-
Cureus Jul 2022As the globe continues to grapple and scuffle with new emerging strains of COVID every day, a set of recovered patients continue to show persistent enervating symptoms.... (Review)
Review
As the globe continues to grapple and scuffle with new emerging strains of COVID every day, a set of recovered patients continue to show persistent enervating symptoms. Many patients never fully recovered after COVID and had neurological and psychiatric symptoms for weeks or months. The emphasis of our study is on these long haulers, particularly on the two critical organ systems of the body, i.e., the central nervous system and the muscular system. Depending upon the severity of the disease, many signs and symptoms continue to linger, ranging from weeks to months. A total of 29 studies are included in our review after thorough screening, application of inclusion and exclusion criteria, and quality appraisals. The total number of patients included is 6012. We found many long-term effects, but the emphasis of our study continued to remain on the two main organ systems that resulted in prolonged COVID with debilitating symptoms and thus affected the quality of life of these patients. Various factors and underlying pathophysiologic manifestations result in the predominance of these signs and symptoms. Furthermore, the patient's underlying medical conditions and other environmental factors may add to it. More focus is required on the quality of life post-COVID, and this requires a team of specialists. There are still many unanswered questions like which ethnicity is affected more, why females are more prone to the long symptoms, and the effects of various treatments on the long-term signs and symptoms.
PubMed: 36060385
DOI: 10.7759/cureus.27441 -
Psychosomatic MedicineAlthough several studies have examined the association between estradiol and human aggression, a consistent understanding of their correlation has yet to be established.... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis
OBJECTIVE
Although several studies have examined the association between estradiol and human aggression, a consistent understanding of their correlation has yet to be established. This study aimed to investigate this relationship comprehensively.
METHODS
We systematically searched five English databases (PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, and CINAHL) from their inception to June 5, 2023. Two authors independently screened publications and extracted data based on predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Statistical analyses were performed using Review Manager 5.4, and a random-effects model was used to pool the data.
RESULTS
We identified 14 eligible studies comprising data from 1820 participants that met the inclusion criteria. This meta-analysis indicated a positive correlation between estradiol and human aggression, albeit a weak one. The pooled Fisher z value was 0.16 (95% confidence interval = 0.05-0.26; I2 = 73%, p <.00001). Furthermore, we found that participants' sex and age, the measures of aggression, and the literature quality might be sources of heterogeneity.
CONCLUSIONS
Human aggression exhibited a weak positive correlation with estradiol concentration, whereas this relationship was influenced by participants' sex and age, the measure of aggression used, and the quality assessment of the literature. Gaining a better understanding of the association between estradiol and aggression could aid in the identification of populations prone to aggression.
Topics: Humans; Aggression; Estradiol; Research Design
PubMed: 37678333
DOI: 10.1097/PSY.0000000000001247 -
BMC Gastroenterology Aug 2023The incidence of HBV-negative and HCV-negative hepatocellular carcinoma (NBNC-HCC) is significantly increasing. However, their clinicopathologic features and prognosis... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis
Comparison of clinicopathologic characteristics among patients with HBV-positive, HCV-positive and Non-B Non-C hepatocellular carcinoma after hepatectomy: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
BACKGROUND
The incidence of HBV-negative and HCV-negative hepatocellular carcinoma (NBNC-HCC) is significantly increasing. However, their clinicopathologic features and prognosis remain elucidated. Our study aimed to compare the clinicopathologic characteristics and survival outcomes of NBNC-HCC with hepatitis virus-related HCC.
METHOD
A literature review was performed in several databases, including PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library and Web of Science, to identify the studies comparing NBNC-HCC with HBV-positive HCV-negative HCC (B-HCC), HBV-negative HCV-positive (C-HCC) and/or HBV-positive HCV-positive HCC (BC-HCC). The clinicopathologic characteristics and survival outcomes were extracted and pooled to access the difference.
RESULTS
Thirty-two studies with 26,297 patients were included: 5390 patients in NBNC-HCC group, 9873 patients in B-HCC group, 10,848 patients in C-HCC group and 186 patients in BC-HCC group. Patients in NBNC-HCC group were more liable to be diagnosed at higher ages, but with better liver functions and lighter liver cirrhosis. Comparing to B-HCC and C-HCC groups, although NBNC-HCC group was prone to have larger tumor sizes, it did not have more advanced tumors. Meanwhile, there were no significant differences in both 5-year and 10-year disease-free survival and overall survival between NBNC-HCC group and B-HCC or C-HCC group.
CONCLUSIONS
Our meta-analysis revealed patients with NBNC-HCC had as worse prognosis as those with hepatitis virus-related HCC. More attention should be paid on patients with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis or metabolic syndromes to prevent the incidence of NBNC-HCC.
Topics: Humans; Hepatectomy; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular; Hepatitis B virus; Liver Neoplasms; Hepatitis C
PubMed: 37612653
DOI: 10.1186/s12876-023-02925-x -
International Journal of Environmental... Oct 2021(1) Background: Following natural disasters, women have a higher prevalence of adverse physical and mental health outcomes. Given that the South and Southeast Asia... (Review)
Review
(1) Background: Following natural disasters, women have a higher prevalence of adverse physical and mental health outcomes. Given that the South and Southeast Asia regions are highly disaster prone, a review was undertaken to identify the potential health impact and key risk factors affecting women after disasters in the countries located in South and Southeast Asia regions. (2) Methods: A systematic literature search of four databases yielded 16 studies meeting the inclusion criteria. The review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidance, between July 2008 and March 2021. (3) Results: The majority of studies reported women's negative/poor mental health, identifying a significant association of socio-demographics, during disaster exposure, post-disaster, and pre-existing risk factors. The six most-cited influences on women's mental health found in the reviewed literature were being female, adult age group, having no formal education, poverty or low economic status, poor physical health/physical injuries, and death of family members. Women's health during the post-disaster period was generally reported as poor among all the countries of the South and Southeast Asia regions. (4) Conclusions: Appropriate social support and the availability of free healthcare access for women are warranted in disaster-affected areas. This review offers a valuable contribution to the knowledge of women's health complications/challenges and associated risk factors related to disasters, essential for the development of strategies to help reduce this burden in the future. Further research is required on natural disasters to identify ways to reduce women's health impacts after natural disasters, especially in the context of low-income and lower-middle-income countries.
Topics: Adult; Disasters; Female; Humans; Mental Health; Natural Disasters; Risk Factors; Women's Health
PubMed: 34769589
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph182111068 -
Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Feb 2022The automatic emotion recognition domain brings new methods and technologies that might be used to enhance therapy of children with autism. The paper aims at the... (Review)
Review
The automatic emotion recognition domain brings new methods and technologies that might be used to enhance therapy of children with autism. The paper aims at the exploration of methods and tools used to recognize emotions in children. It presents a literature review study that was performed using a systematic approach and PRISMA methodology for reporting quantitative and qualitative results. Diverse observation channels and modalities are used in the analyzed studies, including facial expressions, prosody of speech, and physiological signals. Regarding representation models, the basic emotions are the most frequently recognized, especially happiness, fear, and sadness. Both single-channel and multichannel approaches are applied, with a preference for the first one. For multimodal recognition, early fusion was the most frequently applied. SVM and neural networks were the most popular for building classifiers. Qualitative analysis revealed important clues on participant group construction and the most common combinations of modalities and methods. All channels are reported to be prone to some disturbance, and as a result, information on a specific symptoms of emotions might be temporarily or permanently unavailable. The challenges of proper stimuli, labelling methods, and the creation of open datasets were also identified.
Topics: Autistic Disorder; Child; Emotions; Facial Expression; Humans; Recognition, Psychology; Speech
PubMed: 35214551
DOI: 10.3390/s22041649 -
Genes & Nutrition Apr 2021Fermented foods are ubiquitous in human diets and often lauded for their sensory, nutritious, and health-promoting qualities. However, precise associations between the... (Review)
Review
BACKGROUND
Fermented foods are ubiquitous in human diets and often lauded for their sensory, nutritious, and health-promoting qualities. However, precise associations between the intake of fermented foods and health have not been well-established. This is in part due to the limitations of current dietary assessment tools that rely on subjective reporting, making them prone to memory-related errors and reporting bias. The identification of food intake biomarkers (FIBs) bypasses this challenge by providing an objective measure of intake. Despite numerous studies reporting on FIBs for various types of fermented foods and drinks, unique biomarkers associated with the fermentation process ("fermentation-dependent" biomarkers) have not been well documented. We therefore conducted a comprehensive, systematic review of the literature to identify biomarkers of fermented foods commonly consumed in diets across the world.
RESULTS
After title, abstract, and full-text screening, extraction of data from 301 articles resulted in an extensive list of compounds that were detected in human biofluids following the consumption of various fermented foods, with the majority of articles focusing on coffee (69), wine (69 articles), cocoa (62), beer (34), and bread (29). The identified compounds from all included papers were consolidated and sorted into FIBs proposed for a specific food, for a food group, or for the fermentation process. Alongside food-specific markers (e.g., trigonelline for coffee), and food-group markers (e.g., pentadecanoic acid for dairy intake), several fermentation-dependent markers were revealed. These comprised compounds related to the fermentation process of a particular food, such as mannitol (wine), 2-ethylmalate (beer), methionine (sourdough bread, cheese), theabrownins (tea), and gallic acid (tea, wine), while others were indicative of more general fermentation processes (e.g., ethanol from alcoholic fermentation, 3-phenyllactic acid from lactic fermentation).
CONCLUSIONS
Fermented foods comprise a heterogeneous group of foods. While many of the candidate FIBs identified were found to be non-specific, greater specificity may be observed when considering a combination of compounds identified for individual fermented foods, food groups, and from fermentation processes. Future studies that focus on how fermentation impacts the composition and nutritional quality of food substrates could help to identify novel biomarkers of fermented food intake.
PubMed: 33882831
DOI: 10.1186/s12263-021-00686-4 -
Integrative Cancer Therapies 2023This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to determine whether chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) affects the risk of falls and physical function in... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis Review
BACKGROUND
This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to determine whether chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) affects the risk of falls and physical function in patients with cancer.
METHODS
A literature search was conducted in the CINAHL, Scopus, and PubMed databases for articles published from January 1950 to April 2022. Seven review authors retrieved studies using predetermined eligibility criteria, extracted the data, and evaluated the quality.
RESULTS
Nine studies were included in the analysis. Patients with CIPN had a significantly higher risk of falls than those without CIPN (risk ratio = 1.38, 95% confidence interval [CI] =1.18-1.62). Patients with CIPN had lower grip strength (standardized mean difference [SMD] =-0.42, 95% CIs = -0.70 to -0.14, = .003), longer chair stand time (SMD = 0.56, 95% CIs = -0.01 to 1.17, = .05), worse timed up and go test time (SMD = 0.79, 95% CIs = 0.41 to 1.17, < .0001), and lower mean Fullerton Advanced Balance scale score (SMD = -0.81, 95% CIs = -1.27 to -0.36, = .005) than patients without CIPN. There were no significant differences in gait speed ( = .38) or Activities-specific Balance Confidence Scale score ( = .09) between patients with and without CIPN.
CONCLUSIONS
This systematic review and meta-analysis demonstrated that patients with CIPN are prone to falls and impaired balance function and muscle strength.
Topics: Humans; Antineoplastic Agents; Postural Balance; Time and Motion Studies; Neoplasms; Peripheral Nervous System Diseases
PubMed: 37822238
DOI: 10.1177/15347354231185110 -
Bosnian Journal of Basic Medical... Dec 2021The objective of the present article was to qualitatively and quantitatively review the association between chronic mechanical irritation and oral squamous cell... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis
The objective of the present article was to qualitatively and quantitatively review the association between chronic mechanical irritation and oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). PubMed, SCOPUS, and Web of Science databases were searched using the keyword combinations "chronic trauma and oral squamous cell carcinoma; chronic irritation and oral squamous cell carcinoma; chronic irritation and oral cancer; and chronic trauma and oral cancer." Duplicates and irrelevant articles were excluded after the title and abstract screening. The full texts of the remaining articles were assessed using selection criteria. A total of 375 (PubMed-126; SCOPUS-152; WOS-97) articles were screened, and 343 duplicates and irrelevant articles were excluded from the study. Only 9 of the remaining 32 articles met the selection criteria and were included in the qualitative analysis. Buccal mucosa and tongue, being highly prone to chronic irritation through the dental prosthesis, were the common sites for OSCC. Edentulous subjects with ill-fitting dentures were at a high risk of developing chronic irritation associated-OSCC. According to the Joanna Briggs Institute of risk assessment, eight of the nine included studies had a low risk of bias. The quantitative analysis showed a significant association (p < 0.00001) between the chronic oral mucosal irritation and OSCC with an overall risk ratio of 2.56 at a confidence interval of 1.96-3.35. Chronic oral mucosa irritation has a significant association with OSCC, and the nature of association could be that of a potential co-factor (dependent risk factor) rather than an independent risk factor.
Topics: Carcinoma, Squamous Cell; Dental Prosthesis; Humans; Mouth Neoplasms; Risk Factors
PubMed: 33823123
DOI: 10.17305/bjbms.2021.5577 -
Cancer Prevention Research... Sep 2017Obesity and its associated metabolic dysregulation are established risk factors for many cancers. However, the biologic mechanisms underlying this relationship remain... (Review)
Review
Obesity and its associated metabolic dysregulation are established risk factors for many cancers. However, the biologic mechanisms underlying this relationship remain incompletely understood. Given the rising rates of both obesity and cancer worldwide, and the challenges for many people to lose excess adipose tissue, a systematic approach to identify potential molecular and metabolic targets is needed to develop effective mechanism-based strategies for the prevention and control of obesity-driven cancer. Epidemiologic, clinical, and preclinical data suggest that within the growth-promoting, proinflammatory microenvironment accompanying obesity, crosstalk between adipose tissue (comprised of adipocytes, macrophages and other cells) and cancer-prone cells may occur via obesity-associated hormones, cytokines, and other mediators that have been linked to increased cancer risk and/or progression. We report here a systematic review on the direct "crosstalk" between adipose tissue and carcinomas in humans. We identified 4,641 articles with = 20 human clinical studies, which are summarized as: (i) breast ( = 7); (ii) colorectal ( = 4); (iii) esophageal ( = 2); (iv) esophageal/colorectal ( = 1); (v) endometrial ( = 1); (vi) prostate ( = 4); and (vii) ear-nose-throat (ENT) cancer ( = 1). Findings from these clinical studies reinforce preclinical data and suggest organ-dependent crosstalk between adipose tissue and carcinomas via VEGF, IL6, TNFα, and other mechanisms. Moreover, visceral white adipose tissue plays a more central role, as it is more bioenergetically active and is associated with a more procancer secretome than subcutaneous adipose tissue. Efforts to eavesdrop and ultimately interfere with this cancer-enhancing crosstalk may lead to new targets and strategies for decreasing the burden of obesity-related cancers. .
Topics: Adipocytes; Adipokines; Adipose Tissue; Carcinoma; Cytokines; Disease Progression; Humans; Inflammation; Macrophages; Obesity; Risk Factors; Signal Transduction; Tumor Microenvironment
PubMed: 28864539
DOI: 10.1158/1940-6207.CAPR-16-0322 -
Journal of Periodontology Aug 2016Schneiderian membrane thickness (SMT) has been regarded as a key factor for influencing membrane perforation, which may jeopardize the final clinical outcome of sinus... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis Review
BACKGROUND
Schneiderian membrane thickness (SMT) has been regarded as a key factor for influencing membrane perforation, which may jeopardize the final clinical outcome of sinus augmentation. Hence, this systematic review aims at studying the mean SMT and further investigating patient-related factors that may affect SMT. As a secondary goal, the association between SMT and membrane perforation rate was studied.
METHODS
Three independent reviewers in several databases, including MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and Cochrane Oral Health Group Trials Register databases, conducted electronic and manual literature searches. This review was written and conducted according to the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) and MECIR (Methodological Expectations of Cochrane Intervention Reviews) guidelines. Quantitative assessment was performed for articles that met the inclusion criteria to investigate the mean SMT, its contributing factors, and the influence on membrane damage and surgical complications.
RESULTS
Thirty-one studies that reported maxillary SMT were considered for qualitative analysis. Nineteen were further meta-analyzed. Overall mean ± SE SMT was 1.17 ± 0.1 mm (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.89 to 1.44). Although mean SMT for the three-dimensional radiography (3DR) group was 1.33 mm (95% CI = 1.06 to 1.60), for the histology group, it was 0.48 mm (95% CI = 0.12 to 1.1). Random-effects model showed that, although there is a trend for thicker SMT as determined using 3DR compared with histologic analysis, such difference did not reach statistical significance (P = 0.15). Also, regression analyses demonstrated that the variables periodontitis (P = 0.13) and smoking (P = 0.11) showed thicker SMT. Inconclusive data were obtained when correlating SMT and perforation rate, although it seems that thicker SMT might be more prone to perforation (P = 0.14).
CONCLUSIONS
SMT is, on average, 1 mm in patients seeking sinus augmentation. Three-dimensional technologies overestimate approximately 2.5 times SMT when compared with histologic analysis. Periodontitis and smoking may result in thickening of the sinus membrane. However, current data were inconclusive to link SMT to the rate of membrane damage.
Topics: Alveolar Bone Loss; Bone Regeneration; Bone Transplantation; Dental Prosthesis Design; Humans; Maxilla; Maxillary Sinus; Nasal Mucosa; Regression Analysis
PubMed: 27086614
DOI: 10.1902/jop.2016.160041