Publications by authors named "Pak I"

Urinary tract infection is a frequent problem after stroke. Although prior scoring systems for UTI after stroke have been developed, we developed a simple scoring system for all types of stroke in our own. The study was designed on retrospective data.

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Emerging evidence suggests that personalized dietary supplement regimens can significantly influence lipid metabolism and cardiovascular risk. The efficacy of AI-guided dietary supplement prescriptions, compared with standard physician-guided prescriptions, remains underexplored. In a randomized, parallel-group pilot study, 70 patients aged 40-75 years with LDL-C levels between 70 and 190 mg/dL were enrolled.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the link between acute kidney injury (AKI) and outcomes in patients with spontaneous subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), a serious condition with a high risk of complications.
  • An analysis of over 76,000 SAH patients from 2010 to 2019 shows that about 14% developed AKI, with these patients being older and more likely to be obese compared to those without AKI.
  • Findings indicate that AKI is significantly associated with poorer functional outcomes, longer hospital stays, and higher in-hospital mortality, highlighting the need for early detection to improve recovery chances.
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Exploring the link between genetic polymorphisms in folate metabolism genes (MTHFR, MTR, and MTRR) and cardiovascular disease (CVD), this study evaluates the effect of B vitamin supplements (methylfolate, pyridoxal-5'-phosphate, and methylcobalamin) on homocysteine and lipid levels, potentially guiding personalized CVD risk management. In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, 54 patients aged 40-75 with elevated homocysteine and moderate LDL-C levels were divided based on MTHFR, MTR, and MTRR genetic polymorphisms. Over six months, they received either a combination of methylfolate, P5P, and methylcobalamin, or a placebo.

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Background: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) remains the most common type of DM and is associat-ed with disabling complications, reduced quality of life and reduced life expectancy. Satisfactory control of carbohydrate metabolism remains the key way to manage them.

Aim: To perform a retrospective analysis of carbohydrate metabolism (in terms of glycated hemoglobin - HbA), the prevalence of complications, and features of hypoglycemic and concomitant therapy in patients with type 2 DM.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study investigates the occurrence and effects of heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) in patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), finding that 0.22% of 76,387 SAH patients developed HIT between 2010 and 2019.
  • - HIT was linked to significantly longer hospital stays and worse functional outcomes, particularly in younger patients, those with higher SAH severity scores, and individuals on long-term anticoagulants.
  • - The findings highlight that SAH patients with HIT face a range of complications and comorbidities, emphasizing the need for increased clinical awareness regarding HIT in this patient group.
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For uniform random 4-colorings of graph edges with colors {a,b,c,d}, every two colors form a 1/2- percolation, and every two overlapping pairs of colors form independent 1/2-percolations. We show positive mutual dependence for pairs of colors ab,ac, and ad, and negative mutual dependence for pairs of colors ab,ac, and bc. The proof is based on a generalization of the Harris-Kleitman inequalities.

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This study aimed to determine the impact of a fiber supplement on body weight and composition in individuals with obesity with specific genetic polymorphisms. It involved 112 adults with obesity, each with at least one minor allele in the FTO, LEP, LEPR, or MC4R polymorphism. Participants were randomized to receive either a fiber supplement (glucomannan, inulin, and psyllium) or a placebo for 180 days.

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Emerging evidence suggests that PPARG gene polymorphisms may influence lipid metabolism and cardiovascular risk, with omega-3 fatty acids proposed to modulate these effects. This study aims to assess the effects of fish oil supplementation on cardiovascular markers among adults with PPARG gene polymorphisms in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. A cohort of 102 patients with LDL-C 70-190 mg/dL was randomized to receive either 2000 mg of omega-3 fatty acids or a placebo daily for 90 days.

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Background: Telehealth was an important strategy for maintaining continuity of cancer care during the coronavirus pandemic and has continued to play a role in outpatient care; however, it is unknown whether services are equally available across cancer hospitals.

Objective: This study aimed to assess telehealth availability at cancer hospitals for new and established patients with common cancers to contextualize the impact of access barriers to technology on overall access to health care.

Methods: We conducted a national cross-sectional secret shopper study from June to November 2020 to assess telehealth availability at cancer hospitals for new and established patients with colorectal, breast, and skin (melanoma) cancer.

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Determining the most appropriate cannula diameter for lipoaspirate harvesting is important, both in terms of the quality and composition of the material obtained, and the ease of practical use of the cannula. The size of the cannula is one of the main factors affecting the qualitative characteristics of the obtained lipoaspirate sample for further use of adipose tissue. The purpose of the investigation was to clinically and histomorphometrically determine the optimal cannula diameter for lipoaspirate samples collection from rabbit inguinal fat pad in an experimental study.

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CD44 is an extracellular matrix receptor implicated in cancer progression. CD44 increases the invasibility of skin (SF) and endometrial stromal fibroblasts (ESF) by cancer and trophoblast cells. We reasoned that the evolution of CD44 expression can affect both, the fetal-maternal interaction through CD44 in ESF as well as vulnerability to malignant cancer through expression in SF.

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Evolutionary profiling has been largely limited to the nucleotide level. Using consistent proteomic methods, we quantified proteomic and phosphoproteomic layers in fibroblasts from 11 common mammalian species, with transcriptomes as reference. Covariation analysis indicates that transcript and protein expression levels and variabilities across mammals remarkably follow functional role, with extracellular matrix-associated expression being the most variable, demonstrating strong transcriptome-proteome coevolution.

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Importance: Although there have been significant increases in the number of US residents insured through Medicaid, the ability of patients with Medicaid to access cancer care services is less well known.

Objective: To assess facility-level acceptance of Medicaid insurance among patients diagnosed with common cancers.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This national cross-sectional secret shopper study was conducted in 2020 in a random sample of Commission on Cancer-accredited facilities in the United States using a simulated cohort of Medicaid-insured adult patients with colorectal, breast, kidney, and melanoma skin cancer.

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The phase-shifting technique is one of the most important techniques in interferometry. The measurement accuracy of this technique is affected by several kinds of systematic and random errors like miscalibration, nonlinear response and tilt shift of the phase shifter, nonlinear recording, speckles, fringe fluctuation, etc. In this paper, a method for verification of all of these phase measurement error sources is proposed by introducing a grayscale image.

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Mouth rinsing has been proposed as a strategy to minimize performance decrements during Ramadan. We investigated the effect of 4 weeks of Ramadan on kicking performance in 27 Taekwondo athletes performing weekly Taekwondo Anaerobic Intermittent Kick Tests (TAIKT). The effects of a placebo, 6.

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Lower clearance of immune checkpoint inhibitors is a predictor of improved overall survival (OS) in patients with advanced cancer. We investigated a novel approach using machine learning to identify a baseline composite cytokine signature via clearance, which, in turn, could be associated with OS in advanced melanoma. Peripheral nivolumab clearance and cytokine data from patients treated with nivolumab in two phase III studies (n = 468 (pooled)) and another phase III study (n = 158) were used for machine-learning model development and validation, respectively.

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Purpose: The success of checkpoint blockade has led to a significant increase in the development of a broad range of immunomodulatory molecules for the treatment of cancer, including agonists against T-cell costimulatory receptors, such as OX40. Unlike checkpoint blockade, where complete and sustained receptor saturation may be required for maximal activity, the optimal dosing regimen and receptor occupancy for agonist agents is less well understood and requires further study.

Experimental Design: We integrated both preclinical and clinical biomarker data sets centered on dose, exposure, receptor occupancy, receptor engagement, and downstream pharmacodynamic changes to model the optimal dose and schedule for the OX40 agonist antibody BMS-986178 alone and in combination with checkpoint blockade.

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Tetrabasic lead sulfate (4BS) was used as a positive active material additive for lead-acid batteries, which affirmatively affected the performance of the battery. Herein, tetrabasic lead sulfate was synthesized from scrap lead paste that was formed through the production process of the lead-acid batteries. This solves the disposing problem of the scrap lead paste that is challenging in the production of the lead-acid batteries.

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Purpose: A detailed analysis of hepatitis C virus (HCV) resistance-associated substitutions (RASs) is required to understand why people fail direct-acting antiviral therapies. This study was conducted to assess RASs in an analysis of 2 trials evaluating the second-generation NS3/4A protease inhibitor grazoprevir (GZR) in combination with peginterferon/ribavirin.

Patients And Methods: From a total of 113 participants with HCV genotype 1 infection, RASs were evaluated in 25 patients who relapsed and 6 patients with on-treatment virologic breakthrough using consensus Sanger and clonal sequence analysis of NS3/NS4a genes, with in vitro testing of replicon mutants.

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Leptomeningeal metastasis is an uncommon but serious complication in patients with advanced cancers. Leptomeningeal metastasis is diagnosed in approximately 5% of the patients, most commonly among patients with cancers of breast and lung, melanoma, and gastrointestinal malignancies. Treatment goal is to improve survival and quality of the patients.

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Dengue is one of the most important mosquito-borne infections accounting for severe morbidity and mortality worldwide. Recently, the tetravalent chimeric live attenuated Dengue vaccine Dengvaxia® was approved for use in several dengue endemic countries. In general, live attenuated vaccines (LAV) are very efficacious and offer long-lasting immunity against virus-induced disease.

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Aim: To compare the quality of life (QoL) of patients with persistent atrial fibrillation (AF) and ischaemic heart disease after modified mini-maze (MM) procedure or pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) using radiofrequency ablation (RFA) with patients in the control group (coronary artery bypass graft [CABG]) alone.

Methods: In this prospective randomised study, we included 95 patients with persistent AF and coronary heart disease who underwent open-heart surgery combined with intraoperative irrigated RFA (irrRFA). Patients were randomly assigned to three groups: CABG and PVI using irrRA (CABG+PVI, n=31), CABG and MM procedure using irrRA (CABG+MM, n=30), and isolated CABG (CABG alone, n=34).

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The analysis of results of screening (n = 3208; sexually active citizen aged from 18 to 59 years) was carried out to detect oncogene types of human papilloma virus in using qualitative (1150 females and 720 males) and quantitative (polymerase chain reaction in real-time (843 females and 115 males) techniques. The human papilloma virus of high oncogene type was detected in 65% and 68.4% of females and in 48.

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Elbasvir is an investigational NS5A inhibitor with in vitro activity against multiple HCV genotypes. Antiviral activity of elbasvir was measured in replicons derived from wild-type or resistant variants of genotypes 1a, 1b, and 3. The barrier to resistance was assessed by the number of resistant colonies selected by exposure to various elbasvir concentrations.

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