Feasibility and acceptability of a dengue self-monitoring system to reduce treatment delay in Malaysia: A single-centre pilot randomised controlled trial.

Objective: Most dengue cases are managed in an outpatient setting, where patients are advised to return to the clinic daily for monitoring. Some patients can develop severe dengue at home and fail to recognise the deterioration. An application called DengueAid was designed as a self-monitoring tool for patients to reduce delay in seeking timely treatment.

Utility and limitations of Hepascore and transient elastography to detect advanced hepatic fibrosis in HFE hemochromatosis.

Aspartate aminotransferase-to-platelet ratio index (APRI) and Fibrosis-4 Index (Fib4) have been validated against liver biopsy for detecting advanced hepatic fibrosis in HFE hemochromatosis. We determined the diagnostic utility for advanced hepatic fibrosis of Hepascore and transient elastography compared with APRI and Fib4 in 134 newly diagnosed HFE hemochromatosis subjects with serum ferritin levels > 300 µg/L using area under the receiver operator characteristic curve (AUROC) analysis and APRI- (> 0.44) or Fib4- (> 1.

Reduction of body iron in HFE-related haemochromatosis and moderate iron overload (Mi-Iron): a multicentre, participant-blinded, randomised controlled trial.

Background: The iron overload disorder hereditary haemochromatosis is most commonly caused by HFE p.Cys282Tyr homozygosity. In the absence of results from any randomised trials, current evidence is insufficient to determine whether individuals with hereditary haemochromatosis and moderately elevated serum ferritin, should undergo iron reduction treatment.

How should hyperferritinaemia be investigated and managed?

Hyperferritinaemia is commonly found in clinical practice. In assessing the cause of hyperferritinaemia, it is important to identify if there is true iron overload or not as hyperferritinaemia may be seen in other conditions such as excess alcohol intake, inflammation and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Assessment of whether the serum ferritin level is elevated or not should take into account body mass index, gender and age.

Should HFE p.C282Y homozygotes with moderately elevated serum ferritin be treated? A randomised controlled trial comparing iron reduction with sham treatment (Mi-iron).

Introduction: HFE p.C282Y homozygosity is the most common cause of hereditary haemochromatosis. There is currently insufficient evidence to assess whether non-specific symptoms or hepatic injury in homozygotes with moderately elevated iron defined as a serum ferritin (SF) of 300-1000 µg/L are related to iron overload.

One fifth of hospitalizations for peptic ulcer-related bleeding are potentially preventable.

Aim: To calculate the proportion of potentially preventable hospitalizations due to peptic ulcer disease (PUD), erosive gastritis (EG) or duodenitis (ED).

Methods: Retrospective cohort study using ICD-10 codes to identify all patients with upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage secondary to endoscopically proven PUD, EG or ED during the period from March 2007 to October 2010 in three major metropolitan hospitals in Melbourne, Australia. Patients were divided into "high risk" (those who would benefit from gastroprotection) and "not high risk" groups as defined by established guidelines.

Development of a stepping force analgesic meter for a rat arthritic model.

Behavioural assessment of experimental pain is an essential method for analysing and measuring pain levels. Rodent models, which are widely used in behavioural tests, are often subject to external forces and stressful manipulations that cause variability of the parameters measured during the experiment. Therefore, these parameters may be inappropriate as indicators of pain.

Calcitonin gene-related peptide stimulates mitosis in the tip of the rat gubernaculum in vitro and provides the chemotactic signals to control gubernacular migration during testicular descent.

Background/aims: We investigated whether calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) released from sensory genitofemoral nerve branches could stimulate rodent gubernacular growth and provide chemotactic signals for directing inguinoscrotal gubernaculum migration in vitro.

Materials And Methods: Neonatal rat gubernacula containing a developing cremaster sac (n = 60) were removed at days 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 (n = 10 per age; n = 5 per experimental group) and placed in organ culture for 24 hours with or without added CGRP (720 nmol/L). The gubernacula were stained for bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) immunohistochemistry.