with deformity and without deformity.

RESULTS: Lower extremity deformities were observed in 8 of 83 patients. Significant difference in the type of osteochondroma (p = 0.004) between the groups was observed. Differences in sex, age, laterality, involved bone, direction, and distance from the physis to the osteochondroma between groups were not statistically significant. The sessile type of osteochondroma was a risk factor for lower limb deformity with an odds ratio of 24.0 according to Firth’s logistic regression analysis.

CONCLUSION: In our cohort with solitary osteochondroma, lower limb deformities were observed in 8 (9.6%) out of the 83 patients and these were significantly associated with sessile-type tumors. Therefore, patients with sessile-type solitary osteochondroma around the knee require careful surveillance of lower limb alignment with whole leg teleroentgenogram.

PMID:39030613 | DOI:10.1186/s13018-024-04908-4