Association between serum urate levels and all-cause mortality, cardiovascular and renal outcomes among gout patients in Singapore.

Objectives: We investigated the longitudinal association between Serum Urate (SU) level and Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI), Stroke, End Stage Renal Failure (ESRF) and all-cause mortality.

Design: We conducted a retrospective hospital-based cohort study of individuals with gout managed in specialist outpatient clinics. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to estimate HR and 95% CI, with adjustments for potential confounders.

Effectiveness of high-intensity inspiratory muscle training, and resistance and aerobic exercise for cardiovascular health in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (HIRAC-COPD): a randomized controlled trial protocol.

Background: Cardiovascular diseases are among the most common and clinically significant comorbidities of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Exercise has been shown to reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases, and high-intensity inspiratory muscle training (H-IMT) has emerged as a promising intervention for improving arterial stiffness in individuals with COPD. Yet, there is limited evidence from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) regarding the impact of H-IMT alone or in combination with exercise on reducing arterial stiffness in COPD.

Dulce Digital-Me: results of a randomized comparative trial of static versus adaptive digital interventions for Latine adults with diabetes.

Objective: To compare the effectiveness of a static, text-based diabetes education and support intervention (Dulce Digital, DD) versus a dynamic approach with personalized feedback and goal setting (Dulce Digital-Me, DD-Me) in improving diabetes outcomes.

Design And Methods: Comparative effectiveness trial in 310 Latine adults with poorly managed type 2 diabetes in a Federally Qualified Health Center in Southern California, randomized to DD, DD-Me-Auto (algorithm-driven text-based personalized feedback), or DD-Me-Tel (coach delivered personalized feedback). Changes in HbA1c (primary outcome), low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, systolic blood pressure, and patient-reported outcomes were examined across 6 and 12 months, with the primary comparison being DD versus DD-Me (combined automated and telephonic).

Associations between endogenous sex hormones and multisite chronic musculoskeletal pain.

Background: Sex-differences in pain perception have been documented; however, the role of sex hormones in chronic musculoskeletal pain (CMP) remains unclear. Therefore, this study investigated whether sex hormones and sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) are associated with CMP.

Methods: We utilised data from the UK Biobank (n=357 424; females: 51.

Global collaboration between platform trials in surgery and anaesthesia.

Large, randomised trials are the bedrock of evidence-based medicine, but the resources required to complete such trials greatly limit the number of important clinical questions that can be addressed within a reasonable period of time. Adaptive platform trials can identify effective, ineffective, or harmful treatments faster. These trials have been shown to deliver rapid evidence through the COVID-19 pandemic and are now being adopted across surgery and anaesthesia, with many opportunities for surgeons, anaesthetists, and other perioperative physicians to conduct and collaborate in platform trials.

Quality and Safety Indicators for Care Transitions by Older Adults: A Scoping Review.

Objective: To identify quality and safety indicators routinely used to monitor, evaluate, and improve care transitions for older adults globally.

Design: A scoping literature review.

Setting And Participants: This review identified indicators used internationally to monitor and evaluate the quality and safety of care transitions by older adults.

Longitudinal analysis of lifetime stressors and depression: Exploring intersectionality and tailoring social support for better mental health in a community population cohort.

Aims: Health inequalities studies need to understand how individuals simultaneously defined by several socioeconomic factors differ from others when facing a series of stressors across the lifespan in the risk of major depression (MD). Theoretical efforts, as well as empirical studies, have suggested a pertinent role of social support in mental health outcomes. However, little is known about which forms of social support would alleviate the negative impact of MD vulnerability in self-rated mental health (SRMH) across different socioeconomic groups.

The association between personality traits and myocardial infarction- A European cross-sectional study.

Background: Myocardial infarction (MI) is a serious condition that increases with age. It is valuable to identify the reasons why some are affected, and possibly, why different personality traits can be associated with an increased or decreased risk for myocardial infarction.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional study based on wave 7 data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE).

Associations of intraoperative end-tidal CO levels with postoperative outcome-secondary analysis of a worldwide observational study.

Background: Patients receiving intraoperative ventilation during general anesthesia often have low end-tidal CO (etCO). We examined the association of intraoperative etCO levels with the occurrence of postoperative pulmonary complications (PPCs) in a conveniently-sized international, prospective study named 'Local ASsessment of Ventilatory management during General Anesthesia for Surgery' (LAS VEGAS).

Methods: Patients at high risk of PPCs were categorized as 'low etCO' or 'normal to high etCO' patients, using a cut-off of 35 mmHg.

Trends in Opioid Use Disorder in the Veterans Health Administration, 2005-2022.

Importance: Given the personal and social burdens of opioid use disorder (OUD), understanding time trends in OUD prevalence in large patient populations is key to planning prevention and treatment services.

Objective: To examine trends in the prevalence of OUD from 2005 to 2022 overall and by age, sex, and race and ethnicity.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This serial cross-sectional study included national Veterans Health Administration (VHA) electronic medical record data from the VHA Corporate Data Warehouse.

Adherence to Wearing Therapeutic Footwear Among People at High-Risk of Diabetes-Related Foot Ulcers in Jordan.

This study aimed to investigate the levels of adherence to wearing therapeutic footwear, and the factors associated, among people at high-risk of diabetes-related foot ulcers (DFUs) in Jordan. This was a secondary analysis of data from a multi-centre cross-sectional study of participants at high-risk of DFU in Jordan who had therapeutic footwear. Participants had socio-demographic, health, limb, and psychosocial variables collected, plus self-reported their proportion of adherence time wearing therapeutic footwear on an average day (excluding sleeping time) using a visual analogue scale.

Identifying the key regulators orchestrating Epstein-Barr virus reactivation.

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infects more than 90% of the human population worldwide and establishes lifelong infection in hosts by switching between latent and lytic infection. EBV latency can be reactivated under appropriate conditions, leading to expression of the viral lytic genes and production of infectious progeny viruses. EBV reactivation involves crosstalk between various factors and signaling pathways, and the subsequent complicated virus-host interplays determine whether EBV continues to propagate.

Implementation and evaluation of the impact of virtual workshops of voluntary educational assistance among occupational health and safety students: Case study, Ardabil, Iran.

Background: The advancements and growth in information and communication technology have created new paths in the process of teaching and learning, leading to a shift in focus towards the use of electronic resources and digital teaching platforms. This study aimed to examine the impact of virtual workshops as a tool for improving learning among industrial health and safety students.

Materials And Methods: This study was a descriptive-analytical study and was conducted on 104 students of occupational health and safety at the University of Medical Sciences in Ardebil during the course of a year.

Patients' perspectives regarding health professionals contacting their relatives about genetic risk directly (with patient consent).

Genetic testing of blood relatives of individuals at high risk of dominant conditions has significant preventive health benefits. However, cascade testing uptake is <50%. Research shows increased testing uptake when health professionals (HPs) contact at-risk relatives directly, with patient consent.

Health professionals contacting patients' relatives directly about genetic risk (with patient consent): current clinical practice and perspectives.

Genetic testing can provide risk information to individuals and their blood relatives. Cascade testing uptake by at-risk relatives is <50%, with suboptimal family communication a key barrier to risk notification. The practice of health professionals (HPs) directly contacting relatives (with patient consent) to assist with risk notification has significant international support, but little is known about the practices and views of HPs in Australia.

The Australian clinical trial landscape: Perceptions of rural, regional and remote health service capacity and capability.

Background: Access to clinical trials is limited for rural, regional and remote Australians, adding to the current health inequity between rural and metropolitan populations. The Australasian Teletrial Model was developed to bring clinical trials "closer to home". In 2020, the Australian Teletrial Program was funded to expand and support the uptake of the model across six Australian states and territories.

Willingness to pay for a mosquito bite prevention 'forest pack' in Cambodia: results of a discrete choice experiment.

Background: Progress towards malaria elimination in the Greater Mekong Subregion has left much of the residual malaria transmission concentrated among forest-exposed populations for whom traditional domicile focused malaria vector control is unlikely to be effective. New tools to protect these populations from vector biting outdoors are needed.

Methods: Alongside implementation research on the deployment of a "forest pack" consisting of a volatile pyrethroid (transfluthrin)-based spatial repellent (VPSR), a picaridin-based topical repellent and etofenprox treatment of clothing, an assessment was made of participant willingness to pay for the forest packs and variants of the packs using a discrete choice experiment.

Effects of elastic therapeutic taping on reducing drooling in children with neurological disorders: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials.

Background & Aims: Effective treatment for anterior drooling in children with neurological disorders can lead to improved social interactions, reduced physical complications such as perioral infections, and enhanced quality of life for both patients and their parents. Elastic therapeutic taping (ETT) has emerged a novel intervention for drooling, but its evidence was limited. This study systematically reviewed the effectiveness of ETT on reducing anterior drooling in children with neurological disorders.

Complications of total ankle arthroplasty versus ankle arthrodesis: A systematic review and meta-analysis with trial sequential analysis.

Background: Ankle osteoarthritis affects 1-3 % of all adults. Contemporary evidence is equivocal when comparing the outcomes and complications of TAA and AA. This review aims to compare the complications between TAA and AA to provide surgeons with an additional perspective when managing ESAO.

Global collaboration between platform trials in surgery and anaesthesia.

Large, randomized trials are the bedrock of evidence-based medicine, but the resources required to complete such trials greatly limit the number of important clinical questions that can be addressed within a reasonable period of time. Adaptive platform trials can identify effective, ineffective, or harmful treatments faster. These trials have been shown to deliver rapid evidence through the COVID-19 pandemic and are now being adopted across surgery and anaesthesia, with many opportunities for surgeons, anaesthetists, and other perioperative physicians to conduct and collaborate in platform trials.

MONARCH Inventory for Causal Attribution in Homeopathy Case Reports: Explanation and Elaboration.

Background:  The Modified Naranjo Criteria for Homeopathy (MONARCH) inventory is a novel and useful tool for assessing the likelihood of a causal relationship between the homeopathic intervention and the ultimate clinical outcome.

Objectives:  To explain and elaborate on the use of the MONARCH inventory to improve its consistency of use and thereby elevate the overall quality and evidentiary value of homeopathy case reports.

Explanation And Elaboration:  Each of the 10 MONARCH inventory domains is explained and elaborated with the aid of references from published literature and hypothetical clinical situations.

On causal inferences from retrospective and observational studies and their implications for neuraxial labor analgesia: the CHRISTMAS* study.

Background: Observational studies should not be used to infer causation as they are prone to confounding factors, selection bias, and reverse causality. Many observational studies of labor analgesia treated epidurals as an independent exposure and concluded that "epidurals" cause dystocia, despite multiple randomized controlled trials showing no effect. We highlight this problem using reductio ad absurdum.

Prevalence and risk factors of frailty in older patients with coronary heart disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Objective: To quantitatively synthesise evidence on the prevalence of and risk factors of frailty in older patients with coronary heart disease.

Methods: Nine electronic databases were searched from the inception to July 20th 2024. Random-effects model was performed to calculate to estimate the prevalence of frailty in older patients with coronary heart disease.

Quantifying the impact of a novel virus on the economic value of pathogen reduction technology for platelets.

Background: Pathogen reduction technology (PRT) is an intervention designed to proactively reduce the amount of known and unknown pathogens in donated blood. As current screening for known pathogens is highly effective, some previous evaluations have found that the value of PRT largely hinges on a previously unknown pathogen, most likely a novel virus, emerging and entering the blood supply. In such situations, the risk of emergence can and should be modeled and presented transparently in the cost-effectiveness results for deliberation by decision-makers.