Hallmcdermott4608
Pharmacologic treatment of vestibular schwannomas (VSs) may increase the success of conservative management for small lesions, and offer an alternative to surgery and stereotactic radiotherapy in symptomatic cases in the high-risk population. Agents that have been studied include aspirin (ASA), but the results of the preliminary studies have been conflicting. In this study, we aimed to systematically review the evidence on the effect of ASA intake on tumor growth in patients with VSs.
Pubmed, Cochrane, Scopus, Embase, ClinicalTrials.gov , and Web of Science were searched for studies comparing VS tumor growth in patients with aspirin intake and those without. Random-effect meta-analysis was used to evaluate the outcomes in terms of linear and/or volumetric tumor growth.
Four retrospective cohort studies were included in the meta-analysis. No significant difference was found in tumor growth between VS patients with aspirin intake and those without. This result held true for the analysis of linear tumor growth (OR 1.23; 95% CI 0.49, 3.10), volumetric tumor growth (OR 1.41; 95% CI 0.36, 5.59), and both combined (OR 1.02; 95% CI 0.56, 1.86).
Our meta-analysis suggests that there is insufficient evidence to recommend ASA therapy in patients with VSs. High-quality randomized controlled trials are warranted to determine the efficacy of this drug in reducing VS tumor growth.
Our meta-analysis suggests that there is insufficient evidence to recommend ASA therapy in patients with VSs. High-quality randomized controlled trials are warranted to determine the efficacy of this drug in reducing VS tumor growth.
There is a need to describe the demographic and clinical characteristics of people diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis who are attended within the Colombian health system. This characterization allows prioritizing populations with specific risks, programming the use of health services, and planning the costs necessary to guarantee equitable care.
To assess the demographic and clinical characteristics of a cohort of patients with rheumatoid arthritis using national data collected by the High-Cost Disease Fund (CAC in Spanish).
A cross-sectional study from a secondary source. Data was gathered from a national administrative registry. A descriptive analysis was performed on sociodemographic and clinical characteristics. Age-standardized prevalence was estimated at national level and by geographical regions. Remission rates were also estimated for Colombian departments and regions.
By 2019, 81,386 patients with rheumatoid arthritis were reported in Colombia. The relation female-male was 5.21. The median ag is similar to the reports by similar studies such as the COMORA. • A major strength of this study is the large sample size since data come from a nationwide registry of people with rheumatoid arthritis, supported by the National Ministry of Health. Additionally, this registry has a rigorous data monitoring process that guarantees the internal validity of data and provides valuable information for decision-making based on local evidence. • Prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis was higher in females between 50 and 65 years. Age-standardized prevalence was lower than previously reported in Colombia, but similar to the world estimations.An early and accurate diagnosis followed by prompt treatment is pre-requisite for the management of any disease. Malaria diagnosis is routinely performed by microscopy and rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) in the field settings; however, their performance may vary across regions, age and asymptomatic status. Owing to this, we assessed the diagnostic performance of conventional and advanced molecular tools for malaria detection in low and high malaria-endemic settings. We performed mass blood surveys in low and high endemic regions of two North-Eastern districts from the states of Assam and Meghalaya. A total of 3322 individuals were screened for malaria using RDT, microscopy and PCR and measures of diagnostic accuracy were estimated. Out of 3322 individuals, 649 (19.5%) were detected with malaria parasite. Asymptomatic were 86.4% (2872/3322), of which 19.4% (557/2872) had Plasmodium infection. The sensitivity and specificity of microscopy were 42.7% and 99.3%, and RDT showed 49.9% and 90.4%, respectively, considering PCR as standard. RDT (AUC 0.65 vs 0.74; p = 0.001) and microscopy (AUC 0.64 vs 0.76; p less then 0.0001) performances were significantly lower in low compared to high endemic areas. True positive rate was lower in asymptomatics but true negative rate was found similar to symptomatic individuals. The conventional diagnostic tools (RDT and microscopy) had detected malaria in children with nearly twofold greater sensitivity than in the adults (p less then 0.05). To conclude, asymptomatics, adults and low malaria-endemic regions require major attention due to mediocre performance of conventional diagnostic tools in malaria detection.The genetic diversity of Syphacia nematodes (intestinal parasites of rodents) was studied in the hybrid zone of two sister species of common voles, Microtus arvalis and Microtus obscurus, in the Oka River valley, east of Moscow. Syphacia nematodes of other rodent species (Microtus rossiaemeridionalis, Alexandromys oeconomus, Sylvaemus uralensis, and Apodemus agrarius) that inhabit the area were also studied. Phylogenetic trees for the studied nematodes were inferred from the analysis of nuclear ITS1+5.8S+ITS2, LSU rDNA, and mitochondrial CO1 gene partial sequences. Syphacia nematodes of the studied area form three well-defined clades in the phylogenetic tree of this genus. Morphological analysis revealed similarities between the obtained sequences with those of known Syphacia species from the GenBank database, which enabled identifying these three clades up to the species level S. montana, S. agraria, and S. frederici. Russian haplotypes of Syphacia are different from West European and East Asian haplotypes with pronounced genetic distances. A high level of specificity was reported for two of these three species (S. frederici, only in Sylvaemus uralensis; S. agraria, only in Apodemus agrarius). S. montana was found in different species of voles. MSA-2 concentration Remarkably, S. montana specimens from M. arvalis and M. obscurus were genetically uniform, while S. montana, specimens from hybrids between these two species formed a separate clade distant from those originating from non-hybridised hosts.
