nils-herrmann/clean_scirepeval huggingface dataset:
Adverse psychological outcomes in colorectal cancer screening: does health anxiety play a role?

People who are anxious about their health are more likely to misinterpret health information as personally threatening and less likely to be reassured by medical investigations that show they are free from disease. Consequently, health anxious people would be expected to react more adversely to cancer screening, but this possibility has rarely been explored. The moderating role of health anxiety on the psychological impact of participating in colorectal cancer screening was examined among a sub-sample of 3535 participants in a large, community-based trial of colorectal cancer screening in the UK. The screening modality was flexible sigmoidoscopy, which examines the bowel for pre-cancerous polyps. It was predicted that health anxiety would be associated with more worry about cancer before screening, a greater increase in worry if polyps were detected, and less reassurance after a clear result. As expected, health anxious participants were more anxious and more worried about bowel cancer both before and after screening. However, they experienced greater reductions in anxiety and worry about cancer following the examination. They reported lower levels of reassurance following screening, but also expressed more positive reactions to the experience. The positive psychological benefits of attending medical investigations should be examined in future work, because this may go some way towards explaining why health anxious people repeatedly seek medical interventions.
Rheolytic Pharmacomechanical Thrombectomy for the Management of Acute Limb Ischemia: Results From the PEARL Registry.

To present the results of rheolytic pharmacomechanical thrombectomy (PMT) for the management of acute limb ischemia (ALI) as reported in the PEARL Registry (PEripheral Use of AngioJet Rheolytic Thrombectomy with a variety of catheter Lengths).



A total of 283 patients (mean age 65±13 years; 170 men) presenting with ALI undergoing treatment with the AngioJet System at participating institutions were enrolled in the registry. Rutherford ALI categories included 26% with viable limbs, 38% with marginally threatened limbs, 35% with immediately threatened limbs, and <1% with irreversible damage. Procedure and follow-up data were collected for the calculation of outcomes. To control for patient selection bias, propensity score matching was used to compare outcomes for patients undergoing PMT with or without catheter-directed thrombolysis (CDT).



Procedure success was achieved in 235 (83%) of 283 patients. Half of the procedures (147, 52%) were completed without the need for adjunctive CDT. At 12-month follow-up, amputation-free survival and freedom from mortality were 81% and 91%, respectively; 12-month freedom from bleeding requiring transfusion was 91%, and freedom from renal failure was 95%. Subgroup analysis revealed significantly better outcomes in patients without infrapopliteal involvement and those who underwent PMT without CDT. In the matched cohorts, higher rates of procedure success, 12-month amputation-free survival, and 12-month freedom from amputation were observed in the PMT without CDT group (88% vs 74%, p=0.021; 87% vs 72%, p=0.028; 96% vs 81%, p=0.01, respectively).



The results support the use of PMT as a first-line treatment for ALI, providing a rapid reperfusion to the extremity, reduced procedure time, and an acceptable risk profile without compromising limb salvage.
Evaluation of SD Bioline HIV/syphilis Duo rapid test kits in Nepal

Accurate and prompt diagnosis of HIV and syphilis simultaneously has reinforcing effect on their control program because of their prevalent co-infection. Availability of a simple user-friendly two-pronged and affordable detection tools brings down the cost of health care. They are important in the antenatal clinics, with added opportunity for intervention and prevention of mother to child transmission. In cooperation with rapid test kit manufacturers, SD Bioline, NPHL and NCASC, an evaluation of commercially available HIV/syphilis Duo rapid test kit (SD Bioline) to assess its performance and operational characteristics was done in the present study.



A prospective laboratory-based cross sectional study was conducted at a large Women's Hospital. Ten thousand pregnant women, visiting the Hospital for antenatal care or for delivery, were enrolled in study. Tests were performed by the SD Bioline HIV/Syphilis Duo kit as well as national algorithm for HIV and syphilis diagnosis which were considered gold standard. Sensitivity, Specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value along with kappa coefficient were calculated for the kit under evaluation.



The sensitivity, specificity, Negative predictive value and Positive predictive value of the kit for HIV diagnosis were 100 % (95 % CI 83.18-100 %, 99.96-100 %, 83.18-100 %, and 99.96-100 %, respectively). Kappa value was found to be 1.0. Out of total cases, results of 9985 (99.85 %) cases were concordant with National algorithm for syphilis diagnosis. Thirteen (0.13 %) cases were found false positive while two were false negative. The sensitivity of the kit for syphilis diagnosis was found to be 95.45 % (95 % CI 84.86-98.74 %) and specificity was 99.87 % (95 % CI; 99.78-99.92 %). Positive predictive value was 76.36 % (95 % CI; 63.65-85.63 %) and Negative predictive value was 99.89 % (95 % CI; 99.39-99.99 %). Kappa value was found to be 0.85.



The performance characteristics of SD Bioline HIV/Syphilis duo kit were found almost concordant with the kits being used for HIV and Syphilis diagnosis separately. Its implementation in antenatal clinics/VCTs could be an added opportunity for simultaneous diagnosis of HIV and syphilis.
Translation and validation of EORTC QLQ-C30 into Indonesian version for cancer patients in Indonesia.

Quality of life studies in Indonesia are still uncommon. This research was aimed to validate the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire-C30 in Indonesian version. The standard procedure of forward-backward translation was adhered to in the translation procedures. The validity procedure included reliability, convergent and discriminant validity, known-groups validity, factor analysis and external convergent validity.



Data were collected from cancer patients in the Oncology Department of Sardjito Hospital, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, who were treated with cisplatin at the dosage ≥50 mg/m(2) as monotherapy or in combinations. The Short Form-36 was used to assess the external convergent validity of our translated questionnaire.



One hundred and twenty-eight patients were recruited from March 2009 to November 2009. The internal consistency with values of >0.70 was observed in the Indonesian version of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire-C30 scales. All items in the questionnaire met the criteria of convergent and discriminant validity, except for items 5. Both of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire-C30 and the Short Form-36 showed that different diagnoses were associated with a similar impact on quality of life. Factor analysis showed that only the role function and social function loaded onto the second factor together. Correlations between the Indonesian versions of both questionnaires were moderate: between 0.18 and 0.48 for the physical, emotional, social, fatigue and pain domains.



The Indonesian version of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire-C30 can be used as a questionnaire to assess quality of life in Indonesian cancer patients with high-emetogenic treatments.
A Nation-Wide Multicenter Retrospective Study of the Epidemiological, Pathological and Clinical Characteristics of Breast Cancer In Situ in Chinese Women in 1999 - 2008

Compared with invasive breast cancer, breast cancer in situ (BCIS) is seldom life threatening. However, an increasing incidence has been observed in recent years over the world. The purpose of our study is to investigate the epidemiological, clinical and pathological profiles of BCIS in Chinese women from 1999-2008.



Four thousand and two hundred-eleven female breast cancer (BC) patients were enrolled in this hospital-based nation-wide and multi-center retrospective study. Patients were randomly selected from seven hospitals in seven representative geographical regions of China between 1999 and 2008. The epidemiological, clinical and pathological data were collected based on the designed case report form (CRF).



There were one hundred and forty-three BCIS cases in four thousand and two hundred-eleven BC patients (3.4%). The mean age at diagnosis was 48.3 years and BCIS peaked in age group 40-49 yrs (39.9%). The most common subtype was ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) (88.0%). 53.8% were positive for estrogen receptor (ER). Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) positive status was observed in 23.8% of patients. All patients underwent surgeries and 14.7% of them had breast conservation therapies (BCT) (21/143), but 41.9% accepted chemotherapy (64/143). Much less patients underwent radiotherapy (16.0%, 23/143) and among patients who had BCT, 67% accepted radiotherapy (14/21). Endocrine therapy was taken in 44.1% patients (63/143).



The younger age of BCIS among Chinese women than Western countries and increasing number of cases pose a great challenge. BCT and endocrine therapy are under great needs.
Long term effects of intra-articular botulinum toxin a for refractory joint pain

The purpose of this case series review is to describe our 12 month clinical experience with intra-articular injections of Botulinum toxin Type A (BoNT/A) for refractory joint pain. Eleven patients with chronic arthritis who had failed treatment with oral and/or intra-articular medications and were not surgical candidates were referred to us for management of moderate to severe refractory joint pain in 15 joints. The use of BoNT/A to treat joint pain is a non-FDA approved “off label” treatment with potential side effects. After a detailed explanation of the joint injection procedure, signed informed consent was obtained for the procedure. Fifteen joints were injected with BoNT/A (Allergan, Inc): six lower extremity joints (3 knees, 3 ankles) with 25-50 units and nine shoulders with 50-100 units. Patients were followed for one year or longer. Maximum relief of pain was measured by comparing baseline pain on a numeric rating scale (0-10) to pain at the time of maximum relief (paired t-test). Maximum improvement in function was assessed using paired t-tests for improvement in active flexion and abduction for the shoulder joint, and by the time to perform sit to stand ten times (the timed stands test, TST) for the lower extremity joints.  Two patients were female and nine were male, aged 42-82 years. Five had osteoarthritis (OA), five had rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and one had psoriatic arthritis. All patients were on analgesic and/or anti-inflammatory medications and all joints had previous intra-articular steroid or viscosupplement injections with inadequate or unsatisfactory benefit. A clinically and statistically significant improvement was noted after IA-BoNT/ A injections. The mean maximum decrease in lower extremity joint pain was 55% (p =0.02) and the 36% (p =0.044) improvement in the Timed Stands Test was noted at four to ten weeks after injection. There was a 71% mean maximum reduction in shoulder pain severity from 8.2 ± 1.1 to 2.4 ± 1.9 (p <0.001). Active range of motion increased 67% in flexion (from 67.8 ± 27.6 to 113.3 ± 46.6 degrees, p =0.001) and 42% in abduction (from 50 18.5 degrees to 71.1 ± 23.1 degrees p =0.01). No immediate or delayed adverse effects related to BoNT/A were noted after the injection. Duration of pain relief was variable and ranged from 3 to 12 months. Five joints were re-injected with IA-BoNT/A and had a similar decrease in joint pain that lasted 3 to 12 months.  This is the first report of the long term effects of intra-articular BoNT/A injections to treat chronic joint pain and the efficacy of repeated injections. Although this study was small, and uncontrolled the results suggest that IA-BoNT/ A injections are an effective and safe treatment for chronic joint pain disorders.
Volumetric detection of colorectal lesions for noncathartic dual-energy computed tomographic colonography

Noncathartic computed tomographic colonography (CTC) could significantly increase patient adherence to colorectal screening guidelines. However, radiologists find the interpretation of noncathartic CTC images challenging. We developed a fully automated computer-aided detection (CAD) scheme for assisting radiologists with noncathartic CTC. A volumetric method is used to detect lesions within a thick target region encompassing the colonic wall. Dual-energy CTC (DE-CTC) is used to provide more detailed information about the colon than what is possible with conventional CTC. False-positive detections are reduced by use of a random-forest classifier. The effect of the thickness of the target region on detection performance was assessed by use of 22 clinical noncathartic DE-CTC studies including 27 lesions ≥6 mm. The results indicate that the thickness parameter can have significant effect on detection accuracy. Leave-one-patient-out evaluation indicated that the proposed CAD scheme detects colorectal lesions at high accuracy in noncathartic CTC.
Associations of dairy intake with glycemia and insulinemia, independent of obesity, in Brazilian adults: the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil).

Inverse associations between dairy intake and the risk of type 2 diabetes have been shown, but more studies are needed, especially from low- and middle-income countries.



The objective was to describe the association between dairy products and direct measures of glycemic status in adults without known diabetes.



The Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil) includes 15,105 adults, aged 35-74 y, enrolled from universities and research institutions in 6 Brazilian capital cities. We excluded participants with a known diabetes diagnosis, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer. Dairy consumption was assessed by a food-frequency questionnaire, and we computed servings per day for total and subgroups of dairy. Associations with fasting blood glucose (FG) and fasting insulin, 2-h postload glucose (PG), 2-h postload insulin (PI), glycated hemoglobin (Hb A1c), and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) were assessed through multivariable linear regression analysis with adjustment for demographic characteristics, behavioral risk factors, other dietary factors, and anthropometric measurements.



The sample size after exclusions was 10,010. The intake of total dairy was inversely associated with FG (linear β for dairy servings/d = -0.46 ± 0.2 mg/dL), PG (-1.25 ± 0.5 mg/dL), PI (-1.52 ± 0.6 mg/dL), Hb A1c (-0.02 ± 0.0%), and HOMA-IR (-0.04 ± 0.0) after adjustment for all covariates (P < 0.05 for all). The findings were consistent across categories of sex, race, obesity status, and dairy fat amount (reduced-fat vs. full-fat dairy). Fermented dairy products showed particularly strong inverse associations with the outcomes, with adjusted differences for a 1-serving/d increment of -0.24 (95% CI: -0.46, -0.02) mg/dL for FG, -0.86 (-1.42, -0.30) mg/dL for PG, and -0.01% (-0.02%, 0.00%) for Hb A1c. Myristic acid was the only nutrient that appeared to mediate the association between dairy intake and glycemia.



Dairy intake, especially fermented dairy, was inversely associated with measures of glycemia and insulinemia in Brazilian adults without diagnosed diabetes.
Acupuncture with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) versus acupuncture or NSAIDs alone for the treatment of chronic neck pain: an assessor-blinded randomised controlled pilot study

To investigate the feasibility and sample size required for a full-scale randomised controlled trial of the effectiveness of acupuncture with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) for chronic neck pain compared with acupuncture or NSAID treatment alone.



A total of 45 patients with chronic neck pain participated in the study. For 3 weeks the acupuncture with NSAIDs treatment group took NSAIDs (zaltoprofen, 80 mg) daily while receiving acupuncture treatment three times a week. The acupuncture treatment group received treatment three times a week and the NSAID treatment group took NSAIDs daily. The primary outcomes were to determine the feasibility and to calculate the sample size. As secondary outcomes, pain intensity and pain-related symptoms for chronic neck pain were measured.



With regard to enrolment and dropout rates, 88.2% of patients consented to be recruited to the trial and 15.6% of participants were lost to follow-up. The sample size for a full-scale trial was estimated to be 120 patients. Although preliminary, there was a significant change in the visual analogue scale (VAS) for neck pain intensity between the baseline measurement and each point of assessment in all groups. However, there was no difference in VAS scores between the three groups.



This pilot study has provided the feasibility and sample size for a full-scale trial of acupuncture with NSAIDs for chronic neck pain compared with acupuncture or NSAID treatment alone. Further research is needed to validate the effects of acupuncture with NSAIDs.
Why do patients with neurodegenerative frontal syndrome fail to answer: 'In what way are an orange and a banana alike?'.

Concept formation is the ability to create an abstract link between dissimilar objects or thoughts and is crucial for abstract and creative thinking. This process is related to the integrity of the prefrontal cortex, given the altered performances reported in patients with frontal damage, particularly those suffering from the behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia. However, the cognitive mechanisms and neural bases of verbal concept formation are not clearly understood. The present study was aimed at addressing the following unresolved issues regarding concept formation in the field of neurology and cognitive neuroscience: (i) Are alterations in concept formation specific to frontotemporal dementia or are they also present in other cortical neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease? (ii) Is impaired performance in concept formation due to cortical lesions specific to frontotemporal dementia or to a cortico-subcortical frontal syndrome? and (iii) What are the cognitive mechanisms and neural bases underlying concept formation? To address these questions, we designed the Verbal Concept Formation Task, an experimental paradigm based on the similarities test. Patients presenting with severe frontal dysfunction (frontotemporal dementia, n = 18, and the Richardson form of progressive supranuclear palsy, n = 21) or with medial temporal pathology (amnestic mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer's disease, n = 14) and healthy participants (n = 18) were given the Verbal Concept Formation Task and a large battery of neuropsychological tests. In addition, all participants underwent 3D T1-weighted MRI to analyse grey matter volume using voxel-based morphometry. Frontal patients were significantly impaired on the Verbal Concept Formation Task as compared to non-frontal participants (P = 0.00001). Global performance score was positively correlated with scores in cognitive tasks assessing executive functions and with grey matter volume in several areas, mostly in the frontal-basal-ganglion network. Two types of errors were observed in frontal patients. The most frequent was discriminating instead of grouping items ('linking deficit'). Patients also linked items on a concrete instead of an abstract basis ('abstraction deficit'). Linking and abstraction deficits were related to partially different areas: the linking deficit to the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, right middle frontal gyrus and both inferior parietal lobules and the abstraction deficit to the head of the caudate nuclei and the left superior frontal gyrus. These data suggest that verbal concept formation requires the integrity of the prefrontal-basal-ganglion functional network. In addition, it can be divided into two distinct cognitive processes, which are underlain by two partially different neural networks.
Discomfort associated with underhumidified high-flow oxygen therapy in critically ill patients

To measure (1) the discomfort in non-intubated patients under high-flow oxygen therapy (HFOT) humidified with bubble (BH) or heated humidifiers (HH), and (2) the hygrometric properties of oxygen with a BH and an HH. This was a randomized cross-over study in critically ill patients during a 3-day period. The humidification device used at days 1 and 3 was changed for the other at day 2. (2) It was also an experimental bench study using the psychrometric method with five randomized flows (3, 6, 9, 12 and 15 l/min) and different humidification techniques. Discomfort, particularly dryness of the mouth and throat, was measured for two humidification conditions (BH and HH) using a 0–10 numerical rating scale (NRS) by patients requiring HFOT with a face mask at a flow ≥5 l/min, in a double-blinded condition. (1) In this clinical study, 30 patients treated by HFOT at a median flow of 7.8 l/min (5.1–10.9) were included. The global incidence of moderate (NRS = 4–6) and severe discomfort (NRS = 7–10) was 25 and 29%, respectively. The median intensities of both mouth and throat dryness were significantly lower with the HH than with the BH [7.8 (5.0–9.4) vs. 5.0 (3.1–7.0), P = 0.001 and 5.8 (2.3–8.5) vs. 4.3 (2.0–5.0), P = 0.005, respectively]. (2) In the bench study, the mean absolute humidity measured at an ambient temperature of 26°C with the HH was two times greater than with the BH (30 ± 1 vs. 16 ± 2 mg/l, P < 0.05) regardless of the flow rate. Compared to bubble humidifiers, the use of a heated-humidifier in patients with high-flow oxygen therapy is associated with a decrease of dryness symptoms mediated by increased humidity delivered to the patient.
Rituximab in children with resistant idiopathic nephrotic syndrome.

Idiopathic nephrotic syndrome resistant to standard treatments remains a therapeutic dilemma in pediatric nephrology. To test whether the anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody rituximab may benefit these patients, we conducted an open-label, randomized, controlled trial in 31 children with idiopathic nephrotic syndrome unresponsive to the combination of calcineurin inhibitors and prednisone. All children continued prednisone and calcineurin inhibitors at the doses prescribed before enrollment, and one treatment group received two doses of rituximab (375 mg/m(2) intravenously) as add-on therapy. The mean age was 8 years (range, 2-16 years). Rituximab did not reduce proteinuria at 3 months (change, -12% [95% confidence interval, -73% to 110%]; P=0.77 in analysis of covariance model adjusted for baseline proteinuria). Additional adjustment for previous remission and interaction terms (treatment by baseline proteinuria and treatment by previous remission) did not change the results. In conclusion, these data do not support the addition of rituximab to prednisone and calcineurin inhibitors in children with resistant idiopathic nephrotic syndrome.