Background: Delay in diagnosis of breast cancer is associated with a poorer survival and a pivotal contribution to this delayed diagnosis comes from patient delay in presenting at a clinic. Reasons involved must be evaluated in order to decrease this reducible delay.
Objectives: i) To evaluate the reasons for patient delay in diagnosis of breast cancer; ii) to investigate any association with other variables.
Materials And Methods: A 6 month cross sectional study (from July 2012 to Dec 2012), was carried out in Surgical and Oncology Units of Civil Hospital, Karachi. A total of 100 females diagnosed with breast cancer of any histological type were interviewed after informed consent and relevant data were collected. Due ethical clearance was obtained.
Results: Mean age was 47.5±12.1 years with a range from 25-77 years. Mean duration of delay was 5.13±4.8 months, from shortest 1 month to longest 36 months. Duration of delay was observed to be no delay (<1 month) in 28%, short delay (1-3 months) in 30% and long delay (>3 months) in 42% of patients. Considering the symptoms as "harmless" (39%) was the most frequent reason of delay followed by "temporary" (20%) and the "use of traditional methods" (12%). Most common reason for later approaches was an increase in the size of the lump (41%). Statistically significant association (p-value <0.05) of longer patient delay was obtained with being single, being illiterate, painless breast lump as the first symptom, negative family history of breast cancer and vague attribution of the symptoms.
Conclusions: Significant delay in approach to health care facility was observed in our study due to variable reasons given by women. Sufficient awareness regarding breast cancer, its symptoms and favorable effects of a timely diagnosis on prognosis must be imparted to our general population.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.7314/apjcp.2013.14.12.7409 | DOI Listing |
Port J Card Thorac Vasc Surg
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Thoracic surgeon, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milano, Italy.
The use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) in surgery is expanding as the medical community started adopting it, with good results, for procedures with high risk of respiratory and hemodynamic instability. This technique provided the possibility to reduce the number of patients previously considered inoperable because of these limitations. Thymic epithelial tumors (TETs) are rare neoplastic mediastinal lesions, with a reported incidence of 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Rep
January 2025
Division of Critical Care Medicine, Department of Emergency Medicine, Chung-Ang University Gwangmyeong Hospital, Gwangmyeong-si, Gyeonggi-do, Republic of Korea.
The optimal duration of on-scene cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) patients remains uncertain. Determining this critical time period requires outweighing the potential risks associated with intra-arrest transport while minimizing delays in accessing definitive hospital-based treatments. This study evaluated the association between on-scene CPR duration and 30-day neurologically favorable survival based on the transport time interval (TTI) in patients with OHCA.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPituitary
January 2025
Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Faculty of Medicine, Yeditepe University, Istanbul, Türkiye.
Sheehan syndrome (SS) is postpartum pituitary necrosis leading to severe hypopituitarism. Severe bleeding during delivery and postpartum period results in ischemic necrosis of the enlarged pituitary gland during pregnancy. The improved obstetrical care decreased the incidence of SS significantly, however SS should always be kept in mind in the etiologies of hypopitutarism in women which can be easily recognized by medical history of the patient.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSurgeon
January 2025
Department of Arthritis, Affiliated Hospital of Shandong Second Medical University, 2428 Yuhe Road, Kuiwen District, Weifang City, Shandong Province, 261031, PR China. Electronic address:
Hallux valgus (HV) is the most common foot deformity. It has various pathogenic factors that make its pathogenesis challenging to understand. As the disease progresses, patients experience amplified pain and decreased activities, significantly affecting their quality of life.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Prev Alzheimers Dis
February 2025
Department of Psychiatry, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA; Department of Neurology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA; School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, TX, USA.
Background: Recent disease-modifying treatments for Alzheimer's disease show promise to slow cognitive decline, but show no efficacy towards reducing symptoms already manifested.
Objectives: To investigate the efficacy of a novel noninvasive brain stimulation technique in modulating cognitive functioning in Alzheimer's dementia (AD).
Design: Pilot, randomized, double-blind, parallel, sham-controlled study SETTING: Clinical research site at UT Southwestern Medical Center PARTICIPANTS: Twenty-five participants with clinical diagnoses of AD were enrolled from cognition specialty clinics.
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