Publications by authors named "Fong W"

Background: Adverse food reactions include food allergy (FA; immune-mediated) and food intolerances (non-immune-mediated). FA are classified into IgE- and non-IgE-mediated FA. There is limited information available about changes in FA prevalence over time.

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Background: Prehabilitation has been increasingly utilized to optimize perioperative outcomes. In this study, we aim to evaluate the impact of uni- and multimodal prehabilitation on functional capacity and postoperative outcomes among surgical oncology patients undergoing major abdominal surgery.

Patients And Methods: Three electronic databases (PubMed, Embase, Cochrane) were systematically searched up until December 2023.

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Background: The professional identity of doctors is evolving with physicians now required to be 'scholars', facilitating the education of students and healthcare teammates as educators. Mentoring is widely practiced and is postulated to facilitate professional identity formation (PIF) through socialization. Preliminary literature review suggested few studies looking into how formal mentoring programmes affect PIF of novice clinician educators, particularly an Asian context.

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  • Advanced care planning (ACP) involves ongoing discussions among patients, families, and healthcare professionals about future healthcare needs.
  • Patients with rheumatic diseases often face significant symptoms and complications, but the rate of completed ACP in this group is low.
  • A quality improvement project in Singapore successfully increased ACP completion rates from 0 to 1 per month over a year through two Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles, indicating a need for further research on enhancing ACP engagement in these patients.
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Children with severe atopic dermatitis (AD), refractory to conventional systemic treatment as well as single-agent biologic and Janus kinase inhibitor (JAKi) such as abrocitinib, currently face a lack of treatment options. In response to this clinical conundrum, we present three cases of severe and refractory pediatric AD successfully managed with combined dupilumab and abrocitinib. These children had exhausted all conventional treatments and had undergone treatment with both dupilumab and abrocitinib individually, as well as dupilumab in conjunction with methotrexate.

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Introduction: Tenecteplase is a thrombolytic with higher fibrin affinity and is potentially better in clot lysis. A higher spontaneous recanalisation rate for large vessel occlusion (LVO) strokes had been shown in comparison studies with alteplase. Results of the LVO studies reflect the composite effect of the thrombolytic and thrombectomy, as patients would be treated by thrombectomy had they not been recanalised by intravenous thrombolysis alone.

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Background: Digital technologies have impacted health care delivery globally, and are increasingly being deployed in clinical practice. However, there is limited research on patients' expectations of doctors' clinical competencies when using digital health care technologies (DHTs) in medical care. Understanding these expectations can reveal competency gaps, enhance patient confidence, and contribute to digital innovation initiatives.

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Background: Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy is commonly used for enteral nutritional access, but gastrocutaneous fistulae (GCF) may persist after tube removal, posing clinical challenges. The use of endoscopic closure devices, including over-the-scope clips (OTSC), has shown promise in managing non-healing fistulae, although data in the pediatric population are limited.

Methods: A retrospective multicenter study analyzed pediatric patients who underwent GCF closure following gastrostomy tube removal.

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In vitro and in vivo tests for therapeutic agents are typically conducted in sterile environments, but many target areas for drug delivery are home to thousands of microbial species. Here, we examine the behaviour of lipidic nanomaterials after exposure to representative strains of four bacterial species found in the gastrointestinal tract and skin. Small angle X-ray scattering measurements show that the nanostructure of monoolein cubic and inverse hexagonal phases are transformed, respectively, into inverse hexagonal and inverse micellar cubic phases upon exposure to a strain of live Staphylococcus aureus often present on skin and mucosa.

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  • This study examined the costs associated with lost productivity in patients diagnosed with inflammatory arthritis (IA) and osteoarthritis (OA), focusing on a specific group from diagnosis to one year later.
  • Results indicated that patients with IA were generally younger and experienced a greater decrease in presenteeism, meaning they were more effective at work post-diagnosis compared to those with OA.
  • The findings suggest that while both types of arthritis lead to significant productivity loss, the treatment for IA appears to enhance work productivity more effectively than treatment for OA.
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Introduction: Timely palliative care and surgical interventions improve symptoms, health-related quality of life (HRQoL), and reduce medical cost for seriously ill adults at end of life (EOL). However, there is still poor delivery and underutilization of these palliative services. We hypothesize that the sub-optimal delivery is due to limited understanding among healthcare providers.

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  • - A 28-year-old woman with a history of Behcet's disease presented with severe headache and high intracranial pressure (ICP) but no signs of cerebral venous thrombosis or structural lesions.
  • - The patient initially did not respond to standard treatments but showed improvement after receiving pulsed methylprednisolone, cyclophosphamide, and the novel use of subcutaneous tocilizumab.
  • - A literature review found that most patients with NeuroBehcet's-related intracranial hypertension were young and predominantly female, often treated with steroids, and about 27% experienced recurrence of symptoms within months.
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Navigating the labyrinthine process of securing higher speciality training poses formidable challenges for doctors in training. Achieving success in this endeavour demands more than a mere grasp of the prerequisites; it necessitates meticulous preparation and foresight. Dermatology, as a medical speciality, stands out on account of its appeal, encompassing a diverse patient population, expansive scope of work, work-life balance, a plethora of procedural variety, intellectual stimulation, and abundant research opportunities.

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Objectives: This systematic review primarily aims to identify the optimal physiotherapeutic intervention to improve hand dexterity in Parkinson's Disease (PD) patients. The secondary objectives were to identify the hand dexterity physiotherapeutic interventions available for PD patients, and to determine the quality of these interventions.

Review Methods: Eight electronic databases were systematically searched to identify relevant randomized controlled trial full-text articles using the established search strategy.

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Haemophilus influenzae, a causative agent of severe invasive infections such as meningitis, sepsis and pneumonia, is classified into encapsulated or typeable (represented by serotypes A to F) and non-typeable varieties (NTHi) by the presence or absence of the polysaccharide capsule. Invasive disease caused by H. influenzae type B (HIB) can be prevented through vaccination which remains the main disease control intervention in many countries.

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A woman in her 70s presented with anasarca and exertional dyspnoea. Investigation showed severe hypoalbuminaemia with no urinary or gastrointestinal protein losses. CT thorax reported lung consolidations, and transbronchial lung biopsy demonstrated organising pneumonia.

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Antibody-drug conjugates (ADC) payloads are cleavable drugs that act as the warhead to exert an ADC's cytotoxic effects on cancer cells intracellularly. A simple and highly sensitive workflow is developed and validated for the simultaneous quantification of six ADC payloads, namely SN-38, MTX, DXd, MMAE, MMAF and Calicheamicin (CM). The workflow consists of a short and simple sample extraction using a methanol-ethanol mixture, followed by a fast liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis.

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  • A clinical trial was conducted to compare the effectiveness and safety of two treatments—cetuximab plus FOLFOXIRI (triplet therapy) and cetuximab plus FOLFOX (doublet therapy)—in RAS/BRAF wild-type colorectal cancer patients who had unresectable liver metastases.
  • The study enrolled 146 patients across seven medical centers in China between April 2018 and December 2022, assessing their objective response rate and other outcomes such as tumor response and survival.
  • Results showed that the response rates were similar between the two treatment groups (84.7% for triplet vs. 79.7% for doublet), indicating no significant difference in efficacy, and the trial also monitored
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This study compared the likelihood of long-term sequelae following infection with SARS-CoV-2 variants, other acute respiratory infections (ARIs) and non-infected individuals. Participants (n=5,630) were drawn from Virus Watch, a prospective community cohort investigating SARS-CoV-2 epidemiology in England. Using logistic regression, we compared predicted probabilities of developing long-term symptoms (>2 months) during different variant dominance periods according to infection status (SARS-CoV-2, other ARI, or no infection), adjusting for confounding by demographic and clinical factors and vaccination status.

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The role and molecular mechanisms of intermittent fasting (IF) in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and its transition to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are unknown. Here, we identified that an IF 5:2 regimen prevents NASH development as well as ameliorates established NASH and fibrosis without affecting total calorie intake. Furthermore, the IF 5:2 regimen blunted NASH-HCC transition when applied therapeutically.

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