Non communicable diseases

BACKGROUND: Mortality among people with HIV declined with the introduction of combination antiretroviral therapy. We investigated trends over time in all-cause and cause-specific mortality in people with HIV from 1999-2020. METHODS: Data were collected from the D:A:D cohort from 1999 through January 2015 and RESPOND from October 2017 through 2020. Age-standardized all-cause and cause-specific mortality rates, classified using Coding Causes of Death in HIV (CoDe), were calculated...

BACKGROUND: Neglected tropical diseases are responsible for considerable morbidity and mortality in low-income populations. International efforts have reduced their global burden, but transmission is persistent and case-finding-based interventions rarely target asymptomatic individuals. METHODS: We develop a generic mathematical modeling framework for analyzing the dynamics of visceral leishmaniasis in the Indian sub-continent (VL), gambiense sleeping sickness (gHAT), and Chagas disease and use it to assess the possible contribution of asymptomatics who later develop disease (pre-symptomatics) and those who do not (non-symptomatics) to the maintenance of infection...

BACKGROUND: Accuracy of molecular tools for the identification of parasites that cause human cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) could largely depend on the sampling method. Non-invasive or less-invasive sampling methods such as filter paper imprints and cotton swabs are preferred over punch biopsies and lancet scrapings for detection methods of Leishmania based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) because they are painless, simple, and inexpensive, and of benefit to military and civilian patients to ensure timely treatment...

INTRODUCTION: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the most serious public health challenges worldwide, including in Japan. However, there is limited evidence assessing the AMR burden in Japan. Thus, this systematic literature review (SLR) and meta-analysis (MA) were conducted to assess the clinical and economic burden of AMR in Japan. METHODS: Comprehensive literature searches were performed on EMBASE, MEDLINE, the Cochrane Library, and ICHUSHI between 2012 and 2022 following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis guidelines...

Hypothyroidism is the most commonly diagnosed endocrine disease in dogs. The objective of this study was to evaluate the changes in the redox status in canine hypothyroidism using whole blood (WB) and red blood cell (RBCs) lysates. For this purpose, a panel of five antioxidants and five oxidants biomarkers was measured in WB and RBCs lysates of 30 dogs with hypothyroidism, 26 dogs with non-thyroidal illnesses and 15 healthy dogs. The antioxidants measured were cupric reducing antioxidant capacity (CUPRAC), ferric reducing ability of plasma (FRAP), Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC), thiol and paraoxonase type-1 (PON-1)...

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), obesity and related chronic diseases are major non-communicable diseases with high mortality rates worldwide. While dietary sugars are known to be responsible for insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome (MetS), the underlying pathophysiological effects of sustained fructose consumption require further elucidation. We hypothesize that certain bioactive compounds ( i.e. punicalagin and ellagic acid) from dietary pomegranate could counteract the harmful effects of sustained fructose consumption in terms of obesity and liver damage...

OBJECTIVE: To assess the clinical applicability of a semi-quantitative luciferase immunosorbent assay (LISA) for detecting antibodies against Treponema pallidum antigens TP0171 (TP15), TP0435 (TP17), and TP0574 (TP47) in diagnosing and monitoring syphilis. METHOD: LISA for detection of anti-TP15, TP17, and TP47 antibodies was developed and evaluated for syphilis diagnosis using 261 serum samples (161 syphilis, 100 non-syphilis). 90 serial serum samples from six syphilis rabbit models (three treated, three untreated) and 110 paired serum samples from 55 syphilis patients were used to assess treatment effects by utilizing TRUST as reference...

INTRODUCTION: Rehabilitation is essential to foster healthy ageing. Older adults have unique rehabilitation needs due to a higher prevalence of non-communicable diseases, higher susceptibility to infectious diseases, injuries, and mental health conditions. However, there is limited understanding of how rehabilitation is delivered to older adults. To address this gap, we conducted a scoping review to describe rehabilitation delivery models used to optimise older adults' functioning/functional ability and foster healthy ageing...

BACKGROUND: Non-communicable diseases are a global health problem. The metric Disability-Adjusted Life Years was developed to measure its impact on health systems. This metric makes it possible to understand a disease's burden, towards defining healthcare policies. This research analysed the effect of healthcare expenditures in the evolution of disability-adjusted life years for non-communicable diseases in the European Union between 2000 and 2019. METHODS: Data were collected for all 27 European Union countries from Global Burden of Disease 2019, Global Health Expenditure, and EUROSTAT databases...

INTRODUCTION: Hepatitis B infection (HBV) is prevalent in China. Due to language barriers and cultural differences, it is not always straightforward to evaluate disease knowledge in liver clinics. We aimed to assess the awareness on HBV and its mechanisms of transmission in HBV-infected Chinese patients and their household contacts. METHODS: HBV-infected Chinese patients and their contacts were interviewed by a native Chinese nurse regarding their knowledge on HBV transmission mechanisms, use of preventive measures and vaccination status...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Non-communicable diseases such as hypertension and diabetes are matters of huge concern worldwide, with an increasing trend in prevalence over the previous decade. First of all, this study aimed to evaluate the association between economic status (ES) and body mass index (BMI), ES and comorbidity of hypertension and diabetes, and BMI and comorbidity independently. Second, it explored the mediating role of BMI in the association between ES and comorbidity of hypertension and diabetes...

INTRODUCTION: Fluconazole is commonly used to treat and prevent fungal infections caused by Candida and Cryptococcus species. Although there have been reports of fatal arrhythmias induced by fluconazole, such as torsades de pointes, there have been minimal reports of mild, non-fatal arrhythmias associated with it, which may have been overlooked in clinical practice. We encountered a case of frequent premature ventricular contractions induced by fluconazole during the treatment of HIV-related pulmonary cryptococcosis...

BACKGROUND: Metabolic syndrome (MetS), characterized by elevated blood pressure, high blood glucose, excess abdominal fat, and abnormal cholesterol or triglyceride levels, significantly increases the risk of various non-communicable diseases. This study focuses on understanding the sex-specific association between Apolipoprotein E (APOE) polymorphism and MetS among middle-aged and older adults in rural southern India. METHODS: This cross-sectional study utilized data from the Centre for Brain Research-Srinivaspura Aging, Neuro Senescence, and COGnition (CBR-SANSCOG) study...

Lung diseases, including lung cancer, are rising causes of global mortality. Despite novel imaging technologies and the development of biomarker assays, the detection of lung cancer remains a significant challenge. However, the lung communicates directly with the external environment and releases aerosolized droplets during normal tidal respiration, which can be collected, stored and analzsed as exhaled breath condensate (EBC). A few studies have suggested that EBC contains extracellular vesicles (EVs) whose microRNA (miRNA) cargos may be useful for evaluating different lung conditions, but the cellular origin of these EVs remains unknown...

<sec id="st1"><title>BACKGROUND</title>The inclusion of adolescents in TB drug trials is essential for the development of safe, child-friendly regimens for the prevention and treatment of TB. TB Trials Consortium Study 31/AIDS Clinical Trials Group A5349 (S31/A5349) enrolled adolescents as young as 12 years old. We assessed investigator and coordinator described facilitators and barriers to adolescent recruitment, enrollment, and retention.</sec><sec id="st2"><title>METHODS</title>Interviews were conducted with six investigators from sites that enrolled adolescent participants and six investigators from non-enrolling sites...

BACKGROUND: Migration to Scotland has increased since 2002 with an increase in European residents and participation in the Asylum dispersal scheme. Scotland has become more ethnically diverse, and 10% of the current population were born abroad. Migration and ethnicity are determinants of health, and information on the health status of migrants to Scotland and their access to and barriers to care facilitates the planning and delivery of equitable health services. This study aimed to scope existing peer-reviewed research and grey literature to identify gaps in evidence regarding the health of migrants in Scotland...

The present study aimed to explore the pathogenic spectrum and risk factors of peritoneal dialysis-associated peritonitis (Peritoneal dialysis associated peritonitis, PDAP) in Yongzhou, Hunan, China. The clinical and epidemiological data on regular peritoneal dialysis (Peritoneal dialysis, PD) between January 2016 and December 2020 in Yongzhou were collected for retrospective analysis. The related factors of peritonitis were evaluated by single-factor analysis, while risk factors of refractory PDAP were evaluated by multivariate logistic regression analysis...

In rural sub-Saharan Africa, knowledge of non-communicable diseases such as high blood pressure (BP) is rather limited. This report provides information about a BP screening in Mata Sector, a rural region in Southern Province of Rwanda. Community-based, house-to-house screening was performed between February and July 2020 on more than 7000 inhabitants. The screening was conducted by a local team composed by 20 community health care workers, five community health care supervisors, and one nurse with hypertension surveillance training...

Most lung cancer patients with metastatic cancer eventually relapse with drug-resistant disease following treatment and EGFR mutant lung cancer is no exception. Genome-wide CRISPR screens, to either knock out or overexpress all protein-coding genes in cancer cell lines, revealed the landscape of pathways that cause resistance to the EGFR inhibitors osimertinib or gefitinib in EGFR mutant lung cancer. Among the most recurrent resistance genes were those that regulate the Hippo pathway. Following osimertinib treatment a subpopulation of cancer cells are able to survive and over time develop stable resistance...

Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) profoundly compromises the quality of life, with prolonged untreated cases posing a heightened risk of severe complications such as esophageal injury and esophageal carcinoma. The imperative for early diagnosis is paramount in averting progressive pathological developments. This study introduces a wrapper-based feature selection model based on the enhanced Runge Kutta algorithm (SCCRUN) and fuzzy k-nearest neighbors (FKNN) for GERD prediction, named bSCCRUN-FKNN-FS. Runge Kutta algorithm (RUN) is a metaheuristic algorithm designed based on the Runge-Kutta method...