Exercise has long been recognized as an important component of treatment for various diseases. However, the benefits and risks of exercise interventions must be carefully evaluated to ensure the former outweighs the latter. As cancer patients undergo diverse treatment modalities with distinct objectives, a systematic approach partitioning the cancer journey into distinct phases is necessary to inform tailored exercise prescriptions. This narrative review summarizes exercise benefits and mechanisms for cancer patients and survivors across four distinct survivorship periods—before surgery, after surgery and before adjuvant treatment, during nonsurgical treatment (adjuvant and neoadjuvant), and during extended survival. In summary, exercise reduces the risks of complications and declines in physical functioning while improving fatigue, quality of life, and the ability to manage treatment effects. Although additional research is warranted, existing evidence is sufficient to integrate exercise into clinical oncology practice and cancer survivorship programs.

Objective: This study aimed to present and evaluate a new deep learning model for determining cervical vertebral maturation (CVM) degree and growth spurts by analyzing lateral cephalometric radiographs. Methods: The study sample included 890 cephalograms. The images were classified into six cervical stages independently by two orthodontists. The images were also categorized into three degrees on the basis of the growth spurt: pre-pubertal, growth spurt, and post-pubertal. Subsequently, the samples were fed to a transfer learning model implemented using the Python programming language and PyTorch library. In the last step, the test set of cephalograms was randomly coded and provided to two new orthodontists in order to compare their diagnosis to the artificial intelligence (AI) model’s performance using weighted kappa and Cohen’s kappa statistical analyses. Results: The model’s validation and test accuracy for the six-class CVM diagnosis were 62.63% and 61.62%, respectively. Moreover, the model’s validation and test accuracy for the three-class classification were 75.76% and 82.83%, respectively. Furthermore, substantial agreements were observed between the two orthodontists as well as one of them and the AI model. Conclusions The newly developed AI model had reasonable accuracy in detecting the CVM stage and high reliability in detecting the pubertal stage. However, its accuracy was still less than that of human observers. With further improvements in data quality, this model should be able to provide practical assistance to practicing dentists in the future.

Antibodies, Viral ; Antibody Formation ; BNT162 Vaccine ; COVID-19/prevention & control* ; Female ; Humans ; Milk, Human ; Pilot Projects ; RNA, Messenger ; Vaccination

Background: and Purpose Recent studies suggested an increased incidence of cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. We evaluated the volume of CVT hospitalization and in-hospital mortality during the 1st year of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the preceding year. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional retrospective study of 171 stroke centers from 49 countries. We recorded COVID-19 admission volumes, CVT hospitalization, and CVT in-hospital mortality from January 1, 2019, to May 31, 2021. CVT diagnoses were identified by International Classification of Disease-10 (ICD-10) codes or stroke databases. We additionally sought to compare the same metrics in the first 5 months of 2021 compared to the corresponding months in 2019 and 2020 (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04934020). Results: There were 2,313 CVT admissions across the 1-year pre-pandemic (2019) and pandemic year (2020); no differences in CVT volume or CVT mortality were observed. During the first 5 months of 2021, there was an increase in CVT volumes compared to 2019 (27.5%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 24.2 to 32.0; P<0.0001) and 2020 (41.4%; 95% CI, 37.0 to 46.0; P<0.0001). A COVID-19 diagnosis was present in 7.6% (132/1,738) of CVT hospitalizations. CVT was present in 0.04% (103/292,080) of COVID-19 hospitalizations. During the first pandemic year, CVT mortality was higher in patients who were COVID positive compared to COVID negative patients (8/53 [15.0%] vs. 41/910 [4.5%], P=0.004). There was an increase in CVT mortality during the first 5 months of pandemic years 2020 and 2021 compared to the first 5 months of the pre-pandemic year 2019 (2019 vs. 2020: 2.26% vs. 4.74%, P=0.05; 2019 vs. 2021: 2.26% vs. 4.99%, P=0.03). In the first 5 months of 2021, there were 26 cases of vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT), resulting in six deaths. Conclusions During the 1st year of the COVID-19 pandemic, CVT hospitalization volume and CVT in-hospital mortality did not change compared to the prior year. COVID-19 diagnosis was associated with higher CVT in-hospital mortality. During the first 5 months of 2021, there was an increase in CVT hospitalization volume and increase in CVT-related mortality, partially attributable to VITT.

INTRODUCTION: The impact of sex and diabetes mellitus (DM) on patients with heart failure with mildly reduced ejection fraction (HFmrEF) is not well elucidated. This study aims to evaluate sex differences in the clinical profile and outcomes in Asian HFmrEF patients with and without DM. METHODS: Patients admitted nationally for HFmrEF (ejection fraction 40-49%) between 2008 and 2014 were included and followed up until December 2016. The primary outcome was all-cause mortality. Secondary outcomes included cardiovascular (CV) death and/or heart failure (HF) rehospitalisations. RESULTS: A total of 2,272 HFmrEF patients (56% male) were included. More women had DM than men (60% versus 55%, P=0.013). Regardless of DM status, HFmrEF females were older, less likely to smoke, had less coronary artery disease, narrower QRS and lower haemoglobin compared to men. The odds of having DM decreases in smokers who are women as opposed to men (P_interaction =0.017). In multivariate analysis, DM reached statistical analysis for all-cause mortality and combined CV mortality or HF rehospitalisation in both men and women. However, the results suggest that there may be sex differences in terms of outcomes. DM (vs non-DM) was less strongly associated with increased all-cause mortality (adjusted hazards ratio [adj HR] 1.234 vs adj HR 1.290, P_interaction <0.001] but more strongly associated with the combined CV death/HF rehospitalisation (adj HR 1.429 vs adj HR 1.317, P_interaction =0.027) in women (vs men). CONCLUSION Asian women with HFmrEF had a higher prevalence of DM, with differences in clinical characteristics, compared to men. While diabetes conferred poor outcomes regardless of sex, there were distinct sex differences. These highlight the need for sex-specific management strategies.
Diabetes Mellitus/epidemiology* ; Female ; Heart Failure ; Humans ; Male ; Prognosis ; Stroke Volume ; Ventricular Dysfunction, Left/epidemiology* ; Ventricular Function, Left

INTRODUCTION: Institutional surgical antibiotic prophylaxis (SAP) guidelines are in place at all public hospitals in Singapore, but variations exist and adherence to guidelines is not tracked consistently. A national point prevalence survey carried out in 2020 showed that about 60% of surgical prophylactic antibiotics were administered for more than 24 hours. This guideline aims to align best practices nationally and provides a framework for audit and surveillance. METHOD: This guideline was developed by the National Antimicrobial Stewardship Expert Panel's National Surgical Antibiotic Prophylaxis Guideline Development Workgroup Panel, which comprises infectious diseases physicians, pharmacists, surgeons and anaesthesiologists. The Workgroup adopted the ADAPTE methodology framework with modifications for the development of the guideline. The recommended duration of antibiotic prophylaxis was graded according to the strength of consolidated evidence based on the scoring system of the Singapore Ministry of Health Clinical Practice Guidelines. RESULTS: This National SAP Guideline provides evidence-based recommendations for the rational use of antibiotic prophylaxis. These include recommended agents, dose, timing and duration for patients undergoing common surgeries based on surgical disciplines. The Workgroup also provides antibiotic recommendations for special patient population groups (such as patients with β-lactam allergy and patients colonised with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), as well as for monitoring and surveillance of SAP. CONCLUSION This evidence-based National SAP Guideline for hospitals in Singapore aims to align practices and optimise the use of antibiotics for surgical prophylaxis for the prevention of surgical site infections while reducing adverse events from prolonged durations of SAP.
Humans ; Antibiotic Prophylaxis ; Anti-Bacterial Agents/therapeutic use* ; Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus ; Singapore ; Surgeons ; Hospitals, Public

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted medical education, particularly affecting clinical-year students. Educational institutions often had to halt, shorten or impose significant restrictions on their hospital rotations due to strict infection control and social-distancing guidelines implemented in tertiary healthcare institutions, as well as manpower and logistical constraints amid the pandemic. Thus, distance-based learning platforms such as online lectures and case-based teaching were increasingly adopted in place of bedside and face-to-face tutorials. While interactive virtual case-based discussions are generally useful in imparting clinical reasoning skills to medical students, they are unfortunately not able to fully replicate the experience of clerking, examining and managing real patients in the wards, which is a quintessential process towards building clinical acumen and attaining core clinical competencies. Therefore, for final year medical students who are preparing for their Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) examinations, many are naturally concerned by how learning in this "new normal" may affect their ability to make the transition to become competent junior doctors. As such, we seek to share our learning experiences as the first batch of medical students to have completed our entire final year of clinical education amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and offer 4 practical suggestions to future batches of students on how to adapt and optimise clinical learning under these circumstances: actively engaging in virtual learning, making the most of every clinical encounter, learning how to construct peer teaching/practice sessions, and maintaining physical and psychological well-being.
COVID-19 ; Humans ; Pandemics ; SARS-CoV-2 ; Singapore/epidemiology* ; Students, Medical

Objective: This study evaluated the validity of self-reported smartphone usage data against objectively-measured smartphone usage data by directly tracking the activities in the participants’ smartphone among Chinese adolescents and young adults in Hong Kong. Methods: A total of 187 participants were recruited (mean age 19.4, 71.7% female) between 2017 and 2018. A smartphone usage tracking app was installed on all participants’ smartphone for 7 consecutive days. After the 7-day monitoring period, they completed a selfadministered questionnaire on smartphone usage habits. Results: Although the correlation between self-reported and objectively-measured total smartphone usage time was insignificant (ρ=-0.10, p=0.18), in three out of the four usage domains were positively and significantly correlated, namely social network (ρ=0.21, p=0.005), instant messaging (ρ=0.27, p<0.001), and games (ρ=0.64, p<0.001). Participants’ self-report of the total time spent on smartphones exceeded the objective data by around 760 min per week (self-reported 1,930.3 min/wk vs. objectively-measured 1,170.7 min/wk, p<0.001). Most of the over-reporting was contributed by the web browsing domain (self-reported 447.8 min/wk vs. objectively-measured 33.3 min/wk, p<0.001). Conclusion Our results showed large discrepancies between self-reported smartphone and objectively-measured smartphone usage except for self-reported usage on game apps.

Non-traumatic osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH) usually affects adults younger than 50 years and frequently leads to femoral head collapse and subsequent arthritis of the hip.It is becoming more prevalent along with increasing use of corticosteroids for the adjuvant therapy of leukemia and other myelogenous diseases as well as management of organ transplantation. This review updated knowledge on the pathogenesis, classification criteria, staging system, and treatment of ONFH.

Osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH) is a devastating disease frequently leading to femoral head collapse and hip arthritis. Specifically, non-traumatic ONFH primarily affects young and middle-aged adults. Although compromised local circulation of the femoral head seems to be pathognomonic for the disease, the pathogenesis is perplexing and continues to be an area of scrutiny and research. Comprehension of the pathogenesis is of crucial importance for developing and guiding treatments for the disease. Therefore, we provide an up-to-date consensus on the pathogenesis of non-traumatic ONFH.