Publications by authors named "Suen M"

Aim: Artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots such as Chat Generative Pretrained Transformer-4 (ChatGPT-4) have made significant strides in generating human-like responses. Trained on an extensive corpus of medical literature, ChatGPT-4 has the potential to augment patient education materials. These chatbots may be beneficial to populations considering a diagnosis of colorectal cancer (CRC).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This study investigated how various cognitive tasks and visual challenges affect dual-task walking costs (DTWC) in younger and older adults. Twenty younger adults (Mean = 22.25, SD = 3.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Loneliness is common among older adults and may adversely influence their wellbeing. However, its relations with bereavement-related grief are underexamined. This study utilized network analysis to examine the symptom structures of grief reactions and loneliness and the relations among the symptoms by using secondary survey data from 300 Chinese bereaved older adults in Hong Kong.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Sepsis is a critical medical condition associated with high mortality for patients. Current pharmacological strategies for sepsis management or prevention had not achieved satisfactory results. The omega-3 fatty acids, with anti-inflammatory benefits, are considered to be promising agents for sepsis management/prevention.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The abnormal GGGGCC hexanucleotide repeat expansions in the C9orf72 gene are linked to severe neurodegenerative diseases like ALS and frontotemporal dementia.
  • The toxic RNA forms foci that trap RNA binding proteins, disrupting RNA processing and contributing to neurodegeneration.
  • The study details the crystal structure of a specific RNA G-quadruplex, providing insight into its role in neurological toxicity and offering a basis for future therapeutic developments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to explore how virtual reality (VR) combined with exercise affects sympathetic activity and pain perception, as a safer alternative to traditional pain medications.
  • Healthy volunteers underwent a cold pressor test while using a VR application, measuring how sympathetic activation and pain responses changed between VR-only and VR-facilitated exercise conditions.
  • Results showed higher sympathetic activity during VR-facilitated exercise, with pain perception decreasing significantly after the intervention, suggesting that this combination could be beneficial for pain management in settings like physical therapy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: Existing systematic reviews related to advance care planning (ACP) largely focus on specific groups and intervention efficacy or are limited to contextual factors. This research aims to identify the modifiable factors perceived by different users of ACP in healthcare settings and inform healthcare professionals about the factors affecting ACP practice.

Methods: Five English-language databases (ProQuest, PubMed, CINAHL Plus, Scopus, and Medline) and two Chinese-language databases (CNKI and NCL) were searched up to November 2022.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This systematic review examined the role of social environment in pre-death grief experiences of dementia caregivers. Ninety-three Chinese and English articles were included from a comprehensive search of empirical studies using nine databases. Six social environment domains were generated: the person with dementia, dyadic relationship, family members and the wider community, health and social care services, place of care, and social-cultural contexts.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Primary care plays a key role in the management of type 2 diabetes. Sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors have been demonstrated to reduce hospitalization and cardiac and renal complications. Tools that optimize management, including appropriate prescribing, are a priority for treating chronic diseases.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Guanine (G)-rich nucleic acid sequences can form diverse G-quadruplex structures located in functionally significant genome regions, exerting regulatory control over essential biological processes, including DNA replication in vivo. During the initiation of DNA replication, Cdc6 is recruited by the origin recognition complex (ORC) to target specific chromosomal DNA sequences. This study reveals that human Cdc6 interacts with G-quadruplex structure through a distinct region within the N-terminal intrinsically disordered region (IDR), encompassing residues 7-20.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - Migraine affects 9% to 18% of the global population, and existing preventative medications often show low effectiveness (40%-50% response rates) and have safety concerns.
  • - Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) are emerging as promising alternatives for migraine prevention, and a meta-analysis evaluated their efficacy compared to other FDA-approved treatments.
  • - The analysis of 40 studies revealed that high-dose EPA/DHA significantly reduces migraine frequency and severity, and shows the best acceptability compared to other interventions, suggesting it could be a top choice for prophylactic treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • This study aims to explore how virtual reality (VR) combined with exercise can affect pain perception and anxiety.
  • Conducted at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, the trial involved healthy participants who underwent a cold pressor test with and without VR-facilitated exercise.
  • Results showed that VR-facilitated exercise significantly reduced pain sensitivity, suggesting it could benefit patients with chronic pain or those needing physical therapy, although pain tolerance levels remained unchanged.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Sarcopenia frequently occurs with aging and leads to major adverse impacts on activities of daily living and quality of life in elderly individuals. Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (omega-3 PUFAs) supplements are considered promising therapeutic agents for sarcopenia management; however, the evidence remains inconsistent. We reviewed randomized controlled trials (RCTs) about omega-3 PUFA supplementation in patients with sarcopenia or in those at high risk for sarcopenia.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: The prevalence of postoperative emergence delirium in paediatric patients (pedED) following desflurane anaesthesia is considerably high at 50-80%. Although several pharmacological prophylactic strategies have been introduced to reduce the risk of pedED, conclusive evidence about the superiority of these individual regimens is lacking. The aim of the current study was to assess the potential prophylactic effect and safety of individual pharmacotherapies in the prevention of pedED following desflurane anaesthesia.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Although significant portion of women experience depressive symptoms during or after menopausal transition, there has been considerable controversy over the benefits of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and antidepressants due to insufficient evidence supporting the superiority of either treatment. This frequentist model based network meta-analysis (NMA) included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of menopausal depression symptoms management in menopausal women. Seventy RCTs involving a total of 18,530 women (mean age 62.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

COVID-19 are causing many psychological impacts and change many aspects of human life. Mental health services also experiencing changes because of COVID-19 outbreak. In Indonesia, COVID-19 outbreak prompted the rapid development of online mental health services.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Pediatric emergencies require specialized training for EMS clinicians, making augmented reality (AR) an innovative tool for crisis management training.
  • A study was conducted with 22 EMS clinicians using Chariot AR software on the ML1 headset, which created realistic simulations of pediatric medical emergencies like seizures and cardiac arrest.
  • Participants appreciated the training's realism and effectiveness in skill building but noted difficulties in merging AR elements with real-world scenarios and expressed a learning curve in using the technology.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In this investigation, purified attapulgite (ATT) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) were utilized to fabricate nanocomposite hydrogels and a xerogel, with a focus on studying the impact of minor additions of ATT on the properties of the PVA nanocomposite hydrogels and xerogel. The findings demonstrated that at a concentration of 0.75% ATT, the water content and gel fraction of the PVA nanocomposite hydrogel reached their peak.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: Menopausal symptoms are common in midlife women and have broad impacts on their daily functioning and quality of life. Black cohosh extracts have been widely used to relieve menopausal symptoms. However, the comparative benefits of different combined black cohosh regimens remain inconclusive.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Alzheimer's dementia (AD) is a key cause of global disability, and there is currently no effective treatment to slow its progression; neuro-inflammation is considered a potential cause.
  • A network meta-analysis of 52 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) found that long-term high-dose omega-3 fatty acids, specifically eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), showed significant potential in improving cognitive function in AD patients compared to other treatments.
  • The study noted similar acceptability and safety profiles for omega-3 supplements compared to placebo, and recommends future research on varying dosages of EPA to further assess its effects on cognitive decline.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Surgery remains the standard curative treatment for early-stage colorectal and upper gastrointestinal cancer. Reduced preoperative functional capacity, nutritional status, and psychological well-being are associated with poor postoperative outcomes. Prehabilitation aims to improve preoperative functional reserves through physical, nutritional, and psychological interventions.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Dementia, especially Alzheimer's disease, really affects how people think and live, and current medications don't do enough to help.
  • A study looked at noninvasive brain stimulation (NIBS) methods, which are new ways to help improve thinking skills in people with Alzheimer's through special electrical stimulation.
  • The results showed that a specific type of NIBS called tDCS seems to help improve thinking abilities without causing many side effects, but more studies are needed to be sure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: Injection of methylene blue to testis has been shown to have adverse effect in animal studies but it is still being used frequently as lymphatic mapping agent during lymphatic sparing varicocelectomy in adolescent varicoceles. We aim to report postoperative ultrasound changes after subaortic injection of methylene blue in human testes.

Study Design: A retrospective observational study of consecutive patients under 18 years old undergoing laparoscopic varicocelectomy from August 2017 to August 2021 was performed.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF