International Journal of General Medicine

PURPOSE: According to the 2023 global cancer data, breast cancer is the most common malignant tumor among women in the world. Its occurrence and development is influenced by inflammation, nutrition, and immune status. Therefore, this study combines C-reactive protein (CRP), albumin, and lymphocyte, which can reflect the above states, to form the CRP-albumin-lymphocyte (CALLY) index, an indicator to evaluate its relationship with overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) in breast cancer patients...

BACKGROUND: The occurrence of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is a common and severe disease of the digestive system in neonates. This study aims to assess the value of the intestinal tissue oxygen saturation (rint SO2 ) combined with the levels of procalcitonin (PCT) and mean platelet volume (MPV) in predicting the severity of NEC in preterm infants. METHODS: This experiment was a retrospective cohort study conducted in the Department of Pediatrics, Hongqi Hospital Affiliated to Mudanjiang Medical University between January 2017 and July 2022...

BACKGROUND: Nearly half of the Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients develop lung involvement. The study assessed the extent of pulmonary involvement among SLE patients and to identify the associated factors in the population. METHODOLOGY: This retrospective cohort study was conducted at Aseer Hospital and Khamis Myshat Hospital in the Southern region of Saudi Arabia. The study spanned from January 1, 2016, to June 3, 2023. Patient inclusion criteria encompassed individuals who received a definitive diagnosis and classification as per American College of Rheumatology criteria, while patients under 18 years of age and those with mixed connective tissue diseases were exclude...

PURPOSE: According to many previous studies, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR) and hypersensitive C-reactive protein (CRP) are commonly used as important indicators to assess the prognosis of intravenous thrombolysis in AIS patients. Based on this, we used two novel biomarkers C-NLR (CRP/neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio) and C-LMR (CRP×lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio) to investigate their correlation with 90-day outcomes in AIS patients after intravenous thrombolysis...

AIM OF THE STUDY: This study analyzes research on TCM formulae in CHD over the past 30 years, using VOSviewer and CiteSpace. It aims to highlight key trends and hotspots in the field. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The core database of Web of Science was collected, and the search time range was from the establishment of the database to the present (August 2023) for the literature related to the study of TCM prescriptions in CHD, and the information on the number of literature, countries, journals, authors, institutions, keywords were summarized by applying the software VOSviewer and CiteSpace...

The past several decades have shown the functional status of sympathetic activity in congestive heart failure. The results, particularly through clinical and basic studies in heart failure, indicate an increased sympathetic neural activity. The definitive and compelling evidence of the involvement of catecholamines is the demonstration that many drugs that are therapeutically useful in the treatment of heart failure also affect the sympathetic nervous system at various sites, including its synthesis, release and uptake of catecholamines and a decreased plasma norepinephrine level...

OBJECTIVE: To explore the application of serum cardiac troponin T (cTnT), brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) levels, and electrocardiogram changes in the treatment and prognosis evaluation of severe pneumonia in children. METHODS: 120 children with severe pneumonia (severe group) admitted to our hospital from June 2020 to December 2022 were selected as the study subjects with prospective study. They were divided into survival group (n=78) and death group (n=42) based on their survival status; 120 children with mild pneumonia were selected as the control group...

OBJECTIVE: The Systemic Immune Inflammation Index (SII), as a novel inflammation biomarker that comprehensively reflects the inflammatory and immune status of the body, has not been reported in studies on Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia (MPP) in children. This study aims to investigate whether SII can serve as an effective indicator for evaluating the condition of MPP. METHODS: This study recruited a total of 304 hospitalized patients with mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia (MPP), including 78 patients with severe MPP (SMPP) and 226 patients with non-SMPP...

Rehabilitation is an important and necessary part of local and global healthcare services along with treatment and palliative care, prevention of disease, and promotion of good health. The rehabilitation process helps older and young adults even children to become as independent as possible in activities of daily life and enables participation in useful living activities, recreation, work, and education. The technology of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has evolved significantly in recent years. Many activities related to rehabilitation have been getting benefits from using AI techniques...

Glucocorticoids (GC) are crucial in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), but discontinuing GC effectively in RA patients poses a significant challenge for rheumatologists. In this two-stage, single-center, non-randomized controlled trial, we investigated the benefits of combining Chinese traditional herbal treatment with csDMARDs to aid GC discontinuation in terms of GC tapering, disease control, and safety. A total of 231 participants were enrolled, of which 150 eligible subjects were included in the first phase and allocated to three groups (control group, treatment group 1, and treatment group 2) based on their willingness to take traditional Chinese medicine and syndrome differentiation, in a 1:1:1 ratio...

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Cervical hyperextension injury is very frequent with anterior longitudinal ligament (ALL) injury, and the ligament damage has a remarkable effect on whether and what type of operation should be performed. This study aims to establish a new scoring system for the accurate diagnosis of ALL damage. METHODS: The imaging data of the consecutive patients was measured and scored by four radiologists. Intraoperative exploration was performed by three surgeons...

PURPOSE: Continuous advancements in medical diagnostic technology and the growing availability of resources suggest a potential for fluctuations in the incidence rate of retinoblastoma (Rb). This study aimed to analyze incidence data of Rb patients in Taiwan from 1999 to 2018, utilizing the nationwide Taiwan Cancer Registry (TCR) database. Additionally, we investigated the treatment modalities used for these Rb patients and compared them with those observed in other countries. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study utilizing data from the TCR database...

BACKGROUND: This study explores the longitudinal psychosocial impact of Long-COVID syndrome, also known as Post-COVID-19 syndrome, characterized by enduring symptoms after coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infection, over the years 2020, 2021, and 2022. It aimed to examine the variations in depression, anxiety, and quality of life among Post-COVID-19 patients during these years, hypothesizing significant inter-year differences reflecting the pandemic's evolving influence. METHODS: Conducted at Victor Babes Hospital for Infectious Diseases and Pulmonology, Romania, this cross-sectional research involved 324 patients diagnosed with mild to moderate COVID-19, assessed six months post-hospitalization...

ChatGPT, an AI-driven conversational large language model (LLM), has garnered significant scholarly attention since its inception, owing to its manifold applications in the realm of medical science. This study primarily examines the merits, limitations, anticipated developments, and practical applications of ChatGPT in clinical practice, healthcare, medical education, and medical research. It underscores the necessity for further research and development to enhance its performance and deployment. Moreover, future research avenues encompass ongoing enhancements and standardization of ChatGPT, mitigating its limitations, and exploring its integration and applicability in translational and personalized medicine...

PURPOSE: Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is the most common subtype of thyroid cancer. Recurrence makes the prognosis for some patients with PTC worse. Increasing evidence have suggested that N6-methyladenosine (m6 A) RNA methylation plays an important role in tumorigenesis. However, the significance of m6 A-related lncRNAs in the malignant progression of PTC remains unknown. In this study, we explored the significance of M6 A-related lncrnas in the malignant progression of PTC. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Transcriptome and clinical data of PTC were achieved and integrated from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA)...

BACKGROUND: Occupational stress is a negative physical and emotional response to job requirements, which might be caused by various factors that can harm the emotional and physical well-being of the employee. We aimed to investigate the factors and conditions associated with occupational stress. STUDY DESIGN: The study was cross-sectional, conducted with the Perceived Stress Scale ten item version. RESULTS: The majority of the participants reported moderate stress 223 (71%) and a small proportion (n=38, 12...

PURPOSE: E-cigarettes (ECs) are gaining popularity among young people. This study aimed to assess university student vapers' search frequency and source credibility of commonly used media in China, and their association with daily EC users' motivation to quit EC use. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study involving an online quantitative survey in six universities in Chengdu, China. Participants answered questions on their EC use patterns, motivation to quit EC, use frequency and source credibility of media use...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Congenital hypothyroidism (CH) is indeed a prevalent neonatal endocrine disorder, affecting approximately 1 in 2000-3000 newborns worldwide, and 1 in 2400 newborns in China. Despite its high incidence, the genetic causes of CH, particularly those related to thyroid dysgenesis (TD), are still not well understood. However, previous studies have suggested that JAG1 may be a potential susceptibility gene for congenital thyroid defects. To explore the association between JAG1 and CH, we screened JAG1 variants in a large cohort of 813 CH patients...

PURPOSE: The research on symptom management in patients with diabetic kidney disease (DKD) has shifted from separate symptoms to symptom clusters and networks recently. This study aimed to evaluate the unpleasant symptoms of DKD patients, and to investigate how these symptom clusters could affect patients. METHODS: 408 DKD patients were recruited in this cross-sectional study. The symptoms of DKD patients were measured using the modified Dialysis Symptom Index. Network analysis was employed to evaluate the symptom network and the characteristics of individual nodes, while factor analysis was utilized to identify symptom clusters...

PURPOSE: To investigate the predictive value of hemoglobin (Hb) to red blood cell distribution width (RDW) (Hb/RDW) ratio in combination with serum sodium for major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in elderly acute heart failure patients with preserved ejection fraction at 30 days after discharge. METHODS: 130 elderly acute heart failure patients with preserved ejection fraction were enrolled and followed up at 30 days after discharge. They were classified into the MACE group (n=11) and none-MACE group (n=119)...