46 research outputs found

    An Analytical Data Model to Improve Benefits of the Comprehensive Health Insurance System By Data Mining Techniques

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    Health insurance represents a crucial safeguard against the myriad risks associated with individual health conditions, covering expenses related to examinations, diagnosis and treatment, as well as providing psychological and physical support. Until mid-2019, Egypt implemented a social health insurance system, and then moved to a renewed framework known as the comprehensive health insurance system in the latter half of 2019. The research at hand focuses on exploring a new mechanism through develop a new model, it can be help the General Authority for Health Insurance to attainment of maximum benefits, whether in terms of individuals medical services or the enhancement of the nation's overall income return. The researcher depends on using the data mining technique to conduct specialized analyzes of big data for the new model, to offer the numerous advantages, including empowering decision-makers to make accurate decisions based on reliable information and proficient data analysis, Based on the new model for the health insurance system that was prepared and implemented using the Weka program, version 3.8.6, through the classifier scheme (classifiers.trees.J48 algorithm), the applied pattern was used: (Scheme:weka.classifiers.misc.InputMappedClassifier -I -trim -Wweka.classifiers.trees.J48 -- -C 0.25 -M 2), Through the Weka program, a new model was designed that contains two parts. The first part is to classify the insured into insurance categories according to their monthly salaries, and the second part is to predict the classification and distribution of employees among insurance packages according to the new health insurance model. The model was prepared using Weka.classifiers.trees.J48. software to analysis the dataset of 2781 employees. One of the significant outcomes that the researcher emphasizes from implementing the new model is the attainment of maximum benefits, whether in terms of individual medical services or the enhancement of the nation's overall income return. Under the existing health insurance law in Egypt, the monthly subscription fee is a flat 1% for all employees, without accounting for other factors. The results of applying the new model showed the effectiveness of the model through a comparison between the current subscription fees and the new health insurance model, developed using the same dataset of 2781 employees, reveals that the total monthly subscription fees under the current health insurance system amount to 153057.97 Egyptian Pounds (L.E.), whereas the total subscription fees under the new health insurance system model reach 365998.91 L.E., The financial benefits realized from the new model amount to 212940.94 L.E., representing a percentage increase of up to 139.12%. This demonstrates a considerable improvement in financial outcomes, and the potential advantages of transitioning to the new health insurance model

    Excision and Reconstruction of Atypical Chest Dermatofibrosarcoma Protuberans Tumor: A Case Report and Literature Review

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    Introduction: Dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans (DFSP) originated as keloid sarcoma, gaining its current designation in 1925. DFSP exhibits slow growth, categorizing it as a low- to intermediate-grade malignant sarcoma. Initially presenting as a small, firm, irregular skin nodule, it undergoes sudden, rapid growth, forming a prominent mass. While locally aggressive, distant metastasis is rare. DFSP affects mainly the torso then proximal extremities. Case Presentation: In this case study, we described a 57-year-old male individual who presented with a chest midline swelling that was progressing in size. A punch biopsy showed inconclusive results. Thus, a wide local excision was carried out along with sending the initial biopsy slides to Mayo Clinic for second opinion. A diagnosis of DFSP was confirmed, which is an uncommon and locally aggressive tumor affecting soft tissues. The primary histological diagnosis relies on immunohistochemical stains, enabling the distinction between DFSP and other fibrous tumors. Conclusion: Diagnosing DFSP is challenging due to its similarity to other skin lesions. A multidisciplinary approach is vital for accurate diagnosis and management

    A novel in ovo model to study cancer metastasis using chicken embryos and GFP expressing cancer cells.

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    Cancer metastasis is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. To date, several in vitro methodologies have been developed to understand the mechanisms of cancer metastasis and to screen various therapeutic agents against it. Nevertheless, mimicking an in vivo microenvironment in vitro is not possible; while in vivo experiments are complex, expensive and bound with several regulatory requirements. Herein, we report a novel in ovo model that relies on chicken embryo to investigate cancer cell invasion and metastasis to various organs of the body. In this model, we directly inject green fluorescent protein (GFP) expressing cancer cells to the heart of chicken embryo at 3 days of incubation, then monitor cell migration to various organs. To this end, we used a simple tissue processing technique to achieve rapid imaging and quantification of invasive cells. We were able to clearly observe the migration of GFP expressing cancer cells into various organs of chicken embryo. Organ specific variation in cell migration was also observed. Our new slide pressing based tissue processing technique improved the detectability of migrated cells. We herein demonstrate that the use of GFP expressing cancer cells allows easy detection and quantification of migrated cancer cells in the chicken embryo model, which minimizes the time and effort required in this types of studies compared to conventional histopathological analysis. In conclusion, our investigation provides a new cancer metastasis model that can be further improved to include more complex aspects, such as the use of multiple cell lines and anti-metastatic agents, thus opening new horizons in cancer biology and pharmaceutical research

    The Net Clinical Benefit of Rivaroxaban Compared to Low-Molecular-Weight Heparin in the Treatment of Cancer-Associated Thrombosis: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

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    Cancer-associated thrombosis (CAT) carries significant morbidity and mortality. Low-molecular-weight heparin (LMWH) remains the standard of care, with recent systematic studies suggesting the efficacy and safety of rivaroxaban in the treatment of CAT. Uncertainty, however, remains regarding rivaroxaban efficacy and safety in real-world settings. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies comparing rivaroxaban to LMWH. We searched PubMed, MEDLINE, and EMBASE. The primary outcome was the net clinical benefit (NCB), while rates of major bleeding (MB), venous thromboembolism (VTE), clinically relevant nonmajor bleeding (CRNMB), and all-cause mortality events were secondary outcomes. Seventeen studies were included in the final analysis. Rivaroxaban had a better NCB (relative risk [RR] = 0.82; 95% CI = 0.75-0.89, Q = 10.51, I2 = 0%), less VTE events (RR = 0.73, 95% CI = 0.65-0.82, Q = 6.76, I2 = 0%), and lower all-cause mortality (RR = 0.72, 95% CI = 0.57-0.91, Q = 32.8, I2 = 79%) compared to LMWH. Additionally, comparable MB events (RR = 1.07, 95% CI = 0.85-1.33, Q = 16.9, I2 = 11%). However, CRNMB events were higher in the rivaroxaban group (RR = 2.02, 95% CI = 1.46-2.80, Q = 9.9, I2 = 19%). Additional analyses demonstrated consistency of results. Our review encompassing data from randomized and real-world data suggested rivaroxaban superiority compared to LMWH in terms of a better NCB, fewer VTE events, lower all-cause mortality, and comparable MB risk while carrying a higher risk of CRNMB. These findings support the use of rivaroxaban in the treatment of CAT. Additionally, it warrants a sizable randomized controlled study testing the superiority of rivaroxaban versus LMWH formulation and ascertaining bleeding outcomes according to cancer type and site.Open access funded by Qatar National Library

    A Rare Sequela of Constriction Band Syndrome: Case Report.

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    The patient in this case report is a 19-year-old man who presented with left foot cauliflower lesion. He complained of an inability to wear proper shoes, in addition to an unpleasant appearance of his foot. The lesion was present since his birth. Based on history and physical examination, the top 2 differential diagnoses at this stage were pediatric neurofibroma and constriction band syndrome (CBS). Laboratory investigations and x-ray were ordered for the patient. X-ray showed absence of most of the phalanges of the first, second, and third toes, with swelling of the overlying soft tissues of the foot. CBS was confirmed. Excision of the lesion was done along with skin graft applied on the area. Biopsy showed skin with dermal fibrosis and extensive adipose tissue infiltration without any sign of atypia or malignancy. The patient was discharged with regular follow-up appointments

    Unexpected presentation of ischemic colitis: a case report and review of the literature.

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    Ischemic colitis accounts for many cases of bowel infarction. Usually, it has various manifestations, such as vomiting, abdominal pain, hematochezia and many other symptoms. Risk factors might include age, medications, hypercoagulable state and chronic illnesses. However, it can still occur in healthy young patients. This might make it difficult for physicians to establish a correct diagnosis and generate the appropriate treatment plan for patients suffering from ischemic colitis. In this case we report a previously healthy 37-year-old female who had a sudden onset of lower abdominal pain associated with hematochezia. This patient was treated for upper respiratory tract infection by amoxicillin-clavulanate 2 weeks prior to her symptoms. The computed tomography abdomen findings along with the exploratory laparotomy confirmed the diagnosis of ischemic colitis. Ischemic colitis is a serious condition with high mortality and morbidity rate. Therefore, prompt investigation, and if indicated, surgical intervention should be calculated in sick patients complaining of abdominal pain and lower gastrointestinal bleeding.We thank Qatar National Library for funding the open access publication of this paper

    Clinical presentation and outcomes of peripartum cardiomyopathy in the Middle East: a cohort from seven Arab countries

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    Aims: Published data on the clinical presentation of peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM) are very limited particularly from the Middle East. The aim of this study was to examine the clinical presentation, management, and outcomes of patients with PPCM using data from a large multicentre heart failure (HF) registry from the Middle East. Methods and results: From February to November 2012, a total of 5005 consecutive patients with HF were enrolled from 47 hospitals in 7 Middle East countries. From this cohort, patients with PPCM were identified and included in this study. Clinical features, in-hospital, and 12 months outcomes were examined. During the study period, 64 patients with PPCM were enrolled with a mean age of 32.5 ± 5.8 years. Family history was identified in 11 patients (17.2%) and hypertension in 7 patients (10.9%). The predominant presenting symptom was dyspnoea New York Heart Association class IV in 51.6%, class III in 31.3%, and class II in 17.2%. Basal lung crepitations and peripheral oedema were the predominant signs on clinical examination (98.2% and 84.4%, respectively). Most patients received evidence-based HF therapies. Inotropic support and mechanical ventilation were required in 16% and 5% of patients, respectively. There was one in-hospital death (1.6%), and after 1 year of follow-up, nine patients were rehospitalized with HF (15%), and one patient died (1.6%). Conclusions: A high index of suspicion of PPCM is required to make the diagnosis especially in the presence of family history of HF or cardiomyopathy. Further studies are warranted on the genetic basis of PPCM.Gulf CARE is an investigator-initiated study conducted under the auspices of the Gulf Heart Association and funded by Servier, Paris, France, and (for centres in Saudi Arabia) by the Saudi Heart Association [The Deanship of Scientific Research at King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Research Group Number RG-1436-013)]. This does not alter our adherence to policies on sharing data and materials, and the funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

    Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

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    Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research.Peer reviewe

    Early mobilisation in critically ill COVID-19 patients: a subanalysis of the ESICM-initiated UNITE-COVID observational study

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    Background Early mobilisation (EM) is an intervention that may improve the outcome of critically ill patients. There is limited data on EM in COVID-19 patients and its use during the first pandemic wave. Methods This is a pre-planned subanalysis of the ESICM UNITE-COVID, an international multicenter observational study involving critically ill COVID-19 patients in the ICU between February 15th and May 15th, 2020. We analysed variables associated with the initiation of EM (within 72 h of ICU admission) and explored the impact of EM on mortality, ICU and hospital length of stay, as well as discharge location. Statistical analyses were done using (generalised) linear mixed-effect models and ANOVAs. Results Mobilisation data from 4190 patients from 280 ICUs in 45 countries were analysed. 1114 (26.6%) of these patients received mobilisation within 72 h after ICU admission; 3076 (73.4%) did not. In our analysis of factors associated with EM, mechanical ventilation at admission (OR 0.29; 95% CI 0.25, 0.35; p = 0.001), higher age (OR 0.99; 95% CI 0.98, 1.00; p ≤ 0.001), pre-existing asthma (OR 0.84; 95% CI 0.73, 0.98; p = 0.028), and pre-existing kidney disease (OR 0.84; 95% CI 0.71, 0.99; p = 0.036) were negatively associated with the initiation of EM. EM was associated with a higher chance of being discharged home (OR 1.31; 95% CI 1.08, 1.58; p = 0.007) but was not associated with length of stay in ICU (adj. difference 0.91 days; 95% CI − 0.47, 1.37, p = 0.34) and hospital (adj. difference 1.4 days; 95% CI − 0.62, 2.35, p = 0.24) or mortality (OR 0.88; 95% CI 0.7, 1.09, p = 0.24) when adjusted for covariates. Conclusions Our findings demonstrate that a quarter of COVID-19 patients received EM. There was no association found between EM in COVID-19 patients' ICU and hospital length of stay or mortality. However, EM in COVID-19 patients was associated with increased odds of being discharged home rather than to a care facility. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04836065 (retrospectively registered April 8th 2021)
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