Publications by authors named "Somai M"

Otherwise known as mediastinal emphysema, pneumomediastinum (PNM) in connective tissue diseases is a rare clinical entity. Few cases have been described in the literature. In fact, it only exceptionally complicates the evolution of connective tissue diseases.

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Large language models (LLMs) have emerged as a popular resource for generating information relevant to a user query. Such models are created through a resource-intensive training process utilizing an extensive, static corpus of textual data. This static nature results in limitations for adoption in domains with rapidly changing knowledge, proprietary information, and sensitive data.

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  • The study aimed to evaluate the renal response to three different immunosuppressive treatment protocols for patients with proliferative lupus nephritis in Tunisia over a 23-year period.
  • The findings revealed that 94.1% of patients on the High CYP regimen achieved a renal response, significantly outperforming both the Low CYP (67.5%) and MMF (61.9%) regimens.
  • The High CYP treatment was linked to better outcomes in terms of renal response, although it also had a higher incidence of severe adverse events compared to the other two protocols.
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Background: The assessment of nail changes in connective tissue diseases (CTD) has been rarely explored in previous studies. The use of dermoscopy to study vascular changes in nailfolds is an interesting diagnostic technique. The aim of the study was to describe the epidemiological, clinical, and dermoscopic features of nail lesions in CTD.

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Objectives: Transitions of care are pivotal, vulnerable times as patients are discharged from the hospital. Telephonic care coordination is standard care, but labor intensive. We implemented a patient postdischarge digital engagement (PDDE) program to scale coordination.

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Background: Amyloidosis is an uncommon disorder characterized by the extracellular deposition of amorphous and insoluble proteins in an abnormal fibrillary configuration. Mammary amyloidosis is an unusual and easily overlooked diagnosis with an ambivalent presentation that could mimic breast cancer.

Case Report: We here report the case of 60-year-old Caucasian woman who presented to our surgical oncology department for clinically and radiologically suspicious breast mass.

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Introduction: Infectious uveitis (IU), one of the main causes of ocular inflammation in Tunisia, has various etiologies and clinical presentations.

Aim: To report the causes and clinical features of IU in a Tunisian population.

Methods: Patients with IU referred to our department from February 2019 to January 2022 were included in a retrospective observational study.

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  • The study analyzed patient experience data from 19,465 telemedicine visits to evaluate how effectively virtual visits addressed medical needs.
  • Factors such as older age, race (specifically Black patients), and using telephone vs. video calls were linked to lower odds of addressing medical concerns during virtual visits.
  • Overall, the findings indicate that telehealth is generally accepted but shows variability in effectiveness based on patient demographics and medical specialties.
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Objectives: While patient interest in telehealth increases, clinicians' perspectives may influence longer-term adoption. We sought to identify facilitators and barriers to continued clinician incorporation of telehealth into practice.

Methods: A cross-sectional 24-item web-based survey was emailed to 491 providers with ≥50 video visits (VVs) within an academic health system between 1 March 2020 and 31 December 2020.

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  • - Metformin, a diabetes medication, shows potential anti-aging effects and may influence the onset of dementia, although previous studies have yielded mixed results.
  • - Using a causal inference approach in clinical trials, the study found that metformin use is linked to lower overall mortality and a reduced risk of developing dementia compared to another diabetes drug, sulfonylureas.
  • - Additionally, laboratory tests revealed that metformin can decrease levels of two proteins associated with Alzheimer's disease in brain cells, suggesting it could protect against dementia through mechanisms other than just controlling blood sugar levels.
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  • Scientists are creating extensive omics datasets to study diseases, but most of these datasets primarily represent European populations.
  • Recent research that includes patients from Asia and the Middle East has identified unique genetic markers related to the severity of COVID-19.
  • This shows the importance of incorporating diverse and underrepresented populations in research, which can enhance our overall understanding of health and disease.
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Telemedicine has been an essential form of care since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, telemedicine may exacerbate disparities for populations with limited digital literacy or access, such as older adults, racial minorities, patients of low income, rural residences, or limited English proficiency. From March 2020 to March 2022, this retrospective cohort study analyzed the use of in-person, phone/message, and telemedical care at a single tertiary care center in an oncology department.

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Rapid and early detection of pathologies for screening purposes is not always easy with traditional methods. New low-cost optical techniques that are suitable for preventive detection and, more specifically, for developing countries must be developed. The objective of this work is to propose UV-VIS fluorescence of hair as a promising technique for a simple and rapid preliminary diagnosis of type II diabetes.

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Importance: Health care systems have implemented remote patient monitoring (RPM) programs to manage patients with COVID-19 at home, but the associations between participation and outcomes or resource utilization are unclear.

Objective: To assess whether an RPM program for COVID-19 is associated with lower or higher likelihood of hospitalization and whether patients who are admitted present earlier or later for hospital care.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This retrospective, observational, cohort study of RPM was performed at Froedtert & Medical College of Wisconsin Health Network, an academic health system in southeastern Wisconsin.

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Objective: Use the RE-AIM framework to examine the implementation of a patient contextual data (PCD) Tool designed to share patients' needs, values, and preferences with care teams ahead of clinical encounters.

Materials & Methods: Observational study that follows initial PCD Tool scaling across primary care at a Midwestern academic health network. Program invitations, enrollment, patient submissions, and clinician views were tracked over a 1-year study period.

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Although telemedicine has been an important conduit for clinical care during the COVID-19 pandemic, not all patients have been able to meaningfully participate in this mode of health care provision. Challenges with accessing telemedicine using consumer technology can interfere with the ability of patients and clinicians to meaningfully connect and lead to significant investments in time by clinicians and their staff. In this narrative case, we identify issues related to patients' use of technology, make comparisons between telehealth adoption and the deployment of electronic health records, and propose that building intuitive and supported digital care experiences for patients is required to make virtual care sustainable.

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Importance: Telemedicine provides patients access to episodic and longitudinal care. Policy discussions surrounding future support for telemedicine require an understanding of factors associated with successful video visits.

Objective: To assess patient and clinician factors associated with successful and with failed video visits.

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Introduction: to describe the epidemiological, clinical, therapeutic and evolving characteristics of Behçet´s disease and identify prognostic factors.

Methods: we have realized a retrospective, single-center study, conducted over a period of 26 years and including 130 patients presenting Behçet´s disease and hospitalized in an Internal Medicine Department.

Results: the mean age of the Behçet´s disease at onset was 30.

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The role of the prokineticin 2 pathway in human reproduction, olfactory bulb morphogenesis, and gonadotropin-releasing hormone secretion is well established. Recent studies have highlighted the implication of di/oligogenic inheritance in this disorder. In the present study, we aimed to identify the genetic mechanisms that could explain incomplete penetrance in hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (HH).

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  • The telemedicine industry has rapidly expanded, especially due to the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the need to understand the socioeconomic factors influencing its use.
  • This study focuses on the Milwaukee area, comparing telemedicine users with non-users by examining demographics, insurance status, and socioeconomic data from local census information.
  • Results show younger, predominantly White individuals with private insurance are more likely to use video telemedicine, while older, often Black patients with public insurance prefer phone visits; education levels also play a key role in adoption rates.
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Osteonecrosis in antiphospholipid syndrome is a diagnostic challenge for clinicians. Early diagnosis and intervention are important for better prognosis.

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Depression and anxiety disorders are prevalent mental health conditions; yet they are often unrecognized, under-addressed and/or under-treated, and specialty treatment for these conditions is oftentimes difficult to access. By acting either as a bridge to therapy or as a form of therapy, digital tools, such as those that provide internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy (iCBT), may help clinicians support their patients' mental health needs. At one academic health system, a digital mental health program was deployed in primary care and outpatient behavioral health programs to help patients meet needs identified through screening or clinical visits.

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  • Patient contextual data (PCD) are often missing in electronic health records, which hinders personalized care; a digital tool (PatientWisdom) was tested to improve communication and patient activation by collecting patient preferences and life circumstances.
  • In a 2019 randomized controlled trial with 301 participants, those who received facilitated outreach to use the PCD tool showed a significant increase in positive communication ratings from healthcare providers compared to those who received standard pre-visit emails.
  • However, while the tool enhanced certain communication scores, it did not significantly affect overall patient activation as measured by the Patient Activation Measure (PAM) between the two groups.
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We should keep in mind slowly growing malignancies when the lesion is located close to the synovial regions of the extremities. The diagnosis of certainty of myxofibrosarcoma is histological and is based on the demonstration of the myxoid matrix, fibroblastic cells with a curvilinear arrangement of the vessels.

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