Antibiotic prescribing practices of medical doctors in a resource-limited setting and the influence of individual perceptions and stewardship support: a survey in three tertiary hospitals in Vietnam.

Objectives: To understand antibiotic prescribing and influencing factors to inform antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) interventions to reduce unwanted consequences of antibiotic use in hospitals in Vietnam, a lower-middle-income country in Asia.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of doctors at three tertiary hospitals using non-probability convenience sampling, through a paper-based (Hospitals 1 and 2) or electronic (Hospital 3) survey. Questions included items on perceptions regarding antibiotic resistance and AMS, prescribing practices, knowledge, demographics and training.

Review of antibiotic prescriptions as part of antimicrobial stewardship programmes: results from a pilot implementation at two provincial-level hospitals in Viet Nam.

Objectives: To investigate the feasibility of retrospective prescription-based review and to describe the antibiotic prescribing patterns to provide information for an antimicrobial stewardship programme in Viet Nam.

Methods: This study was conducted in two provincial-level hospitals between February and April 2020. Reviews were done by a clinical team consisting of leaders/senior doctors of each ward to assess the optimal level (optimal/adequate/suboptimal/inadequate/not assessable) of antibiotic prescriptions.

Impact of Infection Control on Prevalence of Surgical Site Infections in a Large Tertiary Care Hospital in Haiphong City.

Few point prevalence surveys (PPS) have been conducted in Vietnam on Surgical Site Infections (SSI) or antimicrobial use in surgery. The objective of this study was to evaluate the PPSs of SSI before and after implementation of antibiotic stewardship programs (ASP) and infection control (IC) in a Vietnamese tertiary care hospital. ASP and IC practices were implemented in operating rooms and the orthopedic department, including antibiotic training, skin preparation, hand hygiene, gloves and sterile instruments, and SSIs risk factors.

Persistent homology of convection cycles in network flows.

Convection is a well-studied topic in fluid dynamics, yet it is less understood in the context of network flows. Here, we incorporate techniques from topological data analysis (namely, persistent homology) to automate the detection and characterization of convective flows (also called cyclic or chiral flows) over networks, particularly those that arise for irreversible Markov chains. As two applications, we study convection cycles arising under the PageRank algorithm and we investigate chiral edge flows for a stochastic model of a bimonomer's configuration dynamics.

Assessing feasibility of establishing antimicrobial stewardship programmes in two provincial-level hospitals in Vietnam: an implementation research study.

Objectives: To investigate the feasibility of establishing hospital-based antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) programmes comprising action-planning, educational interventions and data feedback in two provincial-level hospitals in Viet Nam.

Design And Setting: This was an implementation research using participatory action process and existing resources from the Duke Antimicrobial Stewardship Outreach Network with local adjustments. A national stakeholder meeting and Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) analysis were conducted to identify gaps and potential interventions.

Assessment and Simplification of Treatment Eligibility Among Patients With Chronic Hepatitis B Infection in Vietnam.

Background: Treatment eligibility and the accuracy of its simplified criteria have been poorly documented in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection worldwide, especially in low- and middle-income countries.

Methods: From a cohort of HBV-infected patients in Vietnam, we assessed the proportion of patients eligible for treatment using the national guidelines based on reference tests (HBV DNA quantification and FibroScan); and the accuracy of simplified treatment criteria free from HBV DNA and FibroScan (Treatment Eligibility in Africa for the Hepatitis B Virus [TREAT-B] score and simplified World Health Organization [WHO] criteria) to select patients for antiviral therapy using the national guidelines as a reference.

Results: We analyzed 400 consecutive treatment-naïve HBV-monoinfected patients: 49% males, median age 38 years (range, 18-86), 32% hepatitis B e antigen-positive, median HBV DNA 4.

Depression and Anxiety as Key Factors Associated With Quality of Life Among Lung Cancer Patients in Hai Phong, Vietnam.

Cancer is a leading cause of death. People living with cancer experience a variety of symptoms that might profoundly affect their quality of life (QoL). The study aims to identify factors associated with the QoL of patients with lung cancer at the oncology department of Viet Tiep Hospital, Hai Phong city, Vietnam in 2018.

Improved survival in patients with breast rhabdoid tumors with multi-agent adjuvant chemotherapy combined with irradiation.

Purpose: Malignant rhabdoid tumors (MRT) have poor prognoses. Breast MRT is extremely rare; only three cases have been documented, with a mean prognosis of 7 months. Multi-agent chemotherapy with mastectomy and irradiation, as used in this case, may extend survival in breast MRT.

Oophorectomy and tamoxifen adjuvant therapy in premenopausal Vietnamese and Chinese women with operable breast cancer.

Purpose: In 1992, the Early Breast Cancer Trialists' Collaborative Group reported that a meta-analysis of six randomized trials in European and North American women begun from 1948 to 1972 demonstrated disease-free and overall survival benefit from adjuvant ovarian ablation. Approximately 350,000 new cases of breast cancer are diagnosed annually in premenopausal Asian women who have lower levels of estrogen than western women.

Patients And Methods: From 1993 to 1999, we recruited 709 premenopausal women with operable breast cancer (652 from Vietnam, 47 from China) to a randomized clinical trial of adjuvant oophorectomy and tamoxifen (20 mg orally every day) for 5 years or observation and this combined hormonal treatment on recurrence.