Vitamin D in COVID - 19: Dousing the fire or averting the storm? - A perspective from the Asia-Pacific.

COVID-19, the acute respiratory tract infection (RTI) caused by the Coronavirus, Sars-CoV-2, has swept around the world. No country has been spared from its onslaught. Treatments that can reduce the risk of infection and mortality from the disease are desperately needed.

Rapid Geriatric Assessment Using Mobile App in Primary Care: Prevalence of Geriatric Syndromes and Review of Its Feasibility.

With the aging population and consequent increase in associated prevalence of frailty, dementia, and multimorbidity, primary care physicians will be overwhelmed with the complexity of the psychosocial and clinical presentation. Geriatric syndromes including frailty, sarcopenia, cognitive impairment, and anorexia of aging (AA) either in isolation or in combination are associated with an increased risk of adverse outcomes and if recognized early, and appropriately managed, will lead to decreased disability. Primary care practices are often located in residential settings and are in an ideal position to incorporate preventive screening and geriatric assessment with personalized management.

Implementing Cardiac Surgical Unit-Advanced Life Support Through Simulation-Based Learning: A Quality Improvement Project.

Background: The European Association for Cardio Thoracic Surgery and the Society of Thoracic Surgeons endorse Cardiac Surgical Unit-Advanced Life Support, a protocol designed specifically for cardiothoracic surgical patients who suffer postoperative cardiac arrests. To enhance patient outcomes and to reduce death rates, cardiothoracic intensive care unit nurses must be able to perform the protocol with confidence, proficiency, and without delays. To this end, simulation-based learning (SBL) is a pedagogical method ideal for optimized learning.

Radiation exposure to allied health personnel handling blood specimens from patients receiving radioactive iodine-131 and recombinant human TSH (thyrogen®) stimulation.

With increasing use of recombinant human TSH (rhTSH) stimulation protocol in radioactive iodine-131 treatment of thyroidectomised differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC), there is increasing concern regarding radiation safety during collection and processing of radioactive blood samples. Our study aims to quantify this radiation exposure in the context of current radiation guidelines to provide a practical safety framework. We analysed 45 patients prospectively referred to a tertiary centre in Singapore, who had histologically proven DTC, and who were thyroidectomised and planned for I-131 with rhTSH stimulation.

Role of adjunctive treatment strategies in COVID-19 and a review of international and national clinical guidelines.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has led to a global struggle to cope with the sheer numbers of infected persons, many of whom require intensive care support or eventually succumb to the illness. The outbreak is managed by a combination of disease containment via public health measures and supportive care for those who are affected. To date, there is no specific anti-COVID-19 treatment.

Knowledge and Attitudes Towards Pregnancy in Females with Inflammatory Bowel Disease: An International, Multi-centre Study.

Background And Aims: Poor knowledge of inflammatory bowel disease [IBD] in pregnancy underlies unwarranted voluntary childlessness [VC], and risks poorer obstetric outcomes and adverse fetal outcomes. IBD is increasing worldwide but education on IBD issues might be heterogeneous based on cultural differences and variations in models of care.

Methods: Consecutive female IBD subjects aged 18-45 years were prospectively recruited from two dedicated IBD-pregnancy clinics, two multidisciplinary IBD clinics and nine general gastroenterology clinics.

Recent advances in diagnostic upper endoscopy.

Background: Esophageo-gastro-duodenoscopy (EGD) is an important procedure used for detection and diagnosis of esophago-gastric lesions. There exists no consensus on the technique of examination.

Aim: To identify recent advances in diagnostic EGDs to improve diagnostic yield.

A Ten-Year Review of Audiological Performance in Children with Inner Ear Abnormalities after Cochlear Implantation in Singapore.

Objectives: To evaluate children with inner ear malformations following cochlear implantation (CI) in a tertiary pediatric hospital in Singapore to identify factors influencing outcomes after CI.

Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study of children aged 0 to 18 years, who had CI between 2000 and 2013. Demographic information, data on risk factors, type of inner ear malformation (IEM), age at implantation, speech pre- and postimplantation, and duration of follow-up were collected from clinical records.

An Integrated Analysis of Radial Spoke Head and Outer Dynein Arm Protein Defects and Ciliogenesis Abnormality in Nasal Polyps.

Nasal polyp (NP) is a chronic upper airway inflammatory disease that is frequently triggered by defective host-defense. However, the mechanisms underlying the impaired barrier function such as cilia-mediated mucociliary clearance remain poorly understood. To assess ciliary ultrastructural and ciliogenesis marker expression and the phenotypes of ciliated cells in NP.

Comparative study of xeno-free induction protocols for neural differentiation of human dental pulp stem cells in vitro.

Objective: To compare three different xeno-free protocols for neural differentiation of human dental pulp stem cells (DPSC).

Methods: DPSC were treated with three different media to induce neural differentiation namely N1 (DMEM for 5 days), N2 (PSC neural induction media for 7 days) and N3 (neural media with B27 supplement, 40 ng/ml bFGF and 20 ng/ml EGF for 21 days). Cell proliferation (MTS assay), morphology, gene (qPCR for NESTIN, VIMENTIN, TUB-3, ENO2, NF-M and NF-H) and protein expression (flow cytometry) of neurogenic markers were assessed at different time points and compared to untreated cells (DMEM supplemented with 10% FBS).

Novel findings in immunopathophysiology of chronic rhinosinusitis and their role in a model of precision medicine.

Our understanding of the pathophysiology of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is continuously evolving. The traditional description of CRS in terms of two phenotypes based on the presence or absence of nasal polyps belies the underlying intricate immunopathophysiological processes responsible for this condition. CRS is being increasingly recognized as a disease spectrum encompassing a range of inflammatory states in the sinonasal cavity, with non-type 2 inflammatory disease on one end, type 2 inflammatory, eosinophil-heavy disease on the other and an overlap of both in different proportions in between.

Exposure to Cypress Pollens and Subsequent Symptoms: A Panel Study.

Objective: The objective of this panel study was to document the relationship between exposure to cypress pollen and allergic symptoms.

Methods: The study group included 47 patients with allergy to cypress pollen who completed a daily diary and a weekly evaluation of quality of life (QoL) during the cypress pollen season. Different patients were included in three consecutive pollen seasons: 2014-2015, 2015-2016, and 2016-2017.

Using marginal standardisation to estimate relative risk without dichotomising continuous outcomes.

Background: Although criticisms regarding the dichotomisation of continuous variables are well known, applying logit model to dichotomised outcomes is the convention because the odds ratios are easily obtained and they approximate the relative risks (RRs) for rare events.

Methods: To avoid dichotomisation when estimating RR, the marginal standardisation method that transforms estimates from logit or probit model to RR estimate is extended to include estimates from linear model in the transformation. We conducted a simulation study to compare the statistical properties of the estimates from: (i) marginal standardisation method between models for continuous (i.

Risk factors associated with allograft failure in pediatric kidney transplant recipients with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis.

Background: With improved outcomes for children transplanted with FSGS since previous NAPRTCS registry reports, this study re-evaluates the association of living donation, immunosuppression, and DGF on graft survival.

Setting: Patients transplanted between 2002 and 2016, comparing FSGS diagnosis vs other glomerular diseases.

Methods: Primary outcomes were allograft survival and FSGS recurrent-free graft survival.

Microbiome in the hair follicle of androgenetic alopecia patients.

Androgenetic alopecia is the most common form of hair loss in males. It is a multifactorial condition involving genetic predisposition and hormonal changes. The role of microflora during hair loss remains to be understood.

Evidence for Cross-Protection Against Subsequent Febrile Respiratory Illness Episodes From Prior Infections by Different Viruses Among Singapore Military Recruits 2009-2014.

Background: Few studies have evaluated the relative cross-protection conferred by infection with different groups of viruses through studies of sequential infections in humans. We investigated the presence of short-lived relative cross-protection conferred by specific prior viral infections against subsequent febrile respiratory illness (FRI).

Methods: Men enlisted in basic military training between December 2009 and December 2014 were recruited, with the first FRI as the study entry point.

Quantifying temporal trends of age-standardized rates with odds.

Background: To quantify temporal trends in age-standardized rates of disease, the convention is to fit a linear regression model to log-transformed rates because the slope term provides the estimated annual percentage change. However, such log-transformation is not always appropriate.

Methods: We propose an alternative method using the rank-ordered logit (ROL) model that is indifferent to log-transformation.