Tag: pubmed

J Child Lang. 2023 Jul 4:1-11. doi: 10.1017/S0305000923000387. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

We examined how noun frequency and the typicality of surrounding linguistic context contribute to children’s real-time comprehension. Monolingual English-learning toddlers viewed pairs of pictures while hearing sentences with typical or atypical sentence frames (Look at the… vs. Examine the…), followed by nouns that were higher- or lower-frequency labels for a referent (horse vs. pony). Toddlers showed no significant differences in comprehension of nouns in typical and atypical sentence frames. However, they were less accurate in recognizing lower-frequency nouns, particularly among toddlers with smaller vocabularies. We conclude that toddlers can recognize nouns in diverse sentence contexts, but their representations develop gradually.

PMID:37401467 | DOI:10.1017/S0305000923000387

Heart Surg Forum. 2023 Jun 25;26(3):E284-E291. doi: 10.1532/hsf.5445.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Sutureless aortic valve replacement (SU-AVR) and transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) are becoming increasingly common. The aim of this study is to compare the clinical outcome and cost-effectiveness of the two methods.

METHODS: In this study, cross-sectional retrospective data were collected on 327 patients who underwent SU-AVR (n = 168) and TAVI (n = 159). Homogeneous groups were provided by the “propensity score matching” method, and 61 patients from the SU-AVR group and 53 patients from the TAVI group were included in the study sample.

RESULTS: The two groups did not have statistically different death rates, complications after surgery, lengths of hospital stays, or visits to the intensive care unit. It is stated that the SU-AVR method provides an additional 1.14 Quality-Adjusted Life Year (QALY) compared to the TAVI method. The TAVI was more expensive than the SU-AVR in our study, but the difference was not statistically significant ($40,520.62 vs. $38,405.62, p > 0.05). For SU-AVR, the most expensive factor was the length of stay in the intensive care unit; for TAVI, it was arrhythmia, bleeding, and renal failure.

CONCLUSIONS: These bioprostheses are safe and effective treatments for valve stenosis. Clinical outcomes were similar between the two groups. Therefore, clinicians may find it difficult to determine an effective treatment strategy. According to the evaluation made in terms of cost-effectiveness, it was found that the SU-AVR method gave a higher QALY at a lower cost compared to the TAVI method. However, this result is not statistically significant.

PMID:37401432 | DOI:10.1532/hsf.5445

Heart Surg Forum. 2023 May 31;26(3):E234-E239. doi: 10.1532/hsf.5465.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: In general, cerebral blood flow accounts for 10-15% of cardiac output (CO), of which about 75% is delivered through the carotid arteries. Hence, if carotid blood flow (CBF) is constantly proportional to CO with high reproducibility and reliability, it would be of great value to measure CBF as an alternative to CO. The aim of this study was to investigate the direct correlation between CBF and CO. We hypothesized that measurement of CBF could be a good substitute for CO, even under more extreme hemodynamic conditions, for a wider range of critically ill patients.

METHODS: Patients aged 65-80 years, undergoing elective cardiac surgery were included in this study. CBF in different cardiac cycles were measured by ultrasound: systolic carotid blood flow (SCF), diastolic carotid blood flow (DCF), and total (systolic and diastolic) carotid blood flow (TCF). CO simultaneously was measured by transesophageal echocardiography.

RESULTS: For all patients, the correlation coefficients between SCF and CO, TCF and CO were 0.45 and 0.30, respectively, which were statistically significant, but not between DCF and CO. There was no significant correlation between either SCF, TCF or DCF and CO, when CO was <3.5 L/min.

CONCLUSIONS: Systolic carotid blood flow may be used as a better index to replace CO. However, the method of direct measurement of CO is essential when the patient’s heart function is poor.

PMID:37401430 | DOI:10.1532/hsf.5465

Heart Surg Forum. 2023 Jun 29;26(3):E292-E302. doi: 10.59958/hsf.5607.

ABSTRACT

Emboli caused by cardiac myxomas mostly occur in the cardiovascular or cerebrovascular systems and rarely in the lower extremity vasculature. We introduce the rare case of a patient with left atrial myxoma (LAM) whose right lower extremity (RLE) suffered from acute ischemia due to tumor fragments, along with a review of the relevant literature, and highlight the clinical characteristics of LAM. An 81-year-old female presented with acute ischemia of RLE. Color Doppler ultrasound showed no blood flow signal far from the RLE femoral artery. Computed tomography angiography showed an occlusion of the right common femoral artery. A transthoracic echocardiogram revealed a left atrial mass. Femoral artery embolectomy was performed under local anesthesia, followed by thoracotomy with tumor resection under general anesthesia on postoperative day seven. The tumor was pathologically confirmed as an atrial myxoma. A literature search of the PubMed database returned 58 cases of limb ischemia due to LAM, and the conclusions drawn from the statistical analysis were that emboli from LAM occurred most commonly in the aortoiliac and bilateral lower limb vasculature and were rarely associated with upper extremity and atrial fibrillation. Multisystem embolism is characteristic of cardiac myxoma. The removed embolus should be examined pathologically for signs of a cardiac myxoma. Lower-limb embolisms should be promptly diagnosed and treated to avoid osteofascial compartment syndrome.

PMID:37401427 | DOI:10.59958/hsf.5607

Heart Surg Forum. 2023 Jun 14;26(3):E249-E254. doi: 10.1532/hsf.5621.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Improving health related quality of life is an important goal of aortic valve replacement. Inadequate effective orifice area of prosthesis according to the patient’s body surface area may be associated with poor outcomes. In this study, we aimed to analyze impact of indexed effective orifice area (iEOA) on patients’ quality of life after aortic valve replacement.

METHODS: A total of 138 patients who underwent isolated aortic valve replacement were included to the study. Quality of life assessment was performed with EuroQol Group EQ-5D-5L questionnaire. Patients were divided into three groups based on iEOA (Group 1 had an iEOA of <0.65 cm2/m2 (19 patients), Group 2 had an iEOA between 0.65-0.85 cm2/m2 (71 patients), and Group 3 had an iEOA of >0.85 cm2/m2). Mean EQ-5D-5L scores were compared among the groups statistically.

RESULTS: Mean EQ-5D-5L scores were lower in Group 1 than in Groups 2 and 3 (Group 1: 0.72 ± 0.18, Group 2: 0.83 ± 0.20, and Group 3: 0.86 ± 0.9, p = 0.044 and p = 0.014). The EQ-5D-5L score was significantly lower in patients with a ≥20 mmHg transvalvular gradient than those with a <20 mmHg (0.74 ± 0.25 vs. 0.84 ± 0.18, p = 0.014).

CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that an iEOA <0.65 cm2/m2 is significantly associated with impaired postoperative health-related quality of life. Newer generation prostheses, transcatheter valve implantation, and root enlargement techniques should be kept in mind in preoperative planning.

PMID:37401426 | DOI:10.1532/hsf.5621

Cardiol J. 2023 Jul 4. doi: 10.5603/CJ.a2023.0045. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: To investigate the influence of coronary calcification on the diagnostic performance of Murray law-based quantitative flow ratio (μQFR) in identifying hemodynamically significant coronary lesions referenced to fractional flow reserve (FFR).

METHODS: A total of 571 intermediate lesions from 534 consecutive patients (66.1 ± 10.0 years, 67.2% males) who underwent coronary angiography and simultaneous FFR measurement were included. Calcific deposits were graded by angiography as none or mild (spots), moderate (involving ≤ 50% of the reference vessel diameter), and severe (> 50%). Performance of μQFR to detect functional ischemia (FFR ≤ 0.80) was evaluated, including diagnostic parameters and areas under the receiver-operating curves (AUCs).

RESULTS: The discrimination of ischemia by μQFR was comparable between none/mild and moderate/severe calcification (AUC: 0.91 [95% confidence interval: 0.88-0.93] vs. 0.87 [95% confidence interval: 0.78-0.94]; p = 0.442). No statistically significant difference was observed for μQFR between the two categories in sensitivity (0.70 vs. 0.69, p = 0.861) and specificity (0.94 vs. 0.90, p = 0.192). Moreover, μQFR showed significantly higher AUCs than quantitative coronary angiographic diameter stenosis in both vessels with none/mild (0.91 vs. 0.78, p < 0.001) and moderate/severe calcification (0.87 vs. 0.69, p < 0.001). By multivariable analysis, there was no association between calcification and μQFR-FFR discordance (adjusted odds ratio: 1.529, 95% confidence interval: 0.788-2.968, p = 0.210) after adjustment for other confounding factors.

CONCLUSIONS: μQFR demonstrated robust and superior diagnostic performance for lesion-specific ischemia compared with angiography alone regardless of coronary calcification.

PMID:37401417 | DOI:10.5603/CJ.a2023.0045

Geospat Health. 2023 Jul 3;18(2). doi: 10.4081/gh.2023.1151.

ABSTRACT

Few studies have considered the impacts of sample size and sample ratio of presence and absence points on the results of random forest (RF) testing. We applied this technique for the prediction of the spatial distribution of snail habitats based on a total of 15,000 sample points (5,000 presence samples and 10,000 control points). RF models were built using seven different sample ratios (1:1, 1:2, 1:3, 1:4, 2:1, 3:1, and 4:1) and the optimal ratio was identified via the Area Under the Curve (AUC) statistic. The impact of sample size was compared by RF models under the optimal ratio and the optimal sample size. When the sample size was small, the sampling ratios of 1:1, 1:2 and 1:3 were significantly better than the sample ratios of 4:1 and 3:1 at all four levels of sample sizes (p<0.01) and there was no significant difference among the ratios of 1:1, 1:2 and 1:3 (p>0.05). The sample ratio of 1:2 appeared to be optimal for a relatively large sample size with the lowest quartile deviation. In addition, increasing the sample size produced a higher AUC and a smaller slope and the most suitable sample size found in this study was 2400 (AUC=0.96). This study provides a feasible idea to select an appropriate sample size and sample ratio for ecological niche modelling (ENM) and also provides a scientific basis for the selection of samples to accurately identify and predict snail habitat distributions.

PMID:37401413 | DOI:10.4081/gh.2023.1151

Geospat Health. 2023 Jul 3;18(2). doi: 10.4081/gh.2023.1152.

ABSTRACT

Screening programmes are important for early diagnosis and treatment of colorectal cancer (CRC) but they are not equally efficient in all locations. Depending on which hospital people belong to, they often are not willing to follow up even after a positive result, resulting in a lower-than-expected overall detection rate. Improved allocation of health resources would increase the program’s efficiency and assist hospital accessibility. A target population exceeding 70,000 people and 18 local hospitals were included in the investigation of an optimization plan based on a locationallocation model. We calculated the hospital service areas and the accessibility for people in communities to CRC-screening hospitals using the Huff Model and the Two-Step Floating Catchment Area (2SFCA) approach. We found that only 28.2% of the residents with initially a positive screening result had chosen followup with colonoscopy and significant geographical differences in spatial accessibility to healthcare services indeed exist. The lowest accessibility was found in the Southeast, including the Zhangjiang, Jichang and Laogang communities with the best accessibility mainly distributed near the city centre of Lujiazui; the latter also had relatively a high level of what is called “ineffective screening” as it represents wasteful resource allocation. It is recommended that Hudong Hospital should be chosen instead of Punan Hospital as the optimization, which can improve the service population of each hospital and the populations served per colonoscope. Based on our results, changes in hospital configuration in colorectal cancer screening programme are needed to achieve adequate population coverage and equitable facility accessibility. Planning of medical services should be based on the spatial distribution trends of the population served.

PMID:37401409 | DOI:10.4081/gh.2023.1152

Cancer Med. 2023 Jul 4. doi: 10.1002/cam4.6317. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: This study sought to investigate interactive participation and content of a moderated discussion forum within a web-based psychoeducational intervention aimed at alleviating sexual dysfunction and fertility distress in young adults diagnosed with cancer.

METHODS: The study is part of the Fex-Can Young Adult randomized controlled trial (RCT), in which young adults with self-reported sexual dysfunction or fertility distress were invited to participate. This study focuses on RCT participants that were randomized into the intervention condition. Sociodemographics and clinical characteristics of intervention participants and level of activity in the intervention were analyzed with descriptive statistics and compared between subgroups (“high” and “low” activity participants). Inductive qualitative thematic analysis was used to analyze the posts in the discussion forum.

RESULTS: Of 135 intervention participants, 24% met the criteria for high activity participation. There were no statistically significant differences found in terms of clinical and sociodemographic characteristics between high and low activity participants. Ninety-one participants (67%) accessed the discussion forum, and 19 (14%) posted at least once. Posters shared intimate details of their experiences of sexuality and fertility following cancer. The thematic analysis of posts resulted in four themes: fertility fears, perceptions of the changed body, missing out on life, and importance of support and information.

CONCLUSIONS: While a smaller proportion of participants posted in the discussion forum, a majority spent time reading posts (lurkers). Participants posting in the forum shared experiences of intimate relationships, body image, parenthood concerns, and support needs. The discussion forum was used by a majority of intervention participants, and provided appreciated support for those who posted in the forum. We therefore recommend similar interventions to include this opportunity for interaction and communication.

PMID:37401398 | DOI:10.1002/cam4.6317

Clin Chem. 2023 Jul 4:hvad063. doi: 10.1093/clinchem/hvad063. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Partition classification is a critical step in the digital PCR data analysis pipeline. A range of partition classification methods have been developed, many motivated by specific experimental setups. An overview of these partition classification methods is lacking and their comparative properties are often unclear, likely impacting the proper application of these methods.

CONTENT: This review provides a summary of all available digital PCR partition classification approaches and the challenges they aim to overcome, serving as a guide for the digital PCR practitioner wishing to apply them. We additionally discuss strengths and weaknesses of these methods, which can further guide practitioners in vigilant application of these existing methods. This review provides method developers with ideas for improving methods or designing new ones. The latter is further stimulated by our identification and discussion of application gaps in the literature, for which there are currently no or few methods available.

SUMMARY: This review provides an overview of digital PCR partition classification methods, their properties, and potential applications. Ideas for further advances are presented and may bolster method development.

PMID:37401391 | DOI:10.1093/clinchem/hvad063