Tag: statistics

BMJ Neurol Open. 2024 Jun 5;6(1):e000659. doi: 10.1136/bmjno-2024-000659. eCollection 2024.

ABSTRACT

The COgnitive behavioural therapy versus standardised medical care for adults with Dissociative non-Epileptic Seizures multicentre randomised controlled trial is the largest, fully-powered study to test the clinical and cost-effectiveness of a psychotherapeutic intervention in this population. We also explored predictors or moderators of outcomes and investigated mechanisms of change in therapy. In this current review of findings, we discuss issues related to the design of the trial and consider the study’s nested qualitative studies which were undertaken not only to shed light on the original research questions but to provide insights and recommendations for other researchers in the field of functional neurological disorder. Finally, we consider issues relating to the possible clinical application of our study findings.

PMID:38860230 | PMC:PMC11163627 | DOI:10.1136/bmjno-2024-000659

Front Med (Lausanne). 2024 May 27;11:1399658. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2024.1399658. eCollection 2024.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a highly prevalent, recurrent, chronic intestinal inflammatory disease. Several observational studies have shown that circulating leukocytes are strongly associated with IBD. However, whether alterations in leukocytes are causally related to IBD remains uncertain. The present study explores this issue with the Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis method.

METHODS: The Genome wide association study (GWAS) statistical data related to circulating leukocytes and IBD were obtained from the Blood Cell Consortium and the IEU Qpen GWAS project, respectively. Inverse variance weighting (IVW) was used as the main MR analytical method, coupled with a series of sensitivity analyses to ensure the reliability of the results.

RESULTS: The results of IVW showed that increased monocyte count (especially CD14- CD16+ monocyte absolute counts) was negatively correlated with the risk of IBD and its main subtypes. Increased neutrophil count was positively associated with the risk of IBD and ulcerative colitis. Meanwhile, there was no causal relationship between basophil, eosinophil, lymphocyte counts and IBD risk.

CONCLUSION: These results indicate that a causal relationship exists between circulating leukocytes and the risk of IBD and its subtypes, which confirms the important role that the leukocyte immune system plays in IBD. Our findings provide additional research directions for the clinical prevention and treatment of IBD.

PMID:38860205 | PMC:PMC11163050 | DOI:10.3389/fmed.2024.1399658

Front Med (Lausanne). 2024 May 27;11:1369569. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2024.1369569. eCollection 2024.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Medication regimen complexity (MRC) is suspected to hinder medication adherence in patients with multiple illnesses. Despite this, the specific impact on Ethiopian patients with multimorbidity is unclear. This study assessed MRC and its impact on medication adherence in patients with multimorbidity.

METHODS: A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted on patients with multimorbidity who had been followed at the University of Gondar Comprehensive and Specialized Hospital (UoGCSH), Ethiopia, from May to July 2021. Medication complexity was measured using the validated Medication Regimen Complexity Index (MRCI) tool, and the Adherence in Chronic Diseases Scale (ACDS) was used to measure medication adherence. Pearson’s chi-square test was used to examine associations between MRCI levels and medication adherence. Ordinal logistic regression analysis was used to determine the impact of MRC and other associated variables on medication adherence. Statistical significance was determined using the adjusted odds ratio (AOR) at p-value <0.05 and its 95% confidence range.

RESULTS: Out of 422 eligible patients, 416 (98.6%) were included in the study. The majority of participants (57.2%) were classified as having a high MRCI score with a mean (±SD) score of 9.7 (±3.4). Nearly half of the patients (49.3%) had low medication adherence. Patients with medium (AOR = 0.43, 95% CI: 0.04, 0.72) and higher (AOR = 0.31, 95% CI: 0.07, 0.79) MRCI levels had lower odds of medication adherence. In addition, monthly income (AOR = 4.59, 95% CI: 2.14, 9.83), follow-up durations (AOR = 2.31, 95% CI: 1.09, 4.86), number of medications (AOR = 0.63, 95% CI: 0.41, 0.97), and Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) (AOR = 0.36, 95% CI: 0.16, 0.83) were significantly associated with medication adherence.

CONCLUSION: Medication regimen complexity in patients with multimorbidity was found to be high and negatively impacted the levels of medication adherence. Healthcare providers and other stakeholders should seek interventions aimed at simplifying drug regimen complexity and improving adherence.

PMID:38860203 | PMC:PMC11163062 | DOI:10.3389/fmed.2024.1369569

Pediatric Health Med Ther. 2024 Jun 4;15:223-229. doi: 10.2147/PHMT.S461168. eCollection 2024.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Timely identification and treatment of a streptococcal throat infection prevents acute rheumatic fever (ARF) and its progression to Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD). However, children in developing countries still present with established RHD, due to either missed, untreated or sub-optimally treated sore throats and ARF. We aimed to determine the level of knowledge, skills, and practices of primary health workers in South Western Uganda in providing care such children.

METHODS: We conducted a comparative quantitative cross-sectional study to assess knowledge, practices, and skills regarding the care of a child with a sore throat, ARF, and RHD. The responses were scored against a structured guide. The Fisher’s exact test and the chi-squared test with level of significance set at 0.05 were utilized to compare differences in knowledge, skills, and practices among health workers in private and public health facilities about ARF and RHD.

RESULTS: Eighty health workers from health facilities were interviewed in Mbarara district with a median age of 29.5 years (IQR 27.34) and median duration in practice of 5 years (IQR: 2, 10). On average, there were at least 3 children with sore throats weekly. At least 95% (CI: 87.25%-98.80%) of the health worker had awareness about ARF and RHD. Only 43.75% (95% CI: 33.18%-54.91%) had good knowledge about ARF and RHD. Majority, 61.25% (95% CI: 50.03%-71.39%) did not know the proper prophylaxis and investigations for a child with ARF. There were no statistically significant differences but a clinically meaningful differentials in the level of knowledge among health workers in public and private facilities.

CONCLUSION: The knowledge and skill level of health workers in primary healthcare facilities about ARF and RHD in South Western Uganda remains low, with no difference between practitioners in public and private facilities.

PMID:38860188 | PMC:PMC11162961 | DOI:10.2147/PHMT.S461168

Front Pharmacol. 2024 May 27;15:1367686. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2024.1367686. eCollection 2024.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The therapeutic effects of vitamin D supplementation on Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) aggravation remain controversial and inconclusive. To probe into this contentious issue, we performed the present meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs).

METHODS: Literature published up to June 2023 was retrieved from Cochrane Library, PubMed, Web of Science and Embase. RCTs assessing mortality, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, mechanical ventilation (MV), length of hospitalization (LOH), and inflammatory markers containing C-reactive protein (CRP), D-dimer, interleukin-6 (IL-6), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) were included. 19 RCTs were involved in the analysis and were conducted subgroup analyses on the baseline COVID-19 severity and vitamin D administration.

RESULTS: In the severity subgroup, statistically significant effects in moderate to severe group were observed in ICU admission (OR 0.43, 95% CI 0.23, 0.80; p = 0.008), MV (OR 0.44, 95% CI 0.27, 0.72; p = 0.001) and LOH (SMD -0.49, 95% CI -0.92, -0.06; p = 0.027). In the administration subgroup, effects of ICU admission (OR 0.39, 95% CI 0.16, 0.97; p = 0.044), MV (OR 0.18, 95% CI 0.07, 0.46; p = 0.000) and LOH (SMD -0.50, 95% CI -0.96, -0.04; p = 0.034) were more pronounced in patients supplied with multiple-dose vitamin D than single-dose. Although the result of mortality showed no statistically significant effect, it indicated a reduced trend (OR 0.87, 95% CI 0.63, 1.12; p > 0.05). The results of inflammatory markers reached no statistical differences.

CONCLUSION: This meta-analysis revealed that moderate to severe COVID-19 patients supplied with multiple doses of vitamin D were less apt to need ICU admission, mechanical ventilation and have shorter hospital stays.

PMID:38860175 | PMC:PMC11163116 | DOI:10.3389/fphar.2024.1367686

Front Pharmacol. 2024 May 27;15:1256649. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2024.1256649. eCollection 2024.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic, progressive interstitial lung disease of unknown etiology. Pirfenidone (PFD) and nintedanib (NDN) were both conditionally recommended in the clinical practice guideline published in 2015. Safety and tolerability are related to the risk of treatment discontinuation. Therefore, this study evaluated and compared the adverse events (AEs) of PFD and NDN in a large real-world population by analyzing data from the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) to provide a reference for their rational and safe use.

METHODS: The AEs of PFD and NDN were extracted from the FAERS database. The pharmacovigilance online analysis tool OpenVigil 2.1 was used to retrieve data from the FAERS database from the first quarter of 2012 to the second quarter of 2022. The reporting odds ratio (ROR) and proportional reporting ratio were used to detect the risk signals.

RESULTS: The database included 26,728 and 11,720 reports for PFD and NDN, respectively. The most frequent AEs of PFD and NDN were gastrointestinal disorders. The RORs for these drugs were 5.874 and 5.899, respectively. “Cardiac disorders” was the most statistically significant system order class for NDN with an ROR of 9.382 (95% confidence interval = 8.308-10.594). Furthermore, the numbers of designated medical events of PFD and NDN were 552 and 656, respectively. Notably, liver injury was reported more frequently for NDN (11.096%) than for PFD (6.076%).

CONCLUSION: This study revealed differences in the reporting of AEs between PFD and NDN. The findings provide reference for physicians in clinical practice. Attention should be paid to the risks of cardiac disorders and liver injury associated with NDN.

PMID:38860173 | PMC:PMC11163030 | DOI:10.3389/fphar.2024.1256649

Lin Chuang Er Bi Yan Hou Tou Jing Wai Ke Za Zhi. 2024 Jun;38(6):547-552. doi: 10.13201/j.issn.2096-7993.2024.06.017.

ABSTRACT

Objective:To evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of traditional radiomics, deep learning, and deep learning radiomics in differentiating normal and inner ear malformations on temporal bone computed tomography（CT）. Methods:A total of 572 temporal bone CT data were retrospectively collected, including 201 cases of inner ear malformation and 371 cases of normal inner ear, and randomly divided into a training cohort（n=458） and a test cohort（n=114） in a ratio of 4∶1. Deep transfer learning features and radiomics features were extracted from the CT images and feature fusion was performed to establish the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator. The CT results interpretated by two chief otologists from the National Clinical Research Center for Otorhinolaryngological Diseases served as the gold standard for diagnosis. The model performance was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic（ROC）, and the accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and other indicators of the models were calculated. The predictive power of each model was compared using the Delong test. Results:1 179 radiomics features were obtained from traditional radiomics, 2 048 deep learning features were obtained from deep learning, and 137 features fusion were obtained after feature screening and fusion of the two. The area under the curve（AUC） of the deep learning radiomics model on the test cohort was 0.964 0（95%CI 0.931 4-0.996 8）, with an accuracy of 0.922, sensitivity of 0.881, and specificity of 0.945. The AUC of the radiomics features alone on the test cohort was 0.929 0（95%CI 0.882 2-0.974 9）, with an accuracy of 0.878, sensitivity of 0.881, and specificity of 0.877. The AUC of the deep learning features alone on the test cohort was 0.947 0（95%CI 0.898 2-0.994 8）, with an accuracy of 0.913, sensitivity of 0.810, and specificity of 0.973. The results indicated that the prediction accuracy and AUC of the deep learning radiomics model are the highest. The Delong test showed that the differences between any two models did not reach statistical significance. Conclusion:The feature fusion model can be used for the differential diagnosis of normal and inner ear malformations, and its diagnostic performance is superior to radiomics or deep learning models alone.

PMID:38858123 | DOI:10.13201/j.issn.2096-7993.2024.06.017

Lin Chuang Er Bi Yan Hou Tou Jing Wai Ke Za Zhi. 2024 Jun;38(6):541-546. doi: 10.13201/j.issn.2096-7993.2024.06.016.

ABSTRACT

Objective:To evaluate the subjective olfactory function in chronic sinusitis（CRS）patients with asthma after nasal endoscopic surgery and associated factors that may affect olfactory function. Methods：The study included 90 CRS patients with asthma from January 2008 to December 2020，and all of them underwent endoscopic sinus surgery（ESS）. VAS score of olfactory function before and after surgery were collected，and the data at baseline，3 months，6 months，1 year，3 years，5 years，8 years and 10 years after surgery were compared. Factors affecting olfactory function were analyzed in a generalized mixed linear model，which including age，surgical procedure，allergic rhinitis and so on.Results： The olfactory VAS scores were significantly lower at 3 months，6 months，1 year，3 years，and 5 years postoperatively compared with baseline，and the difference was statistically significant（P<0.05）.Olfactory VAS scores at 8 and 10 years postoperatively were not statistically different from baseline（P>0.05）.Age（≥60 years），aspirin intolerance syndrome，Lund-Kennedy score，modified sinus CT olfactory cleft score，and follow-up time were risk factors, and radical sinus surgery is a protective factor.Conclusion：Subjective olfactory scores in CRS patients with asthma after ESS remain relatively stable for 5 years postoperatively.Prior history of surgery did not affect postoperative subjective olfactory scores. Age，aspirin intolerance syndrome, Lund-Kennedy score，modified sinus CT olfactory cleft score, follow-up time，and surgical approach were strongly associated with subjective olfactory scores in CRS patients with asthma，and radical surgery had a protective effect on olfaction.

PMID:38858122 | DOI:10.13201/j.issn.2096-7993.2024.06.016

Lin Chuang Er Bi Yan Hou Tou Jing Wai Ke Za Zhi. 2024 Jun;38(6):514-517. doi: 10.13201/j.issn.2096-7993.2024.06.011.

ABSTRACT

Objective:To analyze the clinical features, treatment methods and prognosis of radiation-induced sarcoma（RIS） of the head and neck after radiotherapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma（NPC）, and explore its treatment strategies. Methods:A retrospective analysis was conducted on RIS patients after radiotherapy for NPC in the People’s Hospital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region from January 2013 to October 2022. The time of onset, lesion location, pathological subtypes, imaging features and treatment outcomes were described, and the median survival time was statistically analyzed through follow-up. Results:This study included 10 patients with an interval of 2-27 years between NPC and RIS. The nasopharynx was the more common site of RIS, and osteosarcoma was the main pathological type. The median overall survival was 18 months. The median survival was 40 months in the surgery combined with the chemotherapy group, and 12 months in the surgery alone group. The 1-and 2-year cumulative survival rates were 48% and 36%, respectively. Prognostic analysis showed that gender, age of onset, time of sarcoma onset after radiotherapy and treatment methods might not be influencing factors for prognosis, and osteosarcomas presented a poorer prognosis than other pathological types. Conclusion:RIS is one of the most severe long-term adverse effects in patients with NPC. The prognosis of RIS is poor, and complete surgical resection of the tumor can improve patient survival rates. In cases where complete surgical resection is challenging, radiotherapy or chemotherapy may offer some improvement in tumor control.

PMID:38858117 | DOI:10.13201/j.issn.2096-7993.2024.06.011

Lin Chuang Er Bi Yan Hou Tou Jing Wai Ke Za Zhi. 2024 Jun;38(6):485-489. doi: 10.13201/j.issn.2096-7993.2024.06.006.

ABSTRACT

Objective:To analyze the difference in 5-year survival between maxillary sinus adenoidal cystic carcinoma（maxillary sinus adenoid cystic carcinoma, MSACC） and squamous cell carcinoma（maxillary sinus squamous cell carcinoma, MSSCC） using the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End. Results:database（SEER） and to explore the factors associated with the prognosis of the two tumors. Methods:The data of 161 patients with MSACC and 929 patients with MSSCC were collected from SEER database, and the 5-year overall survival rate（OS） and tumor specific survival rate（CSS） were compared between the two groups before and after propensity score matching. The forest map of multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression model was established to analyze the prognostic factors affecting the survival rate of patients with MSACC and MSSCC. Results:There were statistical differences in 5-year OS and CSS between MSACC and MSSCC before and after propensity score matching（P<0.001）. Multivariate regression analysis showed that age, side of the disease, lymph node metastasis, operation and radiotherapy were the influencing factors of OS in MSACC, while age and operation were the influencing factors of CSS. Age, race, T grade, lymph node metastasis, systemic metastasis, surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy are the influencing factors of OS of MSSCC. Age, T grade, lymph node metastasis, systemic metastasis, surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy are the influencing factors of CSS. Conclusion:The 5-year survival rate of MSACC is higher than that of MSSCC. Surgery plays a positive role in the prognosis of the two kinds of tumors. The analysis results can provide some reference for their survival expectations and treatment choices.

PMID:38858112 | DOI:10.13201/j.issn.2096-7993.2024.06.006