scholarly journals Audit of the effect of non-nasal specific scoring on the Postoperative SNOT22 questionnaire

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 003-005
Author(s):  
Gendy Samir

The Sino-nasal outcome test (SNOT22) has been widely adopted in clinical practice and has been declared as the most suitable sinonasal outcome scoring system. It is simple disease specific encompassing 22 symptoms reflecting health burden of the rhino- logical patients. Each item quantifies symptoms severity from 0(no problem) to 5 (worst symptom). The sum of each item results in a maximum score of 110. High score indicates poor outcome.

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 01-04
Author(s):  
Samir Gendy

The Sino-nasal outcome test (SNOT22) has been widely adopted in clinical practice and has been declared as the most suitable sinonasal outcome scoring system. It is simple disease specific encompassing 22 symptoms reflecting health burden of the rhino- logical patients. Each item quantifies symptoms severity from 0(no problem) to 5 (worst symptom). The sum of each item results in a maximum score of 110.High score indicates poor outcome.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 3296
Author(s):  
Musarrat Hussain ◽  
Jamil Hussain ◽  
Taqdir Ali ◽  
Syed Imran Ali ◽  
Hafiz Syed Muhammad Bilal ◽  
...  

Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs) aim to optimize patient care by assisting physicians during the decision-making process. However, guideline adherence is highly affected by its unstructured format and aggregation of background information with disease-specific information. The objective of our study is to extract disease-specific information from CPG for enhancing its adherence ratio. In this research, we propose a semi-automatic mechanism for extracting disease-specific information from CPGs using pattern-matching techniques. We apply supervised and unsupervised machine-learning algorithms on CPG to extract a list of salient terms contributing to distinguishing recommendation sentences (RS) from non-recommendation sentences (NRS). Simultaneously, a group of experts also analyzes the same CPG and extract the initial patterns “Heuristic Patterns” using a group decision-making method, nominal group technique (NGT). We provide the list of salient terms to the experts and ask them to refine their extracted patterns. The experts refine patterns considering the provided salient terms. The extracted heuristic patterns depend on specific terms and suffer from the specialization problem due to synonymy and polysemy. Therefore, we generalize the heuristic patterns to part-of-speech (POS) patterns and unified medical language system (UMLS) patterns, which make the proposed method generalize for all types of CPGs. We evaluated the initial extracted patterns on asthma, rhinosinusitis, and hypertension guidelines with the accuracy of 76.92%, 84.63%, and 89.16%, respectively. The accuracy increased to 78.89%, 85.32%, and 92.07% with refined machine-learning assistive patterns, respectively. Our system assists physicians by locating disease-specific information in the CPGs, which enhances the physicians’ performance and reduces CPG processing time. Additionally, it is beneficial in CPGs content annotation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 79 (Suppl 1) ◽  
pp. 1224.1-1224
Author(s):  
I. Mizushima ◽  
T. Yamano ◽  
H. Kawahara ◽  
S. Hibino ◽  
R. Nishioka ◽  
...  

Background:Recently, the 2019 ACR/EULAR classification criteria for IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD) were published mainly to identify more homogeneous subjects for inclusion in clinical trials and observational studies [1]. However, although their high specificity is presumed to be useful to differentiate IgG4-RD from various mimickers, their value in daily clinical practice needs to be evaluated.Objectives:This study aimed to clarify the usefulness of the 2019 ACR/EULAR classification criteria for IgG4-RD and characteristics of false-negative patients in daily clinical practice.Methods:We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 162 patients with IgG4-RD and 130 consecutive non-IgG4-RD patients (mimickers) diagnosed by experts whose serum IgG4 levels were measured at a single center in Japan. Using the collected data, we calculated sensitivity, specificity, and fulfillment rates for the entry criteria, exclusion criteria, and threshold of inclusion criteria points. In addition, to clarify the characteristics of false-negative cases in IgG4-RD, we performed an intergroup comparison of their clinical features including disease-specific autoantibodies.Results:Both the patients with IgG4-RD and mimickers were relatively old (66 and 65 years) with male predominance (67% and 60%). The final diagnoses of mimickers mainly consisted of cancer, lymphoma, vasculitis, sarcoidosis, multicentric Castleman’s disease, and atherosclerotic or infectious aortic aneurysm. The classification criteria had a sensitivity of 72.8% and a specificity of 100%. Of the 44 false-negative cases, one did not fulfill the entry criteria, 20 fulfilled one exclusion criterion, and 27 did not achieve sufficient inclusion criteria points. Compared with the true-positive cases, the false-negative cases had significantly fewer affected organs, lower serum IgG4 levels, higher serum CH50 levels, and lower prevalence of salivary/lacrimal gland and renal parenchymal lesions. They were also less likely to have had biopsies (61% vs 97%). Of note, positivity of disease-specific autoantibodies including SSA/Ro antibody, ANCA, ds-DNA antibody, and ACPA was the most common exclusion criterion fulfilled in 18 patients, only 2 of whom were diagnosed with a specific autoimmune disease (rheumatoid arthritis) complicated by IgG4-RD. The remaining 16 patients had no specific clinical symptoms related to such autoantibodies. In addition, compared with IgG4-RD patients without disease-specific autoantibodies, the 18 patients with them had almost equal serum IgG4 and complement levels, number of affected organs, and histopathology and immunostaining scores despite higher serum IgG and CRP levels.Conclusion:The present study suggests that the 2019 ACR/EULAR classification criteria for IgG4-RD has excellent diagnostic specificity and moderate sensitivity in daily clinical practice. Positive disease-specific autoantibodies alone, which lowered the sensitivity in this study, may have little clinical significance concerning the diagnosis of IgG4-RD.References:[1]Wallace ZS et al. The 2019 American College of Rheumatology/European League Against Rheumatism classification criteria for IgG4-related disease. Ann Rheum Dis. 2020 Jan;79(1):77-87.Disclosure of Interests:None declared


2006 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 329-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hale Yarmohammadi ◽  
Lissette Estrella ◽  
John Doucette ◽  
Charlotte Cunningham-Rundles

ABSTRACT Primary immunodeficiency results in recurrent infections, organ dysfunction, and autoimmunity. We studied 237 patients referred for suspicion of immunodeficiency, using a scoring system based on clinical information. The 113 patients with immunodeficiency had higher scores and more episodes of chronic illnesses and were more likely to have neutropenia, lymphopenia, or splenomegaly.


2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (10) ◽  
pp. 469-473
Author(s):  
Shin J. Liau ◽  
J. Simon Bell

Frailty, dementia and complex multimorbidity are highly prevalent among residents of long-term care facilities (LTCFs). Prescribing for residents of LTCFs is often informed by disease-specific clinical practice guidelines based on research conducted among younger and more robust adults. However, frailty and cognitive impairment may modify medication benefits and risks. Residents with frailty and advanced dementia may be at increased susceptibility to adverse drug events (ADEs) and often have a lower likelihood of achieving long-term therapeutic benefit from chronic preventative medications. For this reason, there is a strong rationale for deprescribing, particularlyamong residents with high medication burdens, swallowing difficulties or limited dexterity. Conversely, frailty and dementia have also been associated with under-prescribing of clinically indicated medications. Unnecessarily withholding treatment based on assumed risk may deprive vulnerable population groups from receiving evidence-based care. There is a need for specific evidence regarding medication benefits and risks in LTCF residents with frailty and dementia. Observational studies conducted using routinely collected health data may complement evidence from randomized controlled trials that often exclude people living with dementia, frailty and in LTCFs. Balancing over- and under-prescribing requires consideration of each resident’s frailty and cognitive status, therapeutic goals, time-to-benefit, potential ADEs, and individual values or preferences. Incorporating frailty screening into medication review may also provide better alignment of medication regimens to changing goals of care. Timely identification of frail residents as part of treatment decision-making may assist with targeting interventions to minimize and monitor for ADEs. Shifting away from rigid application of conventional disease-specific clinical practice guidelines may provide an individualized and more holistic assessment of medication benefits and risks in the LTCF setting.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (14) ◽  
pp. 3490 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maharajan Sivasubramanian ◽  
Yao Chen Chuang ◽  
Nai-Tzu Chen ◽  
Leu-Wei Lo

Biomedical imaging modalities in clinical practice have revolutionized oncology for several decades. State-of-the-art biomedical techniques allow visualizing both normal physiological and pathological architectures of the human body. The use of nanoparticles (NP) as contrast agents enabled visualization of refined contrast images with superior resolution, which assists clinicians in more accurate diagnoses and in planning appropriate therapy. These desirable features are due to the ability of NPs to carry high payloads (contrast agents or drugs), increased in vivo half-life, and disease-specific accumulation. We review the various NP-based interventions for treatments of deep-seated tumors, involving “seeing better” to precisely visualize early diagnosis and “going deeper” to activate selective therapeutics in situ.


Blood ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 104 (11) ◽  
pp. 770-770 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Mette Buhl ◽  
Jesper Jurlander ◽  
Lone B. Pedersen ◽  
Par Josefsson ◽  
Christian H. Geisler ◽  
...  

Abstract One of the best predictors of poor outcome in CLL is the absence of somatic hypermutations in the Ig-genes of the leukemic cells. This prognostic dichotomy, between cases of mutated and unmutated CLL, enabled us to screen for a gene associated with poor outcome CLL using differential display RT-PCR. We identified a novel transcript from chromosome 12q22, which by RT-PCR and Northern blotting seemed to be selectively over-expressed in CLL patients with poor prognosis. No matching genes or ESTs were annotated in the region, but screening of a cDNA library from unmutated CLL patients resulted in cloning of 7 cDNAs, which probably derived from alternative splicing of a common transcript. The majority of the transcripts had no significant reading frames, but one splice variant may encode a protein of 121 amino acids. Despite very low primary sequence similarity, structure modelling revealed that the peptide potentially can fold into a structure remarkably similar to human IL-4. By RT-PCR the various transcripts were undetectable in a panel of normal tissues and cell lines. Using quantitative RT-PCR (QRT-PCR), we could however detect minute amounts of the mRNAs in normal B-cells; the level was similar or slightly higher in good prognosis patients and much higher in poor prognosis patients. The expression level of the two major mRNAs was 24–50 fold higher in patients with unmutated Ig-genes compared to patients with somatic hypermutation (p<0.0001), and 20–30 fold higher in ZAP-70 positive patients compared to ZAP-70 negative patients (p<0.0001). The median time to treatment for patients with overexpression of the mRNAs (n=26) was 11 months compared to 104 months for patients with normal expression (n=31) (p=0.0005). The median overall survival for patients with overexpression was 97 months while patients with low expression had not reached a median overall survival at their last follow up (p=0.03). This prognostic power was comparable to that provided by mutational status, and stronger than that provided by ZAP-70 or CD38 expression. Finally, in 56 patients the gene dosage as defined in QRT-PCR was inversely proportional with time to treatment (p= 0.006). This novel gene therefore has several features that make it a candidate to be the first disease specific gene identified in CLL.


2012 ◽  
Vol 30 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. e19625-e19625
Author(s):  
Guadalupe R. Palos ◽  
Fran Zandstra ◽  
Ludivine Russell ◽  
Jacklyn J Flores ◽  
Yvette DeJesus ◽  
...  

e19625 Background: Clinical practice algorithms provide a framework to guide providers’ practice in delivering care to long-term cancer survivors. Here we describe how algorithms were developed in a comprehensive cancer center and types of metrics used to evaluate their feasibility. Methods: Survivorship practice algorithms were based on a multidisciplinary care approach successfully used to build screening and treatment algorithms. This model consisted of four phases: development, adoption, implementation, and evaluation of algorithms. Phase 1, expert clinicians and researchers identified and agreed upon a specific cancer site. Group-consensus and literature reviews/syntheses were used to determine eligibility criteria to transition patients to survivorship care. Phase 2, reviews and approval processes were conducted by credentialing and regulatory committees to ensure adoption of the algorithms into clinical practice. Phase 3, pilot programs were conducted to implement the algorithm(s) in disease-specific survivorship clinics. Phase 4, metrics to evaluate progress included the number of algorithms and providers’ use of and adherence to the algorithms. Results: Between 09/2008 – 12/2011, nine multidisciplinary disease-specific survivorship clinics were operationalized. Thirty-seven practice algorithms were developed to provide survivorship care based on each survivor’s specific needs. The algorithms’ framework included: 1) surveillance for recurrent or new primary malignancies; 2) primary and secondary cancer prevention recommendations; 3) management of toxicities and latent treatment effects; and 4) assessment of psychosocial functioning. Conclusions: Practice algorithms provide an organized plan to deliver comprehensive and holistic care to long-term survivors. Given the projected increase in cancer survivors, further research is needed to determine how practice algorithms impact providers’ practice and survivors’ outcomes.


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