Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Are responders to patient health surveys representative of those invited to participate? An analysis of the Patient-Reported Outcome Measures Pilot from the Australian Orthopaedic Association National Joint Replacement Registry

Background Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are commonly used to evaluate surgical outcome in patients undergoing joint replacement surgery, however routine collection from the target population is often incomplete. Representative samples are required to allow inference from the sample to the population. Although higher capture rates are desired, the extent to which this improves the representativeness of the sample is not known. We aimed to measure the representativeness of data collected using an electronic PROMs capture system with or without telephone call follow up, and any differences in PROMS reporting between electronic and telephone call follow up. Methods Data from a pilot PROMs program within a large national joint replacement registry were examined. Telephone call follow up was used for people that failed to respond electronically. Data were collected pre-operatively and at 6 months post-operatively. Responding groups (either electronic only or electronic plus telephone call follow up) were compared to non-responders based on patient characteristics (joint replaced, bilaterality, age, sex, American Society of Anesthesiologist (ASA) score and Body Mass Index (BMI)) using chi squared test or ANOVA, and PROMs for the two responder groups were compared using generalised linear models adjusted for age and sex. The analysis was restricted to those undergoing primary elective hip, knee or shoulder replacement for osteoarthritis. Results Pre-operatively, 73.2% of patients responded electronically and telephone follow-up of non-responders increased this to 91.4%. Pre-operatively, patients responding electronically, compared to all others, were on average younger, more likely to be female, and healthier (lower ASA score). Similar differences were found when telephone follow up was included in the responding group. There were little (if any) differences in the post-operative comparisons, where electronic responders were on average one year younger and were more likely to have a lower ASA score compared to those not responding electronically, but there was no significant difference in sex or BMI. PROMs were similar between those reporting electronically and those reporting by telephone. Conclusion Patients undergoing total joint replacement who provide direct electronic PROMs data are younger, healthier and more likely to be female than non-responders, but these differences are small, particularly for post-operative data collection. The addition of telephone call follow up to electronic contact does not provide a more representative sample. Electronic-only follow up of patients undergoing joint replacement provides a satisfactory representation of the population invited to participate.
Oxytetracycline-hydrocortisone ointment reduces the occurrence of both dry socket and post-extraction pain after third molar extraction: An observational study

Objectives Dry socket and post-extraction pain are typical discomforts experienced by patients after tooth extraction. In this study, we inserted gauze coated with oxytetracycline-hydrocortisone ointment into the extraction socket immediately after lower third molar extraction and then evaluated the occurrence of dry socket and post-extraction pain compared with gauze non-insertion. Methods This retrospective study was carried out on patients undergoing lower third molar extraction in the Department of Oral Surgery at Shizuoka Prefectural General Hospital in Shizuoka, Japan from November 2018 to October 2019. A comparison was carried out between a gauze-insertion group and a non-insertion group. The occurrence versus non-occurrence of dry socket was determined, and degree of pain was assessed based on a visual analogue scale (VAS) and on patients reporting the number of loxoprofen sodium oral analgesic tablets (60mg/tablet) that they had taken. Dry socket was defined as patient-reported spontaneous pain that did not subside 1 to 3 days postoperatively. Spontaneous post-extraction pain was recorded four times: on the operative day, on the first postoperative day (POD1), on POD3, and during suture removal (POD7). Results The occurrence of dry socket was lower in the gauze-insertion group than in the non-insertion group (0.9%, 2/215 vs. 19.6%, 9/46, p<0.001). The results also showed that both VAS-defined pain level and the number of analgesic tablets taken were lower in the gauze-insertion group than in the non-insertion group on POD3 and POD7. Conclusions and clinical relevance Inserting gauze coated with oxytetracycline-hydrocortisone ointment into the extraction socket immediately after third molar extraction reduces the occurrence of both dry socket and post-extraction pain.
Effectiveness of High-Frequency Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation and Physical Exercise in Women with Fibromyalgia: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

OBJECTIVE Fibromyalgia (FM) is characterized by chronic widespread pain and both physical and emotional alterations, which in turn may affect the individual's quality of life. Thus, interventions aimed at treating such symptoms, without increasing fatigue, are needed. The aim of this study was to explore the effect of high-frequency transcranial magnetic stimulation (HF-TMS) and physical exercise (PE) on pain, impact of FM, physical conditioning, and emotional status in people with FM. METHODS Forty-nine women with FM were randomly allocated to a PE group (PEG, n = 16), who underwent an 8-week (two 60-minute sessions/week) low intensity PE program; TMS group (TMSG, n = 17), receiving a 2-week (five 20-minute sessions/week) HF-TMS intervention and a control group (CG, n = 16). Pain (ie, perceived pain and average pressure pain threshold (PPT), perceived impact of FM (ie, overall impact, symptoms, and perceived physical function), physical conditioning (ie, endurance and functional capacity, fatigue, gait velocity, and power) and emotional status (ie, anxiety, depression, stress, and satisfaction) were assessed at baseline (T1) and after the intervention (T1, at 2 weeks for TMSG and at 8 weeks for PEG and CG). RESULTS TMSG showed to significantly improve all studied variables after the intervention except for satisfaction, whereas PEG improved average PPT, perceived overall impact of FM and total score, endurance and functional capacity, velocity and power, anxiety, depression, and stress. In contrast, the CG showed no improvements in any variable. CONCLUSIONS Both PE and HF-TMS are effective in improving pain, impact of FM, physical conditioning, and emotional status in people with FM, while HF-TMS achieved larger improvements in emotional status than PE.
This outcome feels right! subjective evaluations of coin flip outcomes reflect previously stated preferences

When facing a difficult decision, individuals may rely on a coin flip to help them come to a conclusion. In some cases, however, individuals might not adhere to the coin’s outcome, but instead report liking or disliking the coin flip’s outcome, and may use this affective reaction to form their decision. In this manuscript we investigate the affective reaction towards the outcome of a coin flip and determine whether this affective reaction provides valid feedback in regards to individuals’ underlying preferences (Hypothesis 1). We further test whether flipping a coin results in a higher alignment between previous preferences and subsequent decisions (Hypothesis 2). We conducted three studies in the lab and with online samples. Throughout all studies we found support for the notion that the affective reactions regarding the coin flip’s outcome validly reflect previously indicated preferences or attractiveness ratings. Contrary to wide-spread expectations, however, we did not find reliable support for the notion that flipping a coin, compared to a control group, leads to decisions that are more in line with the previously stated preferences.
Effectiveness of application of a manual for improvement of alarms management by nurses in Intensive Care Units

Abstract Objective. To evaluate the effects of application of a manual on the improvement of alarms management in Intensive Care Units (ICU). Methods. This quasi-experimental study evaluated the effectiveness of the introduction into of a manual for alarm management and control in the ICU of a hospital in southeastern Iran. The intervention was a 4-hour workshop was on topics related to the adverse effects of alarms, standardization of ECG, oxygen saturation and blood pressure monitoring systems, and the use of ventilators and infusion pumps. Data were collected thorough 200 hours of observation of 60 ICU nurses (100 hours’ pre-intervention and 100 hours’ post-intervention). Response time, type of response, customization of alarm settings for each patient, the person responding to an alarm, and the cause of the alarm were analyzed. Alarms were classified into three types: false, true and technical. Results. The results showed a statistically significant difference between the pre- and post-intervention frequency of alarm types, frequency of monitoring parameters, customized monitoring settings for patients, and individuals who responded to alarms. The percentage of effective interventions was significantly higher for all parameters after the intervention (46.9%) than before the intervention (38.9%). Conclusion. The employment of a manual for management of alarms from electronic equipment in ICUs can increase the frequency of appropriate responses to alarms in these units.
Measuring novelty in science with word embedding

Novelty is a core value in science, and a reliable measurement of novelty is crucial. This study proposes a new approach of measuring the novelty of scientific articles based on both citation data and text data. The proposed approach considers an article to be novel if it cites a combination of semantically distant references. To this end, we first assign a word embedding–a vector representation of each vocabulary–to each cited reference on the basis of text information included in the reference. With these vectors, a distance between every pair of references is computed. Finally, the novelty of a focal document is evaluated by summarizing the distances between all references. The approach draws on limited text information (the titles of references) and publicly shared library for word embeddings, which minimizes the requirement of data access and computational cost. We share the code, with which one can compute the novelty score of a document of interest only by having the focal document’s reference list. We validate the proposed measure through three exercises. First, we confirm that word embeddings can be used to quantify semantic distances between documents by comparing with an established bibliometric distance measure. Second, we confirm the criterion-related validity of the proposed novelty measure with self-reported novelty scores collected from a questionnaire survey. Finally, as novelty is known to be correlated with future citation impact, we confirm that the proposed measure can predict future citation.
Genetic Determinants of Somatic Selection of Mutational Processes in 3,566 Human Cancers

The genetic determinants of the somatic mutational processes in cancer elucidate the biology underlying somatic selection and evolution of cancers and demonstrate complementary predictive power across cancer types. The somatic landscape of the cancer genome results from different mutational processes represented by distinct “mutational signatures. ” Although several mutagenic mechanisms are known to cause specific mutational signatures in cell lines, the variation of somatic mutational activities in patients, which is mostly attributed to somatic selection, is still poorly explained. Here, we introduce a quantitative trait, mutational propensity (MP), and describe an integrated method to infer genetic determinants of variations in the mutational processes in 3,566 cancers with specific underlying mechanisms. As a result, we report 2,314 candidate determinants with both significant germline and somatic effects on somatic selection of mutational processes, of which, 485 act via cancer gene expression and 1,427 act through the tumor–immune microenvironment. These data demonstrate that the genetic determinants of MPs provide complementary information to known cancer driver genes, clonal evolution, and clinical biomarkers. Significance: The genetic determinants of the somatic mutational processes in cancer elucidate the biology underlying somatic selection and evolution of cancers and demonstrate complementary predictive power across cancer types.
Effects of linaclotide in the treatment of chronic constipation and irritable bowel syndrome with constipation: a meta-analysis

Abstract Objective Linaclotide is a guanylate cyclase-C (GCC) agonist that is found in intestinal epithelial cells and is used when treating chronic constipation (CC) and irritable bowel syndrome with constipation (IBS-C). Several randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were conducted for evaluating its efficacy and safety. Methods The PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane databases and the Web of Science were searched to find multiple RCTs of patients with CC or IBS-C. The Jadad scoring system was used for evaluating each study’s methodological quality, and RevMan5.3 was used for meta-analysis. The composite endpoint reaction approved by the FDA, abdominal pain and discomfort relief, symptom improvement, and diarrhea-related adverse reactions were chosen as observation indicators, and relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were obtained for quantitative and comprehensive evaluation. Results Eleven randomized controlled studies were included, consisting of 5 cases of CC and 6 cases of IBS-C. Linaclotide reached the composite endpoint response approved by FDA in the treatment of CC (RR = 3.26, 95% CI: 2.45–4.33), and the composite endpoint response approved by FDA for the treatment of IBS-C (RR = 2.26, 95% CI: 1.86–2.74) was greater than the placebo (both p < 0.00001). The main adverse reactions of linaclotide were gastrointestinal, mostly diarrhea, which was higher than that of the placebo when treating CC (RR = 3.56, 95% CI: 2.76–4.60) and IBS-C (RR = 8.23, 95% CI: 5.69–11.90) (both p < 0.00001). Conclusion Linaclotide proved to be effective and safe for the treatment of CC and IBS-C compared to the placebo. However, diarrhea is the primary adverse reaction.
Cardiovascular and Renal Outcomes with Efpeglenatide in Type 2 Diabetes.

BACKGROUND Four glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists that are structurally similar to human GLP-1 have been shown to reduce the risk of adverse cardiovascular events among persons with type 2 diabetes. The effect of an exendin-based GLP-1 receptor agonist, efpeglenatide, on cardiovascular and renal outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes who are also at high risk for adverse cardiovascular events is uncertain. METHODS In this randomized, placebo-controlled trial conducted at 344 sites across 28 countries, we evaluated efpeglenatide in participants with type 2 diabetes and either a history of cardiovascular disease or current kidney disease (defined as an estimated glomerular filtration rate of 25.0 to 59.9 ml per minute per 1.73 m2 of body-surface area) plus at least one other cardiovascular risk factor. Participants were randomly assigned in a 1:1:1 ratio to receive weekly subcutaneous injections of efpeglenatide at a dose of 4 or 6 mg or placebo. Randomization was stratified according to use of sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors. The primary outcome was the first major adverse cardiovascular event (MACE; a composite of nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, or death from cardiovascular or undetermined causes). RESULTS A total of 4076 participants were enrolled; 2717 were assigned to receive efpeglenatide and 1359 to receive placebo. During a median follow-up of 1.81 years, an incident MACE occurred in 189 participants (7.0%) assigned to receive efpeglenatide (3.9 events per 100 person-years) and 125 participants (9.2%) assigned to receive placebo (5.3 events per 100 person-years) (hazard ratio, 0.73; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.58 to 0.92; P<0.001 for noninferiority; P = 0.007 for superiority). A composite renal outcome event (a decrease in kidney function or macroalbuminuria) occurred in 353 participants (13.0%) assigned to receive efpeglenatide and in 250 participants (18.4%) assigned to receive placebo (hazard ratio, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.57 to 0.79; P<0.001). Diarrhea, constipation, nausea, vomiting, or bloating occurred more frequently with efpeglenatide than with placebo. CONCLUSIONS In this trial involving participants with type 2 diabetes who had either a history of cardiovascular disease or current kidney disease plus at least one other cardiovascular risk factor, the risk of cardiovascular events was lower among those who received weekly subcutaneous injections of efpeglenatide at a dose of 4 or 6 mg than among those who received placebo. (Funded by Sanofi; AMPLITUDE-O ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT03496298.).
Effects of Interferon Beta in COVID-19 adult patients: Systematic Review

Background The high rate of transmission and infection of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a public health emergency of major epidemiological concern. No definitive treatments have been established, and vaccinations have only recently begun. We aim to review the efficacy and safety of Interferon Beta (IFN-β) in patients who have a confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis. Materials and Methods A search from PubMed, Science Direct, Cochrane, and Clinicaltrials.gov databases were conducted from December 2019 to December 2020 to review the efficacy and safety of IFN-β in adult patients with COVID-19 confirmed. We included randomized controlled trials, case reports, and experimental studies. Correspondences, letters, editorials, reviews, commentaries, case control, cross-sectional, and cohort studies that did not include any new clinical data were excluded. Results Of the 66 searched studies, 8 were included in our review. These studies demonstrated that although IFN-β did not reduce the time to clinical response, there was an increase in discharge rate at day 14 and a decrease in mortality at day 28. The time to negative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was shown to be significantly shortened in patients receiving IFN-β, along with a lower nasopharyngeal viral load. Further, patients receiving IFN-β had a less significant rise in IL-6. IFN-β was shown to decrease intensive care unit (ICU) admission rate, the requirement of invasive ventilation in severe cases, and improve the survival rate compared to control groups. There were no severe adverse events reported. Our review found that patients who received early treatment with IFN-β experienced significantly reduced length of hospitalization, mortality, ICU admission, and mechanical ventilation. A greater chance of clinical improvement and improved imaging studies was noted in patients who received IFN-β. There were no reported deaths associated with the addition of IFN-β. Further randomized trials involving more significant sample sizes are needed to better understand the effect of IFN-β on survival in COVID-19. Conclusion This review identified encouraging data and outcomes of incorporating IFN-β to treat COVID-19 patients. IFN-β has been shown to decrease hospital stay's overall length and decrease the severity of respiratory symptoms when added to the standard of care. Also, in some studies, it has been demonstrated to reduce the length of ICU stay, enhance survival rate, and decrease the need for invasive mechanical ventilation. There were minor side effects reported (neuropsychiatric symptoms and hypersensitivity reaction). However, randomized clinical trials with a large sample size are needed to assess IFN-β's benefit precisely.
Efficacy of LDL apheresis for the treatment of cholesterol crystal embolism: A prospective, controlled study

This study was performed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of LDL apheresis (LDL‐A) for the treatment of cholesterol crystal embolism (CCE) after cardiovascular procedures. We conducted a prospective multicenter study of 34 patients with CCE and 15 historical control patients. The present participants underwent six sessions of LDL‐A for 4 weeks and underwent medical therapy with corticosteroids and statins. The mean creatinine concentration and estimated glomerular filtration rate at baseline were 3.82 ± 2.29 mg/dL and 17.8 ± 9.9 mL/min/1.73 m2, respectively. The prevalence of maintenance dialysis at 24 weeks was significantly lower in the present participants than in the historical controls (3.1% vs. 40.0%, respectively; p < 0.0001), but the mortality rate at 24 weeks was comparable (19% vs. 33%, respectively). Although 45 adverse events occurred in 23 participants, there were no unexpected adverse events. LDL‐A for CCE reduces the prevalence of maintenance dialysis 24 weeks later and is well tolerated. This study was registered in the Japan Registry of Clinical Trials (jRCTs022180029) and clinicaltrials.gov (NCT01726868).
Computed tomography guided lung biopsy under general anaesthesia with apnoea: Preliminary experience

Certain pulmonary lesions may be challenging to biopsy with conventional computed tomography percutaneous lung biopsy (CTPLB) under local anaesthesia (LA) which requires consistent patient breath holding to minimise complications. We aim to describe and evaluate the feasibility of CTPLB under general anaesthesia (GA) with apnoea, comparing results to patients undergoing biopsy under LA. This was a retrospective analysis of CTPLB with 18 GA and 137 LA patients. All biopsies were performed using a co‐axial needle system in the radiology department on a multi‐detector CT scanner with patient positioning determined by assessing shortest distance to target lesion. GA cases were performed under relaxant anaesthesia with intermittent positive pressure ventilation. Lower lobar lesion location and a combination of size and location (including proximity to critical structures) were indications for GA biopsy in >90% of patients. Mean lesion size for GA biopsies was 18 mm and control group 30 mm (P < 0.006) and mean pleura to lesion distance 29 and 11 mm, respectively (P < 0.0009). Pneumothorax rates were lower in our GA biopsy group (11%) compared to control group (42%) (P < 0.05). No anaesthetic complications were encountered. All GA samples were diagnostic. Based on a small number of patients, CTPLB under GA with apnoea seems a safe, feasible alternative to conventional CTPLB under LA for technically challenging lesions. This technique is routinely employed at our centre allowing access to lesions previously deemed unsafe to biopsy.