Category: Statistics

Eur J Endocrinol. 2021 Mar 1:EJE-20-1073.R3. doi: 10.1530/EJE-20-1073. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE The objectives of our study were to analyze the influence of age on the survival of patients with RAIR-DTC and to determine their prognostic factors according to age. METHODS This single centre, retrospective study enrolled 155 patients diagnosed with RAIR-DTC. The primary end point was overall survival (OS) according to different cut-off (45,55,65,75 years). Secondary endpoints were progression free survival (PFS) and prognostic factors in patients under and over 65 years. RESULTS Median OS after RAIR diagnosis was 8.2 years (95% IC: 5.3-9.6). There was no difference according to age with a 65 (p=0.47) and 55 years old cut-off (p=0.28). Median OS was significantly improved before 45 years old (p=0,0043). After 75 years old, median OS significantly decrease (p= 0,0008). Median PFS was 2.1 years (95% CI: 0.8-3) in patients < 65 years, and 1 year in patients ≥ 65 years (95% CI: 0.8-1.55) with no statistical difference (p=0.22). There was no impact of age on PFS with any cut-off. In both groups, progressive disease despite 131I treatment reduced OS. In patients < 65, an interval of less than 3 years between the initial diagnosis and the diagnosis of RAIR metastatic disease was predictive of poor survival. In patients > 65, the presence of a mediastinum metastasis was a significant factor for mortality (HR: 4.55, 95% CI: 2.27-9.09). CONCLUSION In RAIR-DTC patients, a cut-off age of 65 years old was not a significant predictive factor of survival. 45 and 75 years old cut off were predictive for OS, but not PFS.

PMID:33667193 | DOI:10.1530/EJE-20-1073

PLoS One. 2021 Mar 5;16(3):e0247777. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0247777. eCollection 2021.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: HIV/AIDS remains a public health concern affecting millions of people across the world. Although the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of patients living with HIV has significantly improved after treatment, its chronicity makes the HRQoL uncertain. This study assessed factors associated with the health-related quality of life among people living with HIV/AIDS on HAART in North-East Ethiopia.

METHODS: An institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted from March to April 2018, and systematic random sampling was used to select 235 participants who were on HAART. HRQoL was assessed using the Medical Outcomes Study HIV Health Survey. Descriptive and multiple linear regression analysis were computed using the statistical package for social sciences version 20.

RESULTS: The study revealed one-factor structure and had good overall internal consistency (78.5). Over one-third (42.6%; 95% CI; 36.2%, 48.9%) of participants had good HRQoL. The least HRQoL mean score was found for cognitive functioning 32.21(±19.78), followed by social functioning 40.58(±29.8). Factors associated with the overall HRQoL were 25-45 years of age (β = – 3.55, 95% CI;-6.54, -0.55), working in private sector (β = -5.66, 95% CI;-9.43, -1.88), government (β = -4.29, 95% CI;-7.83, -0.75) and self-employment (β = -8.86, 95% CI;-13.50, -4.21), 100-200 (β = – 4.84, 95% CI;-9.04, -0.63) and 201-350 CD4 at the time of diagnosis (β = – 7.45, 95% CI;-11.73, -3.16), 351-500 current CD4 level (β = 8.34, 95% CI;5.55, 11.41), 6-10 years of disease duration (β = -8.28, 95% CI;-12.51, -4.04), WHO stage II (β = -4.78, 95% CI;-8.52, -1.04) and III (β = 3.42, 95% CI;0.06, 6.79) during treatment initiation and not taking of Cotrimoxazole prophylaxis (β = -5.79, 95% CI;-8.34, -3.25).

CONCLUSIONS: High proportion of participants had a poor HRQoL. Routine assessment and appropriate interventions at each visit is recommended to improve HRQoL.

PMID:33667245 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0247777

PLoS One. 2021 Mar 5;16(3):e0247802. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0247802. eCollection 2021.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The prognostic impact of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) on the receptor expression status in patients with locally advanced breast cancer (LABC) is still not fully understood. We aimed to evaluate the changes in hormone (estrogen and progesterone) receptor (HR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) status post-NAC and their correlation with survival.

METHODS: Patients with LABC who have received NAC between 2008 and 2015 and have been followed up till December 2019 at the Oncology Center, King Saud University, KSA were analyzed retrospectively. biomarker analysis of ER, PR & HER2 were done using immunohistochemistry (IHC) and Fluorescent in situ hybridization.

RESULTS: Ninety-one patients fulfilled the inclusion criteria. HR status changed in 21(23.1%) patients, with a significant difference between patients with stable receptors and those with any receptor conversion; p = 0.000. Five (5.5%) initially HER2 negative tumors became HER2 positive and 10 (11%) initially HER2 positive tumors became HER2 negative after NAC. The difference in HER2 expression level before and after NAC was not statistically significant (p = 0.302). Univariate analysis relating patients’ characteristics and 10-years disease-free survival (DFS) showed only significant correlations with the expressions of ER, PR, and any receptor conversion, (ER and/or PR) p< 0.001, p< 0.001, and p = 0.001; respectively. In the univariate analysis, none of the clinicopathological features showed a significant correlation with the OS except for the molecular subtypes P<0.001.

CONCLUSIONS: Patients with LABC have significant changes in the ER and PR receptor status following NAC. Post-NAC expressions change of ER and PR (ER and/or PR) are correlated to DFS. Retesting of the hormone receptors should be considered after NAC in Saudi patients with LABC.

PMID:33667252 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0247802

Psychol Sci. 2021 Mar 5:956797620972367. doi: 10.1177/0956797620972367. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Fernbach et al. (2013) found that political extremism and partisan in-group favoritism can be reduced by asking people to provide mechanistic explanations for complex policies, thus making their lack of procedural-policy knowledge salient. Given the practical importance of these findings, we conducted two preregistered close replications of Fernbach et al.’s Experiment 2 (Replication 1a: N = 306; Replication 1b: N = 405) and preregistered close and conceptual replications of Fernbach et al.’s Experiment 3 (Replication 2: N = 343). None of the key effects were statistically significant, and only one survived a small-telescopes analysis. Although participants reported less policy understanding after providing mechanistic policy explanations, policy-position extremity and in-group favoritism were unaffected. That said, well-established findings that providing justifications for prior beliefs strengthens those beliefs, and well-established findings of in-group favoritism, were replicated. These findings suggest that providing mechanistic explanations increases people’s recognition of their ignorance but is unlikely to increase their political moderation, at least under these conditions.

PMID:33667138 | DOI:10.1177/0956797620972367

J Dermatolog Treat. 2021 Mar 5:1-21. doi: 10.1080/09546634.2021.1898527. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Molluscum contagiosum (MC) is a self-limited cutaneous viral infection. Topical 10% potassium hydroxide (KOH) has been used for treating MC. However, it remains unclear whether it is beneficial or not to apply topical 10% KOH for treating MC.

METHODS: To confirm the efficacy and safety of topical 10% KOH compared with placebo as well as other treatments for MC, meta-analysis was used. Up to September 2020, we performed a comprehensive search of literature based on three databases with following keywords including “molluscum contagiosum” and “potassium hydroxide”.

RESULTS: Our meta-analyses demonstrated a significant difference between topical 10% KOH and placebo for complete clearance of MC (RR: 2.96, 95% CI: 1.69 – 5.17, p = 0.0001), while there were no statistical differences between them in the number of patients with adverse events (RR: 1.73, 95% CI: 0.67 – 4.45, p = 0.2562). Also, topical 10% KOH was as effective as mechanical treatments for MC (RR: 0.95, 95% CI: 0.84 – 1.07, p = 0.3833).

CONCLUSION: We demonstrate that application of topical 10% KOH may be one of effective and appropriate methods for the treatment of MC compared with awaiting spontaneous resolution due to its safety and effectiveness.

PMID:33667150 | DOI:10.1080/09546634.2021.1898527

Health Care Women Int. 2021 Mar 5:1-13. doi: 10.1080/07399332.2021.1883023. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

This study was conducted as a randomized controlled study to determine the effect of nursing interventions, which were based on Dennis’s Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy Theory and Pender’s Health Promotion Model during home visits, on the breastfeeding self-efficacy and success of immigrant women living in Northern Cyprus. The sample consisted of N = 60 primipar immigrant women (experimental group n = 30, control group n = 30) who attended a primary healthcare center in Northern Cyprus between April 2019 and January 2020. The data were collected from the participants using a Socio-Demographic Questionnaire, the Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy Scale and the LATCH Breastfeeding Assessment Tool. Before the study, no statistically significant difference was found between two groups in terms of breastfeeding self-efficacy and the LATCH assessment (p > 0.05). After the intervention, the mean score for the Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy Scale increased by 9.73 in the experimental group and 3.16 in the control group compared to before the study, and the effect size was found to be 6.57. The score for the LATCH assessment increased by 3.2 in the experimental group and 1.44 in the control group, and the effect size was found to be 1.76 (p < 0.05).

PMID:33667155 | DOI:10.1080/07399332.2021.1883023

IEEE Trans Image Process. 2021 Mar 5;PP. doi: 10.1109/TIP.2021.3062726. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Fully supervised deep neural networks for segmentation usually require a massive amount of pixel-level labels which are manually expensive to create. In this work, we develop a multi-task learning method to relax this constraint. We regard the segmentation problem as a sequence of approximation subproblems that are recursively defined and in increasing levels of approximation accuracy. The subproblems are handled by a framework that consists of 1) a segmentation task that learns from pixel-level ground truth segmentation masks of a small fraction of the images, 2) a recursive approximation task that conducts partial object regions learning and data-driven mask evolution starting from partial masks of each object instance, and 3) other problem oriented auxiliary tasks that are trained with sparse annotations and promote the learning of dedicated features. Most training images are only labeled by (rough) partial masks, which do not contain exact object boundaries, rather than by their full segmentation masks. During the training phase, the approximation task learns the statistics of these partial masks, and the partial regions are recursively increased towards object boundaries aided by the learned information from the segmentation task in a fully data-driven fashion. The network is trained on an extremely small amount of precisely segmented images and a large set of coarse labels. Annotations can thus be obtained in a cheap way. We demonstrate the efficiency of our approach in three applications with microscopy images and ultrasound images.

PMID:33667164 | DOI:10.1109/TIP.2021.3062726

J Med Internet Res. 2021 Feb 18. doi: 10.2196/26331. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: In the current days of widespread access to the internet, we can monitor public interest in a topic based on information-targeted web browsing. We sought to provide direct proof of the altered use of medical knowledge from Wikipedia by the global population due to the new COVID-19 pandemic and related global restrictions.

OBJECTIVE: To identify temporal search trends and quantify changes in access to Wikipedia Medicine articles related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

METHODS: We performed a retrospective analysis of medical articles from Wikipedia across nine languages paired with country-specific statistics of registered deaths due to COVID-10. The observed patterns were compared with a modelled forecast of Wikipedia use trained on data from 2015-2019 and analysed in-depth concerning specific articles and their access count similarities in years prior and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Articles linked to the ones directly associated with the pandemic were evaluated in terms of degrees of separation and analysed to identify similarities in access numbers. Article access numbers were correlated with that of the cases diagnosed and deaths to determine factors driving the interest in these articles and shifts of public interest during the subsequent phases of the pandemic.

RESULTS: We observed a significant (p<.0001) increase in the number of entries on Wikipedia medical articles in the pandemic period. The increased interest in COVID-related articles correlated with global deaths temporally while presenting a constant correlation with region-specific deaths. Articles with a low number of degrees of separation shared a statistically significant similarity(p<.0001) of access patterns demonstrating information-seeking patterns.

CONCLUSIONS: An analysis of Wikipedias’ medical article popularity could be a successful tool for epidemiologic surveillance by providing important information about the reasons that trigger public attention and factors that sustain it in the long run. Moreover, the users can be potentially directed to credible valuable information sources linked with the most prominent articles.

PMID:33667176 | DOI:10.2196/26331

Anal Chem. 2021 Mar 5. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.0c04490. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

The use of cosmogenically produced sulfur-35 (T_1/2 = 87 days) and sodium-22 (T_1/2 = 2.6 years) as intrinsic tracers can provide valuable information on catchment hydrology, flow paths, and subsurface storage. A new and straightforward method was created to determine the activities of both ³⁵S and ²²Na in various water sources by pumping large volumes (up to 1000 L) of water through cation- and anion-exchange resin columns in the field to collect sodium and sulfate ions and simple chemistry in the lab. Samples are counted for ³⁵S using liquid scintillation counting (LSC) and for ²²Na via γ spectroscopy. Our novel in situ method provides faster sample throughput as well as better counting statistics and lower detection limits. Both methods were successfully applied at the Southern Sierra Critical Zone Observatory.

PMID:33667067 | DOI:10.1021/acs.analchem.0c04490

Am J Sports Med. 2021 Mar 5:363546521996701. doi: 10.1177/0363546521996701. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Recurrent shoulder instability is a prevalent condition, with glenoid bone loss as a common cause. Arthroscopic repair using distal tibial allografts provides long-lasting treatment by restoring glenoid surface area and presumably avoids risks of sensitization against donor human leukocyte antigen (HLA). Two case studies have challenged this assumption, suggesting that small bone allografts are able to induce host adaptive immune responses to donor HLA. The incidence of small bone allograft HLA sensitization and its effects on resorption and patient outcomes are unclear.

PURPOSE/HYPOTHESIS: The purpose was to assess the rate of sensitization against donor HLA after distal tibial allograft procedures for shoulder instability due to glenoid bone loss and to find whether HLA sensitization negatively affects patient-reported and radiographic outcomes. We hypothesized that sensitized patients would have worse radiographic and self-reported outcomes compared with nonsensitized patients.

STUDY DESIGN: Cohort study; Level of evidence, 3.

METHODS: A total of 71 patients with a mean age of 28.85 years (range, 13.58-61.31 years) were enrolled, with 58 patients submitting sufficient pre- and postoperative blood samples for HLA antibody testing. In patients who developed HLA antibodies postoperatively, donor HLA typing was used to confirm donor-specific sensitization. Pre- and postoperative computerized tomography scans (0.9 ± 0.8 years follow-up) were used to grade resorption based on the modified Zhu resorption grade classification (ie, grade 0 = no resorption; grade 1 = less than 25% resorption; grade 2 = between 25% and 50% resorption; and grade 3 = larger than 50% resorption). The Western Ontario Shoulder Instability Index outcome scores were obtained preoperatively and at regular postoperative appointments. Resorption and outcome data were compared between sensitized and nonsensitized patients using the Fisher exact test, independent 2-tailed Student t tests, and the Wilcoxon rank-sum test to determine the effect of HLA sensitization on radiographic and patient-reported outcomes.

RESULTS: A total of 7 (12.1%) patients with sufficient HLA samples were sensitized against donor HLA postoperatively. Sensitized patients did not have significantly higher rates of resorption (21.9% vs 14.3%, 21.9% vs 28.6%, 43.8% vs 28.6%, and 12.5% vs 28.6% for respective resorption grades 0-3; P = .67; α = .05). Self-reported outcomes were not statistically significant between sensitized and nonsensitized patients (24.9 ± 27.61 vs 40.16 ± 18.99; P = .37; α = .05) and did not differ significantly based on resorption grade (47.4 ± 0.0 vs 55.2 ± 18.8, 30.4 ± 15.8 vs 39.9 ± 20.9, 41.2 ± 0.0 vs 39.1 ± 13.1, and -24.9 ± 0 vs 24.4 ± 19.6 for resorption grades 0-3; P > .05; α = .05).

CONCLUSION: Sensitization against donor HLA after small bone graft allografting was not previously considered but has been brought to light as a possibility. Aside from potential complications for future organ transplants, HLA sensitization does not introduce a risk for adverse outcomes or higher grades of resorption compared with nonsensitized patients after small bone allografting for shoulder instability.

PMID:33667132 | DOI:10.1177/0363546521996701