Impact of interventions on the quality of life of cancer patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis of longitudinal research.

The impact of cancer interventions has been conducted in several research due to the significant burden of this non-communicable disease. The interventions that played an important role in the improvement of the patient's quality of life (QoL) and health-related quality of life (HRQL) can be classified into two main groups: pharmaceutical and non-pharmacological methods. However, studies so far often analyze a specific group of interventions for specific types of cancer.

Effects of Three-Hour Wearing Personal Protective Equipment on Heart Rate Variability in Healthcare Workers for the Treatment of COVID-19 Patients.

Background: Personal protective equipment (PPE), an essential shield to protect healthcare workers (HCWs) during the COVID-19 pandemic, has been reported to affect their heart rate variability (HRV).

Objective: To investigate the changes of very short-term heart rate variability in HCWs after three hours of wearing PPE to treat COVID-19 patients at different working times and intensities, and related factors.

Methods: Sixty-five healthy HCWs were enrolled at the Number 2 Infectious Field Hospital (formed by Military Hospital 103), Vietnam.

Global Mapping of Interventions to Improve Quality of Life of Patients with Cancer: A Protocol for Literature Mining and Meta-Analysis.

Cancer led to nearly 10 million deaths in 2020, as reported by the World Health Organization (WHO). Consequently, both biomedical therapeutics and psychological interventions have been implemented to decrease the burden of this non-communicable disease. However, the research conducted so far has only described some aspects of these interventions, which may increase the health-related quality of life of cancer patients.

Emergency endoscopic surgery for pituitary apoplexy presenting as cerebral infarction in a limited resources condition: A case report.

Introduction And Importance: Pituitary apoplexy is defined as a sudden onset of neurologic deficit due to infarction or hemorrhage of the pituitary tumor. We report a case of emergency endoscopic surgery for pituitary apoplexy presenting as cerebral infarction due to ICA compression in a limited resources condition.

Case Presentation: A 38-year-old female presented with acute onset of severe headache, decreased level of consciousness, decreased visual acuity bilaterally, aphasia, and right hemiparesis.

The Association Between Femoral Artery Intima-Media Thickness and Serum Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Levels Among Newly Diagnosed Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.

Introduction: Endothelium dysfunction and decrease of incretin effects occur early in type 2 diabetes mellitus and these changes contribute to diabetic cardiovascular complications such as atherosclerosis, thick intima-media, coronary, and peripheral arterial diseases. In patients with diabetes, the femoral artery is a site of a high incidence of injury in peripheral vascular diseases, and atherosclerotic changes may appear earlier in the femoral artery compared to the carotid artery. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of increased femoral artery intima-media thickness (IMT) and atherosclerotic plaque and their correlation with serum glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) levels in newly-diagnosed patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Sensitivity and specificity of a commercial urinary ethyl glucuronide (ETG) test in heavy drinkers.

Introduction: To advance the use of alcohol metabolites as biomarkers in the context of alcohol research, the present study tested the sensitivity and specificity of a commercially available urinary ethyl glucuronide (uEtG) test (DrugConfirm Advanced 80hr EtG) in a clinical research context.

Methods: A community sample of heavy drinkers (N = 68) completed the 30-day Timeline Follow-Back (TLFB) interview and provided a urine sample for uEtG analysis. Analyses of sensitivity and specificity of the uEtG assay were conducted using the following outcomes: (a) past day drinking, (b) past day binge drinking (defined as ≥4 drinks for women and ≥5 drinks for men), (c) past 3-day drinking, and (d) past 3-day binge drinking.

Emerging Role of Circulating Tumor Cells in Gastric Cancer.

With over 1 million incidence cases and more than 780,000 deaths in 2018, gastric cancer (GC) was ranked as the 5th most common cancer and the 3rd leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide. Though several biomarkers, including carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), cancer antigen 19-9 (CA19-9), and cancer antigen 72-4 (CA72-4), have been identified, their diagnostic accuracies were modest. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs), cells derived from tumors and present in body fluids, have recently emerged as promising biomarkers, diagnostically and prognostically, of cancers, including GC.

Vectors and malaria transmission in deforested, rural communities in north-central Vietnam.

Background: Malaria is still prevalent in rural communities of central Vietnam even though, due to deforestation, the primary vector Anopheles dirus is uncommon. In these situations little is known about the secondary vectors which are responsible for maintaining transmission. Basic information on the identification of the species in these rural communities is required so that transmission parameters, such as ecology, behaviour and vectorial status can be assigned to the appropriate species.

Pharmacokinetics of the antimalarial drug piperaquine in healthy Vietnamese subjects.

We compared plasma maximum concentration (Cmax) and area under the concentration-time curve (AUC) of the antimalarial drug piperaquine in 26 healthy Vietnamese subjects after treatment with either a single oral dose of 500 mg (n = 6) or 1,000 mg (n = 6) of piperaquine phosphate and a three-day course of 500 mg of piperaquine/ day in the fasting state (n = 7) or with food (approximately 17 g fat) (n = 7). The geometric mean plasma Cmax and AUC((0-28)) was 2.8-fold (200 ng/mL versus 70 ng/mL) and 1.