Among the numerous studies investigating semantic factors associated with functioning in psychotic patients, most have been conducted on western populations. By contrast, the current cross-sectional study involved native Cantonese-speaking Chinese participants. Using the category fluency task, we compared performance between patients and healthy participants and examined clinical and sociodemographic ...

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been shown to play a role in the pathogenesis of ulcerative colitis (UC). Although epigenetic processes such as DNA methylation and lncRNA expression are well studied in UC, the importance of the interplay between the two processes has not yet been fully explored. It is, therefore, believed that interactions between environmental factors and epigenetics ...

Background/Aim: Non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) not amenable to curative treatment can be managed with palliative thoracic radiation or chemoradiation, however, with variable success. This study evaluated the prognostic impact of the LabBM score [serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), C-reactive protein, albumin, hemoglobin, platelets] in 56 patients who were scheduled to receive at least 10 ...

Objective: To explore older patients’ experiences with accessing and using e-consultations to send text-based clinical inquiries to the general practitioner (GP) online.<p> <p>Design: Qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews. Results were analysed through a six-phase thematic analysis and interpreted through Levesque’s framework of patient-centred access to health care. <p>Setting: ...

To study the role of host immune surveillance in the initiation and progression of colorectal cancer (CRC), a set of protumor immunological factors was determined by quantitative real-time PCR (q-PCR) between the primary tumor and the adjacent tumor-free site tissues in 63 patients with colorectal neoplasms. Results showed that expression levels of interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, IL-8, IL-17A, IL-23, and ...

: The BRCA1 protein is implicated in numerous important cellular processes to prevent genomic instability and tumorigenesis, and pathogenic germline variants predispose carriers to hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC). Most functional studies of missense variants in BRCA1 focus on variants located within the Really Interesting New Gene (RING), coiled-coil and BRCA1 C-terminal (BRCT) ...

Background<p> <p>Creatine kinase (CK) has been associated with insulin resistance and identified as a risk marker of cardiovascular disease largely by its relationship with hypertension and increased body mass index. This study determined whether CK is a predictor of glycated haemoglobin (HbA1C) in a nondiabetic general population. <p>Methods <p>Associations between CK and the outcome variable ...

Introduction: Non-small cell lung carcinomas (NSCLC) exhibit different microvessel patterns (MVPs). Basal (BA), diffuse (DA) and papillary (PA) patterns show signs of angiogenesis (new blood vessels), while an alveolar pattern indicates that tumors are co-opting existing normal vessels (non-angiogenic alveolar, NAA). NAA tumor growth is known to exist in NSCLC, but little is known about its prognostic ...

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR), defined as the ability of microorganisms to withstand antimicrobial treatment, is responsible for millions of deaths annually. The rapid spread of AMR across continents warrants systematic changes in healthcare routines and protocols. One of the fundamental issues with AMR spread is the lack of rapid diagnostic tools for pathogen identification and AMR detection. ...

Background - P-selectin levels are elevated following acute deep vein thrombosis and reported to predict recurrent venous thromboembolism (VTE) and cancer-associated VTE. Yet, it is unknown whether plasma P-selectin levels are associated with incident VTE.<p> <p>Objectives - We aimed to investigate the association between plasma P-selectin levels and risk of future incident VTE.<p> <p>Methods ...