Non-pharmacological home remedies used by primary care patients

Highlights High prevalence (67 %) of routine use of home remedies in primary care patients. Cooling agents for bruises and burns among most commonly used home remedies. Top 10 home remedies considered effective by about 90 % of users. Upper respiratory tract infections and burns among most commonly self-treated health problems. </p

Lower Rates of Hypocalcemia Following Near-Infrared Autofluorescence Use in Thyroidectomy : A Meta-Analysis of RCTs

Background: Iatrogenic injury of the parathyroid glands is the most frequent complication after total thyroidectomy. Objective: To determine the effectiveness of near-infrared autofluorescence (NIRAF) in reducing postoperative hypocalcemia following total thyroidectomy. Methods: PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar databases were searched. Randomised trials reporting at least one hypocalcemia outcome following total thyroidectomy using NIRAF were included. Results: The qualitative data synthesis comprised 1363 patients from nine randomised studies, NIRAF arm = 636 cases and non-NIRAF arm = 637 cases. There was a statistically significant difference in the overall rate of hypocalcemia log(OR) = -0.7 [(-1.01, -0.40), M-H, REM, CI = 95%] and temporary hypocalcemia log(OR) = -0.8 [(-1.01, -0.59), M-H, REM, CI = 95%] favouring the NIRAF. The difference in the rate of permanent hypocalcemia log(OR) = -1.09 [(-2.34, 0.17), M-H, REM, CI = 95%] between the two arms was lower in the NIRAF arm but was not statistically significant. Conclusions: NIRAF during total thyroidectomy helps in reducing postoperative hypocalcemia. Level of evidence-1.</p

Evaluating the effect of action-like video game play and of casual video game play on anxiety in adolescents with elevated anxiety: protocol for a multi-center, parallel group, assessor-blind, randomized controlled trial

Background Adolescence is a critical period for the onset and maintenance of anxiety disorders, which raises the importance of intervening early; one possibility of doing so is via digital interventions. Within that research field, at least two important research paths have been explored in the past years. On the one hand, the anxiolytic effect of casual video games has been tested as such gaming activity may distract away from anxious thoughts through the induction of flow and redirection of attention toward the game and thus away of anxious thoughts. On the other hand, the bidirectional link between weak attentional control and higher anxiety has led to the design of interventions aiming at improving attentional control such as working memory training studies. Taking stock that another genre of gaming, action video games, improves attentional control, game-based interventions that combines cognitive training and action-like game features would seem relevant. This three-arm randomized controlled trial aims to evaluate the feasibility and the efficacy of two video game interventions to document how each may potentially alleviate adolescent anxiety-related symptoms when deployed fully on-line. Methods The study aims to recruit 150 individuals, 12 to 14 years of age, with high levels of anxiety as reported by the parents’ online form of the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Disorders questionnaire. This trial contrasts a child-friendly, “action-like” video game designed to improve attentional control abilities in a progressive and stepwise manner (Eco-Rescue), a casual puzzle video game selected to act as a positive distraction tool (Bejeweled) and finally a control group with no assigned training intervention to control for possible test-retest effects (No-training). Participants will be assigned randomly to one of the three study arms. They will be assessed for main (anxiety) and secondary outcomes (attentional control, affective working memory) at three time points, before training (T1), one week after the 6-week training (T2) and four months after completing the training (T3). Discussion The results will provide evidence for the feasibility and the efficacy of two online video game interventions at improving mental health and emotional well-being in adolescents with high levels of anxiety. This project will contribute unique knowledge to the field, as few studies have examined the effects of video game play in the context of digital mental health interventions for adolescents. Trial registration The trial is registered on ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT05923944, June 20, 2023).</p

Incidence Trends of Melanoma of the Lower Limbs and Hips in the United States : A Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Analysis 2000-2019

Background/aim: No specific studies on the changes in the incidence of melanoma in the lower limbs and hips have been performed. This article aimed to examine trends in incidence rates of melanoma of the lower extremities in the U.S. Patients and methods: Data from the SEER program provided by the National Cancer Institute were used to examine trends in melanoma incidence from 2000 to 2019. Data analysis was performed from October to December 2022. Results: A total of 192,327 cases of melanoma of the lower limbs and hips were diagnosed from 2000 to 2019 and included in our study. The incidence rate increased from 9.78 to 13.65 cases per 100,000 person-year and by an average annual percent change (AAPC) of 2% (95%CI=1.4-2.9%). The incidence increased by an AAPC of 2.1% in men and 1.7% in women. The incidence among people under 50 remained stable but increased among those over 50 years. Localized stage disease was the only stage where a continuously increasing incidence was observed, with an AAPC of 1.7% (95%CI=0.9-2.5%). Lentiginous melanoma showed the highest incidence trend rate with an AAPC of 2.3% (95%CI=1.0-3.5%). Conclusion: The incidence rate of melanoma in the lower limbs and hips increased between 2000 and 2019, with a higher incidence in men, reversing the previously described trend of higher incidence among women. However, incidence among people under 50 remained stable, suggesting the efficacy of prevention campaigns in this population.</p

Microstructural alterations in the locus coeruleus-entorhinal cortex pathway in Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia

Introduction: We investigated in vivo the microstructural integrity of the pathway connecting the locus coeruleus to the transentorhinal cortex (LC-TEC) in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Methods: Diffusion-weighted MRI scans were collected for 21 AD, 20 behavioral variants of FTD (bvFTD), and 20 controls. Fractional anisotropy (FA), mean, axial, and radial diffusivities (MD, AxD, RD) were computed in the LC-TEC pathway using a normative atlas. Atrophy was assessed using cortical thickness and correlated with microstructural measures. Results: We found (i) higher RD in AD than controls; (ii) higher MD, RD, and AxD, and lower FA in bvFTD than controls and AD; and (iii) a negative association between LC-TEC MD, RD, and AxD, and entorhinal cortex (EC) thickness in bvFTD (allp &lt; 0.050). Discussion: LC-TEC microstructural alterations are more pronounced in bvFTD than AD, possibly reflecting neurodegeneration secondary to EC atrophy. Highlights: Microstructural integrity of LC-TEC pathway is understudied in AD and bvFTD.LC-TEC microstructural alterations are present in both AD and bvFTD.Greater LC-TEC microstructural alterations in bvFTD than AD.LC-TEC microstructural alterations in bvFTD are associated to EC neurodegeneration.</p

Asteroseismic modelling strategies in the PLATO era

Context . In the framework of the PLATO mission, to be launched in late 2026, seismic inversion techniques will play a key role in determining the mission precision requirements in terms of stellar mass, radius, and age. It is therefore relevant to discuss the challenges of the automation of seismic inversions, which were originally developed for individual modelling. Aims . We tested the performance of our newly developed quality assessment procedure of seismic inversions, which was designed for pipeline implementation. Methods . We applied our assessment procedure to a testing set composed of 26 reference models. We divided our testing set into two categories: calibrator targets whose inversion behaviour is well known from the literature and targets for which we assessed the quality of the inversion manually. We then compared the results of our assessment procedure with our expectations as a human modeller for three types of inversions: the mean density inversion, the acoustic radius inversion, and the central entropy inversion. Results . We find that our quality assessment procedure performs as well as a human modeller. The mean density inversion and the acoustic radius inversion are suited to large-scale applications, but not the central entropy inversion, at least in its current form. Conclusions . Our assessment procedure shows promising results for a pipeline implementation. It is based on the by-products of the inversion and therefore requires few numerical resources to quickly assess the quality of an inversion result. </p