Artificial intelligence in clinical settings: a systematic review of its role in language translation and interpretation.

Background: Addressing language barriers through accurate interpretation is crucial for providing quality care and establishing trust. While the ability of artificial intelligence (AI) to translate medical documentation has been studied, its role for patient-provider communication is less explored. This review evaluates AI's effectiveness in clinical translation by assessing accuracy, usability, satisfaction, and feedback on its use.

Impact of Demographics and Psychological Factors on Three-Day Postoperative Pain Perception Following Hand Surgery.

Effective pain management is crucial for both comfort and outcomes, yet predicting and managing this pain is difficult. This study aimed to analyze postoperative pain in patients undergoing hand surgery at the Mayo Clinic Florida, examining how patient characteristics and anxiety affect pain outcomes. We conducted a single-arm clinical trial at Mayo Clinic Florida, recruiting patients undergoing hand surgery.

Biomimetic and protective effects of bioactive toothpastes on eroded enamel surfaces.

This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of bioactive toothpastes in remineralizing eroded enamel surfaces in vitro. Bovine enamel blocks (n = 48) were obtained and classified into untreated, demineralized, and treated areas. Specimens were randomly classified into six groups (n = 8 each): fluoride-free toothpaste (NCT), Colgate Total 12 (PCT), Sensodyne Repair and Protect (SRP), Sensodyne Pronamel (SPE), Regenerador + Sensitive (RGS), and RGS/calcium booster (RCB).

The Algorithmic Divide: A Systematic Review on AI-Driven Racial Disparities in Healthcare.

Introduction: As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to permeate various sectors, concerns about disparities arising from its deployment have surfaced. AI's effectiveness correlates not only with the algorithm's quality but also with its training data's integrity. This systematic review investigates the racial disparities perpetuated by AI systems across diverse medical domains and the implications of deploying them, particularly in healthcare.

Alternative Pneumocystis Pneumonia Prophylaxis in Solid Organ Transplants.

Background: Despite limited data supporting use in solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients, atovaquone and dapsone are often used as alternatives to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP-SMX) for Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PJP) prophylaxis.

Methods: This single-center, retrospective cohort study describes a multi-organ program's experience with alternative PJP prophylaxis. Adult SOT recipients transplanted November 13, 2020 to November 13, 2022 who received non-TMP-SMX PJP prophylaxis and had > 1 year follow-up were included.

Symptom profile, case and symptom clustering, clinical and demographic characteristics of a multicentre cohort of 1297 patients evaluated for Long-COVID.

Background: Long-COVID symptoms remain incompletely defined due to a large heterogeneity in the populations studied, case definitions, and settings of care. The aim of this study was to assess, in patients accessing care for Long-COVID, the profile of symptoms reported, the possible clustering of symptoms and cases, the functional status compared to pre-infection, and the impact on working activity.

Methods: Multicentre cohort study with a collection of both retrospective and prospective data.

Sensor technology and machine learning to guide clinical decision making in plastic surgery.

Subjective clinical evaluations are deeply rooted in medical practice. Recent advances in sensor technology facilitate the acquisition of extensive amounts of objective physiological data that can serve as a surrogate for subjective assessments. Along with sensor technology, a branch of artificial intelligence, known as machine learning, has provided decisive advances in several areas of medicine due to its pattern recognition and outcome prediction abilities.

The value of TECAR in acute painful osteoporotic vertebral fractures: a pilot study.

Low-back pain is frequent, especially in the active adult population after an osteoporotic vertebral fracture. Several orthopaedic conditions can cause low back pain, significantly worsening the quality of life. The treatments vary from drugs, physical therapy, kinesiology, and local infiltration.

Frequency-Controlled Fluidic Oscillators for Soft Robots.

Electronic-free controls have recently emerged as one of the main topics in soft robotics. However, electronic-free fluidic circuits still lack controllability and reconfigurability to achieve different functions. Here, reconfigurable pneumatic valves that widen the design space of fluidic circuits are presented.

Attention and processing speed tests: Normative data for Spanish-speaking adults in the United States.

Background: Hispanics/Latinos are the largest racial/ethnic group among underrepresented populations in the U.S. and multiple sociodemographic, cultural, and linguistic factors have been found to impact their performances on cognitive testing.

Identification of Pain through Actigraphy-Recorded Patient Movement: A Comprehensive Review.

Chronic pain affects over 50 million people in the United States, particularly older adults, making effective assessment and treatment essential in primary care. Actigraphy, which monitors and records limb movement to estimate wakefulness and sleep, has emerged as a valuable tool for assessing pain by providing insights into activity patterns. This review highlights the non-invasive, cost-effective nature of actigraphy in pain monitoring, along with its ability to offer continuous, detailed data on patient movement.

Complex Deformation in Soft Cylindrical Structures via Programmable Sequential Instabilities.

The substantial deformation exhibited by hyperelastic cylindrical shells under pressurization makes them an ideal platform for programmable inflatable structures. If negative pressure is applied, the cylindrical shell will buckle, leading to a sequence of rich deformation modes, all of which are fully recoverable due to the hyperelastic material choice. While the initial buckling event under vacuum is well understood, here, the post-buckling regime is explored and a region in the design space is identified in which a coupled twisting-contraction deformation mode occurs; by carefully controlling the geometry of our homogeneous shells, the proportion of contraction versus twist can be controlled.

The Effectiveness of a Single Hyaluronic Acid Injection in Improving Symptoms and Muscular Strength in Patients with Knee Osteoarthritis: A Multicenter, Retrospective Study.

Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is a progressive and multifactorial disease that leads to joint pain, muscle weakness, physical disability, and decreased quality of life. In KOA, the quantity of hyaluronic acid (HA) and the molecular weight (MW) are decreased, leading to joint pain due to increased wear of the knee articular cartilage. Arthrogenic muscle inhibition, which is usually found in patients with KOA, is associated with joint inflammation, pain, and swelling, also causing muscle atrophy, primarily of the anterior thigh muscles, and hindering the rehabilitation process.

The Impact of Digital Health Solutions on Bridging the Health Care Gap in Rural Areas: A Scoping Review.

Digital health tools can improve health care access and outcomes for individuals with limited access to health care, particularly those residing in rural areas. This scoping review examines the existing literature on using digital tools in patients with limited access to health care in rural areas. It assesses their effectiveness in improving health outcomes.

Innervated breast reconstruction: a narrative review of neurotization techniques and outcomes.

Background And Objective: While significant sensation recovery improvements in neurotized breasts following reconstruction have been reported, sensation testing methods and surgical techniques have been widely variable. This narrative review aims to summarize available literature on current neurotization practices and sensory recovery outcomes in patients undergoing innervated breast reconstruction.

Methods: A comprehensive literature search of PubMed Medline, Web of Science, and Embase was conducted to identify all studies reporting outcomes of neurotization in breast reconstruction surgeries.

STEP: extraction of underlying physics with robust machine learning.

A prevalent class of challenges in modern physics are inverse problems, where physical quantities must be extracted from experimental measurements. End-to-end machine learning approaches to inverse problems typically require constructing sophisticated estimators to achieve the desired accuracy, largely because they need to learn the complex underlying physical model. Here, we discuss an alternative paradigm: by making the physical model auto-differentiable we can construct a neural surrogate to represent the unknown physical quantity sought, while avoiding having to relearn the known physics entirely.

Program Evaluation of Pharmacist-Performed Medication Adherence Assessments in Candidates for Living Donor Kidney Transplant.

Medication education and adherence assessments are integral to kidney transplant success. This program evaluation aimed to describe candidate-reported findings using a standardized medication adherence assessment in candidates undergoing living-donor kidney transplantation. This was a single-center retrospective description of medication adherence on adult HIV-negative living-donor candidates from July 1, 2018 to December 1, 2018 who had ≥6 months post-operative follow-up.

The influence of finishing line and luting material selection on the seating accuracy of CAD/CAM indirect composite restorations.

Objectives: This study aimed to assess the seating accuracy of resin composite CAD/CAM overlay restorations, employing various preparation designs and luting materials (pre-heated composite (HC) or resin cement (RC)).

Methods: A human molar's STL file was utilized to create 100 3D-printed resin tooth replicas, randomly distributed into 5 groups (n = 20) based on finishing line preparation designs: 1) Rounded shoulder above the dental equator - DE (SA); 2) Chamfer above the DE (CA); 3) Butt joint above the DE (BJ); 4) Rounded shoulder below the DE (SB); 5) Chamfer below the DE (CB). Digital impressions were acquired for all replicas, and restorations milled using Tetric CAD (Ivoclar Vivadent).

Identification of Potential Factors Associated with Cellulitis Following Lymphovenous Bypass Surgery in Breast Cancer Survivors.

Background:  Breast cancer is one of the most common types of cancer, with around 2.3 million cases diagnosed in 2020. One in five cancer patients develops chronic lymphedema caused by multifactorial triggers and treatment-related factors.

ViolHelp: results of a pilot study to identify potential warning signs and risk factors for self- and hetero-directed violence in the calls received by the Helplines of the Italian National Institute of Health.

Background: Self- and hetero-directed violence (SHDV) is a serious public health problem and a complex phenomenon, influenced by individual and environmental factors. SHDV may occur particularly in moments of personal, economic and/or social crisis. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the ISS-Helplines operators have perceived an increase in psychological distress and self-isolation among callers.