Publications by authors named "Shaukat A"

Importance: A substantial number of individuals worldwide experience long COVID, or post-COVID condition. Other postviral and autoimmune conditions have a female predominance, but whether the same is true for long COVID, especially within different subgroups, is uncertain.

Objective: To evaluate sex differences in the risk of developing long COVID among adults with SARS-CoV-2 infection.

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Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth (TH) has gained increasing relevance in colorectal patient care, prompting an audit of the TH clinic at a tertiary colorectal unit. This study evaluated telephone-based consultations' clinical efficacy and diagnostic thresholds for new lower gastrointestinal (LGI) bleeding referrals. We conducted a quality assurance audit of the per rectal (PR) bleeding TH clinic at Northern Hospital Victoria, evaluating new LGI bleeding referrals.

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Introduction: Thermal ablative methods (such as argon plasma coagulation (APC) and soft tip snare coagulation (STSC) are commonly used to treat polyp margins. We aim to appraise the current literature and compare clinical outcomes between patients with treated (with APC vs. STSC) and non-treated endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) margins.

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T-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (T-ALL) is a subtype of acute lymphoblastic leukemia characterized by the proliferation of abnormal T-cell precursors. Nelarabine, a purine analog, has been approved as a targeted therapy for patients with refractory or relapsed T-ALL. This study aims to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Nelarabine, either as monotherapy or in combination with other therapies, in treating T-ALL.

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Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) surveillance is recommended by liver professional societies but lacks broad acceptance by several primary care and cancer societies due to limitations in the existing data. We convened a diverse multidisciplinary group of cancer screening experts to evaluate current and future paradigms of HCC prevention and early detection using a rigorous Delphi panel approach. The experts had high agreement on twenty-one statements about primary prevention, HCC surveillance benefits, HCC surveillance harms, and the evaluation of emerging surveillance modalities.

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Introduction: Despite reports indicating that polyps proximal to the splenic flexure have higher rates of metachronous colorectal adenocarcinoma (CRC), the role of adenoma location on surveillance recommendations remains unclear. This study aimed to analyze the association between index polyp location and postcolonoscopy CRC among participants of the Minnesota Colon Cancer Control Study.

Methods: The Minnesota Colon Cancer Control Study randomized 46,551 patients 50-80 years to usual care, annual, or biennial screening with fecal occult-blood testing.

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Endometriosis is a chronic inflammatory, estrogenic disorder caused by endometrial tissue growth places other than uterine lumen, resulting in infertility and severe pelvic pain. Thymol, an extract of , processes diverse biological properties, including anti-inflammatory, local anesthetic, decongestant, and antiseptic effects. However, the efficacy of thymol in treating endometriosis has still not been explored.

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Aims: Patients with a reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) following an acute myocardial infarction (MI) are considered to be at risk of progressive adverse cardiac remodelling which can lead to the development of heart failure and death. The early addition of a sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor to standard treatment may delay or prevent progressive adverse remodelling in these patients.

Methods And Results: We performed a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicentre trial using cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), in patients with left ventricular systolic dysfunction following MI.

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Introduction: Failure to document colonoscopy follow-up needs postpolypectomy can lead to delayed detection of colorectal cancer (CRC). Automating the update of a unified follow-up date in the electronic health record (EHR) may increase the number of patients with guideline-concordant CRC follow-up screening.

Methods: Prospective pre-post design study of an automated rules engine-based tool using colonoscopy pathology results to automate updates to documented CRC screening due dates was performed as an operational initiative, deployed enterprise-wide May 2023.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the link between atherosclerosis (plaque buildup in arteries) and types of myocardial ischemia (insufficient blood flow to the heart) in patients without significant coronary artery blockage (INOCA).
  • It employs advanced invasive tests to assess coronary microvascular function and quantifies plaque burden using the Gensini score, which takes into account the severity of artery blockage.
  • Findings reveal that higher Gensini scores correlate with poorer microvascular function, and different INOCA endotypes (like microvascular angina and vasospastic angina) show variations in plaque scores, indicating the complexity of heart conditions in patients without obvious artery blockage.
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: Vibration-Controlled Transient Elastography (VCTE) with FibroScan is a non-invasive, reliable diagnostic tool for Metabolic-Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease (MASLD), enabling early detection and management to prevent severe liver diseases. VCTE's ease and portability suit primary care, streamlining referrals, promoting lifestyle changes, reducing costs, and benefiting underserved communities. : Studies on point-of-care VCTE were systematically reviewed, followed by meta-analysis using a random-effects model.

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The increased metastatic ability of small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) necessitates the identification of new prognostic biomarkers for clinical evaluation during the disease course. Our previous research highlighted the clinical relevance of transcription factor JunB (JUNB), C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4 (CXCR4), and programmed cell death 1 ligand 1 (PD-L1) in breast and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. In the current study, we examined these biomarkers in circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and plasma-derived exosomes from 100 treatment-naïve SCLC patients.

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Background: Colonoscopy remains the predominant diagnostic modality for colorectal cancer (CRC), as the diagnostic performance of tumor markers in alone, particularly in the early stages of the disease, is limited. This study sought to develop a diagnostic model for CRC that integrated various laboratory parameters.

Methods: One hundred patients with CRC were assigned to an experimental group while 114 with benign colorectal diseases and 101 healthy individuals were assigned to a control group.

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Psoriasis, an autoimmune inflammatory disease characterized by hyperproliferation of keratinocytes, affects 0.2-4.8% of the global population.

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Background And Aims: Pouchitis is an inflammatory condition affecting the ileal pouch in patients' status after ileal pouch anal anastomosis (IPAA). This affects a significant portion of IPAA patients. Our aim was to study the prevalence of active pouch symptoms among currently treated outpatients with endoscopic pouchitis and understand patients' perspective of disease control and quality of life.

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Inorganic nanoparticles can be assembled into superlattices with unique optical and magnetic properties arising from collective behavior. Protein cages can be utilized to guide this assembly by encapsulating nanoparticles and promoting their assembly into ordered structures. However, creating ordered multi-component structures with different protein cage types and sizes remains a challenge.

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Introduction: Risk factors for serrated polyps (SPs) are not well understood.

Methods: Multivariable analyses of data from a multicenter colonoscopy-based study estimated odds ratios for having either a sessile serrated lesion or traditional serrated adenoma according to participant characteristics.

Results: Six thousand seventy-eighty participants were included in the analyses (565 with either a sessile serrated lesion or traditional serrated adenoma).

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Article Synopsis
  • Automated segmentation is crucial for computer-aided diagnosis in identifying abnormalities in biomedical images, but challenges exist due to variations in color, texture, and shape.
  • Traditional semantic segmentation methods tend to be complex and slow because they require deeper neural networks, highlighting the need for more efficient techniques.
  • This article presents a modified segmentation model using EfficientNet-B3 with UNet, achieving improved accuracy for non-melanoma skin cancer segmentation, increasing average class accuracy from 79% to 83% and overall accuracy from 85% to 94%.
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Article Synopsis
  • In 2013, the SPIRIT group introduced guidelines to enhance reporting quality in randomized controlled trials (RCTs), specifically targeting studies on endoscopic colorectal cancer screening.
  • A review of five RCTs showed adherence to SPIRIT guidelines between 82.4% to 92.2%, with significant gaps in trial registration and informed consent reporting.
  • Overall, 37% of participants invited to screening actually underwent the procedure, highlighting discrepancies in protocol adherence, particularly with one trial showing notably lower rates.
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Background: Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) is the most common cause of healthcare-associated infections in US hospitals with 15%-30% of patients experiencing recurrence. The aim of our randomized, double-blind clinical trial was to assess the efficacy of capsule-delivered fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) versus placebo in reducing recurrent diarrhea and CDI recurrence. The secondary aim was FMT safety assessment.

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Poultry meat, an essential source of animal protein, requires stringent safety and quality measures to address public health concerns and growing international attention. This review examines both direct and indirect factors that compromise poultry meat quality in intensive farming systems. It highlights the integration of rapid and micro-testing with traditional methods to assess meat safety.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study explored the impact of aspirin on specific bacterial groups linked to inflammatory bowel diseases and colorectal cancer in the mouth.
  • A total of 50 healthy participants aged 50-75 were given either aspirin or a placebo for six weeks, and their oral bacterial profiles were analyzed before and after the treatment.
  • Results showed different changes in bacterial abundance between the aspirin and placebo groups, indicating that aspirin might influence the oral microbiome, warranting further research with more advanced methods like metagenomic sequencing.
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